prezip-bin

prezip-bin [OPTIONS] <INPUT_FILE >OUTPUT_FILE
prezip-bin [OPTIONS] FILE

-d
    Performs the reverse operation, decompressing or 'un-prezipping' a previously processed file back to its original layout. This is typically used to revert the structural changes made for compression.

-v
    Enables verbose output, providing more detailed information about the processing steps, such as file parsing, section reordering, and any errors encountered during the operation.

prezip-bin is a specialized Linux command-line utility designed to preprocess executable binaries, such as ELF, PE, and Mach-O formats, before they are compressed using algorithms like LZMA or XZ. Its primary function is to improve the compression ratio by rearranging the internal sections of these binary files.

The tool works by grouping similar data types together, such as code sections, data sections, and debug information, making it easier for block-based compressors to find and exploit redundancies. This reordering process helps reduce the overall size of the compressed binary significantly.

While not typically invoked directly by end-users, prezip-bin is an essential backend component for tools like RPM (Red Hat Package Manager), where it's used to optimize the compression of package payloads, especially for debuginfo files and other executables within RPM packages. It acts as a filter, taking an unoptimized binary as input and producing an optimized binary stream for subsequent compression.

prezip-bin is primarily an internal utility, largely used by higher-level tools like RPM for specific binary optimization tasks. It is not intended for general-purpose file compression or as a standalone user-facing tool like gzip or bzip2. Direct manual invocation is rare and its full capabilities or limitations are often undocumented outside of its source code or the projects it's integrated with.

prezip-bin emerged as part of efforts to optimize the storage and distribution of software packages, particularly within the RPM ecosystem. Its development was driven by the need to achieve better compression ratios for executable binaries and debug information, which often contain repetitive patterns that are not easily compressed by standard algorithms without prior structural optimization. It addresses the challenge of making ELF, PE, and Mach-O files more amenable to LZMA/XZ compression by intelligently reordering their internal components.

xz(1), lzma(1), rpm(8), prezip(1)