uncompress

Uncompress files

$ uncompress [path/to/file1.Z] [path/to/file2.Z]

$ uncompress -f [path/to/file1.Z] [path/to/file2.Z]

$ uncompress -c [path/to/file1.Z]

$ uncompress -v [path/to/file1.Z]

uncompress [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

uncompress decompresses files compressed using the Unix compress command. Files typically have a .Z extension. The original compressed file is replaced by the uncompressed version unless -c is used.
This format uses LZW compression and was common on older Unix systems before gzip became standard.

-c

Write to stdout, don't modify files

Force, ignore non-existent files

Verbose, show compression percentage

LZW compression format is largely obsolete. Most systems now use gzip or newer compression. The compress/uncompress commands may not be installed by default.

uncompress is part of the traditional Unix compress utilities using LZW compression, predating the more common gzip format.

compress(1), gzip(1), gunzip(1)