LINUX COMMAND ATLAS · COMMAND GUIDE

Linux gzip command

Compress a file with gzip. By default, the input file is replaced by its compressed form.

GNU Gzip

Syntax

Command form

gzip [OPTION]... [FILE]...

6 options

Option	What it does
`-d, --decompress`	Decompress files.
`-k, --keep`	Keep the input file instead of removing it.
`-c, --stdout`	Write output to standard output and keep input files.
`-r, --recursive`	Process files in directories recursively.
`-1 to -9`	Set compression speed/size trade-off; -1 is faster, -9 smaller.
`-v, --verbose`	Show compression ratio and file names.

2 examples

Compress a file with gzip. By default, the input file is replaced by its compressed form.

gzip -k report.log

Decompress a gzip file and keep the compressed original.

gzip -dk report.log.gz

By default gzip replaces input files with compressed files. Use -k or -c when the original must remain.