Shell Scripting - How to compress files by using shell scripting

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How to compress files by using shell scripting

Total Answers and Comments: 4

Last Update: November 03, 2007 Asked by: ayypss

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February 09, 2007 03:30:54

Jitu

RE: How to compress files by using shell scripting

Hi All To compress a file or set of files you can use the gzip command in UNIX.

To zip a single file use:-

$ gzip filename .

It will create a file named filename.gz .

To zip a folder first create a .tar file and then zip it.

Let the name of the folder be shell .

To create a .tar file use:-

$ tar cvf filename.tar shell/.

It will create a file named filename.tar

Now use the $ gzip filename.tar .

It will create a file named filename.tar.gz .

So in this way you can compress a file.

Note: To uncompress a file you can use gunzip command.

Please make me understand if i am wrong. I will appreciate your help.

Thanks

Jitu

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March 13, 2007 08:16:17

Shailendra

RE: How to compress files by using shell scripting

Fantastic explaination given above......

another way would be...

compress <filename>
which will create a filename.Z
and if we want the zip file to be in some other folder

compress -cf <filename>

to uncompress
use the following command...
uncompress <filename>

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April 20, 2007 00:33:04

Kailash

RE: How to compress files by using shell scripting

Though the explanations given are very good but in real time environment where the file size runs into MBs of data the proper way would be

1: If its a single file then gzip and compress and pack will serve the purpose. Out of these compress gives the more desired results
These
commands use different compression algorithms take different amounts of time
and reduce files by different amounts.

In general these commands can reduce the size of a file by 50-75 .

Command	Syntax	File Produced
gzip	gzip	.gz
zip	zip	.zip
compress	compress	.Z
pack	pack	.z

2: In case of a directory with a content of directory tree inside its better to first tar the main directory and then use compress option to reduce the size.

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November 03, 2007 04:41:59

zorba

RE: How to compress files by using shell scripting

tar -cvjf <filename.tar.bz2> <destiantion>
bz2 gives max compression.

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