How to compress files using the Linux terminal

In the next article I will show you the main Linux commands for compress and decompress files in the different most used formats.

Surely some other user or follower of the blog, thinks that using the terminal having programs or ways to do it graphically or assisted, is a real backwardness, but as Knowledge does not take place, and I like to know what I am doing and check different ways of doing things, here are the main commands to compress and decompress files in Linux based in Debian.

Gz files

To compress a file in gz format we will use the following command:

• gzip -9 file

Where file is the name of the file to compress

To unzip it we will use this:

• gzip -d file.gz

Bz2 files

This compressed extension is only capable of compressing / decompressing individual files, so don't try it with folders.

To compress we will use:

• bzip file

To unzip:

• bzip2 -d file.bz2

Tar.gz files

To compress a file or directory to this extension we will use the following line:

• tar -czfv archive.tar.gz files

To unzip:

• tar -xzvf file.tar.gz

To view the content of a file in tar.gz format:

• tar -tzf file.tar.gz

Tar.bz2 files

To compress to this format we will use:

• tar -c files | bzip2> file.tar.bz2

To unzip:

• bzip2 -dc file.tar.bz2 | tar -xv