GNU Gzip
The GNU command-line compression program that creates and decompresses .gz files.
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1 more ways to get GNU Gzip
Package managers
- Homebrew
brew install gzip
About GNU Gzip
GNU Gzip is a data compression program originally written by Jean-loup Gailly, with the decompression part written by Mark Adler. It was created as a replacement for the older compress utility, whose LZW algorithm was covered by patents.
Gzip compresses single files or streams, and is commonly combined with tar to make .tar.gz archives. It ships with nearly every Unix-like system, and stable source releases are available from the GNU download server and its mirrors.
Strengths
- Available on nearly every Unix-like system
- The .gz format is read almost everywhere
- Simple, well-documented command line
Limitations
- Compresses single files or streams, not multi-file archives
- Lower compression ratio than xz, zstd or lzip
- Single-threaded; pigz is needed for multiple cores
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree software from the GNU Project.
- License
- GPL-3.0-or-later
- Developer
- GNU Project
- Platforms
- Linux, Command line
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Quick, widely compatible compression of files and streams on Unix-like systems
- Categories
- Compression, CLI tools
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to GNU Gzip
Compare allSoftware that can replace GNU Gzip for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
pigz
A parallel implementation of gzip that uses multiple CPU cores to compress data faster.
pigz produces standard gzip output using all CPU cores and works as a drop-in replacement, though decompression gains little and it may need compiling.
Zstandard
Meta's compression tool that hits near-zlib ratios at far higher speed, now used across Linux and modern filesystems.
Zstandard offers similar ratios at several times the speed and also reads gzip, but its .zst files may not be recognised on older systems.
crabz
A cross-platform command-line tool for fast parallel compression and decompression, similar to pigz but written in Rust.
crabz is a Rust parallel compressor for gzip, zlib, BGZF and more, available through Homebrew and Debian, but its author calls it a proof of concept.
XZ Utils
The standard command-line tool for creating and reading .xz files.
XZ Utils gives higher compression ratios using LZMA2 and ships on nearly every Linux and BSD system, but it is slow and memory-hungry at high levels.
bzip2
A long-established command-line block-sorting compressor and library for .bz2 files.
bzip2 often compresses better than gzip and offers limited recovery from damaged media, but it is slower than modern compressors.
LZ4
A lossless compression format and command-line tool built for very high compression and decompression speed.
LZ4 compresses and decompresses faster than gzip and scales across CPU cores, at a lower compression ratio than zstd or xz.
Lzip
A command-line lossless compressor using a simplified LZMA, designed for long-term archiving and data safety.
Lzip uses simplified LZMA for better ratios with integrity checking and recovery options, keeping a gzip-style command line, though it decompresses more slowly.
Brotli
Compress and decompress data using the Brotli format.
Brotli is an MIT-licensed command-line tool and library for the Brotli format, though its stream format lacks checksums and original length metadata.
GNU Gzip as an alternative
Listings that name GNU Gzip as an alternative.
bzip3
A command-line compressor and library intended as a stronger successor to bzip2.
GNU Gzip produces .gz files read almost everywhere with a simple command line, but it has a lower compression ratio and is single-threaded.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
GNU Tar
The GNU command-line tool for creating, extracting, updating and listing tar archives.
ouch
Command-line tool that compresses and extracts archives without format-specific flags.
bsdtar (libarchive)
Command-line archivers built on libarchive that read and write tar, zip, cpio, ISO and more.
