Compress and decompress files

[jbeadling]

Summary

Learn how to compress and decompress files using various utilities like tar, gzip, zip, and unzip on a Unix-like operating system.

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Description

• Objective: Master the techniques for compressing and decompressing files to save disk space and facilitate easier file transfers.

• Scope:

  • Compressing files using gzip and zip
  • Decompressing files using gunzip and unzip
  • Creating compressed archives with tar
  • Best practices and use cases

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Learning Tasks

1. Compressing Files:

   • Learn how to use gzip and zip to compress individual files or directories.

2. Decompressing Files:

   • Get acquainted with gunzip and unzip for decompressing files back to their original state.

3. Archiving with tar:

   • Understand how to create compressed archives using the tar command and various flags.

4. Best Practices:

   • Discover the best practices for compression and decompression, like choosing formats and checking integrity.

5. Hands-on Practice:

   • Exercise 1: Compress a single file using gzip.
   • Exercise 2: Decompress the file you compressed in Exercise 1 using gunzip.
   • Exercise 3: Create a compressed archive using tar with multiple files.
   • Exercise 4: Extract the files from the compressed archive created in Exercise 3.

6. Troubleshooting:

   • Address common issues you might face during compression and decompression and learn how to resolve them.

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Learning Goals

• Become proficient in file compression and decompression using various utilities.
• Understand the purpose and advantage of different compression formats.
• Be able to create and extract compressed archives.

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Priority

• Medium

[jbeadling]

gzip and zip are compression utilities used to compress and decompress files and directories in Unix-like operating systems.

Here we compress and decompress a file using gzip. Notice the file is now much smaller after compression.

Below we use the tar command and create a compressed archive using gzip.

Below we extract that archive we just created into a new directory