how to zip / compress a directory ?

[ng_7]

hi, appreciate if someone could provide me command to compress / zip a unix directory.

thanks

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom

tar cvf /tmp/tarfile.tar /directory/

SEP

[Dennis Handly · Accepted solution]

>SEP: tar cvf /tmp/tarfile.tar /directory/

After this, you can gzip or compress tarfile.tar. Of course you can do it in one step with a pipe.

[Hemmetter]

Hi ng,

You can't compress a directory.
You can compress/gzip the files inside:

$ cd /dir ; compress *

or as Steven suggested you can create a archive of the directory

$ tar cvf dir.tar /dir
or compressed:
$ tar cvf - /dir | compress >dir.tar.Z


see compress(1), gzip(1)

rgds
HGH

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

using the default software on the OS, you can easily achieve this using two steps.

Step 1. Archive files together
tar -cvf /tmp/DIR1.TAR ./

Step 2. Compress them together
gzip -S .Z /tmp/DIR1.TAR

You should also be aware of absolute/relative path issues.


hope this helps too!
kind regards
yogeeraj

[Reshma Malusare]

Hi ng,
1> compress
The compress utility will attempt to reduce the size of the named files by using adaptive Lempel-Ziv coding. Except when
the output is to the standard output, each file will be replaced by one with the extension .Z, while keeping the
same ownership modes, change times and modification times.

compress [-fv] [ -b bits ] [ file ]
compress [-cfv] [ -b bits ] [ file ]

2>gzip
Gzip reduces the size of the named files using Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77). Whenever possible, each file is replaced by one with the extension .gz, while keeping the same ownership modes,access and modification times.By default, gzip keeps the original file name and timestamp in the compressed file.

gzip [ -acdfhlLnNrtvV19 ] [-S suffix] [ name ... ]

3> tar

Mentioned above

Thanks & Regards
Reshma Malusare

[Sยภเl Kย๓คг]

Most of the time, compress command is not a good option. I would prefer to choose tar followed by gzip, as some of them mentioned in this forum.

[Dennis Handly]

I just noticed there is a compressdir(1) command.

[Steven Schweda]

As usual, the answer depends on missing
information. For example: Why?

If you intend to transfer the files to a
non-UNIX system, then the Info-ZIP [Un]Zip
programs would probably make more sense. If
you're just trying to save some space on your
HP-UX system, of if you intend to transfer
the files to another UNIX system, then a
"tar" pipeline into gzip or bzip2 would
probably make more sense.

For a complete (and useful) answer, ask a
complete question.

[ng_7]

thanks everyone for help, and i am interested in compressdir, can please tell me after compressdir, how do we uncompress it ? thanks