gzip

[YOGI_3]

I am zipping files in one directory..
its giving following error....
[root@mbdelh01 ftp_cdr_completed]# gzip *
-bash: /bin/gzip: Argument list too long
[root@mbdelh01 ftp_cdr_completed]#
---------------------------------------------
How to gzip soo many files..
while moving *.gz its giving same error..

waiting for replies
thanks

[Pete Randall · Accepted solution]

You can use the find command to process them one at a time:

find /start_dir -type f -exec gzip {} \;

Same for moving. With that many files it may take a while though.


Pete

[Rodney Hills]

Too many files error is because the shell parser expands all the filenames before it runs the command.

The standard method to get around this process is-
ls | xargs gzip

xargs breaks the arguments into managable chunks for gzip (or any command) to use.

HTH

-- Rod Hills

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Do something like:

cd your_directory
find . -type f > /tmp/mylist
while read FILE
do
gzip ... ${FILE} #...with whatever args...
done < /tmp/mylist

Regards!

...JRF...

[Rodney Hills]

The method you are using will compress each file and keep it that way in the directory.

If you are compressing for purposes of transport, then a typical method is-

cd ftp_cdr_completed
tar cf . - | gzip -c >package.tar.gz

HTH

-- Rod Hills

[Geoff Wild]

I like the xargs method - but you could just tar them, then gzip the tarball...

Rgds...Geoff

[Muthukumar_5]

Use with xargs or find -exec \+ method to do this easily.

ls | xargs gzip

find . -type f -exec gzip {} \+

You can also prefer to use tar all the files and gunzipping the tar.

find . -type f -exec gzip {} \; is having limitation problem too.

hth.