How to compress files.

[Tom Gore]

What can I use to compress or "zip" files? I will be ftp'ing these files to somebody that does *not* have a UNIX system.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The most universal answer is to get the GNU compression utilities. They are available from www.gnu.org and are available for both UNIX and non-unix platforms.

Pkzip is also available for unix platforms.

Clay

[Mark Vollmers]

GNU will compress the files using a .gz extension. If you are ftp'ing the files to windows, for example, Winzip should recongnize that extension and unzip the files. This is the easier way to do it, and it is really easy to zip them in UNIX.

Mark

[Shannon Petry]

Both PK Zip95 or higher, and WinZip 7 and higher can read Unix compress, GNU Zip (gzip), and tar archives.

I usually use this type of archive!

>tar cvf /dest/files.tar ./*
>gzip /dest/files.tar

Knowing this should solve your problems!

Regards,
Shannon

[Ralf Hildebrandt]

YOu can use:

compress/uncompress
zip/unzip
gzip/gunzip
bzip2/bunzip2

etc. etc.

[Vincenzo Restuccia]

#tar cvf /path/file.tar ./*
#compress /path/files.tar
#uncompress files.tar.Z

[Juan José Muñoz]

Hi Tom:

An easy way is using compress, winzip work with Z extent, but you need appoint your file with the extent you need in windows before compress

[f. halili]

TRy THE FF:

To compress:
# /usr/contrib/bin/gzip yourfile

To uncompress:
# /usr/contrib/bin/gunzip -f yourfile.gz


You may also use the comamnds compress & uncompress


-fnhalili
==============

[Tom Gore]

Shannon,
I am part way there. I used:
compress filename. I then ftp'd the file to my PC. When I try to use Winzip (we have v8) it would not work. Winzip help says the file type is not supported.

[Mark Vollmers · Accepted solution]

I don't know about winzip 8.0, but we have 7.0 and it works fine with the .z files. Maybe try doing it with the gzip command and see it if works. Otherwise, try reinstalling winzip; sometimes it loses file extensions and reinstalling it will fix it. Good luck!

Mark

[f. halili]

try to ist install UWIN in your windoes box.
this will enable do your unix commands like compress, uncompress, gzip, gunzip. So if you ftp from UNIx to windoes you won't have compatibility problems.

http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/uwin/

so you may now gzip your file, ftp then gunzip from windows to UNIX or UNUX to windows


-fnhalili

[Tom Gore]

First, let me say thanks to all. I am trying many of the suggestions (points to follow shortly). I have not had much success with unziping compressed or gzip'd files (so far). Secondly, let me say that I will not be the one unzipping the files. I will be ftp'ing them to a third party who does not have a UNIX system. I know that one of my choices would be to ftp the files to a PC here, use Winzip and then ftp the files to the third party, but I am trying to avoid "touching" the data that many times.