This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2012) |
Original author(s) | Spencer Thomas |
---|---|
Initial release | February 1985 |
Operating system | Unix, Unix-like, IBM i |
Type | Command |
Filename extension |
.Z |
---|---|
Internet media type |
application/x-compress |
Developed by | Spencer Thomas |
Type of format | data compression |
compress is a Unix shell compression program based on the LZW compression algorithm.[1] Compared to gzip's fastest setting, compress is slightly slower at compression, slightly faster at decompression, and has a significantly lower compression ratio.[2] 1.8 MiB of memory is used to compress the Hutter Prize data, slightly more than gzip's slowest setting.[3]
The uncompress utility will restore files to their original state after they have been compressed using the compress utility. If no files are specified, the standard input will be uncompressed to the standard output.
Compress is a fast, simple LZW file compressor. Compress does not have the highest compression rate, but it is one of the fastest programs to compress data. Compress is the de facto standard in the UNIX community for compressing files.
compress 4.3d....