Also known as: .gz, GNU Zip, .tgz
| Type | lossless compressed file |
| Originator | Adapted from PkWare's deflate |
| Platform | Widely available. |
| Supporting Applications | gzip, gunzip, tar, WinZip, 7zip |
| See Also | tar, zip |
GZip is meant to be a replacement for the Unix compress command. It is used
to compress a single file. For compressing multiple files in a single archive, see
tar, which can use GZip after combining the files.
The compression algorithm is the adapted from the deflate algorithm of PkWare's ZIP format, but with a simpler structure than a standard ZIP file. The simpler structure means that it can only hold a single file, but makes it more appropriate for piping and streaming applications.
C-language source code is available on the gzip website.