Gunzip Command in Linux

Using Gunzip command-line tool you can decompressing Gzip files. Gzip is the popular compression algorithms to reduce the size of a file and keep the original file mode, ownership, and timestamp. In this tutorial, we will show you how to use the gunzip command.

Decompressing Files with gunzip#

Below is the basic syntax for the gunzip command:

gunzip [OPTION]... [FILE]...

The gunzip is a bash script wrapper to the gzip -d command in most Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, CentOS, and Debian.

All gzip command line options are applicable gunzip. You can decompress a .gz file with gunzip by passing compressed file name:

gunzip filename.gz

It will restore the compressed file to its original name, owner, mode and timestamp.

After decompress, by default, gunzip will remove the compressed file. You can use the -k option to keep the file:

gunzip -k filename.gz

Use the -c option to write the output on the terminal.

gunzip -c filename.gz > /directory/path/filename

You can pass the multiple files as arguments with the gunzip command:

gunzip file1.gz file2.gz file3.gz

To recursively decompresses all files in a given directory, use the -r option:

gunzip -r directory

List the Compressed File Contents#

Use the -l option with gunzip, to show information about the given compressed files:

gunzip -l filename.gz

In output, it will show the uncompressed file name, the compressed and uncompressed size, and the compression ratio:

compressed        uncompressed  ratio uncompressed_name
       246                 282   8.2% filename

For more verbose output, use the -v option:

gunzip -lv filename

method  crc     date  time           compressed        uncompressed  ratio uncompressed_name
defla 8afa3fs5 Oct 24 11:40                 246                 282   8.2% filename

Conclusion#

The gunzip command is used to decompress .gz files. To learn more about the gunzip command, visit the Gnu gzip documentation page.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.