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Gunzip Command in Linux

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.

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