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How to Unzip (Open) Gz File

Gzip is a popular compression algorithm that reduces the size of a file while keeping the original file mode, ownership, and timestamp. This algorithm is often used to compress web elements for faster page loading.

By convention, a file compressed with gzip ends with either .gz or .z.

This article explains how to open (or unzip) .gz files.

Unzipping gz File

On Linux and macOS, you can decompress a .gz file using the gzip utility. The syntax is as follows:

gzip -d file.gz

The command will restore the compressed file to its original state and remove the .gz file.

To keep the compressed file pass the -k option to the command:

gzip -dk file.gz

Another command that you can use to decompress a .gz file is gunzipThis command is basically an alias to file with gzip -d.

To open a .gz file with gunzip simply pass the file name to the command:

gunzip file.gz

If you’re on a desktop environment and the command-line is not your thing, you can use your File manager. To open (unzip) a .gz file, right-click on the file you want to decompress and select “Extract”.

Windows users need to install additional software such as 7zip to open .gz files.

Extracting tar.gz File

Gzip algorithm is designed to compress only a single file. Files that end in .tar.gz are .tar archives compressed with gzip.

To extract a tar.gz file, use tar command with the -xf options followed by the compressed archive name:

tar -xf archive.tar.gz

The command will auto-detect the compression type and will extract the archive in the current working directory.

Conclusion

To decompress a .gz file, use the gunzip command followed by the file name.

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

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