compress

compress [options ] [files ]

Reduce the size of one or more files using adaptive Lempel-Ziv coding and move to file .Z . Restore with uncompress or zcat .

With a filename of - , or with no files , compress reads standard input.

Note: Unisys claims a patent on the algorithm used by compress . Today, gzip is generally preferred for file compression.

Options

-b n

Limit the number of bits in coding to n ; n is 9-16, and 16 is the default. A lower n produces a larger, less densely compressed file.

-c

Write to the standard output (do not change files).

-f

Compress unconditionally; i.e., do not prompt before overwriting files. Also, compress files even if the resulting file would actually be larger.

-v

Print the resulting percentage of reduction for files .