gzip Command - Compress or Decompress Files

The gzip command is used to compress or decompress files using the GNU zip compression algorithm. It is commonly used to reduce file size for storage or transfer on Linux systems.

Syntax

gzip [options] file

Examples

gzip file.txt

gzip -d file.txt.gz

gzip -k file.txt

Notes

• gzip only compresses single files; use tar for directories.
• Decompression can be done with gzip -d or gunzip.
• gzip is widely supported and used in Unix-like systems.