Linux gunzip command example explanation

For beginners, the gzip tool is mainly used to compress or expand files. When decompressing, just add the -d option after the gzip command. The usage example is as follows:

gzip -d [compressed-file-name]

However, there is a completely different tool available when decompressing or expanding compressed files created by gzip. The tool in question is gunzip. In this article, we will explain the usage of gunzip command using some simple and easy-to-understand examples. All examples and guides in this article were tested under Ubuntu 16.04 environment.

Linux gunzip command

We now know that compressed files can be decompressed using the gzip -d or gunzip command. The basic gunzip syntax is:

gunzip [compressed-file-name]

The following Q&A example will show more clearly how the gunzip tool works:

Q1. How to use gunzip to decompress compressed files?

The decompression command is very simple, just pass the compressed file name as a parameter to the gunzip command.

gunzip [archive-name]

For example:

gunzip file1.gz

linux-gunzip-commandexample

How to use gunzip to decompress compressed files?

Q2. How to prevent gunzip from deleting the original compressed files?

As you have noticed, the gunzip command deletes the original compressed file after decompression. If you want to keep the original compressed file, you can use the -c option.

gunzip -c [archive-name] > [outputfile-name]

For example:

gunzip -c file1.gz > file1

How to make gunzip not delete the original compressed files?

Using this method, the original compressed file will not be deleted.

Q3. How to use gunzip to decompress files to other paths?

We have already discussed the usage of -c option in the Q&A. Use gunzip to decompress files to a path other than the working directory. Just add the absolute path of the target directory after the redirection operator.

gunzip -c [compressed-file] > [/complete/path/to/dest/dir/filename]

Examples are as follows:

gunzip -c file1.gz > /home/himanshu/file1

More information

The following details excerpted from the man page of gzip/gunzip will be helpful to those who want to know more.

gunzip accepts a series of files on the command line and compresses the contents of each file starting with the correct magic number and with a suffix of .gz, -gz, .z, -z or _z (ignoring case) , replacing it with the uncompressed file and removing its original extension. gunzip can also recognize some compressed files with special extensions, such as .tgz and .taz, which are the abbreviations of .tar.gz and .tar.Z respectively. When compressing, gzip uses .tgz as the extension when necessary, instead of just truncating the .tar suffix.

gunzip can currently decompress files generated by gzip, zip, compress, compress -H (pack). gunzip automatically detects input file formats. When using the first two compression formats, gunzip checks a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC). For pack packages, gunzip checks the compressed length. Standard compression formats are not designed to allow compatibility checking. But gunzip can sometimes detect bad .Z files. If you make an error when decompressing a .Z file, don't assume that the .Z file must be correct just because the standard decompression does not report an error. This usually means that the standard decompression process does not check its input and directly produces an incorrect output. SCO's compress -H format (lzh compression method) does not include a CRC checksum, but does allow some compatibility checks.

Conclusion

The basic usage of gunzip mentioned so far does not require too much learning curve. We've included almost everything a beginner needs to know to start using it. To learn more about usage, check out the man page.

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