The Easiest Way on How to Decompress Using gzip

This short tutorial teaches you the easiest way how to decompress a file using gzip — uncompressing a gz file will never be a problem again.

1. Why Use gzip to Decompress a File?

Gzip is a popular compression algorithm that is used to reduce the size of a file, making it easier and faster to transfer the file over a network or to store it on a disk. The gzip decompression process reverses the compression process and restores the original file to its original size.

There are several reasons why one might choose to use gzip to decompress a file:

1. Compression ratio: Gzip provides a good compression ratio, meaning it reduces the size of the file effectively without sacrificing too much on the quality of the file.
2. Compatibility: Gzip is widely supported and can be decompressed by many different tools and platforms, making it a good choice for cross-platform compatibility.
3. Speed: The gzip decompression process is relatively fast and efficient, making it a good choice for decompressing large files.
4. Open-source: Gzip is an open-source compression algorithm, meaning that its source code is freely available and can be easily modified or improved upon.

Overall, gzip is a good choice for decompressing a file due to its good compression ratio, wide compatibility, fast decompression speed, and open-source nature.

2. How to gzip to Decompress – Uncompress a File

This tutorial shows two ways how to decompress a gz file.

The first approach uses gunzip and goes as follows:

$ gunzip your_file.gz

Next, the second approach uses gzip

$ gzip -d your_file.gz

Last but not least, in case you have a file compressed as tar.gz, you can uncompress it as follows:

$ tar -zxvf your_file.tar.gz

In case you want to learn more about uncompressing files, please check this video class

3. More Resources

• How to Copy a Directory in Linux
• Simple Scatter Plot in Python
• 7 Essential Things in a Python List