Christian WellsThe gunzip command is a Linux utility that is used to decompress files that have been compressed using the gzip command. In this article, we will look at the gunzip command in more detail, including how to use it and some examples of common usage scenarios.
The gunzip command is used to decompress files that have been compressed using the gzip command. This is typically used to reduce the size of a file, making it easier to transfer over a network or store on a disk. The gunzip command can decompress files that have the .gz extension, which indicates that they have been compressed using gzip.
To use the gunzip command, you simply specify the name of the file that you want to decompress as an argument. For example, to decompress a file called file.txt.gz, you would run the following command:
gunzip file.txt.gz
This will decompress the file.txt.gz file and create a new file called file.txt in the current directory. The original file.txt.gz file will still exist, and you can delete it if you no longer need it.
The gunzip command also has several options that you can use to control its behavior. For example, the -c option allows you to decompress the file and write the output to the standard output, rather than creating a new file. This can be useful if you want to view the contents of the file without actually creating a new file on your system. For example:
gunzip -c file.txt.gz
Another useful option is the -k option, which allows you to keep the original .gz file after decompressing it. This is useful if you want to decompress the file and then compress it again using a different method. For example:
gunzip -k file.txt.gz
The gunzip command also has the ability to decompress multiple files at the same time. To do this, simply specify the names of all of the files that you want to decompress as arguments to the gunzip command. For example:
gunzip file1.txt.gz file2.txt.gz file3.txt.gz
In conclusion, the gunzip command is a useful Linux utility for decompressing files that have been compressed using gzip. It has several options that you can use to control its behavior, and it can be used to decompress multiple files at the same time.
