.Z is the filename extension conventionally appended to files that have been compressed using the old UNIX compress utility (or the newer ncompress clone).

GNU gzip can read (decompress) these files, but generally will not create them.

Note that this is NOT an archiving utility --- it compresses single files. Archives under UNIX and Linux are created with tar, cpio, or some similar tool, and can contain multiple files.

This compression format is very old and is rarely used today. gzip and bzip2 are far more common and offer significantly better compression ratios.

Contributors

• () JimDennis - 23 Sep 2003
• If you edit this page: add your name here; move this to the next line; and if you've used a comment marker (your initials in parenthesis), include it before your WikiName.

Revision Comment

• 24 Sep 2003 — typo fixes, minor reformatting
• %DATE% —

Page Ratings