NAME

       lz4 - lz4, unlz4, lz4cat - Compress or decompress .lz4 files

SYNOPSIS

       lz4 [OPTIONS] [-|INPUT-FILE] OUTPUT-FILE

       unlz4 is equivalent to lz4 -d

       lz4cat is equivalent to lz4 -dcfm

       When  writing  scripts  that need to decompress files, it is recommended to always use the
       name lz4 with appropriate arguments (lz4 -d or lz4 -dc) instead of  the  names  unlz4  and
       lz4cat.

DESCRIPTION

       lz4 is an extremely fast lossless compression algorithm, based on byte-aligned LZ77 family
       of compression scheme. lz4 offers compression  speeds  of  400  MB/s  per  core,  linearly
       scalable  with  multi-core  CPUs.  It  features  an  extremely fast decoder, with speed in
       multiple GB/s per core, typically reaching RAM speed  limit  on  multi-core  systems.  The
       native file format is the .lz4 format.

   Difference between lz4 and gzip
       lz4 supports a command line syntax similar but not identical to gzip(1). Differences are :

       •   lz4 compresses a single file by default (see -m for multiple files)

       •   lz4 file1 file2 means : compress file1 into file2

       •   lz4 file.lz4 will default to decompression (use -z to force compression)

       •   lz4 preserves original files

       •   lz4  shows  real-time notification statistics during compression or decompression of a
           single file (use -q to silence them)

       •   When no destination is specified, result is sent on implicit output, which depends  on
           stdout  status.  When  stdout  is  Not  the  console,  it becomes the implicit output.
           Otherwise, if stdout is the console, the implicit output is filename.lz4.

       •   It is considered bad practice to rely on  implicit  output  in  scripts.  because  the
           script´s  environment  may  change.  Always use explicit output in scripts. -c ensures
           that output will be stdout. Conversely, providing a  destination  name,  or  using  -m
           ensures   that  the  output  will  be  either  the  specified  name,  or  filename.lz4
           respectively.

       Default behaviors can be modified by opt-in commands, detailed below.

       •   lz4 -m makes it possible to provide multiple input filenames, which will be compressed
           into  files  using suffix .lz4. Progress notifications become disabled by default (use
           -v to enable them). This mode has a behavior which more closely  mimics  gzip  command
           line,  with  the  main  remaining  difference being that source files are preserved by
           default.

       •   Similarly, lz4 -m -d can decompress multiple *.lz4 files.

       •   It´s  possible  to  opt-in  to  erase  source  files  on  successful  compression   or
           decompression, using --rm command.

       •   Consequently, lz4 -m --rm behaves the same as gzip.

   Concatenation of .lz4 files
       It  is possible to concatenate .lz4 files as is. lz4 will decompress such files as if they
       were a single .lz4 file. For example:

           lz4 file1  > foo.lz4
           lz4 file2 >> foo.lz4

       Then lz4cat foo.lz4 is equivalent to cat file1 file2.

OPTIONS

   Short commands concatenation
       In some cases, some options can be expressed  using  short  command  -x  or  long  command
       --long-word. Short commands can be concatenated together. For example, -d -c is equivalent
       to -dc. Long commands cannot be concatenated. They must be clearly separated by a space.

   Multiple commands
       When multiple contradictory commands are issued on a same command line,  only  the  latest
       one will be applied.

   Operation mode
       -z --compress
              Compress.  This  is  the  default  operation  mode when no operation mode option is
              specified, no other operation mode is implied from the command name  (for  example,
              unlz4  implies  --decompress),  nor  from  the input file name (for example, a file
              extension .lz4 implies --decompress by default). -z  can  also  be  used  to  force
              compression of an already compressed .lz4 file.

       -d --decompress --uncompress
              Decompress.  --decompress is also the default operation when the input filename has
              an .lz4 extension.

       -t --test
              Test the integrity of compressed .lz4 files. The decompressed data is discarded. No
              files are created nor removed.

       -b#    Benchmark mode, using # compression level.

       --list List  information  about  .lz4  files.  note : current implementation is limited to
              single-frame .lz4 files.

   Operation modifiers
       -#     Compression level, with # being any  value  from  1  to  12.  Higher  values  trade
              compression speed for compression ratio. Values above 12 are considered the same as
              12. Recommended values are 1  for  fast  compression  (default),  and  9  for  high
              compression.  Speed/compression  trade-off will vary depending on data to compress.
              Decompression speed remains fast at all settings.

       --fast[=#]
              Switch to ultra-fast compression levels. The  higher  the  value,  the  faster  the
              compression  speed, at the cost of some compression ratio. If =# is not present, it
              defaults to 1. This setting overrides compression level if one was set  previously.
              Similarly, if a compression level is set after --fast, it overrides it.

       --best Set highest compression level. Same as -12.

       --favor-decSpeed
              Generate compressed data optimized for decompression speed. Compressed data will be
              larger as a consequence (typically by ~0.5%), while  decompression  speed  will  be
              improved  by  5-20%,  depending on use cases. This option only works in combination
              with very high compression levels (>=10).

       -D dictionaryName
              Compress, decompress or benchmark using dictionary dictionaryName. Compression  and
              decompression  must  use  the  same  dictionary to be compatible. Using a different
              dictionary during decompression will either abort due to  decompression  error,  or
              generate a checksum error.

       -f --[no-]force
              This option has several effects:

              If the target file already exists, overwrite it without prompting.

              When  used  with --decompress and lz4 cannot recognize the type of the source file,
              copy the source file as is to standard output. This allows  lz4cat  --force  to  be
              used like cat (1) for files that have not been compressed with lz4.

       -c --stdout --to-stdout
              Force write to standard output, even if it is the console.

       -m --multiple
              Multiple  input  files.  Compressed file names will be appended a .lz4 suffix. This
              mode also reduces notification level. Can also be used to list multiple files.  lz4
              -m has a behavior equivalent to gzip -k (it preserves source files by default).

       -r     operate recursively on directories. This mode also sets -m (multiple input files).

       -B#    Block size [4-7](default : 7)
              -B4= 64KB ; -B5= 256KB ; -B6= 1MB ; -B7= 4MB

       -BI    Produce independent blocks (default)

       -BD    Blocks depend on predecessors (improves compression ratio, more noticeable on small
              blocks)

       --[no-]frame-crc
              Select frame checksum (default:enabled)

       --[no-]content-size
              Header includes original size (default:not present)
              Note : this option can only be activated when the original size can be  determined,
              hence for a file. It won´t work with unknown source size, such as stdin or pipe.

       --[no-]sparse
              Sparse mode support (default:enabled on file, disabled on stdout)

       -l     Use Legacy format (typically for Linux Kernel compression)
              Note : -l is not compatible with -m (--multiple) nor -r

   Other options
       -v --verbose
              Verbose mode

       -q --quiet
              Suppress warnings and real-time statistics; specify twice to suppress errors too

       -h -H --help
              Display help/long help and exit

       -V --version
              Display Version number and exit

       -k --keep
              Preserve source files (default behavior)

       --rm   Delete source files on successful compression or decompression

       --     Treat all subsequent arguments as files

   Benchmark mode
       -b#    Benchmark file(s), using # compression level

       -e#    Benchmark multiple compression levels, from b# to e# (included)

       -i#    Minimum evaluation time in seconds [1-9] (default : 3)

BUGS

       Report bugs at: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/issues

AUTHOR

       Yann Collet