Ubuntu Manpage: plzip - reduces the size of files

NAME

       plzip - reduces the size of files

SYNOPSIS

       plzip [options] [files]

DESCRIPTION

Plzip is a massively parallel (multi-threaded) implementation of lzip. Plzip uses the
compression library lzlib.

Lzip is a lossless data compressor with a user interface similar to the one of gzip or
bzip2. Lzip uses a simplified form of LZMA (Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain-Algorithm) designed to
achieve complete interoperability between implementations. The maximum dictionary size is
512 MiB so that any lzip file can be decompressed on 32-bit machines. Lzip provides
accurate and robust 3-factor integrity checking. 'lzip -0' compresses about as fast as
gzip, while 'lzip -9' compresses most files more than bzip2. Decompression speed is
intermediate between gzip and bzip2. Lzip provides better data recovery capabilities than
gzip and bzip2. Lzip has been designed, written, and tested with great care to replace
gzip and bzip2 as general-purpose compressed format for Unix-like systems.

Plzip can compress/decompress large files on multiprocessor machines much faster than
lzip, at the cost of a slightly reduced compression ratio (0.4 to 2 percent larger
compressed files). Note that the number of usable threads is limited by file size; on
files larger than a few GB plzip can use hundreds of processors, but on files smaller than
1 MiB plzip is no faster than lzip (even at compression level -0). The number of threads
defaults to the number of processors.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              display this help and exit

       -V, --version
              output version information and exit

       -a, --trailing-error
              exit with error status if trailing data

       -B, --data-size=<bytes>
              set size of input data blocks [2x8=16 MiB]

       -c, --stdout
              write to standard output, keep input files

       -d, --decompress
              decompress, test compressed file integrity

       -f, --force
              overwrite existing output files

       -F, --recompress
              force re-compression of compressed files

       -k, --keep
              keep (don't delete) input files

       -l, --list
              print (un)compressed file sizes

       -m, --match-length=<bytes>
              set match length limit in bytes [36]

       -n, --threads=<n>
              set number of (de)compression threads [2]

       -o, --output=<file>
              write to <file>, keep input files

       -q, --quiet
              suppress all messages

       -s, --dictionary-size=<bytes>
              set dictionary size limit in bytes [8 MiB]

       -t, --test
              test compressed file integrity

       -v, --verbose
              be verbose (a 2nd -v gives more)

       -0 .. -9
              set compression level [default 6]

       --fast alias for -0

       --best alias for -9

       --loose-trailing
              allow trailing data seeming corrupt header

       --in-slots=<n>
              number of 1 MiB input packets buffered [4]

       --out-slots=<n>
              number of 1 MiB output packets buffered [64]

       --check-lib
              compare version of lzlib.h with liblz.{a,so}

       If  no  file  names  are given, or if a file is '-', plzip compresses or decompresses from
       standard input to standard output.  Numbers may be followed by a multiplier: k = kB = 10^3
       =  1000,  Ki  =  KiB  =  2^10  =  1024,  M  = 10^6, Mi = 2^20, G = 10^9, Gi = 2^30, etc...
       Dictionary sizes 12 to 29 are interpreted as powers of two, meaning 2^12 to 2^29 bytes.

       The bidimensional parameter space of LZMA can't be mapped to a linear  scale  optimal  for
       all  files. If your files are large, very repetitive, etc, you may need to use the options
       --dictionary-size and --match-length directly to achieve optimal performance.

       To extract all the files from archive 'foo.tar.lz', use the commands 'tar -xf  foo.tar.lz'
       or 'plzip -cd foo.tar.lz | tar -xf -'.

       Exit  status:  0  for a normal exit, 1 for environmental problems (file not found, invalid
       command-line options, I/O errors, etc), 2 to indicate a corrupt or invalid input  file,  3
       for an internal consistency error (e.g., bug) which caused plzip to panic.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to lzip-bug@nongnu.org
       Plzip home page: http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/plzip.html

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