plzip/doc/plzip.1

.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE!  It was generated by help2man 1.47.16.
.TH PLZIP "1" "January 2022" "plzip 1.10" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
plzip \- reduces the size of files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B plzip
[\fI\,options\/\fR] [\fI\,files\/\fR]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Plzip is a massively parallel (multi\-threaded) implementation of lzip, fully
compatible with lzip 1.4 or newer. Plzip uses the compression library lzlib.
.PP
Lzip is a lossless data compressor with a user interface similar to the one
of gzip or bzip2. Lzip uses a simplified form of the 'Lempel\-Ziv\-Markov
chain\-Algorithm' (LZMA) stream format and provides a 3 factor integrity
checking to maximize interoperability and optimize safety. Lzip can compress
about as fast as gzip (lzip \fB\-0\fR) or compress most files more than bzip2
(lzip \fB\-9\fR). Decompression speed is intermediate between gzip and bzip2.
Lzip is better than gzip and bzip2 from a data recovery perspective. Lzip
has been designed, written, and tested with great care to replace gzip and
bzip2 as the standard general\-purpose compressed format for unix\-like
systems.
.PP
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 of only a few MB plzip is no faster
than lzip.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
display this help and exit
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
output version information and exit
.TP
\fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-trailing\-error\fR
exit with error status if trailing data
.TP
\fB\-B\fR, \fB\-\-data\-size=\fR<bytes>
set size of input data blocks [2x8=16 MiB]
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-stdout\fR
write to standard output, keep input files
.TP
\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-decompress\fR
decompress
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-force\fR
overwrite existing output files
.TP
\fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-recompress\fR
force re\-compression of compressed files
.TP
\fB\-k\fR, \fB\-\-keep\fR
keep (don't delete) input files
.TP
\fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-list\fR
print (un)compressed file sizes
.TP
\fB\-m\fR, \fB\-\-match\-length=\fR<bytes>
set match length limit in bytes [36]
.TP
\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-threads=\fR<n>
set number of (de)compression threads [2]
.TP
\fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-output=\fR<file>
write to <file>, keep input files
.TP
\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
suppress all messages
.TP
\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-dictionary\-size=\fR<bytes>
set dictionary size limit in bytes [8 MiB]
.TP
\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-test\fR
test compressed file integrity
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
be verbose (a 2nd \fB\-v\fR gives more)
.TP
\fB\-0\fR .. \fB\-9\fR
set compression level [default 6]
.TP
\fB\-\-fast\fR
alias for \fB\-0\fR
.TP
\fB\-\-best\fR
alias for \fB\-9\fR
.TP
\fB\-\-loose\-trailing\fR
allow trailing data seeming corrupt header
.TP
\fB\-\-in\-slots=\fR<n>
number of 1 MiB input packets buffered [4]
.TP
\fB\-\-out\-slots=\fR<n>
number of 1 MiB output packets buffered [64]
.TP
\fB\-\-check\-lib\fR
compare version of lzlib.h with liblz.{a,so}
.PP
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.
.PP
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 \fB\-\-dictionary\-size\fR and \fB\-\-match\-length\fR
directly to achieve optimal performance.
.PP
To extract all the files from archive 'foo.tar.lz', use the commands
\&'tar \fB\-xf\fR foo.tar.lz' or 'plzip \fB\-cd\fR foo.tar.lz | tar \fB\-xf\fR \-'.
.PP
Exit status: 0 for a normal exit, 1 for environmental problems (file
not found, invalid flags, 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.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to lzip\-bug@nongnu.org
.br
Plzip home page: http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/plzip.html
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2009 Laszlo Ersek.
.br
Copyright \(co 2022 Antonio Diaz Diaz.
Using lzlib 1.13
License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
The full documentation for
.B plzip
is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the
.B info
and
.B plzip
programs are properly installed at your site, the command
.IP
.B info plzip
.PP
should give you access to the complete manual.