linux.softwareshinobi.com/landing/docs/commands/archives/gunzip.md

The gunzip command

The gunzip command is an antonym command of gzip command. In other words, it decompresses files deflated by the gzip command.

gunzip takes a list of files on its command line and replaces each file whose name ends with .gz, -gz, .z, -z, or _z (ignoring case) and which begins with the correct magic number with an uncompressed file without the original extension. gunzip also recognizes the special extensions .tgz and .taz as shorthands for .tar.gz and .tar.Z respectively.

Examples:

1. Uncompress a file

gunzip filename.gz

2. Recursively uncompress content inside a directory, that match extension (suffix) compressed formats accepted by gunzip:

gunzip -r directory_name/

3. Uncompress all files in the current/working directory whose suffix match .tgz:

gunzip -S .tgz *

4. List compressed and uncompressed sizes, compression ratio and uncompressed name of input compressed file/s:

gunzip -l file_1 file_2

Syntax:

gunzip [ -acfhklLnNrtvV ] [-S suffix] [ name ...  ]

Video tutorial about using gzip, gunzip and tar commands:

This video shows how to compress and decompress in a Unix shell. It uses gunzip as decompression command.

Additional Flags and their Functionalities:

Short Flag	Long Flag	Description
-c	--stdout	write on standard output, keep original files unchanged
-h	--help	give help information
-k	--keep	keep (don't delete) input files
-l	--list	list compressed file contents
-q	--quiet	suppress all warnings
-r	--recursive	operate recursively on directories
-S	--suffix=SUF	use suffix SUF on compressed files
	--synchronous	synchronous output (safer if system crashes, but slower)
-t	--test	test compressed file integrity
-v	--verbose	verbose mode
-V	--version	display version number