The Linux Newbie Guide

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Fundamentals

xz - Compress / Decompress .xz Files

The xz command is used to compress and decompress files with the ".xz" file extension. It offers higher compression ratios compared to some other compression tools like bzip2 .

The syntax of the xz command is as follows:
xz [OPTIONS] [FILES...] 。

Here are some commonly used options with the xz command:

-c: Output the compressed file to standard output instead of modifying the original file.
-d: Decompress the file.
-e: Compress the file and delete the original file.
-f: Force the operation and overwrite existing files.
-k: Keep the original file when compressing or decompressing.
-l: List information about the compression of the file.
-v: Display detailed information about the compression process.
-[1~9]: Specify the compression level, where a higher number indicates a higher compression ratio.

Examples:

$ xz * ←Compress all files in the current directory
$ xz -d *.xz ←Decompress all ".xz" files in the current directory
$ xz -9 *.cpp ←Compress all ".txt" files in the current directory with compression level 9

The xz command is particularly useful when you need to compress or decompress files efficiently while preserving their quality. It's commonly used in Linux systems for packaging and archiving files.

For more examples and details about the xz command and its parameters, you can refer to the provided link.