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gzip ○˒｜Definition｜1st｜20251119205401-00-⌔
gzip
gzip is a file format and a file compression program. The program uses the Deflate algorithm to compress and decompress a single file using the gzip file format.
gzip was released in 1992 as a free software replacement for the compress program because its compression algorithm, LZW, was covered by patents from Unisys and IBM,1 which did not expire until 2003 and 2004.2 Jean-Loup Gailly designed the gzip file format,3 which was later specified by RFC 1952,4 and originally wrote the gzip program. Mark Adler wrote the decompression part. gzip is now developed by the GNU project.5
As the file format can be decompressed via a streaming algorithm, it is commonly used in stream-based technology such as Web protocols, data interchange and ETL (in standard pipes).
Printed 2026-06-28.
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“Gzip - GNU Project”. Archived from the original on 5 May 2025. We developed this program as a replacement for compress because of the Unisys and IBM patents covering the LZW algorithm used by compress. ↩
“Unisys | LZW Patent and Software Information”. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Unisys U.S. LZW Patent No. 4,558,302 expired on June 20, 2003, the counterpart patents in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy expired on June 18, 2004, the Japanese counterpart patents expired on June 20, 2004 and the counterpart Canadian patent expired on July 7, 2004. ↩
Acknowledgements. IETF. p. 10. doi:10.17487/RFC1952. RFC 1952. Jean-Loup Gailly designed the gzip format and… ↩
GZIP file format specification version 4.3. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC1952. RFC 1952. ↩
“Gzip - GNU Project”. Archived from the original on 5 May 2025. GNU Gzip is a popular data compression program originally written by Jean-Loup Gailly for the GNU project. Mark Adler wrote the decompression part. ↩
gzip ⚬ˢʰ｜docu｜1st｜20251021001049-00-◊
gzip(1): compress/expand files - Linux man page
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