Pigz is a parallel gzip implementation. It uses multiple cores to speed up compression and decompression.
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Download latest version 2.3.1-149 (built on 2014-04-04):
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Usage
To compress: pigz [options] [files ...]
To uncompress: unpigz [options] [files ...]
pigz foo.txt will create foo.txt.gz, compressed with gzip algorithm, and delete foo.txt.
To not delete the source file, use --keep ( -k) option.
To change the compression algorithm:
-0 to -9 selects the compression strength. Higher number means better, but slower, compression--fast is the same as -1, --best is the same as -9--11 selects zopfli algorithm which creates zlib-compatible data, compresses ~5% better than zlib but is much slower
The suffix is:
.gz by default.zip with --zip ( -K) option.zz wiht --zlib ( -z) option- your own with
--suffix .custom option
All options
-0 to -9, -11 : Compression level (11 is much slower, a few % better)--fast, --best : Compression levels 1 and 9 respectively-b, --blocksize mmm : Set compression block size to mmmK (default 128K)-c, --stdout : Write all processed output to stdout (won’t delete)-d, --decompress : Decompress the compressed input-f, --force : Force overwrite, compress .gz, links, and to terminal-h, --help : Display a help screen and quit-i, --independent : Compress blocks independently for damage recovery-k, --keep : Do not delete original file after processing-K, --zip : Compress to PKWare zip (.zip) single entry format-l, --list : List the contents of the compressed input-L, --license : Display the pigz license and quit-n, --no-name : Do not store or restore file name in/from header-N, --name : Store/restore file name and mod time in/from header-p, --processes n :Allow up to n compression threads (default is the number of online processors, or 8 if unknown)-q, --quiet : Print no messages, even on error-r, --recursive : Process the contents of all subdirectories-R, --rsyncable : Input-determined block locations for rsync-S, --suffix .sss : Use suffix .sss instead of .gz (for compression)-t, --test : Test the integrity of the compressed input-T, --no-time : Do not store or restore mod time in/from header-v, --verbose : Provide more verbose output-V, --version : Show the version of pigz-z, --zlib : Compress to zlib (.zz) instead of gzip format-- : All arguments after “–” are treated as files
pigz.exe is the same as unpigz.exe!
You might have noticed that pigz.exe and unpigz.exe is exactly the same executable.
The reason for that is implementation trick that Unix version uses.
On Unix unpigz.exe is a symbolic link to pigz.exe. The program checks the name that was used to execute it to choose between acting as compressor or decompressor.
Unfortunately Windows doesn’t have the same support for symbolic links so the easy way to replicate Unix behavior is to have the same executable under 2 different names.