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compress uses Lempel-Ziv-Welsh coding for compressing files.
Most files can be compressed to half of their original size
thus saving on disk space. You should compress any files that
you do not use frequently as this will help keep from going
over your disk space limits. compress is executed as
follows, with filename being replaced with the name of
the file (or files) to be compressed.
compress filename
The compressed file is stored under the name `filename.Z'. The `.Z' extension on the filename lets you know that this is a compressed file. Remember that any compressed file must be treated as a binary file for purposes of file transfer.
In order to uncompress a file, use the uncompress
command. The resulting uncompressed file will be without
the `.Z' extension.
uncompress filename.Z
You can use the command zcat to look at a compressed file
without uncompressing it. A typical way to look at a compressed text
file is as follows:
zcat filename | more
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