{"id":12394,"date":"2019-03-26T22:25:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=12394"},"modified":"2019-03-26T22:25:35","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T22:25:35","slug":"how-to-compress-and-decompress-a-bz2-file-in-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/03\/26\/how-to-compress-and-decompress-a-bz2-file-in-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Compress and Decompress a .bz2 File in Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

To compress a file(s), is to significantly decrease the size of the file(s) by encoding data in the file(s) using less bits, and it is normally a useful practice\u00a0during backup and transfer of a file(s)<\/a>\u00a0over a network. On the other hand, decompressing a file(s) means restoring data in the file(s) to its original state.<\/p>\n

Suggested Read:<\/b>\u00a0Learn Linux \u2018tar\u2019 Command with This 18 Examples<\/a><\/p>\n

There are several\u00a0file compression and decompression tools<\/a>\u00a0available in Linux such as\u00a0gzip<\/strong>,\u00a07-zip<\/strong>,\u00a0Lrzip<\/strong>,\u00a0PeaZip<\/a>and many more.<\/p>\n

In this tutorial, we will look at how to compress and decompress\u00a0.bz2<\/code>\u00a0files using the bzip2 tool in Linux.<\/p>\n

Bzip2<\/strong>\u00a0is a well known compression tool and it\u2019s available on most if not all the major Linux distributions, you can use the appropriate command for your distribution to install it.<\/p>\n

$ sudo apt install bzip2     [On Debian\/Ubuntu<\/strong>] \r\n$ sudo yum install  bzip2    [On CentOS\/RHEL<\/strong>]\r\n$ sudo dnf install bzip2     [On Fedora 22+<\/strong>]<\/pre>\n
The conventional syntax of using\u00a0bzip2<\/strong>\u00a0is:<\/p>\n
$ bzip2 option(s) filenames \r\n<\/pre>\n
How to Use \u201cbzip2\u201d to Compress Files in Linux<\/h3>\n
You can compress a file as below, where the flag\u00a0-z<\/code>\u00a0enables file compression:<\/p>\n
$ bzip2 filename\r\nOR\r\n$ bzip2 -z filename\r\n<\/pre>\n
To compress a\u00a0.tar<\/code>\u00a0file, use the command format:<\/p>\n
$ bzip2 -z backup.tar\r\n<\/pre>\n
Important<\/strong>: By default,\u00a0bzip2<\/strong>\u00a0deletes the input files during compression or decompression, to keep the input files, use the\u00a0-k<\/code>\u00a0or\u00a0--keep<\/code>\u00a0option.<\/p>\n
In addition, the\u00a0-f<\/code>\u00a0or\u00a0--force<\/code>\u00a0flag will force\u00a0bzip2<\/strong>\u00a0to overwrite an existing output file.<\/p>\n
------ To keep input file<\/strong>  ------\r\n$ bzip2 -zk filename\r\n$ bzip2 -zk backup.tar\r\n<\/pre>\n
You can as well set the block size to\u00a0100k<\/strong>\u00a0upto\u00a0900k<\/strong>, using\u00a0-1<\/code>\u00a0or\u00a0--fast<\/code>\u00a0to\u00a0-9<\/code>\u00a0or\u00a0\u2013best<\/strong>\u00a0as shown in the below examples:<\/p>\n
$ bzip2 -k1  Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage\r\n$ ls -lh  Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage.bz2 \r\n$ bzip2 -k9  Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage \r\n$ bzip2 -kf9  Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage \r\n$ ls -lh Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage.bz2<\/pre>\n
The screenshot below shows how to use options to keep the input file, force\u00a0bzip2<\/strong>\u00a0to overwrite an output file and set the block size during compression.<\/p>\n
\n
\"Compress<\/a><\/p>\n
Compress Files Using bzip2 in Linux<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
How to Use \u201cbzip2\u201d to Decompress Files in Linux<\/h3>\n
To decompress a\u00a0.bz2<\/code>\u00a0file, make use of the\u00a0-d<\/code>\u00a0or\u00a0--decompress<\/code>\u00a0option like so:<\/p>\n
$ bzip2 -d filename.bz2\r\n<\/pre>\n
Note<\/strong>: The file must end with a\u00a0.bz2<\/code>\u00a0extension for the command above to work.<\/p>\n
$ bzip2 -vd Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage.bz2 \r\n$ bzip2 -vfd Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage.bz2 \r\n$ ls -l Etcher-linux-x64.AppImage \r\n<\/pre>\n
\n
\"Decompress<\/a><\/p>\n
Decompress bzip2 File in Linux<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
To view the\u00a0bzip2<\/strong>\u00a0help page and\u00a0man page<\/strong>, type the command below:<\/p>\n
$ bzip2  -h\r\n$ man bzip2\r\n<\/pre>\n
Lastly, with the simple elaborations above, I believe you are now capable of compressing and decompressing\u00a0.bz2<\/code>\u00a0files using the\u00a0bzip2<\/strong>\u00a0tool in Linux. However, for any questions or feedback, reach us using the comment section below.<\/p>\n
Importantly, you may want to go over a few important\u00a0Tar command examples<\/a>\u00a0in Linux so as to learn using the\u00a0tar<\/strong>\u00a0utility to\u00a0create compressed archive files<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To compress a file(s), is to significantly decrease the size of the file(s) by encoding data in the file(s) using less bits, and it is normally a useful practice\u00a0during backup and transfer of a file(s)\u00a0over a network. On the other hand, decompressing a file(s) means restoring data in the file(s) to its original state. Suggested … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “How to Compress and Decompress a .bz2 File in Linux”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12395,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12394\/revisions\/12395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}