gunzip Command in Linux with Examples

The gunzip command in Linux is used to decompress files that were compressed using the gzip command, restoring them to their original form.

• It automatically removes the .gz extension after decompression.
• Can decompress multiple files at once.
• Supports options like -k,-f, and -r or flexibility.
• Useful for extracting logs, backups, and archives compressed with gzip.

Example: Decompress a Single .gz File

gunzip example.txt.gz 

• Extracts example.txt.gz and restores it as example.txt, deleting the .gz file after decompression.

Syntax

Below is the syntax for gunzip command:

gunzip [Option] [archive name/file name]

Commonly Used gunzip Command Options

Option 1. '-c': Write output to standard output (stdout)

Command:

gunzip -c geeksforgeeks.txt.tar.gz

Output:

• Displays decompressed content directly on the terminal instead of saving it.
• Useful for viewing file content without extracting to disk.

Option 2. '-k': Keep original compressed file

Command:

gunzip -k example1.txt.gz

• Decompresses the .gz file but retains the original file.txt.gz.
• Handy when you want both compressed and uncompressed versions.

Option 3. '-f': Force decompression

Command:

gunzip -f example1.txt.gz

• Automatically overwrites existing files without prompting for confirmation.
• Useful in scripts or batch operations where manual confirmation isn’t possible.

Option 4. '-r': Recursive decompression

Command:

gunzip -r /home/vboxuser/gfg/

• Decompresses all .gz files within the specified directory and its subdirectories.
• Saves time when handling multiple compressed files in nested folders.

Option 5. '-v': Verbose mode

Command:

gunzip -v file1.txt.gz

• Displays detailed information while decompressing each file.
• Helps monitor the progress and confirms which files are being processed.

Option 6: '-t': Test integrity of file

Command:

gunzip -t example2.txt.gz

• Verifies whether a .gz file is valid and not corrupted.
• Does not decompress the file; only checks its consistency.

Option 7. '-l': List compression details

Command:

gunzip -l example2.txt.gz

• Displays compression statistics like original size, ratio, and name.
• Useful for checking space savings and compression efficiency.

Option 8. '-h': This option displays the help information available and quits.

Command:

gunzip -help

Output:

Option 9: '-a'

-a option uses ASCII text mode to convert End-of-line characters using local conversion. This option is only supported on MS-DOS systems. When -a option is used on a Unix system, it decompresses the file ignoring the --ascii option.

Command:

gunzip -a geeksforgeeks.txt.gz

Output:

Some Other Options:

• -n: This option does not save or restore the original name and time stamp while decompressing a file.
• -N: This option saves or restore the original name and time stamp while decompression.
• -q: This option suppresses all the warnings that arise during the execution of the command.
• -s: This option use suffix SUF on compressed files.
• -#: This option is used to control the speed and the amount of compression, where # can be any number between -1 to -9. -1 ensures the faster compression by decreasing the amount of compression while -9 ensures the best compression but takes more time comparatively.

Other useful Examples of gunzip

Example 1: Decompress Multiple .gz Files at Once

Command:

gunzip *.gz

Output:

• Decompresses all gzip files in the current directory in one go.

Example 2: Decompress a File from Another Directory

gunzip /home/vboxuser/gfg/GZIP/example1.txt.gz

Output:

• Decompresses the example1.txt.gz file located in the GZIP directory.

Example 3: Decompress Using a Pipeline

Command:

cat example.txt.gz | gunzip -c > example.txt

Output:

• Reads a compressed file from a stream and writes the uncompressed output to a new file.

Example 4: The option -L (uppercase L) in the gunzip command displays license information.

Command:

gunzip -L

Output:

• Shows the GNU General Public License (GPL) details under which gunzip is distributed.
• It’s mainly used for informational or documentation purposes, not for file decompression.