How Do I Compress and Decompress Files on Eniac?Note: For information on logging into Eniac, please see "How Do I Log Into Eniac?" When files in your eniac home directory start to take up too much space, it may become necessary to either delete some files or compress larger ones that aren't in use. Compression takes a file on your account and condenses it into a smaller, completely recoverable format. However, if there is a file you know is not necessary for the functioning of the shell, and you would like to compress, the Gzip utility should be used. The syntax for the command is % gzip filename where "filename" is the name of the file you would like to compress. Running this command will compress the file and append a ".gz" extension. DecompressionTo recover files compressed by the Gzip utility, use the Gunzip utility. The syntax for this command is % gunzip filename.gz where "filename.gz" is the file to be decompressed. This command will expand the file to a useable format and will remove the ".gz" extension. For more information on Gzip and Gunzip, enter "man gzip" at the eniac command prompt. ".zip" CompressionIf you receive a file at some point that has a ".zip" extension, it is compressed using PkSoft's Zip compression format, which is different than Gzip. In order to decompress or "unzip" this file, there are multiple options. For Windows users, the preferred solutions are using the built-in unzipping capabilities in newer versions of Windows and Aladdin Expander, a windows program available for free from at www.stuffit.com/win/expander/index.html If you know that the file you are decompressing is a unix file you would like to keep on your account, you can save yourself a step by doing the following:
For more information on the "unzip" command, type "man unzip" at the eniac prompt. |