NAME

     compress, uncompress, zcat - compress a file using  modified
     Lempel-Ziv coding


SYNOPSIS

     compress [-cdfv] [file] ...


OPTIONS

     -c   Put output on stdout instead of on file.Z

     -d   Decompress instead of compress

     -f   Force output even if there is no saving

     -v   Verbose mode


EXAMPLES

     compress <infile >outfile
                         # Compress 1 file

     compress x y z      # Compress 3 files to x.Z, y.Z, and z.Z

     compress -d file.Z  # Decompress file.Z to file


DESCRIPTION

     The  listed  files  (or  stdin,  if  none  are  given)   are
     compressed using the Ziv-Lempel algorithm.  If the output is
     smaller than the input, the  output  is  put  on  file.Z  or
     stdout  if  no  files  are  listed. If compress is linked to
     uncompress, the latter is the same as giving  the  -d  flag.
     Similarly, a link to zcat decompresses to stdout.  The MINIX
     3 version of compress uses 13-bit compression.   This  means
     that  when  compressing files on other systems for transmis-
     sion to MINIX 3, be sure that  only  13-bit  compression  is
     used.  On many systems, the default is 16-bit (too big).


SEE ALSO

     tar(1).