| Extension | .gz |
| Category | archives |
| Description | The .gz file format is an archive format that is used to compress files to reduce their size for more efficient storage and transfer of data. Here's a more detailed description of the .gz file format:
Files in the .gz format compress data using a compression algorithm, usually the Gzip algorithm.
This format allows you to save disk space and speed up downloading files from the network.
The .gz format is supported by most operating systems and software applications for archiving and unzipping data.
The .gz file format is an important tool for data compression and archiving, making it widely used in various fields where file size and processing efficiency are important. |
| Technical details | The GZ file format (GZIP) is an archive format that is used to compress files using the DEFLATE algorithm. It was introduced as a free software standard to replace the compress data compression format in UNIX.
GZ complies with the RFC 1952 standard. Uses the DEFLATE algorithm for compression, which is a combination of LZ77 and Huffman encoding. Compressed GZ files can be recovered using various programs including GNU gunzip, 7-Zip, WinRAR and others. The file begins with a 10-byte header, including the magic number (1f 8b), compression method, timestamps, additional flags, and possibly comments, the original file name, and a checksum.
CRC-32 is used to check data integrity.
The format supports concatenation, allowing multiple GZ archives to be combined into a single file. In theory, it can compress files of any size, but due to the limitations of the 32-bit CRC, it is not recommended for files larger than 4 GB.
GZ is commonly used to compress TAR files, thereby creating TAR.GZ archives, which are sometimes called "tarballs". This format is widely used in Linux and Unix-like operating systems for software packaging. |
