bzip2

Bzip2

bzip2 is an open-source, lossless data compression program that uses the Burrows-Wheeler algorithm and Huffman coding. It is known for achieving very good compression ratios compared to the older compression utilities.
Os & Utilities Compression
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compression burrowswheeler huffman-coding open-source
Bzip2 alternatives ➤

bzip2: Open-Source Data Compression Program

bzip2 is an open-source, lossless data compression program that uses the Burrows-Wheeler algorithm and Huffman coding. It is known for achieving very good compression ratios compared to the older compression utilities.

What is Bzip2?

Bzip2 is an open source, lossless data compression utility that uses the Burrows-Wheeler block sorting text compression algorithm and Huffman coding. It was created by Julian Seward in 1996 to provide a freely available compression program that could compete with the proprietary, patented PKZIP program.

Some key features and characteristics of bzip2:

  • Achieves high levels of compression, often significantly better than the older deflate method used in gzip and zip programs.
  • Uses memory efficiently during compression and decompression.
  • Screams through decompression; often faster than gzip and unzip.
  • Freely redistributable and patent free.
  • Handles files over 2 GB.
  • Implements a command line interface that is similar to gzip.
  • Good for compressing files for archival or transmission over slow connections.
  • Not designed for real-time compression of data streams.
  • Source code is written in portable C and easily compiles on many platforms.

Overall, bzip2 excels in providing high-quality lossless data compression in a free package that handles text, executable binaries, and other formats equally well on a wide range of UNIX-like operating systems.

Bzip2 Features

Features

  1. Lossless data compression
  2. Uses Burrows-Wheeler transform to convert frequently recurring character sequences into strings of identical letters
  3. Employs Huffman coding to assign shortest codes to most frequently used characters
  4. Supports multi-threading for faster compression
  5. Can compress entire files or streams of data
  6. Decompresses bzip2 files back to original form
  7. Command-line interface and library versions available

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Very high compression ratios

Fast decompression speed

Multi-threaded for quick compression

Widely supported across platforms and languages

Free and open source software

Cons

Slower compression speed than other algorithms

Large memory requirements during compression

Not as widely supported as gzip compression

Command line interface not as user friendly

Official Links

Official Website
https://bzip.org/

The Best Bzip2 Alternatives

Top Os & Utilities and Compression and other similar apps like Bzip2

Here are some alternatives to Bzip2:

Gzip icon
gzip
LZ4 icon
LZ4
XZ Utils icon
XZ Utils
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Gzip icon

Gzip

gzip is a popular file compression utility used in Linux and Unix-like operating systems to compress and decompress files. It is based on the DEFLATE data compression algorithm, which combines LZ77 compression and Huffman coding for high compression ratios.Some key features of gzip include:Open source and free utility included with...
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LZ4 icon

LZ4

LZ4 is an extremely fast lossless compression algorithm created by Yann Collet. It prioritizes compression and decompression speed over the compression ratio, making it well-suited for applications that require fast data access and real-time compression/decompression.Some key features of LZ4 include:Extremely fast compression and decompression speeds, faster than other algorithms like...
LZ4 image
XZ Utils icon

XZ Utils

XZ Utils is a free and open source data compression software suite for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It is designed to provide high compression ratios for compressing files, disk images, archives, and other kinds of data.The core component of XZ Utils is the xz compression utility, which uses...
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