XZ Utils

XZ Utils

XZ Utils is an open source data compression software for Linux and UNIX-like operating systems. It provides high compression ratios for compressing files, archives, disk images, and other data. XZ Utils is useful for reducing file sizes to save disk space or reduce bandwidth usag
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XZ Utils alternatives ➤

XZ Utils: Open Source Data Compression Software

High compression ratios for files, archives, disk images, and other data. Reduce file sizes for disk space or bandwidth optimization.

What is 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 the LZMA2 compression algorithm by default. LZMA2 can achieve compression ratios superior to the older LZMA or gzip compression methods. In benchmark tests, XZ Utils has outperformed other compression tools like 7-Zip and bzip2.

Some key features and capabilities provided by XZ Utils include:

  • Highly efficient data compression for reduced file sizes and disk usage
  • Support for multi-threaded compression utilizing multiple CPU cores
  • Integration with common Unix archiving tools like tar and cpio
  • Configurable compression levels for balancing speed vs compression ratio
  • Error checking with integrity verification to detect data corruption

XZ Utils can work with popular file formats like XZ, LZMA, gzip, and bzip2 formats. The modular design makes XZ Utils useful in a variety of scenarios from data backup and archiving to reducing download sizes for software distribution.

It runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, and other POSIX-compatible Unix operating systems. The source code is available under the GNU LGPL and GPL licenses.

XZ Utils Features

Features

  1. High compression ratios
  2. Supports multiple compression algorithms like LZMA2, LZMA, xz, etc
  3. Open source and cross-platform
  4. Command line utilities for compression/decompression
  5. Supports multithreading for faster compression
  6. Can compress entire filesystems, disk images, archives, etc
  7. Integrates with common file archivers like tar and zip

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Very high compression ratios

Fast and efficient compression

Actively maintained and updated

Free and open source

Cross-platform compatibility

Easy to use command line interface

Cons

Command line only, no GUI

Steep learning curve

Compression can be slow on large files

Requires more RAM for compression

Official Links

Official Website
https://tukaani.org/xz/

The Best XZ Utils Alternatives

Top Os & Utilities and Compression and other similar apps like XZ Utils

Here are some alternatives to XZ Utils:

Gzip icon
gzip
LZ4 icon
LZ4
Info-ZIP icon
Info-ZIP
Bzip2 icon
bzip2
Suggest an alternative ❐

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...
Gzip image
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...
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Info-ZIP icon

Info-ZIP

Info-ZIP is an open source software suite that provides utilities for handling ZIP compressed archives. It includes several commonly used programs:zip - Package and compress files into a ZIP archiveunzip - Extract and decompress files from a ZIP archivezipinfo - Show detailed information about a ZIP archivezipgrep - Search for...
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Bzip2 icon

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...
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