Linux bzip2 Command examples

“bzip2” is one of the compression method in linux, high-quality data compressor. It typically compresses files to within 10% to 15% of the best available techniques (the PPM family of statistical compressors) It compresses the normal file and stored in single .bz2 extension file, this compression is much better compared to bzip2 compression.

Syntax:

Common syntax for bzip2 and bunzip2.

# bzip2 (Compress) syntax #
root@2daygeek [~]# bzip2 [file to be compressed]

# bzip2 (Decompress) syntax #
root@2daygeek [~]# bunzip2 [.bz2 file name]

# bzip2 (Decompress) syntax #
root@2daygeek [~]# bzip2 -d [.bz2 file name]

1) How to compress the file using bzip2 command

The below example compress the “test-bzip2.txt” file to test-bzip2.txt.bz2 file. See the output.

# bzip2 test-bzip2.txt

Here i’m going to check the mentioned file was compressed or not. See the output.

# ll -h
total 56K
drwx------.  6 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Dec 31 09:00 ./
drwx--x--x. 16 root    root    4.0K Dec 24 01:16 ../
-rw-------.  1 mageshm mageshm 1.3K Dec 27 15:05 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--.  1 mageshm mageshm   18 May 10  2012 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--.  1 mageshm mageshm  176 May 10  2012 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--.  1 mageshm mageshm  124 May 10  2012 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      26 Dec 27 12:25 liks
drwxr-xr-x.  3 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Dec 31 08:54 links/
drwxrwxr-x.  2 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Nov 16 10:14 perl5/
drwxr-xr-x.  2 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Nov 16 10:07 public_ftp/
drwxr-xr-x.  3 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Nov 16 10:07 public_html/
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root    root      31 Dec  7 09:41 s-link-file -> /links/soft-link/test-soft-link
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root    root      38 Dec  7 09:42 s-link-folder -> /links/soft-link/test-soft-link-folder
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      61 Dec 27 13:35 test2-bzip2.txt
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      61 Dec 31 08:54 test3-bzip2.txt
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      92 Dec 27 13:31 test-bzip2.txt.bz2

2) How to Unzip/de-compress the bzip2 file

The below command is Unzip/de-compress the bzip2 file. See the below output.

# bunzip2 test-bzip2.txt.bz2
or
# bzip2 -d test-bzip2.txt.bz2 

Here i’m going to check the file whether de-compressed or not. see the output.

# ll -h
total 56K
drwx------.  6 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Dec 31 09:11 ./
drwx--x--x. 16 root    root    4.0K Dec 24 01:16 ../
-rw-------.  1 mageshm mageshm 1.3K Dec 27 15:05 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--.  1 mageshm mageshm   18 May 10  2012 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--.  1 mageshm mageshm  176 May 10  2012 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--.  1 mageshm mageshm  124 May 10  2012 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      26 Dec 27 12:25 liks
drwxr-xr-x.  3 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Dec 31 08:54 links/
drwxrwxr-x.  2 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Nov 16 10:14 perl5/
drwxr-xr-x.  2 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Nov 16 10:07 public_ftp/
drwxr-xr-x.  3 mageshm mageshm 4.0K Nov 16 10:07 public_html/
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root    root      31 Dec  7 09:41 s-link-file -> /links/soft-link/test-soft-link
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root    root      38 Dec  7 09:42 s-link-folder -> /links/soft-link/test-soft-link-folder
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      61 Dec 27 13:35 test2-bzip2.txt
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      61 Dec 31 08:54 test3-bzip2.txt
-rw-r--r--.  1 root    root      60 Dec 27 13:31 test-bzip2.txt