PLZIP(1)

NAME
plzip - reduces the size of files

SYNOPSIS
plzip [options] [files]

DESCRIPTION
Plzip is a massively parallel (multi-threaded) implementation of lzip. Plzip uses the compression library lzlib.

Lzip is a lossless data compressor with a user interface similar to the one of gzip or bzip2. Lzip uses a simplified form of LZMA (Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain-Algorithm) designed to achieve complete interoperability between implementations. The maximum dictionary size is 512 MiB so that any lzip file can be decompressed on 32-bit machines. Lzip provides accurate and robust 3-factor integrity checking. 'lzip -0' compresses about as fast as gzip, while 'lzip -9' compresses most files more than bzip2. Decompression speed is intermediate between gzip and bzip2. Lzip provides better data recovery capabilities than gzip and bzip2. Lzip has been designed, written, and tested with great care to replace gzip and bzip2 as general-purpose compressed format for Unix-like systems.

Plzip can compress/decompress large files on multiprocessor machines much faster than lzip, at the cost of a slightly reduced compression ratio (0.4 to 2 percent larger compressed files). Note that the number of usable threads is limited by file size; on files larger than a few GB plzip can use hundreds of processors, but on files smaller than 1 MiB plzip is no faster than lzip (not even at compression level -0). The number of threads defaults to the number of processors.

OPTIONS

-h, --help
    display this help and exit

-V, --version
    output version information and exit

-a, --trailing-error
    exit with error status if trailing data

-B, --data-size=<bytes>
    set size of input data blocks [2x8=16 MiB]

-c, --stdout
    write to standard output, keep input files

-d, --decompress
    decompress, test compressed file integrity

-f, --force
    overwrite existing output files

-F, --recompress
    force re-compression of compressed files

-k, --keep
    keep (don't delete) input files

-l, --list
    print (un)compressed file sizes

-m, --match-length=<bytes>
    set match length limit in bytes [36]

-n, --threads=<n>
    set number of (de)compression threads [2]

-o, --output=<file>
    write to <file>, keep input files

-q, --quiet
    suppress all messages

-s, --dictionary-size=<bytes>
    set dictionary size limit in bytes [8 MiB]

-t, --test
    test compressed file integrity

-v, --verbose
    be verbose (a 2nd -v gives more)

-0 .. -9
    set compression level [default 6]

--fast
    alias for -0

--best
    alias for -9

--loose-trailing
    allow trailing data seeming corrupt header

--in-slots=<n>
    number of 1 MiB input packets buffered [4]

--out-slots=<n>
    number of 1 MiB output packets buffered [64]

--check-lib
    compare version of lzlib.h with liblz.{a,so}

If no file names are given, or if a file is '-', plzip compresses or decompresses from standard input to standard output. Numbers may be followed by a multiplier: k = kB = 10^3 = 1000, Ki = KiB = 2^10 = 1024, M = 10^6, Mi = 2^20, G = 10^9, Gi = 2^30, etc... Dictionary sizes 12 to 29 are interpreted as powers of two, meaning 2^12 to 2^29 bytes.

The bidimensional parameter space of LZMA can't be mapped to a linear scale optimal for all files. If your files are large, very repetitive, etc, you may need to use the options --dictionary-size and --match-length directly to achieve optimal performance.

To extract all the files from archive 'foo.tar.lz', use the commands 'tar -xf foo.tar.lz' or 'plzip -cd foo.tar.lz | tar -xf -'.

Exit status: 0 for a normal exit, 1 for environmental problems (file not found, invalid command-line options, I/O errors, etc), 2 to indicate a corrupt or invalid input file, 3 for an internal consistency error (e.g., bug) which caused plzip to panic.

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to lzip-bug@nongnu.org
Plzip home page: http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/plzip.html

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2009 Laszlo Ersek.
Copyright © 2025 Antonio Diaz Diaz. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Using lzlib 1.15 Using LZ_API_VERSION = 1015

SEE ALSO
The full documentation for plzip is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and plzip programs are properly installed at your site, the command

    info plzip

should give you access to the complete manual.