Compression ( or compaction) is the encoding of data to save storage space or transmission time. Although data is already coded in digital form for computer processing, it can often be coded more efficiently (using fewer bits). For example, run-length encoding replaces strings of repeated characters (or other units of data) with a single character and a count. There are many compression algorithms and utilities. Compressed data must be decompressed before it can be used.
Usage[]
When compressing several similar files, it is usually better to join the files together into an archive file of some kind (using tar for example) and then compress them, rather than to join together individually compressed files. This is because some common compression algorithms build up tables based on the data from their current input which they have already compressed. They then use this table to compress subsequent data more efficiently.[1]
Examples[]
The standard Unix compression utilty is called compress though GNU's superior gzip has largely replaced it. Other compression utilties include pack, zip and PKZIP.[1]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Compression at the Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing. 2004-04-26.
See also[]
- Archive Utility, a file compression utility included with macOS.
- Memory compression, introduced in OS X 10.9 to improve virtual memory performance by compressing less-often used memory contents before it is swapped to disk.
- StuffIt Expander, a freeware decompression utility often included with classic Mac OS.
External links[]
- Compress at Computer Hope
- Data compression at Wikipedia
