Data compression algorithms and tools
This list contains the most popular data compression algorithms and tools. Mos of them are open source, an important detail if you want to preserve data for a long time from now and to be able to decompress the data in the future.
7z
Bzip2
Gzip
Zip
- Available by default in any Windows version available today, but if you need cross-platform, use 7-zip.
KGB
The best compression ratio (better than 7z), but a bit slow.
You can install it in Ubuntu with: sudo apt-get install kgb
How to:
- kgb -m file.kgb originalfile
- m is a number from 0 to 9 (lowest compression ratio from higher; higher use 1616 MB of RAM, a lot of CPU and time)
lrzip
"This is a compression program optimised for large files" -lrzip readme
lrzip is fantastic for archiving - the compression ratio improves as the size of the input file grows - albeit a terribly slow compressor. lrzip really shines when compressing large sets of redundant information - but distant, and otherwise unconnected. General purpose compression algorithms would never see this, given their tiny compression window.