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

• http://www.7-zip.org/

Bzip2

• http://www.bzip.org/

Gzip

• http://www.gzip.org/

Zip

• Available by default in any Windows version available today, but if you need cross-platform, use 7-zip.

KGB

• http://kgbarchiver.net/

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)

External links

• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Guide_to_Unix/Commands/File_Compression