How to Compress Files on AIX

Compressing files you don't use on a regular basis saves hard-drive space. Windows users regularly compress files using a zip utility. AIX includes the Compress program to compress files for later use. The program saves a compressed version of the file and then deletes the original version. Compression works best with files that include text or repetitive data. Compressed image and video formats, such as JPG or MP4, won't compress well, because compression is already built into those formats.

Instructions

1. Right-click on the desktop to open the "CDE" menu and click "Terminal." Type "cd /pathtofiles" and press "Enter." Replace "/pathtofiles" with the location of the files you want to compress.

2. Type "compress -v file1 file2" to compress the files. Specify more than one file by separating file names with a space.

3. Wait for the Compress program to finish. Close the "Terminal" program.

Tips & Warnings

• Restore files using the "uncompress" command. Type "uncompress file.Z" and replace "file.Z" with the file or files you need to restore.

References

• IBM: Commands Reference - Compress Command
• IBM: Commands Reference - Uncompress Command