Pigz: When Gzip Needs a Makeover (and More Speed!)

Alright, I know what you're thinking. This blog series is supposed to be about software that starts with the letter “Z”, well mostly I’m a liar. But, and that is a big pork butt(??)what about if it ends in Z? Or better yet, two of them! Intrigued? Probably not, but read on, this’ll be quick, you’re already reading it anyway.

Let's face it, data compression can be a bit of a drag. You zip up a giant file, and...well, it takes forever. Enter pigz, the compression tool that puts the "zip" back in gzip (sorry, not sorry for the terrible puns). And if you want a cool .zz extension for your compressed files, read on.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (Well, Almost)

Pigz is like gzip's cool cousin from the future. It utilizes the power of multiple cores on your computer, making compression ridiculously fast. We're talking zipping up massive files in a fraction of the time it takes gzip.

Imagine you have a huge video collection you want to archive. With gzip, you might be waiting all night. But with pigz, you could be chilling on the couch with a cup of tea before you know it.

Also, it's pronounced, “pig-zee”, just in case you were reading it as "pigs", but I digress.

But Is It Safe?

Fear not, data lovers! Pigz is just as secure as gzip. It uses the same proven algorithms to keep your files safe and sound. You're basically getting the best of both worlds: speed and security.

Oink, Oink, Revolution!

Pigz isn't just about speed. It's also a symbol of a revolution against tedious compression times. It's the underdog that throws a wrench into the slow-and-steady approach.

So, next time you need to compress a file, ditch the tired old gzip and give pigz a try. You won't be disappointed (and you might even snort a little at the name).

Bonus: Fun with Flags!

Pigz comes with some cool flags (like command-line arguments) that let you fine-tune the compression process. Want to squeeze every byte out of a file? Use the -b flag! Feeling adventurous? Try the -f flag to force compression even if the file might not shrink much.

Psss, hey kid. You wanna be really cool? Try using the -z flag like:?

pigz -z --fast yourfilewhateveritis.dum        

With that, you get the super cool .zz extension to your compressed file. Frickin’ neat, right?

Just remember, with great flags comes great responsibility. Read the pigz manual before going hog wild (it's not that long either, I promise).

So, what are you waiting for? Unleash the pigz and conquer your compression woes!

https://manpages.debian.org/bookworm/pigz/pigz.1.en.html

https://zlib.net/pigz/

https://github.com/madler/pigz