Linux From Scratch - Version 6.1

Chapter 6. Installing Basic System Software

6.46. Gzip-1.3.5

The Gzip package contains programs for compressing and decompressing files.

Approximate build time: 0.1 SBU
Required disk space: 2.2 MB
Installation depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Glibc, Grep, Make, and Sed

6.46.1. Installation of Gzip

Gzip has 2 known security vulnerabilities. The following patch addresses both of them: 

patch -Np1 -i ../gzip-1.3.5-security_fixes-1.patch

Prepare Gzip for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

The gzexe script has the location of the gzip binary hard-wired into it. Because the location of the binary is changed later, the following command ensures that the new location gets placed into the script: 

sed -i 's@"BINDIR"@/bin@g' gzexe.in

Compile the package: 

make

Install the package: 

make install

Move the gzip program to the /bin directory and create some commonly used symlinks to it: 

mv /usr/bin/gzip /bin
rm /usr/bin/{gunzip,zcat}
ln -s gzip /bin/gunzip
ln -s gzip /bin/zcat
ln -s gzip /bin/compress
ln -s gunzip /bin/uncompress

6.46.2. Contents of Gzip

Installed programs: compress (link to gzip), gunzip (link to gzip), gzexe, gzip, uncompress (link to gunzip), zcat (link to gzip), zcmp, zdiff, zegrep, zfgrep, zforce, zgrep, zless, zmore, and znew

Short Descriptions

compress

Compresses and decompresses files

gunzip

Decompresses gzipped files

gzexe

Creates self-decompressing executable files

gzip

Compresses the given files using Lempel-Ziv (LZ77) coding

uncompress

Decompresses compressed files

zcat

Uncompresses the given gzipped files to standard output

zcmp

Runs cmp on gzipped files

zdiff

Runs diff on gzipped files

zegrep

Runs egrep on gzipped files

zfgrep

Runs fgrep on gzipped files

zforce

Forces a .gz extension on all given files that are gzipped files, so that gzip will not compress them again; this can be useful when file names were truncated during a file transfer

zgrep

Runs grep on gzipped files

zless

Runs less on gzipped files

zmore

Runs more on gzipped files

znew

Re-compresses files from compress format to gzip format—.Z to .gz