Compressed files occupy less disk space and download faster than large, uncompressed files. The Linux bzip2 command has better compression ratio compared with Linux gzip command.

To create a compressed file using Linux bzip2 command, use the following command. The first command will create a compressed bzip2 file with bz2 extension, removing the uncompressed file and second command will create a compressed bzip2 file with bz2 extension keeping the uncompressed file.

[root@RHEL2 bzip2]# bzip2 bzip2.txt

or

[root@RHEL2 bzip2]# bzip2 -c bzip2.txt > bzip2.txt.bz2

To decompress the bzip2 compressed file, use the “bzip2 –d” option.

[root@RHEL2 bzip2]# bzip2 -d bzip2.txt.bz2

If you want only to read the compressed file without uncompressing it, use the bzcat command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# bzcat bzip2.txt.bz2
This is a test...
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Related Topics...

• How to compress, uncompress and view files using Linux commands gzip, gunzip and zcat

• How to use Linux tar (tape archive) command to create archives

• Introduction to RedHat Package Manager (RPM)

• Introduction to YUM (Yellow dog Updater, Modified) Package Manager

 

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