lz4(1) -- lz4, unlz4, lz4cat - Compress or decompress .lz4 files

SYNOPSIS

lz4 [OPTIONS] [-|INPUT-FILE]

unlz4 is equivalent to lz4 -d

lz4cat is equivalent to lz4 -dcfm

When writing scripts that need to decompress files, it is recommended to always use the name lz4 with appropriate arguments (lz4 -d or lz4 -dc) instead of the names unlz4 and lz4cat.

DESCRIPTION

lz4 is an extremely fast lossless compression algorithm, based on byte-aligned LZ77 family of compression scheme. lz4 offers compression speeds of 400 MB/s per core, linearly scalable with multi-core CPUs. It features an extremely fast decoder, with speed in multiple GB/s per core, typically reaching RAM speed limit on multi-core systems. The native file format is the .lz4 format.

Difference between lz4 and gzip

lz4 supports a command line syntax similar but not identical to gzip(1). Differences are :

  • lz4 preserves original files
  • lz4 compresses a single file by default (see -m for multiple files)
  • lz4 file1 file2 means : compress file1 into file2
  • lz4 file.lz4 will default to decompression (use -z to force compression)
  • lz4 shows real-time notification statistics during compression or decompression of a single file (use -q to silence them)
  • If no destination name is provided, result is sent to stdout except if stdout is the console.
  • If no destination name is provided, and if stdout is the console, file is compressed into file.lz4.
  • As a consequence of previous rules, note the following example : lz4 file | consumer sends compressed data to consumer through stdout, hence it does not create file.lz4.
  • Another consequence of those rules is that to run lz4 under nohup, you should provide a destination file: nohup lz4 file file.lz4, because nohup writes the specified command's output to a file.

Default behaviors can be modified by opt-in commands, detailed below.

  • lz4 -m makes it possible to provide multiple input filenames, which will be compressed into files using suffix .lz4. Progress notifications are also disabled by default (use -v to enable them). This mode has a behavior which more closely mimics gzip command line, with the main remaining difference being that source files are preserved by default.
  • Similarly, lz4 -m -d can decompress multiple *.lz4 files.
  • It's possible to opt-in to erase source files on successful compression or decompression, using --rm command.
  • Consequently, lz4 -m --rm behaves the same as gzip.

Concatenation of .lz4 files

It is possible to concatenate .lz4 files as is. lz4 will decompress such files as if they were a single .lz4 file. For example:

lz4 file1  > foo.lz4
lz4 file2 >> foo.lz4

Then lz4cat foo.lz4 is equivalent to cat file1 file2.

OPTIONS

Short commands concatenation

In some cases, some options can be expressed using short command -x or long command --long-word. Short commands can be concatenated together. For example, -d -c is equivalent to -dc. Long commands cannot be concatenated. They must be clearly separated by a space.

Multiple commands

When multiple contradictory commands are issued on a same command line, only the latest one will be applied.

Operation mode

  • -z --compress: Compress. This is the default operation mode when no operation mode option is specified, no other operation mode is implied from the command name (for example, unlz4 implies --decompress), nor from the input file name (for example, a file extension .lz4 implies --decompress by default). -z can also be used to force compression of an already compressed .lz4 file.

  • -d --decompress --uncompress: Decompress. --decompress is also the default operation when the input filename has an .lz4 extension.

  • -t --test: Test the integrity of compressed .lz4 files. The decompressed data is discarded. No files are created nor removed.

  • -b#: Benchmark mode, using # compression level.

Operation modifiers

  • -#: Compression level, with # being any value from 1 to 12. Higher values trade compression speed for compression ratio. Values above 12 are considered the same as 12. Recommended values are 1 for fast compression (default), and 9 for high compression. Speed/compression trade-off will vary depending on data to compress. Decompression speed remains fast at all settings.

  • --fast[=#]: Switch to ultra-fast compression levels. The higher the value, the faster the compression speed, at the cost of some compression ratio. If =# is not present, it defaults to 1. This setting overrides compression level if one was set previously. Similarly, if a compression level is set after --fast, it overrides it.

  • --favor-decSpeed: Generate compressed data optimized for decompression speed. Compressed data will be larger as a consequence (typically by ~0.5%), while decompression speed will be improved by 5-20%, depending on use cases. This option only works in combination with very high compression levels (>=10).

  • -D dictionaryName: Compress, decompress or benchmark using dictionary dictionaryName. Compression and decompression must use the same dictionary to be compatible. Using a different dictionary during decompression will either abort due to decompression error, or generate a checksum error.

  • -f --[no-]force: This option has several effects:

    If the target file already exists, overwrite it without prompting.

    When used with --decompress and lz4 cannot recognize the type of the source file, copy the source file as is to standard output. This allows lz4cat --force to be used like cat (1) for files that have not been compressed with lz4.

  • -c --stdout --to-stdout: Force write to standard output, even if it is the console.

  • -m --multiple: Multiple input files. Compressed file names will be appended a .lz4 suffix. This mode also reduces notification level. lz4 -m has a behavior equivalent to gzip -k (it preserves source files by default).

  • -r : operate recursively on directories. This mode also sets -m (multiple input files).

  • -B#: Block size [4-7](default : 7)
    -B4= 64KB ; -B5= 256KB ; -B6= 1MB ; -B7= 4MB

  • -BI: Produce independent blocks (default)

  • -BD: Blocks depend on predecessors (improves compression ratio, more noticeable on small blocks)

  • --[no-]frame-crc: Select frame checksum (default:enabled)

  • --[no-]content-size: Header includes original size (default:not present)
    Note : this option can only be activated when the original size can be determined, hence for a file. It won't work with unknown source size, such as stdin or pipe.

  • --[no-]sparse: Sparse mode support (default:enabled on file, disabled on stdout)

  • -l: Use Legacy format (typically for Linux Kernel compression)
    Note : -l is not compatible with -m (--multiple) nor -r

Other options

  • -v --verbose: Verbose mode

  • -q --quiet: Suppress warnings and real-time statistics; specify twice to suppress errors too

  • -h -H --help: Display help/long help and exit

  • -V --version: Display Version number and exit

  • -k --keep: Preserve source files (default behavior)

  • --rm : Delete source files on successful compression or decompression

  • -- : Treat all subsequent arguments as files

Benchmark mode

  • -b#: Benchmark file(s), using # compression level

  • -e#: Benchmark multiple compression levels, from b# to e# (included)

  • -i#: Minimum evaluation time in seconds [1-9] (default : 3)

BUGS

Report bugs at: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/issues

AUTHOR

Yann Collet