LZ4(1) User Commands LZ4(1)
NAME
lz4 - lz4, unlz4, lz4cat - Compress or decompress .lz4 files
SYNOPSIS
lz4 [OPTIONS] [-|INPUT-FILE] OUTPUT-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 16. Higher
values trade compression speed for compression ratio. Values
above 16 are considered the same as 16. 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.
-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
-BD Block Dependency (improves compression ratio 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 in seconds [1-9] (default : 3)
BUGS
Report bugs at: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/issues
AUTHOR
Yann Collet
lz4 1.8.1 2018-01-13 LZ4(1)