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 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 lz4 1.9.0 April 2019 LZ4(1)