xz

The xz command is a data compression utility with a high compression ratio. It generally yields better compression than gzip or bzip2, but can take longer and use more memory to compress.

Basic Syntax

xz [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Common Options

Option	Description
-d, --decompress	Decompress files (equivalent to unxz).
-k, --keep	Keep (don't delete) input files.
-z, --compress	Force compression (default).
-1 to -9	Compression preset (default is -6).
-T threads, --threads=threads	Specify the number of worker threads to use.

Real-world Examples

1. Compress a file (replaces file with file.xz):

   xz large_database.sql

2. Compress a file and keep the original:

   xz -k large_database.sql

3. Decompress an .xz file:

   xz -d archive.tar.xz

   (Alternatively, use unxz archive.tar.xz)

4. Compress using multiple threads to speed up the process:

   xz -T 4 large_file.bin