421 lines
14 KiB
Groff
421 lines
14 KiB
Groff
.\" $NetBSD: bzip2.1,v 1.3 2000/09/27 11:50:15 kleink Exp $
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.PU
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.TH bzip2 1
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.SH NAME
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bzip2, bunzip2 \- a block-sorting file compressor, v0.9.0
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.br
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bzcat \- decompresses files to stdout
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.br
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bzip2recover \- recovers data from damaged bzip2 files
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.ll +8
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.B bzip2
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.RB [ " \-cdfkstvzVL123456789 " ]
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[
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.I "filenames \&..."
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]
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.ll -8
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.br
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.B bunzip2
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.RB [ " \-fkvsVL " ]
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[
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.I "filenames \&..."
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]
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.br
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.B bzcat
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.RB [ " \-s " ]
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[
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.I "filenames \&..."
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]
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.br
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.B bzip2recover
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.I "filename"
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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.I bzip2
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compresses files using the Burrows-Wheeler block-sorting
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text compression algorithm, and Huffman coding.
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Compression is generally considerably
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better than that
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achieved by more conventional LZ77/LZ78-based compressors,
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and approaches the performance of the PPM family of statistical
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compressors.
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The command-line options are deliberately very similar to
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those of
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.I GNU Gzip,
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but they are not identical.
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.I bzip2
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expects a list of file names to accompany the command-line flags.
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Each file is replaced by a compressed version of itself,
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with the name "original_name.bz2".
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Each compressed file has the same modification date and permissions
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as the corresponding original, so that these properties can be
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correctly restored at decompression time. File name handling is
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naive in the sense that there is no mechanism for preserving
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original file names, permissions and dates in filesystems
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which lack these concepts, or have serious file name length
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restrictions, such as MS-DOS.
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.I bzip2
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and
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.I bunzip2
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will by default not overwrite existing files;
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if you want this to happen, specify the \-f flag.
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If no file names are specified,
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.I bzip2
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compresses from standard input to standard output.
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In this case,
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.I bzip2
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will decline to write compressed output to a terminal, as
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this would be entirely incomprehensible and therefore pointless.
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.I bunzip2
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(or
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.I bzip2 \-d
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) decompresses and restores all specified files whose names
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end in ".bz2".
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Files without this suffix are ignored.
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Again, supplying no filenames
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causes decompression from standard input to standard output.
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.I bunzip2
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will correctly decompress a file which is the concatenation
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of two or more compressed files. The result is the concatenation
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of the corresponding uncompressed files. Integrity testing
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(\-t) of concatenated compressed files is also supported.
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You can also compress or decompress files to
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the standard output by giving the \-c flag.
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Multiple files may be compressed and decompressed like this.
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The resulting outputs are fed sequentially to stdout.
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Compression of multiple files in this manner generates
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a stream containing multiple compressed file representations.
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Such a stream can be decompressed correctly only by
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.I bzip2
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version 0.9.0 or later. Earlier versions of
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.I bzip2
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will stop after decompressing the first file in the stream.
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.I bzcat
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(or
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.I bzip2 \-dc
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) decompresses all specified files to the standard output.
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Compression is always performed, even if the compressed file is
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slightly larger than the original. Files of less than about
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one hundred bytes tend to get larger, since the compression
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mechanism has a constant overhead in the region of 50 bytes.
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Random data (including the output of most file compressors)
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is coded at about 8.05 bits per byte, giving an expansion of
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around 0.5%.
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As a self-check for your protection,
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.I bzip2
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uses 32-bit CRCs to make sure that the decompressed
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version of a file is identical to the original.
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This guards against corruption of the compressed data,
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and against undetected bugs in
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.I bzip2
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(hopefully very unlikely).
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The chances of data corruption going undetected is
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microscopic, about one chance in four billion
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for each file processed. Be aware, though, that the check
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occurs upon decompression, so it can only tell you that
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that something is wrong. It can't help you recover the
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original uncompressed data.
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You can use
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.I bzip2recover
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to try to recover data from damaged files.
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Return values:
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0 for a normal exit,
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1 for environmental
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problems (file not found, invalid flags, I/O errors, &c),
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2 to indicate a corrupt compressed file,
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3 for an internal consistency error (eg, bug) which caused
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.I bzip2
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to panic.
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.SH MEMORY MANAGEMENT
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.I Bzip2
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compresses large files in blocks. The block size affects both the
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compression ratio achieved, and the amount of memory needed both for
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compression and decompression. The flags \-1 through \-9
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specify the block size to be 100,000 bytes through 900,000 bytes
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(the default) respectively. At decompression-time, the block size used for
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compression is read from the header of the compressed file, and
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.I bunzip2
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then allocates itself just enough memory to decompress the file.
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Since block sizes are stored in compressed files, it follows that the flags
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\-1 to \-9
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are irrelevant to and so ignored during decompression.
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Compression and decompression requirements, in bytes, can be estimated as:
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Compression: 400k + ( 7 x block size )
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Decompression: 100k + ( 4 x block size ), or
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.br
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100k + ( 2.5 x block size )
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Larger block sizes give rapidly diminishing marginal returns; most
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of the
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compression comes from the first two or three hundred k of block size,
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a fact worth bearing in mind when using
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.I bzip2
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on small machines. It is also important to appreciate that the
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decompression memory requirement is set at compression-time by the
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choice of block size.
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For files compressed with the default 900k block size,
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.I bunzip2
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will require about 3700 kbytes to decompress.
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To support decompression of any file on a 4 megabyte machine,
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.I bunzip2
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has an option to decompress using approximately half this
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amount of memory, about 2300 kbytes. Decompression speed is
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also halved, so you should use this option only where necessary.
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The relevant flag is \-s.
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In general, try and use the largest block size
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memory constraints allow, since that maximises the compression
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achieved. Compression and decompression
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speed are virtually unaffected by block size.
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Another significant point applies to files which fit in a single
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block -- that means most files you'd encounter using a large
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block size. The amount of real memory touched is proportional
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to the size of the file, since the file is smaller than a block.
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For example, compressing a file 20,000 bytes long with the flag
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\-9
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will cause the compressor to allocate around
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6700k of memory, but only touch 400k + 20000 * 7 = 540
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kbytes of it. Similarly, the decompressor will allocate 3700k but
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only touch 100k + 20000 * 4 = 180 kbytes.
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Here is a table which summarises the maximum memory usage for
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different block sizes. Also recorded is the total compressed
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size for 14 files of the Calgary Text Compression Corpus
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totalling 3,141,622 bytes. This column gives some feel for how
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compression varies with block size. These figures tend to understate
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the advantage of larger block sizes for larger files, since the
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Corpus is dominated by smaller files.
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Compress Decompress Decompress Corpus
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Flag usage usage -s usage Size
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-1 1100k 500k 350k 914704
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-2 1800k 900k 600k 877703
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-3 2500k 1300k 850k 860338
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-4 3200k 1700k 1100k 846899
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-5 3900k 2100k 1350k 845160
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-6 4600k 2500k 1600k 838626
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-7 5400k 2900k 1850k 834096
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-8 6000k 3300k 2100k 828642
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-9 6700k 3700k 2350k 828642
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.SH OPTIONS
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.TP
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.B \-c --stdout
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Compress or decompress to standard output. \-c will decompress
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multiple files to stdout, but will only compress a single file to
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stdout.
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.TP
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.B \-d --decompress
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Force decompression.
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.I bzip2,
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.I bunzip2
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and
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.I bzcat
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are really the same program, and the decision about what actions
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to take is done on the basis of which name is
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used. This flag overrides that mechanism, and forces
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.I bzip2
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to decompress.
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.TP
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.B \-z --compress
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The complement to \-d: forces compression, regardless of the invocation
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name.
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.TP
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.B \-t --test
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Check integrity of the specified file(s), but don't decompress them.
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This really performs a trial decompression and throws away the result.
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.TP
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.B \-f --force
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Force overwrite of output files. Normally,
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.I bzip2
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will not overwrite existing output files.
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.TP
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.B \-k --keep
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Keep (don't delete) input files during compression or decompression.
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.TP
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.B \-s --small
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Reduce memory usage, for compression, decompression and
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testing.
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Files are decompressed and tested using a modified algorithm which only
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requires 2.5 bytes per block byte. This means any file can be
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decompressed in 2300k of memory, albeit at about half the normal
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speed.
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During compression, -s selects a block size of 200k, which limits
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memory use to around the same figure, at the expense of your
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compression ratio. In short, if your machine is low on memory
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(8 megabytes or less), use -s for everything. See
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MEMORY MANAGEMENT above.
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.TP
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.B \-v --verbose
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Verbose mode -- show the compression ratio for each file processed.
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Further \-v's increase the verbosity level, spewing out lots of
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information which is primarily of interest for diagnostic purposes.
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.TP
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.B \-L --license -V --version
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Display the software version, license terms and conditions.
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.TP
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.B \-1 to \-9
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Set the block size to 100 k, 200 k .. 900 k when
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compressing. Has no effect when decompressing.
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See MEMORY MANAGEMENT above.
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.TP
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.B \--repetitive-fast
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.I bzip2
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injects some small pseudo-random variations
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into very repetitive blocks to limit
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worst-case performance during compression.
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If sorting runs into difficulties, the block
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is randomised, and sorting is restarted.
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Very roughly,
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.I bzip2
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persists for three times as long as a well-behaved input
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would take before resorting to randomisation.
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This flag makes it give up much sooner.
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.TP
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.B \--repetitive-best
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Opposite of \--repetitive-fast; try a lot harder before
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resorting to randomisation.
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.SH RECOVERING DATA FROM DAMAGED FILES
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.I bzip2
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compresses files in blocks, usually 900kbytes long.
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Each block is handled independently. If a media or
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transmission error causes a multi-block .bz2
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file to become damaged,
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it may be possible to recover data from the undamaged blocks
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in the file.
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The compressed representation of each block is delimited by
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a 48-bit pattern, which makes it possible to find the block
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boundaries with reasonable certainty. Each block also carries
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its own 32-bit CRC, so damaged blocks can be
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distinguished from undamaged ones.
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.I bzip2recover
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is a simple program whose purpose is to search for
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blocks in .bz2 files, and write each block out into
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its own .bz2 file. You can then use
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.I bzip2 -t
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to test the integrity of the resulting files,
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and decompress those which are undamaged.
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.I bzip2recover
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takes a single argument, the name of the damaged file,
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and writes a number of files "rec0001file.bz2", "rec0002file.bz2",
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etc, containing the extracted blocks. The output filenames
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are designed so that the use of wildcards in subsequent processing
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-- for example, "bzip2 -dc rec*file.bz2 > recovered_data" --
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lists the files in the "right" order.
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.I bzip2recover
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should be of most use dealing with large .bz2 files, as
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these will contain many blocks. It is clearly futile to
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use it on damaged single-block files, since a damaged
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block cannot be recovered. If you wish to minimise
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any potential data loss through media or transmission
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errors, you might consider compressing with a smaller
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block size.
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.SH PERFORMANCE NOTES
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The sorting phase of compression gathers together similar strings
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in the file. Because of this, files containing very long
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runs of repeated symbols, like "aabaabaabaab ..." (repeated
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several hundred times) may compress extraordinarily slowly.
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You can use the
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\-vvvvv
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option to monitor progress in great detail, if you want.
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Decompression speed is unaffected.
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Such pathological cases
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seem rare in practice, appearing mostly in artificially-constructed
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test files, and in low-level disk images. It may be inadvisable to
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use
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.I bzip2
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to compress the latter.
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If you do get a file which causes severe slowness in compression,
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try making the block size as small as possible, with flag \-1.
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.I bzip2
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usually allocates several megabytes of memory to operate in,
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and then charges all over it in a fairly random fashion. This
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means that performance, both for compressing and decompressing,
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is largely determined by the speed
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at which your machine can service cache misses.
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Because of this, small changes
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to the code to reduce the miss rate have been observed to give
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disproportionately large performance improvements.
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I imagine
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.I bzip2
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will perform best on machines with very large caches.
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.SH CAVEATS
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I/O error messages are not as helpful as they could be.
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.I Bzip2
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tries hard to detect I/O errors and exit cleanly, but the
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details of what the problem is sometimes seem rather misleading.
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This manual page pertains to version 0.9.0 of
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.I bzip2.
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Compressed data created by this version is entirely forwards and
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backwards compatible with the previous public release, version 0.1pl2,
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but with the following exception: 0.9.0 can correctly decompress
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multiple concatenated compressed files. 0.1pl2 cannot do this; it
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will stop after decompressing just the first file in the stream.
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Wildcard expansion for Windows 95 and NT
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is flaky.
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.I bzip2recover
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uses 32-bit integers to represent bit positions in
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compressed files, so it cannot handle compressed files
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more than 512 megabytes long. This could easily be fixed.
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.SH AUTHOR
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Julian Seward, jseward@acm.org.
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http://www.muraroa.demon.co.uk
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The ideas embodied in
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.I bzip2
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are due to (at least) the following people:
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Michael Burrows and David Wheeler (for the block sorting
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transformation), David Wheeler (again, for the Huffman coder),
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Peter Fenwick (for the structured coding model in the original
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.I bzip,
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and many refinements),
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and
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Alistair Moffat, Radford Neal and Ian Witten (for the arithmetic
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coder in the original
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.I bzip).
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I am much indebted for their help, support and advice.
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See the manual in the source distribution for pointers to
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sources of documentation.
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Christian von Roques encouraged me to look for faster
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sorting algorithms, so as to speed up compression.
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Bela Lubkin encouraged me to improve the worst-case
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compression performance.
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Many people sent patches, helped with portability problems,
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lent machines, gave advice and were generally helpful.
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