Gzip

gzip (software)

Original author(s)	Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler
Developer(s)	GNU Project
Initial release	31 October 1992; 31 years ago (1992-10-31)
Stable release	1.13[1]  / 19 August 2023
Repository	git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gzip.git
Written in	C
Operating system	Unix-like, Plan 9, Inferno
Type	Data compression
License	GPL-3.0-or-later
Website	www.gnu.org/software/gzip/

gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and intended for use by GNU (from where the "g" of gzip is derived). Version 0.1 was first publicly released on 31 October 1992, and version 1.0 followed in February 1993.

The decompression of the gzip format can be implemented as a streaming algorithm, an important feature for Web protocols, data interchange and ETL (in standard pipes) applications.