What is the use of Unix command : compress?

Answer 1

This reduces the size of a file, thus freeing valuable disk space. For example, type

% ls -l science.txt

and note the size of the file. Then to compress science.txt, type

% compress science.txt

This will compress the file and place it in a file called science.txt.Z

To see the change in size, type ls -l again.

To uncomress the file, use the uncompress command.

% uncompress science.txt.Z