DESCRIPTION
The
gzexe utility uses
gzip(1) to compress executables, producing executables that decompress on-the-fly when executed. This saves disk space, at the cost of slower execution times. The original executables are saved by copying each of them to a file with the same name with a ‘~’ suffix appended. After verifying that the compressed executables work as expected, the backup files can be removed.
The options are as follows:
-
-d
-
Decompress executables previously compressed by
gzexe.
The gzexe program refuses to compress non-regular or non-executable files, files with a setuid or setgid bit set, files that are already compressed using gzexe or programs it needs to perform on-the-fly decompression: sh(1), mktemp(1), rm(1), echo(1), tail(1), gzip(1), and chmod(1).