pigz, short for Parallel Implementation of GZip, is a command-line compressor developed by Mark Adler. It uses multiple CPU cores to accelerate gzip-compatible compression while retaining a familiar command-line workflow.
The program divides its input into blocks, compresses those blocks concurrently and writes the results in the correct order. This makes pigz particularly useful when compressing large files on modern multicore systems.
Its decompression implementation is different from its compression engine. pigz normally uses one thread for the actual Deflate decompression, although separate threads can assist with reading, writing and checksum calculation. The distinction matters when comparing pigz with tools specifically designed for parallel decompression.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Parallel compression using multiple processors or CPU cores.
- Adjustable number of compression threads.
- Configurable compression block sizes.
- Produces standard gzip-compatible compressed data.
- Can create zlib streams and single-entry ZIP archives.
- Supports higher compression settings using Zopfli optimisation.
- Offers independent compression blocks to improve damaged-data recovery.
- Includes an rsync-friendly mode with input-dependent block boundaries.
- Processes files recursively through directory trees.
- Supports compression and decompression through standard streams.
- Tests compressed input for data integrity.
- Lists compressed file information without extracting the data.
- Provides options for retaining input files and controlling stored timestamps and filenames.
- Includes the unpigz command for decompression.
Website: zlib.net/pigz
Support:
Developer: Mark Adler
License: zlib License
pigz is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Compression Tools | |
|---|---|
| LZ4 | Focused on compression and decompression speed |
| Zstandard | Fast compression algorithm, providing high compression ratios |
| brotli | Generic-purpose lossless compression algorithm |
| lzop | File compressor favoring speed over compression ratio |
| pigz | Parallel implementation of gzip |
| ouch | CLI tool for compressing and decompressing for various formats |
| pixz | Parallel, indexed xz compressor |
| gzip | Provides the standard GNU file compression utilities |
| BZip3 | Spiritual successor to BZip2 |
| bzip2 | Freely available, patent free, high-quality data compressor |
| PBZIP2 | Parallel implementation of bzip2 |
| lrzip | Achieve very high compression ratios and speed when used with large files |
| lbzip2 | Multi-threaded implementation of bzip2, suited for serial and parallel processing |
| ZXC | High-performance lossless compression library and command-line tool |
| plzip | Massively parallel lossless data compressor |
| p7zip-zstd | p7zip fork with additional codecs and improvements |
| 7-Zip | File archiver with a high compression ratio |
| ncompress | Fast, simple LZW file compressor |
| PXZ | Runs LZMA compression on multiple cores and processors |
| crabz | Like pigz but written in Rust |
| Lzip | Lossless data compressor aimed at Unix-like systems |
| cmix | Optimize compression ratio at the cost of high CPU/memory usage |
| bsc | High-performance block-sorting compressor for large files |
| rapidgzip | Parallelized decompression of gzip files |
| Kanzi | Modular lossless compressor with multithreaded processing |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Multi-Core Compression Tools | |
|---|---|
| Zstandard | Fast compression algorithm, providing high compression ratios |
| pigz | Parallel implementation of gzip. It's a fully functional replacement for gzip |
| pixz | Parallel indexing XZ compression, fully compatible with XZ. LZMA and LZMA2 |
| PBZIP2 | Parallel implementation of the bzip2 block-sorting file compressor |
| lrzip | Compression utility that excels at compressing large files |
| lbzip2 | Parallel bzip2 compression utility, suited for serial and parallel processing |
| plzip | Massively parallel (multi-threaded) lossless data compressor based on lzlib |
| crabz | Like pigz but written in Rust |
| PXZ | Runs LZMA compression on multiple cores and processors |
| Kanzi | Modern lossless data compressor |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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