The existing XZ Utils provide great compression in the .xz file format, but they produce just one big block of compressed data.
pixz instead produces a collection of smaller blocks which makes random access to the original data possible. This is especially useful for large tarballs.
pixz is pronounced pixie.
Key Features
- Automatically indexes tarballs during compression.
- Supports parallel decompression, which xz does not.
- Defaults to using all available CPU cores, while xz defaults to using only one core.
- Keep input (-k) command line option.
- Automatically writes to STDOUT.
- File permission preserved when compressing/decompressing.
Website: github.com/vasi/pixz
Support:
Developer: Dave Vasilevsky
License: BSD 2-Clause “Simplified” License
pixz 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 |
| 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 |
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 |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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