is bunzip2 the best for compressing?

dr_zayus69 · 01-24-2005, 08:09 PM

from my understanding is that bunzip2 offers better compression then gunzip and zip. Am I correct? And if it does is there a way to use bunzip2 in windows? My friend is trying to back up all his data on windows to install linux and has a few gigs but only has 3 cds on hand. Thanks for any replies in advanced.

SciYro · 01-24-2005, 09:19 PM

yes, but its usually bzip2 .. bunzip2 is the command to uncompess bzip2'ed files .. it is better then zip, and gzip, and compress, tho i don't know if its the best, there are a few less known compressers, but i don't have any stats on them ..

you can run bzip2 under windows, do a google search, the tool i got for it tho a time ago, it was painful to use, as it was DOS based (and I'm sure you know how painful dos is)

scuzzman · 01-24-2005, 11:31 PM

There's a freely available programm called 7-zip that supports bzip format... Get 7-zip here.

Quote:

The main features of 7-Zip:

High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
7-Zip is free software distributed under the GNU LGPL
Supported formats: 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, RPM and DEB
For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
Self-extracting capability for 7z format
Integration with Windows Shell
Powerful File Manager
Powerful command line version
Plugin for FAR Manager
Localizations for 49 languages

daihard · 01-25-2005, 12:15 AM

I've been told that 7-zip is the best compression tool available, too. I have the Linux version installed on my machine, though I hardly ever use it. The receiving ends usually do not have 7-zip.