This publication aims to serve as a guide or reference manual on what are the different graphic and terminal applications in terms of management of compressed files on the Operating Systems (OS) GNU / Linux and how they are used to achieve more efficient use and efficient of them.
Some of the existing applications on GNU / Linux, especially the graphics, apart from being free, open and free, are also multi-platforms and multi-formats, so that they are usually usable on Windows or MacOS and compatible with a multitude of compression formats native to other Operating Systems.
Introduction
Both for a common user and for an advanced user, and especially for a technician or computer specialist, the management and storage of information is an important and delicate issue that requires a lot of attention and priority. And in this area, the knowledge and use of the best methods or applications for the compression and decompression of the data of the equipment is essential.
Since at any time, any data in any equipment or infrastructure usually needs to be saved, moved, shared and even protected, by using such methods or applications, since they improve and facilitate these tasks, optimizing resources of time and space. And evidently, if we use or manipulate a lot of information or valuable information, this increases the time to manipulate it and the risks that may be affected in some way.
The process
Therefore, the compression / decompression of the files is an excellent mechanism or technique to be used to minimize these problems of time, space, security and privacy over the management of the stored and used data. Because compression allows you to make files smaller in size, so that they occupy less space and can be handled (copied / moved) more quickly, and in a more secure and private way.
Each method or application usually uses different mathematical algorithms for compression / decompression, some better or more efficient, effective or safer than others. Currently there is a wide range of options available to choose from on any Operating System in particular, and even one on several, that is, they are multi-platforms. And despite the wide range available, there are many formats or extended compression techniques, such as: Tar, Zip and Rar.
The techniques
The techniques of compression, are used to reduce in general, the space of all data, such as a document or a folder full of them with one or several types of formats at once , but are also used in the case for example , of the videos, audios and images, to obtain a reduction of the size, often sacrificing the quality (resolution) of the same ones, and this way to save disk space and to facilitate the access to them online on those devices with connections ( speeds) not optimal or modern.
Finally, it is noteworthy that the current and different mathematical algorithms for compression get the data to occupy less space on the disk, using two processes that are known as: Compression without loss (lossless) and Compression with loss (lossy). Both types of compression with respective advantages and disadvantages, which can be investigated in other publications on the Internet.
Content
As we said before, the current ecosystem of applications for the management of the compression of files (files) and the data in general of Users and Operating Systems is very broad, especially in GNU / Linux, so we will mention them to then separating them into 2 categories: Terminal and Graphic Environment.
Terminal
Forms of Installation
Terminal route each application is usually installed depending on the Distro where it is going to be done. For example:
DEBIAN / Ubuntu:
apt-get install / aptitude install / apt install + name_package
Example:
apt install arj bzip2 gzip lhasa lzip lzma p7zip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils rar unace unrar unrar-free tar unzip xz-utils zip zoo
Fedora / RedHat:
dnf install / aptitude install / apt install + name_package
Example:
dnf install arj bzip2 gzip lhasa lzip lzma p7zip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils rar unace unrar unrar-free tar unzip xz-utils zip zoo
Arch / Derivatives:
Pacman -S + name_package
Example:
Pacman -S install arj bzip2 gzip lhasa lzip lzma p7zip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils rar unace unrar unrar-free tar unzip xz-utils zip zoo
Available applications
Although there may be many, the most known and used, and many of them installed by default, in most GNU / Linux Distributions are:
You can click on each of the names of the aforementioned applications to access the "DEBIAN Official Packet Library" to learn about the composition, structure and availability of the same , or next to each of them to access the "Manual (Manpages) Official DEBIAN" of the same, to deepen its use, especially in relation to the syntax of commands that can be executed.
Of Graphic Environment
Gnome
KDE
XFCE
Multi-platforms
Other free, open or free for Windows
Conclusion
As you can see, the applications available on GNU / Linux are many, either for Terminal only, mostly used by advanced users or technicians, or for graphic environments, mostly used by basic users or anyone for simple purposes. The majority capable of working with several formats, and others available in several OS at the same time.
But regardless of the variety of existing, and its multiple uses, functions and capabilities, we hope that this publication meets its objective of letting you know the existence of them and giving you the possibility to take advantage of the available potential of each. And if you want to consult other publications within the Blog, we recommend these 2: How to compress and decompress files in Linux and With the terminal: Compress and decompress files .
