GZ file extension

Compressed Archive File

The .GZ file extension is associated with the program "Gzip" (short for GNU zip) which is a UNIX based compression utility. This is essentially the same as using windows based zip/unzip commands/utilities.

Using "Gzip" instead of the UNIX based "Compress" utility can result in up to a 50% reduction in the size of compressed files.

"Gunzip" is able to decompress files created by "Gzip", so to uncompress the file "myfile" simply do "gunzip myfile.gz" which will result in your original uncompressed file "myfile".

To use "Gzip" to compress a file, simply name the file to be compressed e.g. "gzip myfile" which will result in the creation of a compressed file named "myfile.gz".

Applications that can decompress .GZ files in Windows include "PowerArchiver" and "WinRAR".

Gzip was created by "Jean-Loup Gailly" and "Mark Adler", and was first released in 1992.