Open/Extract gz/gzip File with Freeware on Windows/Mac/Linux

gz/gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-Loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and intended for use by the GNU Project (the "g" is from "GNU").

gz/gzip is based on the DEFLATE algorithm, which is a combination of LZ77 and Huffman coding. DEFLATE was intended as a replacement for LZW and other patent-encumbered data compression algorithms which, at the time, limited the usability of compress and other popular archivers.

Although its file format also allows for multiple such streams to be concatenated (zipped files are simply decompressed concatenated as if they were originally one file), gz/gzip is normally used to compress just single files. Compressed archives are typically created by assembling collections of files into a single tar archive, and then compressing that archive with gz/gzip. The final .tar.gz or .tgz file is usually called a tarball.

gz/gzip is not to be confused with the ZIP archive format, which also uses DEFLATE. The ZIP format can hold collections of files without an external archiver, but is less compact than compressed tarballs holding the same data, because it compresses files individually and cannot take advantage of redundancy between files (solid compression).

Open/Extract gz/gzip File on Windows

To open/extract gz/gzip file on Windows, you can use 7-Zip, Easy 7-Zip, or PeaZip. I recommend Easy 7-Zip. The Easy 7-Zip is an easy-to-use version of 7-Zip. The open source freeware keeps all features of 7-Zip and adds a few useful features that makes the software more user-friendly.

Easy 7-Zip works on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/2008/2003/XP/2000 (both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible).

  1. Free Download Easy 7-Zip
  2. Install Easy 7-Zip by step-by-step instructions
  3. The installation will associate gz/gzip with Easy 7-Zip automatically
  4. Double-click on gz/gzip file to open gz/gzip file with Easy 7-Zip

    5. Easy 7-Zip
    You will see files or folders within the gz/gzip file then, click button Extract to extract the gz/gzip file.

  5. Alternatively, Right-click on gz/gzip file on Windows Explorer


    6. And then, choose Extract files..., Extract Here, or Extract to "folder\" to extract the gz/gzip file.

  6. Done

Easy 7-Zip Download Links:

Open/Extract gz/gzip File on Mac

To open/extract gz/gzip file on Mac, you can use B1 Free Archiver. B1 Free Archiver is a free software for creating archive folder and extracting archive file. B1 Archiver works on all platforms - Windows, Linux, Mac and Android. The freeware supports most popular formats including gz/gzip.

B1 Free Archiver is compatible with:

  • Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
  • Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
  • Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
  • Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Open/Extract gz/gzip File on Linux

It's easy on Linux. Just use gunzip command. gunzip can currently decompress files created by gzip, zip, compress, compress -H or pack. The detection of the input format is automatic. When using the first two formats, gunzip checks a 32 bit CRC.

Install gzip on CentOS and Fedora

# yum install gzip

Install gzip on Debian and Ubuntu

$ sudo apt-get install gzip

Extract a gz/gzip file on Linux

$ gunzip file.gz

OR, use gzip command with parameter "d".

$ gzip -d file.gz

If file extension is tar.gz use

$ tar xzvf file.tar.gz

 

 

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