gzip and gunzip in Linux CLI - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this gzip command?

You have a file named example.txt containing the text Hello World. You run the command gzip example.txt. What happens to the files in the directory?

A A new file <code>example.txt.gz</code> is created, but <code>example.txt</code> remains unchanged.

B The command fails with an error because <code>example.txt</code> is not empty.

C The command outputs the content of <code>example.txt</code> compressed to the terminal.

D The file <code>example.txt</code> is replaced by <code>example.txt.gz</code> containing compressed data, and <code>example.txt</code> no longer exists.

💡 Hint

Think about what gzip does by default to the original file after compression.

By default, gzip compresses the file and replaces the original file with the compressed version having a .gz extension.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this gunzip command?

You have a compressed file archive.gz. You run gunzip archive.gz. What happens to the files in the directory?

A The file <code>archive.gz</code> is decompressed to <code>archive</code>, and <code>archive.gz</code> is deleted.

B The file <code>archive.gz</code> remains, and a new file <code>archive</code> is created.

C The command outputs the decompressed content to the terminal without creating any file.

D The command fails because <code>archive.gz</code> is read-only.

💡 Hint

Consider what gunzip does by default to the compressed file after decompression.

gunzip decompresses the file and removes the original .gz file by default.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which command correctly compresses multiple files into one gzip archive?

You want to compress files file1.txt and file2.txt into a single compressed file named files.gz. Which command achieves this?

A gzip -c file1.txt file2.txt > files.gz

B gzip -d file1.txt file2.txt > files.gz

C gzip file1.txt file2.txt -c > files.gz

D gzip -r files.gz file1.txt file2.txt

💡 Hint

gzip alone compresses single files; to combine multiple files, use the -c option and redirect output.

Using 'gzip -c file1.txt file2.txt > files.gz' compresses both files' contents into one gzip stream saved as files.gz.

💻 Command Output

advanced

What error does this command produce?

You run gunzip -c missingfile.gz but the file missingfile.gz does not exist. What is the output?

A gunzip: cannot open missingfile.gz: Permission denied

B gunzip: missingfile.gz: No such file or directory

C gunzip: missingfile.gz: File format not recognized

D gunzip: missingfile.gz: Already decompressed

💡 Hint

Think about what happens when a command tries to access a file that does not exist.

The error message indicates the file is missing, so gunzip cannot open it.

🚀 Application

expert

How to decompress a gzip file and save output to a different file?

You have a compressed file data.gz. You want to decompress it but save the output to output.txt without deleting data.gz. Which command achieves this?

A gunzip data.gz -o output.txt

B gunzip data.gz > output.txt

C gunzip -c data.gz > output.txt

D gzip -d data.gz -c > output.txt

💡 Hint

Use an option that decompresses to standard output without removing the original file.

The -c option decompresses to stdout, so redirecting output saves it to a new file without deleting the original.