gzip and gunzip in Linux CLI - Step-by-Step Execution

Concept Flow - gzip and gunzip

Start with file

↓

Run gzip

↓

File compressed to .gz

↓

Run gunzip

↓

File decompressed back

↓

End

This flow shows compressing a file with gzip and then decompressing it with gunzip.

Execution Sample

Linux CLI

echo "Hello World" > file.txt
gzip file.txt
ls
gunzip file.txt.gz
ls

Create a text file, compress it with gzip, list files, decompress with gunzip, then list files again.

Execution Table

Step	Command	Action	File State	Output
1	echo "Hello World" > file.txt	Create file.txt with text	file.txt exists
2	gzip file.txt	Compress file.txt to file.txt.gz and remove original	file.txt.gz exists, file.txt removed
3	ls	List files	file.txt.gz exists	file.txt.gz
4	gunzip file.txt.gz	Decompress file.txt.gz to file.txt and remove .gz	file.txt exists, file.txt.gz removed
5	ls	List files	file.txt exists	file.txt

💡 All commands executed successfully; file compressed and decompressed as expected.

Variable Tracker

File	Initial	After gzip	After gunzip
file.txt	exists	removed	exists
file.txt.gz	does not exist	exists	removed

Key Moments - 2 Insights

Why does file.txt disappear after running gzip?

gzip compresses the file and replaces the original with the compressed .gz file, so file.txt is removed as shown in step 2 of the execution_table.

What happens if you run gunzip on a file that is not compressed?

gunzip expects a .gz file; if the file is not compressed or missing .gz extension, it will give an error and not decompress, unlike step 4 where file.txt.gz exists.

Visual Quiz - 3 Questions

Look at the execution_table, after which step does file.txt.gz first appear?

A Step 2

B Step 1

C Step 3

D Step 4

💡 Hint

Check the 'File State' column for file.txt.gz presence after each step.

At which step does file.txt reappear after being compressed?

A Step 2

B Step 4

C Step 3

D Step 5

💡 Hint

Look at the 'File State' column to see when file.txt exists again.

If you skip the gunzip command, what will the final ls output show?

A file.txt only

B both file.txt and file.txt.gz

C file.txt.gz only

D no files

💡 Hint

Refer to step 3 where gzip has compressed the file but gunzip has not run yet.

Concept Snapshot

gzip compresses files by replacing the original with a .gz file.
gunzip decompresses .gz files back to original and removes the .gz.
Use gzip filename to compress and gunzip filename.gz to decompress.
After gzip, original file is gone; after gunzip, original file returns.
Check files with ls to see changes.

Full Transcript

This lesson shows how gzip compresses a file by creating a .gz file and removing the original. Then gunzip decompresses the .gz file back to the original file and removes the compressed version. We start by creating a file with echo, compress it with gzip, list files to see the .gz file, then decompress with gunzip and list files again to see the original file restored. gzip replaces the original file with the compressed one, so the original disappears after compression. gunzip reverses this. If you try to gunzip a file that is not compressed, it will error. This visual trace helps understand the file state changes step-by-step.