Why compression saves storage and bandwidth in Linux CLI - Challenge Your Understanding

Challenge - 5 Problems

🧠 Conceptual

intermediate

How does compression reduce file size?

Which of the following best explains why compression saves storage space?

A Compression removes all data except the first few bytes, making files smaller.

B Compression deletes random parts of the file to save space.

C Compression converts files into images, which are always smaller.

D Compression replaces repeated patterns with shorter codes, reducing file size.

💡 Hint

Think about how repeated information can be shortened.

Compression works by finding repeated patterns and replacing them with shorter codes, which reduces the total size of the file without losing important data.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

Output of gzip compression command

What is the output of the following command sequence? $ echo "hello hello hello" > file.txt $ gzip file.txt $ ls -l file.txt.gz

Linux CLI

echo "hello hello hello" > file.txt
gzip file.txt
ls -l file.txt.gz

A gzip: file.txt: No such file or directory

B -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 18 date time file.txt.gz

C -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 0 date time file.txt.gz

D -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 20 date time file.txt.gz

💡 Hint

Check the file size after compression; it should be smaller than original.

The compressed file is smaller than the original text file. The exact size depends on compression but is less than the original 20 bytes.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Correct command to compress and keep original file

Which command compresses 'data.log' into 'data.log.gz' but keeps the original 'data.log' file?

A gzip data.log

B gzip --remove data.log

C gzip -k data.log

D gzip -r data.log

💡 Hint

Look for the option that keeps the original file.

The '-k' option tells gzip to keep the original file after compression.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this decompression command fail?

You run 'gunzip file.txt' but get the error: 'gzip: file.txt: not in gzip format'. Why?

Linux CLI

gunzip file.txt

A The file is already decompressed and not a gzip file.

B The file has wrong permissions to decompress.

C The file is corrupted and cannot be decompressed.

D The gunzip command is not installed.

💡 Hint

Check if the file was compressed before.

gunzip expects a gzip compressed file. If the file is plain text, it will show this error.

🚀 Application

expert

Estimate bandwidth saved by compression

A 10MB log file is compressed to 2MB before sending over the network. How much bandwidth is saved as a percentage?

A 80%

B 20%

C 50%

D 200%

💡 Hint

Calculate the reduction relative to original size.

Bandwidth saved = ((10 - 2) / 10) * 100 = 80%.