LZ4(1) lz4 1.10.0 LZ4(1)
User Commands User Commands
July 2024
NAME
lz4 - lz4, unlz4, lz4cat - Compress or decompress .lz4 files
SYNOPSIS
lz4 [OPTIONS] [-|INPUT-FILE] OUTPUT-FILE
unlz4 is equivalent to lz4 -d
lz4cat is equivalent to lz4 -dcfm
When writing scripts that need to decompress files, it is recommended
to always use the name lz4 with appropriate arguments (lz4 -d or lz4
-dc) instead of the names unlz4 and lz4cat.
DESCRIPTION
lz4 is a CLI based on liblz4, an extremely fast implementation of
lossless compression algorithm. It provides a default compression
speed of typically > 500 MB/s per core. Speed can traded for higher
compression ratio, by increasing the compression level parameter.
While decompression is single-threaded, it reaches multiple GB/s,
generally fast enough to be I/O bound. lz4 native file format is the
.lz4 format.
Difference between lz4 and gzip
lz4 supports a command line syntax similar but not identical to
gzip(1). Differences are :
+ lz4 compresses a single file by default (see -m for multiple
files)
+ lz4 file1 file2 means : compress file1 into file2
+ lz4 file.lz4 will default to decompression (use -z to force
compression)
+ lz4 preserves original files (see --rm to erase source file on
completion)
+ lz4 shows real-time notification statistics during compression or
decompression of a single file (use -q to silence them)
+ When no destination is specified, result is sent on implicit
output, which depends on stdout status. When stdout is Not the
console, it becomes the implicit output. Otherwise, if stdout is
the console, the implicit output is filename.lz4.
+ It is considered bad practice to rely on implicit output in
scripts. because the script's environment may change. Always use
explicit output in scripts. -c ensures that output will be stdout.
- 1 - Formatted: December 26, 2024
LZ4(1) lz4 1.10.0 LZ4(1)
User Commands User Commands
July 2024
Conversely, providing a destination name, or using -m ensures that
the output will be either the specified name, or filename.lz4
respectively.
Default behaviors can be modified by opt-in commands, detailed below.
+ lz4 -m makes it possible to provide multiple input filenames,
which will be compressed into files using suffix .lz4. Progress
notifications become disabled by default (use -v to enable them).
This mode has a behavior which more closely mimics gzip command
line, with the main remaining difference being that source files
are preserved by default.
+ Similarly, lz4 -m -d can decompress multiple *.lz4 files.
+ It's possible to opt-in to erase source files on successful
compression or decompression, using --rm command.
+ Consequently, lz4 -m --rm features a behavior closer to the gzip
one.
Concatenation of .lz4 files
It is possible to concatenate .lz4 files as is. lz4 will decompress
such files as if they were a single .lz4 file. For example:
lz4 file1 > foo.lz4
lz4 file2 >> foo.lz4
Then lz4cat foo.lz4 is equivalent to cat file1 file2.
OPTIONS
Short commands concatenation
In some cases, some options can be expressed using short command -x or
long command --long-word. Short commands can be concatenated together.
For example, -d -c is equivalent to -dc. Long commands cannot be
concatenated. They must be clearly separated by a space.
Multiple commands
When multiple contradictory commands are issued on a same command
line, only the latest one will be applied.
- 2 - Formatted: December 26, 2024
LZ4(1) lz4 1.10.0 LZ4(1)
User Commands User Commands
July 2024
Operation mode
-z --compress
Compress. This is the default operation mode when no operation
mode option is specified, no other operation mode is implied from
the command name (for example, unlz4 implies --decompress), nor
from the input file name (for example, a file extension .lz4
implies --decompress by default). -z can also be used to force
compression of an already compressed .lz4 file.
-d --decompress --uncompress
Decompress. --decompress is also the default operation when the
input filename has an .lz4 extension.
-t --test
Test the integrity of compressed .lz4 files. The decompressed
data is discarded. No files are created nor removed.
-b# Benchmark mode, using # compression level.
--list
List information about .lz4 files. For detailed information on
files with multiple frames, use -v. --list automatically triggers
-m modifier.
Operation modifiers
-# Compression level, with # being any value from 1 to 12. Higher
values trade compression speed for compression ratio. Values
above 12 are considered the same as 12. Recommended values are 1
for fast compression (default), and 9 for high compression.
Speed/compression trade-off will vary depending on data to
compress. Decompression speed remains fast at all settings.
--fast[=#]
Switch to ultra-fast compression levels. The higher the value,
the faster the compression speed, at the cost of some compression
ratio. If =# is not present, it defaults to 1. This setting
overrides compression level if one was set previously. Similarly,
if a compression level is set after --fast, it overrides it.
--best
Set highest compression level. Same as -12.
-T#, --threads=#
Use # threads for compression. When 0, or none provided:
automatically determined from nb of detected cores.
--favor-decSpeed
Generate compressed data optimized for decompression speed.
Compressed data will be larger as a consequence (typically by
- 3 - Formatted: December 26, 2024
LZ4(1) lz4 1.10.0 LZ4(1)
User Commands User Commands
July 2024
~0.5%), while decompression speed will be improved by 5-20%,
depending on use cases. This option only works in combination
with very high compression levels (>=10).
-D dictionaryName
Compress, decompress or benchmark using dictionary
dictionaryName. Compression and decompression must use the same
dictionary to be compatible. Using a different dictionary during
decompression will either abort due to decompression error, or
generate a checksum error.
-f --[no-]force
This option has several effects:
If the target file already exists, overwrite it without
prompting.
When used with --decompress and lz4 cannot recognize the type of
the source file, copy the source file as is to standard output.
This allows lz4cat --force to be used like cat (1) for files that
have not been compressed with lz4.
-c --stdout --to-stdout
Force write to standard output, even if it is the console.
-m --multiple
Multiple input files. Compressed file names will be appended a
.lz4 suffix. This mode also reduces notification level. Can also
be used to list multiple files. lz4 -m has a behavior equivalent
to gzip -k (it preserves source files by default).
-r operate recursively on directories. This mode also sets -m
(multiple input files).
-B# Block size [4-7](default : 7)
-B4= 64KB ; -B5= 256KB ; -B6= 1MB ; -B7= 4MB
-BI Produce independent blocks (default)
-BD Blocks depend on predecessors (improves compression ratio, more
noticeable on small blocks)
-BX Generate block checksums (default:disabled)
--[no-]frame-crc
Select frame checksum (default:enabled)
--no-crc
Disable both frame and block checksums
- 4 - Formatted: December 26, 2024
LZ4(1) lz4 1.10.0 LZ4(1)
User Commands User Commands
July 2024
--[no-]content-size
Header includes original size (default:not present)
Note : this option can only be activated when the original size
can be determined, hence for a file. It won't work with unknown
source size, such as stdin or pipe.
--[no-]sparse
Sparse mode support (default:enabled on file, disabled on stdout)
-l Use Legacy format (typically for Linux Kernel compression)
Note : -l is not compatible with -m (--multiple) nor -r
Other options
-v --verbose
Verbose mode
-q --quiet
Suppress warnings and real-time statistics; specify twice to
suppress errors too
-h -H --help
Display help/long help and exit
-V --version
Display Version number and exit
-k --keep
Preserve source files (default behavior)
--rm Delete source files on successful compression or decompression
-- Treat all subsequent arguments as files
Benchmark mode
-b# Benchmark file(s), using # compression level
-e# Benchmark multiple compression levels, from b# to e# (included)
-i# Minimum evaluation time in seconds [1-9] (default : 3)
Environment Variables
It's possible to pass some parameters to lz4 via environment
variables. This can be useful in situations where lz4 is known to be
invoked (from a script for example) but there is no way to pass lz4
parameters to influence the compression session. The environment
variable has higher priority than executable default, but lower
priority than corresponding runtime command. When set as global
environment variables, it can be a way to enforce personalized
defaults different from the executable set ones.
- 5 - Formatted: December 26, 2024
LZ4(1) lz4 1.10.0 LZ4(1)
User Commands User Commands
July 2024
LZ4_CLEVEL
specify a default compression level that lz4 employs for
compression when no other compression level is specified on
command line. Executable default is generally 1.
LZ4_NBWORKERS
specify a default number of threads that lz4 will employ for
compression. Executable default is generally 0, which means
auto-determined based on local cpu. This functionality is only
relevant when lz4 is compiled with multithreading support. The
maximum number of workers is capped at LZ4_NBWORKERS_MAX (200 by
default).
BUGS
Report bugs at: https://github.com/lz4/lz4/issues
AUTHOR
Yann Collet
- 6 - Formatted: December 26, 2024
