gzip and bzip2 question

[hokky]

Hi guys,

for compressing directory, I usually tar the directory becomes a file and zip it.

I was just wondering whether gzip and bzip2 or zip can do to directory straight away without tarring first.

I have check man command, I don't think so. But I would like to know from your guys opinion.

Cheers,

 

[stefanwagner]

It's not a matter of opinion, but a matter of fact.

A directory is just a kind of file, which is an identifier for contained files, but doesn't physically contain a file.
Therefore there isn't much sense in zipping a directory without files.
You have just the name, times and permissions - not much to be zipped.

Bzip compresses a file.
If you want to zip the content of a directory, you have to build a single file first, which might be done by tar.

You can put tar and zip in one command from the tar side:

tar -cjf output.bz2 directory

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