pack - pack files using Huffman coding

pack attempts to store the specified files in a compressed form using static Huffman coding. Wherever possible each file is replaced by a packed file named file.z with the same access modes, access and modified dates, and owner as those of file. The -f option forces packing of file even when there is no space benefit for packing the file.

If pack is successful, file will be removed. Packed files can be restored to their original form using unpack or pcat.

pack uses Huffman (minimum redundancy) codes on a byte-by-byte basis. Ordinarily, for each file that is packed, a line is written to standard output containing file.z and the percent compression. If the -v options is specified, or if the - argument is specified, an internal flag is set that causes the number of times each byte is used, its relative frequency, and the code for the byte to be written to the standard output. Additional occurrences of - in place of name cause the internal flag to be set and reset.

No packing occurs if:

-

file appears to be already packed.

-

file has links.

-

file is a directory.

-

file cannot be opened.

-

No disk storage blocks will be saved by packing unless -f is specified.

-

A file called file.z already exists.

-

The .z file cannot be created.

-

An I/O error occurred during processing.

-f, --force

Pack the file even if the packed size is larger than the original.

-v, --verbose

Causes additional information to be written to standard ouput.

0

All files packed successfully.

n

n files failed to pack, where n is less than 125.

125

125 or more files failed to pack.

unpack(1), pcat(1), compress(1), gzip(1)

version

pack (AT&T Research) 2003-04-28

author

David Korn <dgk@research.att.com>

copyright

Copyright © 1993-2012 AT&T Intellectual Property

license

http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/epl-v10.html