: When run on a folder (e.g., gzip -r folder_name ), Gzip will recursively enter the directory and compress every file individually. It does not create a single compressed folder.
: A foundational GNU utility used for lossless file compression, identifiable by the .gz extension.
: In the context of development (like Git), running "gc" (garbage collection) before compression is a critical step to ensure you aren't wasting space on deleted or temporary file versions. Pros and Cons Performance Speed Extremely fast for single-stream decompression. Portability
If a .tar.gz file is damaged, recovery is often impossible for any data beyond the point of failure.
: Gzip uses the DEFLATE algorithm (a mix of LZ77 and Huffman coding), which is exceptionally reliable for text-heavy data. However, Gzip is technically a single-stream compressor ; it cannot natively archive multiple files into one .gz container without external help.