ngzip - portable streaming stdio gzip command line utility

ngzip is a portable streaming stdio gzip command line utility that uses Node.js zlib. It should run anywhere Node.js runs including windows, *nix, mac

Installation

Requires node.js/iojs >= 0.10

npm install ngzip # local version
OR
npm install -g ngzip # global version

Usage

Options are similar to bash command gzip. If using local version ensure that you either use node_modules/.bin/ngzip or add to your path.

ngzip foo > foo.gz # compress foo to foo.gz
ngzip -d foo.gz > foo # decompress foo.gz to foo
catw foo | ngzip > foo.gz # compress stdin to stdout
catw foo.gz | ngzip -d > foo # decompress stdin to stdout

Any program which sends data to stdout can be used for input to ngzip. On Windows you can use type instead of cat. You can also use the catw as a portable option of cat.

Unlike bash's gzip, ngzip was written for simplicity. gzip supports a wide variety of options including reading/writing to files, removing old files, varying compression factors.

ngzip implements just a few use cases:

• read from stdin and write to stdout
• read from file and write to stdout

Usage: ngzip {OPTIONS} [file] > target.gz

Description:

     The ngzip program compresses and decompresses a file using Lempel-Ziv
     coding (LZ77). ngzip will compress or decompress from standard input
     to standard output. If a file parameter is provided ngzip will read
     from the file and write to stdout. The default compression level is
     slightly biased toward higher compression at expense of speed.

Standard Options:

 -d, --decompress, --uncompress

  This option selects decompression rather than compression.

 -1, --fast

  Use the fastest compression method (less compression). Only relevant when in compression mode.

 -9, --best

  Use the maximum compression method at the expense of speed. Only relevant when in compression mode.

 -h, --help

  Show this message

Goals

• gzip-like command line utility that runs everywhere Node.js runs including Windows
• streaming
• stdin/stdout
• file read for portability (avoids use of cat/type)
• simplicity

Why

I need a portable gzip command line utility that I can use from all Node.js environments for streaming compression and decompression

Get involved

If you have input or ideas or would like to get involved, you may:

• contact me via twitter @jeffbski - http://twitter.com/jeffbski
• open an issue on github to begin a discussion - https://github.com/jeffbski/ngzip/issues
• fork the repo and send a pull request (ideally with tests) - https://github.com/jeffbski/ngzip

License

• MIT license