lzop¶
Format: .lzo · Algorithm: LZO · First released: LZO library 1996, lzop shortly after (Markus F.X.J. Oberhumer)
LZO was the go-to "fast, not small" algorithm for years. You'll still find it in older kernels and boot images, Btrfs (compress=lzo), some Hadoop deployments, and embedded systems. For new work, lz4 is faster at a similar ratio and zstd offers far more range.
Basics¶
lzop file # -> file.lzo, KEEPS file
lzop -U file # delete source after compression
lzop -d file.lzo # decompress
lzop -9 file # better ratio, much slower
lzop -c file > out.lzo # to stdout
lzop -t file.lzo # test
lzop -l file.lzo # list
With tar¶
tar --lzop -cvf archive.tar.lzo src_dir/
tar xf archive.tar.lzo # auto-detected