The command is just compress filename or uncompress filename.Z
when it compresses it puts a capital Z at the end IF and only if...............
There is enough room in the filesystem for both the file and the compression
while it is doing it. If there is not enough space, it will fail....so think the size
of the file and double it until it is compressed...also ..
AND
The compress command detects an error and exits with a status of 1 if any of the
following events occur:
An input file is not a regular file.
An input file name is too long to append the .Z extension.
An input file cannot be read or an output file cannot be written.
The compress command compresses data, using adaptive Lempel-Zev coding to
reduce the size of files. Each original file specified by the File parameter is replaced
when possible by a compressed file with a .Z appended to its name. The compressed
file retains the same ownership, modes, and modification time of the original file. If no
files are specified, the standard input is compressed to the standard output. If
compression does not reduce the size of a file, a message is written to standard error
and the original file is not replaced.
Note: Files must have correct permissions to be replaced.
The amount of compression depends on the size of the input, the number of bits per
code specified by the Bits variable, and the distribution of common substrings. Typically,
source code or English text is reduced by 50 to 60%. The compression of the
compress command is usually more compact and takes less time to compute than the
compression achieved by Huffman coding (as used in the pack command) or adaptive
Huffman coding.
#-)
