NAME
gzexe —
create auto-decompressing
executables
SYNOPSIS
gzexe |
[-d] file ... |
DESCRIPTION
The gzexe utility uses
gzip(1) to compress executables, producing executables that
decompress on-the-fly when executed. This saves disk space, at the cost of
slower execution times. The original executables are saved by copying each
of them to a file with the same name with a ‘~’ suffix
appended. After verifying that the compressed executables work as expected,
the backup files can be removed.
The options are as follows:
-d- Decompress executables previously compressed by
gzexe.
The gzexe program refuses to compress
non-regular or non-executable files, files with a setuid or setgid bit set,
files that are already compressed using gzexe, files
in /bin or /sbin, or
programs it needs to perform on-the-fly decompression:
sh(1),
basename(1),
mktemp(1), rm(1),
echo(1), tail(1),
gzip(1), and
chmod(1).
SEE ALSO
CAVEATS
The gzexe utility replaces files by
overwriting them with the generated compressed executable. To be able to do
this, it is required that the original files are writable.