What is a Z file?

A Z file is a category of files belonging to the UNIX Compressed data files. Compressed Unix files are the most popular and widely used extension type of the Z file. Z file makes formatting, running and opening of files easier as they are used to create small computer files that can be easily run on Linux/Unix operating systems. It is beneficial for users looking to save disk space, as by compressing large files into one Z file, users can save a lot of storage space and make their files more organized. These compressed Z files can be easily decompressed in the Unix system by using a simple command “uncompress abc.z” for a file named “abc”.

Brief History

The Z file was created as a result of an unwavering demand for a fast archiver in the late ’80s and the early ’90s. Since the internet was not very popular and accessible at that time, users had to struggle to share basic files and access the internet. One such way that users used to transfer files was by using an archiver. The Z file was introduced by Phil Katz, as a faster and more supportive form of the Archiver, through which huge files could be compressed in one and transferred. The final version by Kartz was introduced in 1989, after a legal battle, and it was dedicated to the public domain, as announced by Kartz.

Technichal Specification

The Z file is a file that supports the archive file format. It is one of the first file types that provide fast, and lossless data compression and decompression using the Unix and Linux operating systems. In some operating systems, a file extension with the lowercase Z (.z) represents a GNU-compressed file, while a file with the uppercase Z (.Z) represents a compressed file. The Z file has several versions that it supports, such as 2.0, 2.1, 4.5, 4.6, amongst others. There are various algorithms in different Z file versions, and the most popular one is DEFLATE.