What is LZ?

LZ files use Lzip compression - LZMA algorithm with robust file format. Features: lossless compression (identical decompression), CRC-32 checksums (detect corruption), concatenation support (merge archives), recovery from partial corruption, simple file structure. Lzip philosophy: data integrity first - better than gzip for long-term archival. Compression ratio: similar to LZMA/7z/XZ (better than gzip/bzip2). Free and open-source (GPL). Command-line tool: lzip (compress), lunzip (decompress), lziprecover (repair corrupted archives).

Lzip is designed for archival and distribution - GNU Project recommends Lzip over gzip for software tarballs. Use cases: .tar.lz archives (Linux source code), long-term backups (data integrity), software distribution. Advantages over alternatives: gzip (faster but lower ratio), bzip2 (obsolete, worse ratio), XZ (no recovery from corruption), 7z (complex format). Lzip format stability: guaranteed backward compatibility (archives from 2008 still work). Linux distributions: Alpine Linux, Gentoo provide .tar.lz packages. Decompress: lzip -d file.lz, or plzip (parallel multi-core decompression).

Did you know? Lzip can recover data from partially corrupted archives - designed for reliability!

History

Antonio Diaz Diaz created Lzip to provide a simple, reliable LZMA-based format with error detection and recovery capabilities for long-term archival.

Key Milestones

  • 2008: Lzip 1.0 released
  • 2013: GNU Project adoption
  • 2016: Plzip (parallel compression)
  • 2018: lziprecover (corruption repair)
  • 2020: Alpine Linux distribution
  • Present: Archival standard (GNU)

Key Features

Core Capabilities

  • LZMA Compression: High compression ratio
  • Data Integrity: CRC-32 checksums
  • Error Recovery: Repair partial corruption
  • Concatenation: Merge archives
  • Simple Format: Stable specification
  • Open Source: GPL licensed

Common Use Cases

Archival

Long-term data storage

Software

Source code tarballs (.tar.lz)

Backups

Reliable compressed backups

Distribution

File distribution with integrity

Advantages

  • High compression ratio (LZMA-based)
  • Data integrity verification (CRC-32)
  • Error recovery (lziprecover)
  • Simple, stable format (backward compatible)
  • GNU Project recommended
  • Free and open-source (GPL)
  • Parallel compression (plzip)

Disadvantages

  • Less popular than gzip/XZ
  • Slower compression than gzip
  • Limited Windows support
  • Not natively supported by tar (requires lzip install)
  • Smaller ecosystem than ZIP/7z
  • Command-line tool (no GUI by default)

Technical Information

Format Specifications

Specification Details
File Extension .lz, .tar.lz (tarball)
MIME Type application/x-lzip
Algorithm LZMA (Lempel-Ziv-Markov)
Checksum CRC-32 (data integrity)
Developer Antonio Diaz Diaz
License GPL (free and open-source)

Common Tools

  • Compression: lzip, plzip (parallel), tar --lzip
  • Decompression: lunzip, lzip -d, tar -xf file.tar.lz
  • Recovery: lziprecover (repair corrupted archives)
  • Platforms: Linux, macOS (Homebrew), BSD, Windows (MSYS2)