[TUHS] Why do compress(1) and pack(1) use the .Z / .z extension?

[John Cowan]

On Fri, Nov 27, 2020 at 8:07 AM Hans Wennborg <hans at hanshq.net> wrote:

I'm trying to find out why compress(1) uses .Z as filename extension.
>
> My theory is that it was inspired by pack(1), which uses the .z extension.
>
I think that connection is plain.  As for the .z extension, I'd guess (and
it's nothing better than that, just a conclusion I jumped to long ago) that
it makes compressed files sort after files that share the same root name.

IIRC, compress(1) used to be able to unpack files as well as uncompressing
them.  I don't know if that's still true.




John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
May the hair on your toes never fall out!  --Thorin Oakenshield (to Bilbo)
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