Difference between lz4 and gzip

lz4 supports a command line syntax similar but not identical to gzip(1). Differences are :

• lz4 compresses a single file by default (see -m for multiple files)
• lz4 file1 file2 means : compress file1 into file2
• lz4 file.lz4 will default to decompression (use -z to force compression)
• lz4 preserves original files (see --rm to erase source file on completion)
• lz4 shows real-time notification statistics during compression or decompression of a single file (use -q to silence them)
• When no destination is specified, result is sent on implicit output, which depends on stdout status. When stdout is Not the console, it becomes the implicit output. Otherwise, if stdout is the console, the implicit output is filename.lz4.
• It is considered bad practice to rely on implicit output in scripts. because the script´s environment may change. Always use explicit output in scripts. -c ensures that output will be stdout. Conversely, providing a destination name, or using -m ensures that the output will be either the specified name, or filename.lz4 respectively.

Default behaviors can be modified by opt-in commands, detailed below.

• lz4 -m makes it possible to provide multiple input filenames, which will be compressed into files using suffix .lz4. Progress notifications become disabled by default (use -v to enable them). This mode has a behavior which more closely mimics gzip command line, with the main remaining difference being that source files are preserved by default.
• Similarly, lz4 -m -d can decompress multiple *.lz4 files.
• It´s possible to opt-in to erase source files on successful compression or decompression, using --rm command.
• Consequently, lz4 -m --rm features a behavior closer to the gzip one.

Concatenation of .lz4 files

It is possible to concatenate .lz4 files as is. lz4 will decompress such files as if they were a single .lz4 file. For example:

lz4 file1  > foo.lz4
lz4 file2 >> foo.lz4

Then lz4cat foo.lz4 is equivalent to cat file1 file2.

Short commands concatenation

In some cases, some options can be expressed using short command -x or long command --long-word. Short commands can be concatenated together. For example, -d -c is equivalent to -dc. Long commands cannot be concatenated. They must be clearly separated by a space.

Multiple commands

When multiple contradictory commands are issued on a same command line, only the latest one will be applied.

Operation mode

-z --compress

Compress. This is the default operation mode when no operation mode option is specified, no other operation mode is implied from the command name (for example, unlz4 implies --decompress), nor from the input file name (for example, a file extension .lz4 implies --decompress by default). -z can also be used to force compression of an already compressed .lz4 file.

-d --decompress --uncompress

Decompress. --decompress is also the default operation when the input filename has an .lz4 extension.

-t --test

Test the integrity of compressed .lz4 files. The decompressed data is discarded. No files are created nor removed.

-b#

Benchmark mode, using # compression level.

--list

List information about .lz4 files. For detailed information on files with multiple frames, use -v. --list automatically triggers -m modifier.

Operation modifiers

-#

Compression level, with # being any value from 1 to 12. Higher values trade compression speed for compression ratio. Values above 12 are considered the same as 12. Recommended values are 1 for fast compression (default), and 9 for high compression. Speed/compression trade-off will vary depending on data to compress. Decompression speed remains fast at all settings.

--fast[=#]

Switch to ultra-fast compression levels. The higher the value, the faster the compression speed, at the cost of some compression ratio. If =# is not present, it defaults to 1. This setting overrides compression level if one was set previously. Similarly, if a compression level is set after --fast, it overrides it.

--best

Set highest compression level. Same as -12.

-T#, --threads=#

Use # threads for compression. When 0, or none provided: automatically determined from nb of detected cores.

--favor-decSpeed

Generate compressed data optimized for decompression speed. Compressed data will be larger as a consequence (typically by ~0.5%), while decompression speed will be improved by 5-20%, depending on use cases. This option only works in combination with very high compression levels (>=10).

-D dictionaryName

Compress, decompress or benchmark using dictionary dictionaryName. Compression and decompression must use the same dictionary to be compatible. Using a different dictionary during decompression will either abort due to decompression error, or generate a checksum error.

-f --[no-]force

This option has several effects:

If the target file already exists, overwrite it without prompting.

When used with --decompress and lz4 cannot recognize the type of the source file, copy the source file as is to standard output. This allows lz4cat --force to be used like cat (1) for files that have not been compressed with lz4.

-c --stdout --to-stdout

Force write to standard output, even if it is the console.

-m --multiple

Multiple input files. Compressed file names will be appended a .lz4 suffix. This mode also reduces notification level. Can also be used to list multiple files. lz4 -m has a behavior equivalent to gzip -k (it preserves source files by default).

-r

operate recursively on directories. This mode also sets -m (multiple input files).

-B#

Block size [4-7](default : 7)
-B4= 64KB ; -B5= 256KB ; -B6= 1MB ; -B7= 4MB

-BI

Produce independent blocks (default)

-BD

Blocks depend on predecessors (improves compression ratio, more noticeable on small blocks)

-BX

Generate block checksums (default:disabled)

--[no-]frame-crc

Select frame checksum (default:enabled)

--no-crc

Disable both frame and block checksums

--[no-]content-size

Header includes original size (default:not present)
Note : this option can only be activated when the original size can be determined, hence for a file. It won´t work with unknown source size, such as stdin or pipe.

--[no-]sparse

Sparse mode support (default:enabled on file, disabled on stdout)

-l

Use Legacy format (typically for Linux Kernel compression)
Note : -l is not compatible with -m (--multiple) nor -r

Other options

-v --verbose

Verbose mode

-q --quiet

Suppress warnings and real-time statistics; specify twice to suppress errors too

-h -H --help

Display help/long help and exit

-V --version

Display Version number and exit

-k --keep

Preserve source files (default behavior)

--rm

Delete source files on successful compression or decompression

--

Treat all subsequent arguments as files

Benchmark mode

-b#

Benchmark file(s), using # compression level

-e#

Benchmark multiple compression levels, from b# to e# (included)

-i#

Minimum evaluation time in seconds [1-9] (default : 3)

Environment Variables

It´s possible to pass some parameters to lz4 via environment variables. This can be useful in situations where lz4 is known to be invoked (from a script for example) but there is no way to pass lz4 parameters to influence the compression session. The environment variable has higher priority than executable default, but lower priority than corresponding runtime command. When set as global environment variables, it can be a way to enforce personalized defaults different from the executable set ones.

LZ4_CLEVEL

specify a default compression level that lz4 employs for compression when no other compression level is specified on command line. Executable default is generally 1.

LZ4_NBWORKERS

specify a default number of threads that lz4 will employ for compression. Executable default is generally 0, which means auto-determined based on local cpu. This functionality is only relevant when lz4 is compiled with multithreading support. The maximum number of workers is capped at LZ4_NBWORKERS_MAX (200 by default).