Gossamer Forum: General: Perl Programming: any better method than tar.gz to compress files?

Jun 23, 2008, 1:01 AM

socrates

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Jun 23, 2008, 1:01 AM

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any better method than tar.gz to compress files?

Is there any better (smaller) method than files.tar.gz to compress files while moving from one server to another?

Thanks

Jun 23, 2008, 1:12 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jun 23, 2008, 1:12 AM

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Re: [socrates] any better method than tar.gz to compress files? In reply to

Hi,

Not that I'm aware of.

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jun 23, 2008, 1:48 AM

socrates

Enthusiast (832 posts)

Jun 23, 2008, 1:48 AM

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Re: [Andy] any better method than tar.gz to compress files? In reply to

So, once I compress several data files in to a tar.gz, Is it possible to compress a tar.gz file once again to reduce the size? Some data is huge even after compressing and the trasferring takes so long. So, this normal (I mean you wait for so long to move the data?)

Thanks

Jun 23, 2008, 1:53 AM

Andy

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Jun 23, 2008, 1:53 AM

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Re: [socrates] any better method than tar.gz to compress files? In reply to

Hi,

No, once you have compressed a file into a .tar.gz, then it won't get smaller - if you compress it again.

i.e if you have some files:

test.tar.gz - 10mb
test2.tar.gz - 10mb
test3.tar.gz - 10mb

..and you comrpess them into a single .gz/tar.gz file, then its still gonna stay at 30mb, cos its already compressed at its maximum size.

.gz (and tar) is the best compression system I know of (there may well be ones that compess it a little smaller, but I very much doubt it will be by much)

What exactly are you trying to move around? If your going from server --> server, you could do the move with "ftp" in SSH;

Code:
ftp 123.123.123.123 
user: enter username 
pass: enter  password 
cd directory 
get file.tar.gz

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

Jun 23, 2008, 1:59 AM

socrates

Enthusiast (832 posts)

Jun 23, 2008, 1:59 AM

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Re: [Andy] any better method than tar.gz to compress files? In reply to

Thanks Andy - I was trying to move the data from server to my hard disk (via FTP).

So, from the above method you explained, is it possible to just move each dir from one server to another. e.g. one server has directories such as dir1, dir2, cgi-bin, dir-3, etc., I want to move the same data and same structure without making a tar.gz first. Can just say "get dir2" and get that data replicated on the new server?

Thanks again.

Jun 23, 2008, 2:08 AM

Andy

Veteran / Moderator (18441 posts)

Jun 23, 2008, 2:08 AM

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Re: [socrates] any better method than tar.gz to compress files? In reply to

Hi,

Quote:

Thanks Andy - I was trying to move the data from server to my hard disk (via FTP).

In that case, then you will just have to make do with the large files :P Isn't your connection very fast? Even on my connection - I can download a 500mb file in about an hour (maybe 2)

Quote:

So, from the above method you explained, is it possible to just move each dir from one server to another. e.g. one server has directories such as dir1, dir2, cgi-bin, dir-3, etc., I want to move the same data and same structure without making a tar.gz first. Can just say "get dir2" and get that data replicated on the new server?

The example I gave, was for moving .tar/.gz/.tar.gz files from server to server - you can't do "directories" like that, as you have to manually do each file, which wouldn't be very praticle.

The only good thing about moving it from server to server, is you can normally run FTP at the speed the server has access too. For example, if both servers are on T3 connections, then it should be lightning fast :)

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk