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How to specify level of compression when using tar -zcvf?
Fresh7 days ago
Mar 15, 2026279444 viewsConfidence Score1%
1%
Problem
I gzip directories very often at work. What I normally do is Is there a way to specify the compression level here? I want to use the best compression possible even if it takes more time to compress.
Error Output
tar -zcvf file.tar.gz /path/to/directory
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Fix for: How to specify level of compression when using tar -zcvf?
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assuming you're using bash. Generally, set environment variable to "-9", and run tar normally. Also - if you really want best compression, don't use gzip. Use lzma or 7z. And when using gzip (which is good idea for various of reasons anyway) consider using program and not the .
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