What is a Z file? Learn about Z files here

A Z file is an compressed file, which means that it is a file that has been reduced in size. This is often done to speed up distribution over the Internet and to save storage space.

Z file details

If you run Linux or another Unix system then you might have found Z files on your computer. Even if you run Windows you might have downloaded something in a Z file and want to find out how to open Z files.

A Z file is a type of compressed file normally found on a Unix system. It is normally compressed and decompressed on Unix using the commands compress and uncompress, which are command line utilities based on the LZW compression algorithm.

Normally these files will be given the file name extension .Z. If you try to decompress Z files with tar applications they will normally use the uncompress command to extract the files.

Z files are typically used to compress files on Unix servers in order to save valuable resources. It also means that it's much quicker to send these files over the internet. It's not a very common form of compression anymore; nowadays GZ files are much more popular.

Opening Z files

If you want to open Z files on Linux or another Unix platform then you will probably want to use uncompress, however if you are trying to open Z files on a Windows PC, then you will need BitZipper.

Technical details

If you are looking for technical details about the .Z file format, please refer to this Wikipedia article.