July 30, 2003 GZEXE 1

### NAME

gzexe - create auto-decompressing executables

### SYNOPSIS

gzexe [-d]

### DESCRIPTION

The gzexe utility uses gzip(1) to compress executables, producing executables that decompress on-the-fly when executed. This saves disk space, at the cost of slower execution times. The original executables are saved by copying each of them to a file with the same name with a `~' suffix appended. After verifying that the compressed executables work as expected, the backup files can be removed.

The options are as follows:

-d
  Decompress executables previously compressed by .

The gzexe program refuses to compress non-regular or non-executable files, files with a setuid or setgid bit set, files that are already compressed using gzexe or programs it needs to perform on-the-fly decompression: sh(1), mktemp(1), rm(1), echo(1), tail(1), gzip(1), and chmod(1).

### SEE ALSO

gzip(1)

### CAVEATS

The gzexe utility replaces files by overwriting them with the generated compressed executable. To be able to do this, it is required that the original files are writable.