Archiving using --tar

Using the genozip --tar option, genozip compresses files directly into a standard tar file.

​

Each file is compressed independently and written directly into a standard tar file as it is being formed. This is faster and consumes less disk space than first genozipping files and then packaging them into a tar file, since no separate .genozip files are created - just the tar file.

​

Example 1

 

> # Compressing

> genozip --tar mydata.tar sample1.bam sample2.bam variants.vcf

 

> # Listing the contents of the tar file

> tar tvf mydata.tar

-rw-rw-rw- USER/USER 3424847 2021-06-01 11:34 sample1.bam.genozip

-rw-rw-rw- USER/USER 6765323 2021-03-04 22:04 sample2.bam.genozip

-rw-rw-rw- USER/USER 765323  2021-03-04 22:08 variants.vcf.genozip

​

> # Unarchiving and decompressing all files

> tar xvf mydata.tar |& genounzip --files-from - --replace

 

Example 2: 

 

compress all files in a directory and its sub-directories, using --subdirs

​

> genozip --tar mydata.tar --subdirs my-data-dir

​

Example 3

 

compress and archive all BAM files in the current directory and its sub-directories, preserving the directory structure:

​

> find . -name "*.bam" | genozip --tar mydata.tar --files-from -

​

Implementation note: Genozip implements the IEEE 1003.1-1988 (“ustar”) standard of tar files, with the size field in binary format for files 8GB or larger. The GNU-tar LongLink extension is used for file names longer than 99 characters. This is compatible with most modern tar implementations, including GNU tar.

​