3
I'm pretty new to unix so go easy.
Normally gzip file replaces file with file.gz (which i'm guessing is: create file.gz then rm file).
I have some rather large files I'm compressing and I like to see the progress and eta so I use
pv -tpreb file | gzip -9 > file.gz
But now I am left with the original file along with the new file.gz. I don't want to have to rm the original manually.
What should I do?
danielr
Posted 2016-01-12T02:01:07.677
Reputation: 45
3
As Kenneth L mentioned in his comment, there's no way to accomplish this with the tools you're using, due to the way pv pipes file to gzip.
A kludgy workaround would be to delete the original file immediately after compressing it:
pv -tpreb file | gzip -9 > file.gz && rm file
You can compress multiple files in the same archive and delete the originals with the following commands:
export FILES='foo bar quux'
tar c $FILES | pv -tpreb | gzip -9 > zip.gz && rm $FILES
and decompress those files with tar xvzf zip.gz.
nc4pk
Posted 2016-01-12T02:01:07.677
Reputation: 8 261
I did not know you could append commands to eachother with &&. Thanks! I'd +1 but don't have the neccessary requirements from SE. – danielr – 2016-01-12T04:38:59.417
1As an addition, I edited my bash profile with the function gz() { pv -tpreb $1 | gzip -9 > $1.gz && rm $1 } allowing me to call the shortcut gz file. I hope that's useful to someone. An accompanying gunzip shortcut is a good idea too. – danielr – 2016-01-12T05:24:50.443
4It seems that you cannot.
pvreads the files and pipes togzipthereforegzipgets its input fromstdin. Of coursegzipwill have no clue that the input actually comes fromfileand therefore cannot delete it. – Kenneth L – 2016-01-12T02:22:29.323