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You can have archives be compressed by using the `--gzip' (`-z') option.
This will arrange for tar to use the gzip program to be
used to compress or uncompress the archive wren writing or reading it.
To use the older, obsolete, compress program, use the
`--compress' (`-Z') option. The GNU Project recommends you not use
compress, because there is a patent covering the algorithm
it uses. Merely by running compress you could be sued for
patent infringment.
When using either `--gzip' (`-z') or `--compress' (`-Z'), tar does
not do blocking (
FIXME: pxref Blocking
) correctly. Use `--gzip-block' or `--compress-blocks' instead when using real tape drives.
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