Thanks, I installed the attached, which isn't the same as what you sent
but I hope it addresses the same editorial issues.From 97c3d5b3da78b39a715451e52265cd0579dd23ab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paul Eggert <egg...@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:21:24 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] doc: minor tuneup of man page
From suggestions by Bjarni Ingli Gislason (bug#64118).
---
gzip.1 | 276 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------
1 file changed, 155 insertions(+), 121 deletions(-)
diff --git a/gzip.1 b/gzip.1
index 22ab88d..657ad0d 100644
--- a/gzip.1
+++ b/gzip.1
@@ -35,8 +35,8 @@ while keeping the same ownership modes, access and modification times.
(The default extension is
.B "z"
for MSDOS, OS/2 FAT, Windows NT FAT and Atari.)
-If no files are specified, or if a file name is "-", the standard input is
-compressed to the standard output.
+If no files are specified, or if a file name is "\-",
+the standard input is compressed to the standard output.
The
.B gzip
command
@@ -51,32 +51,33 @@ The
command
attempts to truncate only the parts of the file name longer than 3 characters.
(A part is delimited by dots.) If the name consists of small parts only,
-the longest parts are truncated. For example, if file names are limited
-to 14 characters, gzip.msdos.exe is compressed to gzi.msd.exe.gz.
+the longest parts are truncated.
+For example, if file names are limited to 14 characters,
+gzip.msdos.exe is compressed to gzi.msd.exe.gz.
Names are not truncated on systems which do not have a limit on file name
length.
.PP
By default,
.B gzip
-keeps the original file name and timestamp in the compressed file. These
-are used when decompressing the file with the
+keeps the original file name and timestamp in the compressed file.
+These are used when decompressing the file with the
.B \-N
-option. This is useful when the compressed file name was truncated or
+option.
+This is useful when the compressed file name was truncated or
when the timestamp was not preserved after a file transfer.
.PP
Compressed files can be restored to their original form using
-.B "gzip -d"
+.B "gzip \-d"
or
.B gunzip
or
.BR zcat .
If the original name saved in the compressed file is not suitable for its
-file system, a new name is constructed from the original one to make it
-legal.
+file system, a new name is constructed from the original one to make it valid.
.PP
.B gunzip
takes a list of files on its command line and replaces each
-file whose name ends with .gz, -gz, .z, -z, or _z (ignoring case)
+file whose name ends with .gz, \-gz, .z, \-z, or _z (ignoring case)
and which begins with the correct magic number with an uncompressed
file without the original extension.
.B gunzip
@@ -102,40 +103,47 @@ can currently decompress files created by
.BR gzip ,
.BR zip ,
.BR compress ,
-.B "compress -H"
+.B "compress \-H"
or
.BR pack .
-The detection of the input format is automatic. When using
-the first two formats,
+The detection of the input format is automatic.
+When using the first two formats,
.B gunzip
-checks a 32 bit CRC. For
+checks a 32 bit CRC.
+For
.B pack
and
.B gunzip
-checks the uncompressed length. The standard
+checks the uncompressed length.
+The standard
.B compress
-format was not designed to allow consistency checks. However
+format was not designed to allow consistency checks.
+However
.B gunzip
-is sometimes able to detect a bad .Z file. If you get an error
-when uncompressing a .Z file, do not assume that the .Z file is
+is sometimes able to detect a bad .Z file.
+If you get an error when uncompressing a .Z file,
+do not assume that the .Z file is
correct simply because the standard
.B uncompress
-does not complain. This generally means that the standard
+does not complain.
+This generally means that the standard
.B uncompress
does not check its input, and happily generates garbage output.
-The SCO compress -H format (lzh compression method) does not include a CRC
+The SCO compress \-H format (lzh compression method) does not include a CRC
but also allows some consistency checks.
.PP
Files created by
.B zip
can be uncompressed by gzip only if they have a single member compressed
-with the 'deflation' method. This feature is only intended to help
-conversion of tar.zip files to the tar.gz format. To extract a
+with the 'deflation' method.
+This feature is only intended to help
+conversion of tar.zip files to the tar.gz format.
+To extract a
.B zip
file with a single member, use a command like
.RB ' "gunzip <foo.zip" '
or
-.RB ' "gunzip -S .zip foo.zip" '.
+.RB ' "gunzip \-S .zip foo.zip" '.
To extract zip files
with several members, use
.B unzip
@@ -172,7 +180,7 @@ and PKZIP.
The amount of compression obtained depends on the size of the
input and the distribution of common substrings.
Typically, text such as source code or English
-is reduced by 60\-70%.
+is reduced by 60\(en70%.
Compression is generally much better than that achieved by
LZW (as used in
.BR compress ),
@@ -182,38 +190,42 @@ or adaptive Huffman coding
.RB ( compact ).
.PP
Compression is always performed, even if the compressed file is
-slightly larger than the original. The worst case expansion is
+slightly larger than the original.
+The worst case expansion is
a few bytes for the gzip file header, plus 5 bytes per 32\ KiB block,
-or an expansion ratio of 0.015% for large files. The actual
-number of used disk blocks almost never increases.
+or an expansion ratio of 0.015% for large files.
+The actual number of used disk blocks almost never increases.
.PP
.B gzip
normally preserves the mode and modification timestamp
-of a file when compressing or decompressing. If you have appropriate
-privileges, it also preserves the file's owner and group.
+of a file when compressing or decompressing.
+If you have appropriate privileges,
+it also preserves the file's owner and group.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
-.B \-a --ascii
-Ascii text mode: convert end-of-lines using local conventions. This option
-is supported only on some non-Unix systems. For MSDOS, CR LF is converted
-to LF when compressing, and LF is converted to CR LF when decompressing.
+.B \-a \-\-ascii
+Ascii text mode: convert end-of-lines using local conventions.
+This option is supported only on some non-Unix systems.
+For MSDOS, CR LF is converted to LF when compressing,
+and LF is converted to CR LF when decompressing.
.TP
-.B \-c --stdout --to-stdout
+.B \-c \-\-stdout \-\-to-stdout
Write output on standard output; keep original files unchanged.
If there are several input files, the output consists of a sequence of
-independently compressed members. To obtain better compression,
+independently compressed members.
+To obtain better compression,
concatenate all input files before compressing them.
.TP
-.B \-d --decompress --uncompress
+.B \-d \-\-decompress \-\-uncompress
Decompress.
.TP
-.B \-f --force
+.B \-f \-\-force
Force compression or decompression even if the file has multiple links
or the corresponding file already exists, or if the compressed data
-is read from or written to a terminal. If the input data is not in
-a format recognized by
+is read from or written to a terminal.
+If the input data is not in a format recognized by
.BR gzip ,
-and if the option --stdout is also given, copy the input data without change
+and if the option \-\-stdout is also given, copy the input data without change
to the standard output: let
.B zcat
behave as
@@ -225,13 +237,13 @@ and when not running in the background,
.B gzip
prompts to verify whether an existing file should be overwritten.
.TP
-.B \-h --help
+.B \-h \-\-help
Display a help screen and quit.
.TP
-.B \-k --keep
+.B \-k \-\-keep
Keep (don't delete) input files during compression or decompression.
.TP
-.B \-l --list
+.B \-l \-\-list
For each compressed file, list the following fields:
compressed size: size of the compressed file
@@ -239,13 +251,13 @@ For each compressed file, list the following fields:
ratio: compression ratio (0.0% if unknown)
uncompressed_name: name of the uncompressed file
-The uncompressed size is given as -1 for files not in gzip format,
-such as compressed .Z files. To get the uncompressed size for such a file,
-you can use:
+The uncompressed size is given as \-1 for files not in gzip format,
+such as compressed .Z files.
+To get the uncompressed size for such a file, you can use:
- zcat file.Z | wc -c
+ zcat file.Z | wc \-c
-In combination with the --verbose option, the following fields are also
+In combination with the \-\-verbose option, the following fields are also
displayed:
method: compression method
@@ -253,55 +265,56 @@ displayed:
date & time: timestamp for the uncompressed file
The compression methods currently supported are deflate, compress, lzh
-(SCO compress -H) and pack. The crc is given as ffffffff for a file
-not in gzip format.
+(SCO compress \-H) and pack.
+The crc is given as ffffffff for a file not in gzip format.
-With --name, the uncompressed name, date and time are
+With \-\-name, the uncompressed name, date and time are
those stored within the compress file if present.
-With --verbose, the size totals and compression ratio for all files
-is also displayed, unless some sizes are unknown. With --quiet,
-the title and totals lines are not displayed.
+With \-\-verbose, the size totals and compression ratio for all files
+is also displayed, unless some sizes are unknown.
+With \-\-quiet, the title and totals lines are not displayed.
.TP
-.B \-L --license
+.B \-L \-\-license
Display the
.B gzip
license and quit.
.TP
-.B \-n --no-name
-When compressing, do not save the original file name and timestamp by
-default. (The original name is always saved if the name had to be
-truncated.) When decompressing, do not restore the original file name
+.B \-n \-\-no-name
+When compressing, do not save the original file name and timestamp by default.
+(The original name is always saved if the name had to be truncated.)
+When decompressing, do not restore the original file name
if present (remove only the
.B gzip
suffix from the compressed file name) and do not restore the original
-timestamp if present (copy it from the compressed file). This option
-is the default when decompressing.
+timestamp if present (copy it from the compressed file).
+This option is the default when decompressing.
.TP
-.B \-N --name
+.B \-N \-\-name
When compressing, always save the original file name, and save
the seconds part of the original modification timestamp if the
original is a regular file and its timestamp is at least 1 (1970-01-01
00:00:01 UTC) and is less than 2**32 (2106-02-07 06:28:16 UTC,
assuming leap seconds are not counted); this
-is the default. When decompressing, restore from the saved file name and
-timestamp if present. This option is useful on systems which have
-a limit on file name length or when the timestamp has been lost after
-a file transfer.
+is the default.
+When decompressing, restore from the saved file name and
+timestamp if present.
+This option is useful on systems which have a limit on file name
+length or when the timestamp has been lost after a file transfer.
.TP
-.B \-q --quiet
+.B \-q \-\-quiet
Suppress all warnings.
.TP
-.B \-r --recursive
-Travel the directory structure recursively. If any of the file names
-specified on the command line are directories,
+.B \-r \-\-recursive
+Travel the directory structure recursively.
+If any of the file names specified on the command line are directories,
.B gzip
will descend into the directory and compress all the files it finds there
(or decompress them in the case of
.B gunzip
).
.TP
-.B \-S .suf --suffix .suf
+.B \-S .suf \-\-suffix .suf
When compressing, use suffix .suf instead of .gz.
Any non-empty suffix can be given, but suffixes
other than .z and .gz should be avoided to avoid confusion when files
@@ -310,23 +323,27 @@ are transferred to other systems.
When decompressing, add .suf to the beginning of the list of
suffixes to try, when deriving an output file name from an input file name.
.TP
-.B --synchronous
-Use synchronous output. With this option,
+.B \-\-synchronous
+Use synchronous output.
+With this option,
.B gzip
is less likely to lose data during a system crash, but it can be
considerably slower.
.TP
-.B \-t --test
-Test. Check the compressed file integrity then quit.
+.B \-t \-\-test
+Test.
+Check the compressed file integrity then quit.
.TP
-.B \-v --verbose
-Verbose. Display the name and percentage reduction for each file compressed
+.B \-v \-\-verbose
+Verbose.
+Display the name and percentage reduction for each file compressed
or decompressed.
.TP
-.B \-V --version
-Version. Display the version number and compilation options then quit.
+.B \-V \-\-version
+Version.
+Display the version number and compilation options then quit.
.TP
-.B \-# --fast --best
+.B \-# \-\-fast \-\-best
Regulate the speed of compression using the specified digit
.BR # ,
where
@@ -344,65 +361,77 @@ The default compression level is
(that is, biased towards high compression at expense of speed).
.TP
.B \-\-rsyncable
-When you synchronize a compressed file between two computers, this option allows rsync to transfer only files that were changed in the archive instead of the entire archive.
-Normally, after a change is made to any file in the archive, the compression algorithm can generate a new version of the archive that does not match the previous version of the archive. In this case, rsync transfers the entire new version of the archive to the remote computer.
-With this option, rsync can transfer only the changed files as well as a small amount of metadata that is required to update the archive structure in the area that was changed.
+When you synchronize a compressed file between two computers,
+this option allows rsync to transfer only files that were changed in
+the archive instead of the entire archive.
+Normally, after a change is made to any file in the archive,
+the compression algorithm can generate a new version of the archive
+that does not match the previous version of the archive.
+In this case, rsync transfers the entire new version of the archive to
+the remote computer.
+With this option, rsync can transfer only the changed files as well as
+a small amount of metadata that is required to update the archive
+structure in the area that was changed.
.SH "ADVANCED USAGE"
-Multiple compressed files can be concatenated. In this case,
+Multiple compressed files can be concatenated.
+In this case,
.B gunzip
-will extract all members at once. For example:
+will extract all members at once.
+For example:
- gzip -c file1 > foo.gz
- gzip -c file2 >> foo.gz
+ gzip \-c file1 > foo.gz
+ gzip \-c file2 >> foo.gz
Then
- gunzip -c foo
+ gunzip \-c foo
is equivalent to
cat file1 file2
In case of damage to one member of a .gz file, other members can
-still be recovered (if the damaged member is removed). However,
-you can get better compression by compressing all members at once:
+still be recovered (if the damaged member is removed).
+However, you can get better compression by compressing all members at once:
cat file1 file2 | gzip > foo.gz
compresses better than
- gzip -c file1 file2 > foo.gz
+ gzip \-c file1 file2 > foo.gz
If you want to recompress concatenated files to get better compression, do:
- gzip -cd old.gz | gzip > new.gz
+ gzip \-cd old.gz | gzip > new.gz
If a compressed file consists of several members, the uncompressed
-size and CRC reported by the --list option applies to the last member
-only. If you need the uncompressed size for all members, you can use:
+size and CRC reported by the \-\-list option applies to the last member only.
+If you need the uncompressed size for all members, you can use:
- gzip -cd file.gz | wc -c
+ gzip \-cd file.gz | wc \-c
If you wish to create a single archive file with multiple members so
that members can later be extracted independently, use an archiver
-such as tar or zip. GNU tar supports the -z option to invoke gzip
-transparently. gzip is designed as a complement to tar, not as a
-replacement.
+such as tar or zip.
+GNU tar supports the \-z option to invoke gzip transparently.
+gzip is designed as a complement to tar, not as a replacement.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
The obsolescent environment variable
.B GZIP
can hold a set of default options for
.BR gzip .
These options are interpreted first and can be overwritten by explicit
-command line parameters. As this can cause problems when using
-scripts, this feature is supported only for options that are
+command line parameters.
+As this can cause problems when using scripts,
+this feature is supported only for options that are
reasonably likely to not cause too much harm, and
.B gzip
warns if it is used.
This feature will be removed in a future release of
.BR gzip .
.PP
-You can use an alias or script instead. For example, if
+You can use an alias or script instead.
+For example, if
.B gzip
is in the directory
.B /usr/bin
@@ -441,9 +470,10 @@ Data Format Specification version 1.3,
Internet RFC 1951 (May 1996).
.SH "DIAGNOSTICS"
Exit status is normally 0;
-if an error occurs, exit status is 1. If a warning occurs, exit status is 2.
+if an error occurs, exit status is 1.
+If a warning occurs, exit status is 2.
.TP
-Usage: gzip [-cdfhklLnNrtvV19] [-S suffix] [file ...]
+Usage: gzip [\-cdfhklLnNrtvV19] [\-S suffix] [file ...]
Invalid options were specified on the command line.
.TP
\fIfile\fP\^: not in gzip format
@@ -451,9 +481,10 @@ The file specified to
.B gunzip
has not been compressed.
.TP
-\fIfile\fP\^: Corrupt input. Use zcat to recover some data.
-The compressed file has been damaged. The data up to the point of failure
-can be recovered using
+\fIfile\fP\^: Corrupt input.
+Use zcat to recover some data.
+The compressed file has been damaged.
+The data up to the point of failure can be recovered using
zcat \fIfile\fP > recover
.TP
@@ -466,7 +497,7 @@ than the decompress code on this machine.
Recompress the file with gzip, which compresses better and uses
less memory.
.TP
-\fIfile\fP\^: already has .gz suffix -- unchanged
+\fIfile\fP\^: already has .gz suffix \-\- unchanged
The file is assumed to be already compressed.
Rename the file and try again.
.TP
@@ -483,30 +514,33 @@ been corrupted.
and
.BR \-l \.)
.TP
--- not a regular file or directory: ignored
+\-\- not a regular file or directory: ignored
When the input file is not a regular file or directory,
-(e.g. a symbolic link, socket, FIFO, device file), it is
+(e.g., a symbolic link, socket, FIFO, device file), it is
left unaltered.
.TP
--- has \fIxx\fP other links: unchanged
-The input file has links; it is left unchanged. See
+\-\- has \fIxx\fP other links: unchanged
+The input file has links; it is left unchanged.
+See
.BR ln "(1)"
-for more information. Use the
+for more information.
+Use the
.B \-f
flag to force compression of multiply-linked files.
.SH CAVEATS
When writing compressed data to a tape, it is generally necessary to
-pad the output with zeroes up to a block boundary. When the data is
-read and the whole block is passed to
+pad the output with zeroes up to a block boundary.
+When the data is read and the whole block is passed to
.B gunzip
for decompression,
.B gunzip
detects that there is extra trailing garbage after the compressed data
-and emits a warning by default. You can use the --quiet option to
-suppress the warning.
+and emits a warning by default.
+You can use the \-\-quiet option to suppress the warning.
.SH BUGS
-In some rare cases, the --best option gives worse compression than
-the default compression level (-6). On some highly redundant files,
+In some rare cases, the \-\-best option gives worse compression than
+the default compression level (\-6).
+On some highly redundant files,
.B compress
compresses better than
.BR gzip .
@@ -517,8 +551,8 @@ GNU gzip home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/>
.br
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
.SH "COPYRIGHT NOTICE"
-Copyright \(co 1998-1999, 2001-2002, 2012, 2015-2023 Free Software Foundation,
-Inc.
+Copyright \(co 1998\(en1999, 2001\(en2002, 2012, 2015\(en2023
+Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.br
Copyright \(co 1992, 1993 Jean-loup Gailly
.PP
--
2.40.1
