WANDIOCAT(1)

📦 version 4.2.7, in nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

💅 WANDIOCAT(1) — like, the libwandio era 💅

okay bestie, so this is wandiocat from libwandio, and before you ask — yes, it's giving "small utility, big slay" energy. this page is gonna walk you through literally everything, no cap. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

wandiocat — reads and writes files using the libwandio routines. that's it. that's the whole vibe. 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

wandiocat [-z level] [-Z method]
        [-o outputfilename] inputfile [inputfile ...]

like, you give it input files, it gives you output. iconic behavior fr fr. 🌸

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so wandiocat is a simple little program — and honestly its whole main character energy is demonstrating how libwandio can be used to easily read and write files using any of the supported compression methods. it's a showcase, a demo, a little star. ⭐

here's the deal: every input file you specify gets concatenated into a single output file. and if you don't specify an output file? it just goes to standard output instead. either way, the output gets compressed according to the compression method and level you, the user, supplied. you're in charge, bestie. 💅

and the lowkey best part — wandiocat will automatically detect the compression method required to read the input files. so you do not need to decompress them first. no extra steps, no manual labor, it just knows. iykyk. 🧚

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

  • -h — shows you a summary of all the supported command-line options. a little menu, a little "here's what i can do", we love a helpful queen. 💖
  • -Z method — specifies which compression method should be used to write output. it must be one of 'gzip', 'bzip2', 'lzma', 'lzo', 'zstd', or 'lz4' — those are your only options, pick one of the six, no freelancing. if you don't specify anything, the output is written uncompressed. plain. raw. unbothered. 🙈
  • -z level — specifies the compression level to be used when writing output. the level must be an integer value between 0 (uncompressed) and 9 (maximum compression), inclusive — so don't go throwing 10 in there, it's not that kind of party. usually compression level 1 is sufficient for most purposes. defaults to 0. 🍓
  • -o outputfilename — sets the name of the output file. if you don't specify a name, output will be written to standard output instead. your call, bestie. ✨

🔥 SECURITY 🔥

wandiocat should usually be run unprivileged. like, normally you do NOT need to be root for this, and honestly? good. keep it low-key.

the only exception — the one situation where this changes — is when the user wants to use Intel QuickAssist hardware to perform gzip compression, and has configured and installed libwandio with QuickAssist support enabled. in that specific case, wandiocat may need to be run as root to be able to access the hardware. that's it. that's the whole caveat. don't run it as root for funsies. 💀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

wandiocat was originally written by Perry Lorier, while working for the University of Waikato WAND Network Research Group <contact@wand.net.nz>. absolute legend behavior. 🫶

this manual page was written by Shane Alcock <shane.alcock@waikato.ac.nz>. shoutout to the docs queen. 💜

so yeah, that's the whole page, bestie. go compress something. slay. 🌟

wandiocat — the libwandio classic — dated 2019-02-12 💖 and that's the WANDIOCAT(1) sign-off, mwah 🎀

📦 where this page comes from