XLUNZIP(1)

📦
version 0.10 · 4 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 XLUNZIP(1) — the manual page, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, you found the manual page for xlunzip, section 1 of the manual (that's the "User Commands" girlies ✨). Sit down, grab a strawberry drink 🍓, and let's get into it.

🌸 NAME 🌸

xlunzip — it's a test tool for the lzip_decompress linux module. That's the whole job. That's the assignment. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

xlunzip [options] [files]

short, sweet, iconic, no notes. 👑

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so. Xlunzip is a test tool for the lzip decompression code of my lzip patch for linux — like, the author's own patch, we're in the author's house rn 🫶. Xlunzip is similar to lunzip, but here's the twist: it uses the lzip_decompress linux module as a backend. different backend, same energy.

And what is it testing exactly? Xlunzip tests the module for stream, buffer-to-buffer, and mixed decompression modes — including in-place decompression (which is when you use the same buffer for input and output, no cap, it's giving efficiency 💀).

You can use xlunzip to check that the module produces correct results when decompressing:

  • single member files
  • multimember files
  • the concatenation of two or more compressed files

and you can also pair it with unzcrash to test the robustness of the module to the decompression of corrupted data 😭 (chaos testing, we love her).

Also?? The distributed index feature of the lzip format is what allows xlunzip to decompress concatenated files in place. And this can't be guaranteed to work with formats like gzip or bzip2 — because they can't detect whether a high compression ratio in the first members of the multimember data is being masked by a low compression ratio in the last members. so like, that's a them problem 💅. lzip stays winning.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -h, --help — display this help and exit. your lil tutorial era.
  • -V, --version — output version information and exit. say hi to the version number.
  • -c, --stdout — write to standard output, keep input files. send it straight to stdout, don't touch the originals.
  • -d, --decompress — decompress (this is the default, bestie, so it's what happens when you don't say anything).
  • -f, --force — overwrite existing output files. yes, even those. bold move, main character energy.
  • -I, --in-place — decompress or test using only one buffer. one buffer. one girl. one destiny.
  • -k, --keep — keep (don't delete) input files. protect them 🫶.
  • -o, --output=<file> — write to <file>, keep input files.
  • -q, --quiet — suppress all messages. silence. peace. no thoughts.
  • -t, --test — test compressed file integrity. is it okay? we're checking.
  • -v, --verbose — be verbose (a 2nd -v gives more). the more v's the more tea ☕.

💀 These options are ignored when --in-place is in effect 💀

like, they're literally not invited to the party when --in-place shows up:

  • --insize[=<size>] — pre-allocate and fill inbuf [default 16 KiB]
  • --outsize[=<size>] — pre-allocate outbuf [default 512 MiB]
  • --nofill — do not pass a fill function; requires --insize
  • --noflush — do not pass a flush function; requires --outsize

if no file names are given, or if a file is -, xlunzip decompresses from standard input to standard output. so you can just pipe it, slay.

Numbers may contain underscore separators between groups of digits and may be followed by a SI or binary multiplier, like 1_234_567kB or 4KiB. pretty, readable, obsessed. ✨

To extract all the files from archive foo.tar.lz, use the commands:

tar -xf foo.tar.lz

or

xlunzip -cd foo.tar.lz | tar -xf -

iykyk 🔥

🌈 EXIT STATUS 🌈

here's the vibe check on what number it leaves you with:

  • 0 — for a normal exit 🎉
  • 1 — for environmental problems (file not found, invalid command-line options, I/O errors, etc) 😬
  • 2 — to indicate a corrupt or invalid input file 💀
  • 3 — for an internal consistency error (e.g., bug) which caused xlunzip to panic 😭 like, genuinely, that's a bad day

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? don't be shy, spill it:

Copyright © 2026 Antonio Diaz Diaz. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. (read that again, bestie — NO WARRANTY, capital letters, they meant it)

and that's the whole page!! this was xlunzip 0.10, born January 2026, and I'm kissing you goodbye 😘💖 — go decompress something in place, you icon. periodt. 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from