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Which Compression Format to Use for Archiving?

posted by martyb on Thursday September 12 2019, @07:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the it-depends dept.

canopic jug writes:

Web developer Ukiah Smith wrote a blog post about which compression format to use when archiving. Obviously the algorithm must be lossless but beyond that he sets some criteria and then evaluates how some of the more common methods line up.

After some brainstorming I have arrived with a set of criteria that I believe will help ensure my data is safe while using compression.

  • The compression tool must be opensource.
  • The compression format must be open.
  • The tool must be popular enough to be supported by the community.
  • Ideally there would be multiple implementations.
  • The format must be resilient to data loss.

Some formats I am looking at are zip, 7zip, rar, xz, bzip2, tar.

He closes by mentioning error correction. That has become more important than most acknowledge due to the large size of data files, the density of storage, and the propensity for bits to flip.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @08:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @08:52PM (#893849)

    You aren't understanding my point because I misread yours.

    In contrast bzip2 can need as much as 8M. xz is in many ways an update of gzip, using the same basic method but with a number of improvements to increase compression, and it takes advantage of the much greater capacities of current computers as compared to the 1980s computers. xz can need several gigabytes of RAM.

    In contrast bzip2 can need as much as 8M. xz is in many ways an update of bzip2, using the same basic method but with a number of improvements to increase compression, and it takes advantage of the much greater capacities of current computers as compared to the 1980s computers. xz can need several gigabytes of RAM.

    You said the former, what I thought I read was the latter. That was the point I was responding too. Hence why you didn't understand it and probably thought it was out of left field.