The xz command is a very powerful program for compressing files.

* Average compression ratio of LZMA is about 30% better than that of
gzip, and 15% better than that of bzip2.

* Decompression speed is only little slower than that of gzip, being
two to five times faster than bzip2.

* In fast mode, compresses faster than bzip2 with a comparable
compression ratio.

* Achieving the best compression ratios takes four to even twelve
times longer than with bzip2. However. this doesn't affect
decompressing speed.

* Very similar command line interface to what gzip and bzip2 have.

zlib is designed to be a free, general-purpose, legally unencumbered -- that is, not covered by any patents -- lossless
data-compression library for use on virtually any computer hardware and operating system.

Packages in this project are built from the stable Git branch and contain fixes and features that are planned for the next stable release.