Re: [CentOS] Bzip2 Compress directories

On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:29:52 -0400 Robert Heller wrote:

Note that is also possible to use dump or cpio as well. Unlike the MS-Windows zip/unzip, which combines compressing and archiving in a single program, the 'UNIX' way is to separate these functions. bzip2 only compresses. Other programs (tar, dump, cpio) create archives -- bundle a group of files and/or directory trees into a single file.

Depending on your needs, you can obtain better compression with programs other than bzip2. The price paid for the additional compression can be processing time, ram requirements, robustness, compatibility and several or none of the above.

rzip, lzip and 7za come to mind as alternatives that you may want to look into.