1zip <archive.zip> <file1> <file2> # compress files.
2zip -r <archive.zip> <directory> # compress a directory.
3unzip archive_name.zip [-d directory] # decompress an archive.
gzip is based on the Deflate algorithm (a combination of the LZ77 and Huffman algorithms).
1gzip -l # show the size of the uncompressed file.
2gzip <file> # compress.
3gunzip <file.gz> | gzip -d <file.gz> # decompress.
4gzip -9 <my_file> # compress a file optimally.
5gzip -c <file1> <file2> > compressed_file.gz # compress several files into a single one.
bzip2 is an alternative to gzip, more efficient but slower.
1bzip2 <file> # compress a file.
2bunzip2 <compressed_file.bz2> # decompress a bzipped file.
LZMA is more efficient and faster than bzip2, but uses more memory.
1xz <file> # compress a file.
2xz -d <compressed_file.xz> # decompress a file.
compress is a compression utility based on the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm. It is not the most efficient and, since the compression algorithm is patented in some countries, most GNU/Linux distributions do not include it by default.
1compress <file> # compress a file.
2uncompress <compressed_file.Z> # decompress a file.