Adding my 0.02, you'd can do some tests on your box and, as others have said, make your mind based on what is cheaper for you: disk space or CPU. Original random.out is about 7MB: $ time gzip random.out real 0m7.231s user 0m6.650s sys 0m0.540s $ ls -l random.out.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 owner users 39641 Jan 22 11:39 random.out.gz $ time compress random.out real 0m26.246s user 0m22.470s sys 0m1.220s $ ls -l random.out.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 owner users 386673 Jan 22 11:39 random.out.Z HTH, Cerri 2008/1/22, Alberto Dell'Era <alberto.dellera@xxxxxxxxx>: > On Jan 22, 2008 9:04 PM, M Rafiq <rafiq9857@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Only observation is high CPU usage for gzip than compress though. > > Also worth mentioning: > > > man gzip > (snip) > -# --fast --best > Regulate the speed of compression using the specified > digit #, where -1 or --fast indicates the fastest compression > method (less compression) and -9 or --best indicates the > slowest compression method (best compression). The default com- > pression level is -6 (that is, biased towards high compression > at expense of speed). > > probably (not tested myself) you might experience less CPU utilization > by setting a low compression rate, if CPU is at a premium. > > -- > Alberto Dell'Era > "the more you know, the faster you go" > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l