Compressing files is one of the most mundane activities, and frequently performed without much thought. For most Linux users, irrespective of distro, Gzip is the tool of choice. But it’s quite slow, especially with large files running into hundreds of megabytes or more. On modern multi-core machines, you can easily speed up compression with parallel processing. Cue Pigz.
Pigz achieves far faster compression because it puts the power of multi-core machines to proper use when compressing data.
Released under the permissive zib licence, Pigz is the brainchild of Mark Adler, who apart from his work with NASA on the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover, has contributed to the development of the PNG image format, and developed both zlib and
