Help: Technical Support: Computer Set-up:
File Compression: Uncompressing Files
Some Library Gateway databases contain compressed files; generally these are numeric and spatial databases. Files with .gz, .tar.gz, .Z, or .zip extensions are compressed files. For an explanation of the different types of file compression, see below.*
The following expansion utilities support all of the above file formats. To obtain the most recent version of the expansion utility, download the utility from the web sites listed below. To return to the CU Library Gateway, after downloading, use the Back button of your web browser.
| Utility | Description |
| StuffIt Expander |
Widely used file compression and expansion utility for Windows and Mac operating systems. |
| WinZip http://www.winzip.com/ |
Widely used file compression and expansion utility for Windows
operating systems. Please note that WinZip must be properly configured to avoid corrupting some GIS files. See the technical article from ESRI for more information: http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=knowledgebase.techarticles.articleShow&d=17135 |
* More Information on Types of File
Compression
.gz files: Files with a .gz extension have been compressed using Gzip (http://www.gzip.org/), a format
adopted by the Free Software Foundation's GNU Project (http://www.gnu.org/).
.tar.gz files:
Files with a .tar.gz extension have been archived using the UNIX tar command and
compressed with Gzip. Typically this is done with sets of files, so
decompressing the archive extracts multiple files.
.Z files: Files with a
.Z extension have been compressed using the UNIX tar command.
.zip files:
Files with a .zip extension have been compressed with one of any number of
common compression utilities, and can be extracted using nearly any
decompression utility.