GZ Gzip Archive Format
GZ, or Gzip, is a widely-used compression format developed by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler in 1992. It is primarily intended for file compression and is often used in conjunction with tar to create compressed archive files.
The GZ format employs the DEFLATE algorithm, which provides excellent compression ratios for single files. However, it does not support multiple files or directories directly, making it necessary to use other tools for archiving.
GZ is commonly used in Unix and Linux environments for compressing log files, software packages, and data backups, thanks to its simplicity and efficiency in reducing file sizes.[1]