---
name: "bzexe"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "bzip2"
version: "1.0.8-6"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bzexe"
---

# bzexe(1)

compress executable files in place

## NAME

bzexe - compress executable files in place

## SYNOPSIS

**bzexe** \[ name ...  \]

## DESCRIPTION

The *bzexe* utility allows you to compress executables in place and have them automatically uncompress and execute when you run them (at a penalty in performance).  For example if you execute \`\`bzexe /bin/cat'' it will create the following two files:

```
    -r-xr-xr-x  1 root  bin   9644 Feb 11 11:16 /bin/cat
    -r-xr-xr-x  1 bin   bin  24576 Nov 23 13:21 /bin/cat~
```

/bin/cat~ is the original file and /bin/cat is the self-uncompressing executable file.  You can remove /bin/cat~ once you are sure that /bin/cat works properly.

This utility is most useful on systems with very small disks.

## OPTIONS

- **-d**

  Decompress the given executables instead of compressing them.

## SEE ALSO

[bzip2(1)](/bzip2/1.md), [znew(1)](/znew/1.md), [zmore(1)](/zmore/1.md), [zcmp(1)](/zcmp/1.md), [zforce(1)](/zforce/1.md)

## CAVEATS

The compressed executable is a shell script. This may create some security holes. In particular, the compressed executable relies on the PATH environment variable to find *gzip* and some other utilities *(tail, chmod, ln, sleep).*

## BUGS

*bzexe* attempts to retain the original file attributes on the compressed executable, but you may have to fix them manually in some cases, using *chmod* or *chown.*