---
name: "gzexe"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "gzip"
version: "1.15-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/gzexe"
---

# gzexe(1)

compress executable files in place

## NAME

gzexe - compress executable files in place

## SYNOPSIS

**gzexe** *name ...*

## DESCRIPTION

The **gzexe** 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 \`\`gzexe /usr/bin/gdb'' it will create the following two files:

```
    -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 1026675 Jun  7 13:53 /usr/bin/gdb
    -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 2304524 May 30 13:02 /usr/bin/gdb~
```

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

[**gzip**(1)](/gzip/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 standard utilities (**basename**, **chmod**, **ln**, **mkdir**, **mktemp**, **rm**, **sleep**, and **tail**).

## BUGS

The **gzexe** command 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**.