---
name: "heatshrink"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "heatshrink"
version: "0.4.1-3+b1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/heatshrink"
---

# heatshrink(1)

compress/decompress byte streams using LZSS

## NAME

heatshrink - compress/decompress byte streams using LZSS

## SYNOPSIS

**heatshrink** \[**-h**\]

**heatshrink** \[**-e** \| **-d**\] \[**-v**\] \[**-w** *SIZE*\] \[**-l** *BITS*\] \[*IN\_FILE*\] \[*OUT\_FILE*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**heatshrink** compresses or decompresses byte streams using LZSS and is designed especially for embedded, low-memory, and/or hard real-time systems.

## OPTIONS

- **-h**

  Print help

- **-e**

  Encode (compress, default)

- **-d**

  Decode (decompress)

- **-v**

  Verbose (print input & output sizes, compression ratio, etc.)

- **-w** *SIZE*

  Base-2 log of LZSS sliding window size A larger value allows searches a larger history of the data for repeated patterns, potentially compressing more effectively, but will use more memory and processing time. Recommended default: **-w** *8* (embedded systems), **-w** *10* (elsewhere)

- **-l** *BITS*

  Number of bits used for back-reference lengths. A larger value allows longer substitutions, but since all back-references must use **-w** + **-l** bits, larger **-w** or **-l** can be counterproductive if most patterns are small and/or local. Recommended default: **-l** *4*

If *IN\_FILE* or *OUT\_FILE* are unspecified, they will default to *-* for standard input and standard output, respectively.

## BUGS

The upstream BTS can be found at https://github.com/atomicobject/heatshrink/issues

## AUTHOR

- Chow Loong Jin

  ⟨hyperair@debian.org⟩\\c Wrote this manpage for the Debian system.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2023 Chow Loong Jin

This manual page was written for the Debian system (and may be used by others).

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or (at your option) any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.