---
name: "prezip-bin"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "aspell"
version: "0.60.8.3-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/prezip-bin"
---

# prezip-bin(1)

prefix zip delta word list compressor/decompressor

## NAME

prezip-bin - prefix zip delta word list compressor/decompressor

## SYNOPSIS

**prezip-bin** \[ **-V** \| **-d** \| **-z** \]

## DESCRIPTION

**prezip-bin** compresses/decompresses sorted word lists from standard input to standard output.

*Prezip-bin* is similar to *[word-list-compress(1)](/word-list-compress/1.md)* but it allows a larger character set of {0x00...0x09, 0x0B, 0x0C, 0x0E...0xFF} and multi-words larger than 255 characters in length.  It can also decompress *[word-list-compress(1)](/word-list-compress/1.md)* compatible files.

## COMMANDS

*Prezip-bin* accepts only one of these commands.

- **-V**

  Display *prezip-bin* version number to standard output.

- **-d**

  Read a compressed word list from standard input and decompress it to standard output.  This can be a *[word-list-compress(1)](/word-list-compress/1.md)* or a *prezip-bin* compressed file.

- **-z**

  Read a binary word list from standard input and compress it to standard output.

## EXAMPLES

- prezip-bin **-d** \<wordlist.cwl \>wordlist.txt

  Decompress file wordlist.cwl to text file wordlist.txt

- prezip-bin **-z** \<wordlist.txt \>wordlist.pz 2\>errors.txt

  Compress wordlist.txt to binary file wordlist.pz and send any error messages to a text file named errors.txt

- LC\_COLLATE=C sort -u \<wordlist.txt **\|** prezip-bin -z \>wordlist.pz

  Sort a word list, then pipe it to *prezip-bin* to create a compressed binary wordlist.pz file.

- prezip-bin -d \<words.pz **\|** aspell create master ./words.rws

  Decompress a wordlist, then pipe it to *[aspell(1)](/aspell/1.md)* to create a spelling list.  Please check the *[aspell(1)](/aspell/1.md)* info manual for proper usage and options.

## TIPS

*Prezip-bin* is best used with sorted word list type files.  It is not a general purpose compression program since resulting files may actually increase in size.

Unlike *[word-list-compress(1)](/word-list-compress/1.md)* if your word list has leading or trailing blank spaces for formatting purposes, you should remove them first before you compress your list using *prezip-bin -z* , otherwise those spaces will be included in the compressed binary output.

## DIAGNOSTICS

*Prezip-bin* normally exits with a return code of 0.  If it encounters an error, a message is sent to standard error output (stderr), and *prezip-bin* exits with a non-zero return value.  Error messages are listed below:

- **(display help/usage message)**

  Unknown command given on the command line so *prezip-bin* displays a usage message to standard error output.

- **unknown format**

  The input file appears not to be an expected format, or may possibly be a more advanced format.  The output file will be empty.

- **corrupt input**

  This is only for the decompression command **-d**.  The input file appeared to be of a correct format, but something appears wrong now. There may be some valid data in output, but due to input corruption, the rest of the file can not be completed.

- **unexpected EOF**

  The input file appeared okay but ended sooner than expected, therefore the output file is not complete.

## SEE ALSO

[**aspell**(1)](/aspell/1.md), [**aspell-import**(1)](/aspell-import/1.md), [**run-with-aspell**(1)](/run-with-aspell/1.md), [**word-list-compress**(1)](/word-list-compress/1.md)

Aspell is fully documented in its Texinfo manual.  See the \`**aspell**' entry in **info** for more complete documentation.

## REPORTING BUGS

For help, see the Aspell homepage at \<http://aspell.net\>.  Send bug reports/comments to the Aspell user list at the above address.

## AUTHOR

This info page was written by Jose Da Silva \<digital@joescat.com\>.