GZEXE(1)							     GZEXE(1)



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
       /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
       gzip(1), znew(1), zmore(1), zcmp(1), zforce(1)

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
       gzexe  attempts	to  retain  the	 original file attributes on the com-
       pressed executable, but you may have to	fix  them  manually  in	 some
       cases, using chmod or chown.



								     GZEXE(1)

UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:

1. file
2. find
3. gzip
4. chmod
5. ln