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  /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 com-
              pressing 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 com-
       pressed executable relies on the PATH environment  vari-
       able to find gzip and some standard utilities (basename,
       chmod, ln, mkdir, mktemp, rm, sleep, and tail).

BUGS
       gzexe 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.



                                                                      GZEXE(1)
