Compression algorithms for the Linux kernel source tree
Post date: Dec 18, 2013 1:42:13 PM
Have you ever wondered which compression algorithm provides the best compression for the Linux kernel source tree? For the Linux Kernel I had pondered this awhile back (yes, in the 2.6.x days) before the xz format had been on the kernel FTP mirrors. Unless otherwise noted, I used the maximum compression options as noted from the manpage. Clearly xz [1] and 7z [2] come out on top. I've only done brief testing with xz; however, with 7zip using the lzma2 compression algorithm it can scale to the number of cores in your system, which is a plus if you need to compress files quickly.
Click the image for the full size graph:
The data in table format: