xz compression has been rising in popularity because it offers smaller file sizes than gzip and bzip2. You’re still likely to see all three on a Linux system, but you may want to start opting for xz if you want smaller file archives.
In this guide, we’re going to introduce you to xz compression, starting from basic examples to more specific and advanced usage. If you’ve worked with compressed tar files or gzip compression (files with the .tar.gz extension, for example) in the past, you’ll find that xz feels very familiar.