Batch compress files

November 10, 2025

Batch compress files with the following tools

Use XZ to compress all CSV files

find . -type f -name "*.csv" -print0 | parallel -0 -j32 --progress "xz -z {}"

Warning

xz removes the original file after compression by default. You can add -k option to keep the file.

Tip

Use --dry-run before actually running the jobs to ensure the commands are right.
Use -<num> to change the compression level. For example, xz -z -9 {} uses maximum compression.

find . -type f -name "*.gz" -print0 | parallel -0 -j32 --progress "zcat {} | xz -z -9 > {.}.xz"

find . -type f -name "*.gz" -print0 | parallel -0 -j2 --progress "zcat {} | 7z a -si {.}.7z"

for f in */; do 7z a "${f%/}.7z" "$f"; done

Warning

If you want to use find to list all subdirectories, use

find . -maxdepth 1 -type d -not -path "." | parallel <command>

to list every subdirectory and exclude the current working directory.

Last updated on February 27, 2026