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From: greg@garnet.berkeley.edu (Greg Kuperberg)
Newsgroups: comp.compression
Subject: Silliness in compress(1)
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.193729.28574@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 91 19:37:29 GMT
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Reply-To: greg@math.berkeley.edu
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
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Most you of probably know that if the output of compress(1) is longer
than the input, the program leaves the original file alone.  But has
anyone else noticed that if the output is exactly the same length as
the input, then compress(1) goes ahead and replaces foo with foo.Z?
compress(1) knows not to be counterproductive, but it is perfectly
happy to march in place.
----
Greg Kuperberg
greg@math.berkeley.edu