View source for Compact (Unix)

{{FormatInfo
|name=compact (Unix)
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Compression
|extensions={{ext|C}}
|released=~1979
}}
:''See [[Compact]] for other formats with that name.''

{{DISPLAYTITLE:compact (Unix)}}'''compact''' is an old Unix file compression utility and compressed file format, similar in function to [[Pack (Unix)|pack]] and [[compress (Unix)|compress]]. It uses [[adaptive Huffman coding]]. It was developed by Colin L. McMaster.

It has companion utilities named <code>uncompact</code> and <code>ccat</code>.

Compacted files have a capitalized ".C" suffix.

== Identification ==
Compacted files most likely start with bytes {{magic|ff 1f}}.

However, {{magic|1f ff}} is also possible, depending on how the software was configured at compile time. It's not clear what the intent was.

== Software ==
* compact (source code)
** http://www.retro11.de/ouxr/43bsd/usr/src/old/compact/
** https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/UCB/4.3BSD/src.tar.gz → old/compact/*
* [https://github.com/temisu/ancient Ancient]

== Sample files ==
* {{DexvertSamples|archive/compact}}

== Links ==
* [https://www.unix.com/man-page/ultrix/1/uncompact/ Ultrix man page]
* [https://docstore.mik.ua/manuals/hp-ux/en/B2355-60130/compact.1.html HP-UX man page]

[[Category:File formats with extension .c]]
[[Category:File formats with case sensitive extensions]]