zcat

Overview

zcat writes gzip-compressed files to stdout as if they were uncompressed (equivalent to gzip -dc). Handy in pipelines without creating temporary files. For .xz/.zst use xzcat/zstdcat (or zcat only where your distro aliases them carefully — do not assume).

Syntax

zcat [options] [file...]
gzip -dc file.gz

Examples with Explanations

Read a gzip log

zcat /var/log/syslog.1.gz | less
zcat app.log.gz | grep ERROR | tail

Concatenate multiple

zcat part-*.gz > combined.log

Portable explicit form

gzip -dc file.gz | jq .

Notes & Pitfalls

• zcat on some systems is a symlink to gzip -dc and only handles gzip.
  
• Compressed sparse/binary data still expands fully — watch disk when redirecting.
  
• Prefer zgrep when you only need matches.

Related Commands

• gzip / gunzip
  
• zgrep / zless
  
• xzcat / bzcat / zstdcat
  
• tar -xzOf — extract one member to stdout

Additional Resources

• man zcat / man gzip