sq

NAME

       sq  - squeeze a sorted word list unsq - unsqueeze a sorted
       word list

SYNOPSIS

       sq < infile > outfile

       unsq < infile > outfile

DESCRIPTION

       sq compresses a sorted list of words (a dictionary).   For
       example:
              sort /usr/dict/words | sq | compress > words.sq.Z
       will compress dict by about a factor of 4.

       unsq uncompress the output of sq.  For example:
              compress -d < words.sq.Z | unsq | sort -f -o words
       will uncompress a dictionary compressed with sq.

       The  squeezing is achieved by eliminating common prefixes,
       and replacing them with a single character  which  encodes
       the  number  of characters shared with the preceding word.
       The prefix size is encoded as a single  printable  charac-
       ter:  0-9 represent 0-9, A-Z represent 10-35, and a-z rep-
       resent 36-61.

AUTHOR

       Mike Wexler

SEE ALSO

       compress(1), sort(1).