SQ(1)                                                       SQ(1)



NAME
       sq, unsq - squeeze or 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 -u /usr/dict/words | sq | gzip -9 > words.sq.Z
       will compress dict by about a factor of 5.

       unsq uncompress the output of sq.  For example:
              gunzip < words.sq.gz | 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.

BUGS
       sq and unsq can only handle words of up to 256 characters.
       The  input  must  be  sorted,  and duplicates must be sup-
       pressed.

AUTHOR
       Mike Wexler

SEE ALSO
       compress(1), sort(1).



                              LOCAL                         SQ(1)