How to Gzip a javascript file?

Question

179KB of jQuery is Minified and Gzipped to 26KB. I am trying to do the same compressions to my javascript files and found the Yuicompressor to Minify it. But I am still searching for a way to Gzip it.

How can I Gzip my Javascript files?

Answer 1

If you are using it in a webpage, gzip is a configuration method in your web server. The file is gzipped by the server, sent to the browser. No manual action is needed. For Apache: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_deflate.html.

If you are delivering the code to developers, you could use the gzip command.

Answer 2

You would use gzip, the GNU compression utility. Luckily, the gzip algorithm and file structure is implemented by numerous other tools, such as 7zip (for Windows). You can configure your server (via mod_deflate or others) to compress files on the fly, but for static content its a waste of CPU power.

Here is an article which shows how to transparently serve pre-compressed gzip to browsers which support it: http://blog.alien109.com/2009/03/17/gzip-your-javascript/