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Solid compression
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<p>In <a href="/facts/Computing/Kghtm9fX">computing</a>, solid compression is a method for <a href="/facts/Data_compression/gMFuY4FT">data compression</a> of multiple files, wherein all the uncompressed files are concatenated and treated as a single data block. Such an archive is called a solid archive. It is used natively in the <a href="/facts/7z/qG1rNuWr">7z</a> and <a href="/facts/RAR_(file_format)/cgHI6gnw">RAR</a> formats, as well as indirectly in <a href="/facts/Tar_(file_format)/DCJ37j3d">tar</a>-based formats such as .tar.<a href="/facts/Gzip/H23uqvyx">gz</a> and .tar.<a href="/facts/Bzip2/waffQ2m0">bz2</a>. By contrast, the <a href="/facts/ZIP_(file_format)/qDrrYIB9">ZIP format</a> is not solid because it stores separately compressed files (though solid compression can be emulated for small archives by combining the files into an uncompressed archive file and then compressing that archive file inside a second compressed ZIP file). </p>