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@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2007  David Bateman
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+## any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
+## Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
+## 02110-1301, USA.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {@var{entries} =} gzip (@var{files})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {@var{entries} =} gzip (@var{files}, @var{outdir})
+## Compress the list of files and/or directories specified in @var{files}.
+## Each file is compressed separately and a new file with a '.gz' extension
+## is create. The original file is not touch. If @var{rootdir} is defined 
+## the compressed versions of the files are placed in this directory.
+## @seealso{gunzip, zip, tar}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function entries = gzip (files, outdir)
+
+  if (nargin == 1 || nargin == 2)
+
+    if (nargin == 2 && ! exist (outdir, "dir"))
+      error ("gzip: output directory does not exist");
+    endif
+
+    if (ischar (files))
+      files = cellstr (files);
+    endif
+
+    if (nargin == 1)
+      outdir = tmpnam ();
+      mkdir (outdir);
+    endif
+
+    cwd = pwd();
+    unwind_protect
+      if (iscellstr (files))
+	files = glob (files);
+
+	## Ignore any file with a .gz extension
+	files (cellfun (@(x) strcmp (x(end-2:end), ".gz"), files)) = [];
+    
+	copyfile (files, outdir);
+	[d, f] = myfileparts(files);
+	cd (outdir);
+
+	cmd = sprintf ("gzip -r %s", sprintf (" %s", f{:}));
+
+	[status, output] = system (cmd);
+
+	if (status == 0)
+
+	  if (nargin == 2)
+	    gzfiles = cellfun(@(x) fullfile (outdir, sprintf ("%s.gz", x)), ...
+			      f, "UniformOutput", false);
+	  else
+	    movefile (cellfun(@(x) sprintf ("%s.gz", x), f, ...
+			      "UniformOutput", false), cwd);
+	    gzfiles = cellfun(@(x) sprintf ("%s.gz", x), ...
+			      files, "UniformOutput", false);
+	  endif
+
+	  if (nargout > 0)
+            entries = gzfiles;
+	  endif
+	else
+	  error ("gzip: failed with exit status = %d", status);
+	endif
+    
+      else
+	error ("gzip: expecting all arguments to be character strings");
+      endif
+    unwind_protect_cleanup
+      cd(cwd);
+      if (nargin == 1)
+	crr = confirm_recursive_rmdir ();
+	unwind_protect
+	  confirm_recursive_rmdir (false);
+	  rmdir (outdir, "s");
+	unwind_protect_cleanup
+	  confirm_recursive_rmdir (crr);
+	end_unwind_protect
+      endif
+    end_unwind_protect
+  else
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+endfunction
+
+function [d, f] = myfileparts (x)
+  [d, f, ext] = cellfun (@(x) fileparts (x), x, "UniformOutput", false);
+  f = cellfun (@(x, y) sprintf ("%s%s", x, y), f, ext, ...
+	       "UniformOutput", false); 
+  idx = cellfun (@(x) isdir (x), x);
+  d(idx) = "";
+  f(idx) = x(idx);
+endfunction