In computing, solid compression refers to a method for data compression of multiple files, wherein all the compressed files are concatenated and treated as a single data block. Such an archive is called a solid archive. It is used natively in the 7z and RAR formats, as well as indirectly in tar-based formats such as .tar.gz and .tar.bz2. By contrast, the ZIP format is not solid because it stores separate compressed files (even though solid compression can be portably emulated).
The term is ostensibly because the data is compressed as a single solid block, rather than as individual files.
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Famous quotes containing the words solid and/or compression:
“An idea ran back and forward in his head like a blind man, knocking over the solid furniture.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Do they [the publishers of Murphy] not understand that if the book is slightly obscure it is because it is a compression and that to compress it further can only make it more obscure?”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)