Compressing files using a minimal amount of memory

A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium including computer usable code for compressing a file in a computer, the computer program product comprising:

• computer usable code for determining an amount of memory available for use in the computer;
• computer usable code for determining a size of the file;
• computer usable code for determining a chunk size based on the size of the file and the amount of memory available for use;
• computer usable code for creating a set of chunks by repeatedly obtaining a chunk of chunk size from the file, and truncating the file an amount equal to the chunk size, until the file is completely truncated;
• computer usable code for creating a new file containing compressed chunks by repeatedly selecting a chunk from the set of chunks, compressing the chunk to form a compressed chunk, writing the compressed chunk to the new file, and deleting the chunk from the set of chunks, until each chunk in the set of chunks is deleted;
• and
• computer usable code for saving the new file containing the compressed chunks.

A data processing system for compressing a file, the data processing system comprising:

• a bus;
• a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device contains computer usable code;
• a communications unit connected to the bus;
• and
• a processing unit connected to the bus for executing the computer usable code, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable code and determines an amount of memory available for use in the computer, determines a size of the file, determines a chunk size based on the size of the file and the amount of memory available for use, creates a set of chunks by repeatedly obtaining a chunk of chunk size from the file, and truncating the file an amount equal to the chunk size, until the file is completely truncated, creates a new file containing compressed chunks by repeatedly selecting a chunk from the set of chunks, compressing the chunk to form a compressed chunk, writing the compressed chunk to the new file, and deleting the chunk from the set of chunks, until each chunk in the set of chunks is deleted, and saves the new file containing the compressed chunks.