pixz

./configure
make
make install

You many need sudo permissions to run make install.

Compress a single file (no tarball, just compression), multi-core:

pixz bar bar.xz

Decompress it, multi-core:

pixz -d bar.xz bar

Compress and index a tarball, multi-core:

pixz foo.tar foo.tpxz

Very quickly list the contents of the compressed tarball:

pixz -l foo.tpxz

Decompress the tarball, multi-core:

pixz -d foo.tpxz foo.tar

Very quickly extract a single file, multi-core, also verifies that contents match index:

pixz -x dir/file < foo.tpxz | tar x

Create a tarball using pixz for multi-core compression:

tar -Ipixz -cf foo.tpxz foo/

These are the same (also work for -x, -d and -l as well):

pixz foo.tar foo.tpxz
pixz < foo.tar > foo.tpxz
pixz -i foo.tar -o foo.tpxz

Extract the files from foo.tpxz into foo.tar:

pixz -x -i foo.tpxz -o foo.tar file1 file2 ...

Compress to foo.tpxz, removing the original:

pixz foo.tar

Extract to foo.tar, removing the original:

pixz -d foo.tpxz

Faster, worse compression:

pixz -1 foo.tar

Better, slower compression:

pixz -9 foo.tar

Use exactly 2 threads:

pixz -p 2 foo.tar

Compress, but do not treat it as a tarball, i.e. do not index it:

pixz -t foo.tar

Decompress, but do not check that contents match index:

pixz -d -t foo.tpxz

List the xz blocks instead of files:

pixz -l -t foo.tpxz

For even more tuning flags, check the manual page:

man pixz

Comparison to other Tools