# Increase compression level inside Mender Artifact v3?

**URL:** <https://hub.mender.io/t/increase-compression-level-inside-mender-artifact-v3/4017>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Tags:** mender-artifact\
**Created:** [August 18, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/increase-compression-level-inside-mender-artifact-v3/4017 "2021-08-18T19:15:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pdp7](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/pdp7/32/1293_2.png) [@pdp7](https://hub.mender.io/u/pdp7)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/increase-compression-level-inside-mender-artifact-v3/4017/1 "2021-08-18T19:15:18Z")

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I am using Mender in situation where some devices have limited bandwidth connections. Is it possible to increase the compression level beyond that standard gzip used in the Mender Artifact v3 format?

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**Author:** ![dellgreen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/dellgreen/32/85_2.png) [@dellgreen](https://hub.mender.io/u/dellgreen)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/increase-compression-level-inside-mender-artifact-v3/4017/2 "2021-08-18T19:28:05Z")

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Mender also supports lzma/xz

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pdp7](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/pdp7/32/1293_2.png) [@pdp7](https://hub.mender.io/u/pdp7)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/increase-compression-level-inside-mender-artifact-v3/4017/3 "2021-08-18T19:47:52Z")

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Do you know of a way to make it switch?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dellgreen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/dellgreen/32/85_2.png) [@dellgreen](https://hub.mender.io/u/dellgreen)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 8:14pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/increase-compression-level-inside-mender-artifact-v3/4017/4 "2021-08-18T20:14:13Z")

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if your using yocto then i add thw following to MENDER\_ARTIFACT\_EXTRA\_ARGS\_append variable in my local.conf

` --compression lzma -v 3`

[https://docs.mender.io/3.0/system-updates-yocto-project/variables](https://docs.mender.io/3.0/system-updates-yocto-project/variables)

if use mender-artifact tool standalone then i add the following to my mender-artifact config file

`MENDER_ARTIFACT_COMPRESSION="lzma"`

[https://docs.mender.io/system-updates-debian-family/convert-a-mender-debian-image/customization](https://docs.mender.io/system-updates-debian-family/convert-a-mender-debian-image/customization)

when using lzma, mender-artifact defaults to maximum compression level i.e level 9  
the default for gzip is the default flate level compression

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dellgreen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/dellgreen/32/85_2.png) [@dellgreen](https://hub.mender.io/u/dellgreen)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/increase-compression-level-inside-mender-artifact-v3/4017/5 "2021-08-18T20:21:36Z")

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fyi: the ticket where it was discussed, data collated on compression comparisons

[https://tracker.mender.io/browse/MEN-761](https://tracker.mender.io/browse/MEN-761)