Record the time taken for compressing a file of size [0..2Mb..2.5Kb] using tar, gunzip and zip.

capture-time-compress.sh

#!/bin/bash

# To run this:
#	> create a file called program.sh
#	> $ chmod +x program.sh
#	> $ ./program.sh

# Note:
#	> keep if=/dev/urandom if you want a randomized file
#	> keep if=path/to/filename if you want a structured file (which is dependent on your file)
#
# Alternatively, you could make a 2mb file using /dev/urandom once and keep that as the structured file
# in the event you don't want to generate a random file every time the loop function is called.

function capture (){
	echo "File Size $1";
	echo "Generating file...";

	# if = /dev/urandom for random data
	# if = path/to/file for structured data (that's dependent on your file)
	dd if=/dev/urandom bs=$1 count=1 > orig_file.txt;

	echo "FILE SIZE: $1" >> capture.txt;

	echo "Creating tarball...";

	{ time tar -cf generated_tarball.tar orig_file.txt; } 2>> capture.txt;

	echo "Creating gunzip...";

	{ time tar -czf generated_gunzip.tar.gz orig_file.txt; } 2>> capture.txt;

	echo "Creating zip...";

	{ time zip generated_zip.zip orig_file.txt; } 2>> capture.txt;

	echo "Recording size...";

	ls -l generated_* >> capture.txt;

	rm generated_*;
	rm orig_file.txt;
}

echo "Begin Capture-Time-Taken-To-Compress-File..."

# 0Kb to 2Mb with increments of 2500 bytes
for i in {0..2000000..2500}
	do
		capture $i;
	done