Which of the following is known as the oldest of the compression utilities?

The oldest of the compression utilities among the provided options is the tar command. While tar is primarily an archiving utility that can combine multiple files into a single file, it also has a long history and was one of the first tools introduced for handling file packaging, dating back to the early Unix systems. It provides a way of grouping files together, which, in practical use, can often involve compressing that combined file with tools like gzip or bzip2 for more efficient storage.

In contrast, gzip and bzip2 are primarily compression tools that were developed later to enhance the capabilities of Unix-based systems for compressing files efficiently. Gzip was introduced in the early 1990s and bzip2 came a few years later. The zip utility, while widely recognized and used, also emerged later and is not as historically foundational as tar.

Understanding this historical context helps to clarify the relationship between these tools and their functionalities in file management within Unix and Linux environments.