How to gzip multiple files in unix

I tried below but it didn't work. lcd path and cd path are pointing to the same path. *.txt files already exist in path.
ftp -n xxx.xx.xx.xx <<END
username password
lcd /xxx/xxx/xxx
type binary
mget *.pdf
cd /xxx/xxx/xxx
gzip -c *.pdf *.txt > xx_xxxxx.`date +%Y-%m-%d`.gz
bye
END

Check the following link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6955846_zip-multiple-files-unix.html

>> gzip -c *.pdf *.txt > xx_xxxxx.`date +%Y-%m-%d`.gz
This command will create one .gz file that consists of the concatenated input files (pdf and txt) and then compressed.

Is this what you want? Or do you want to add the files to an archive first and them compress? In that case use this:

tar cfz  xx_xxxxx.`date +%Y-%m-%d`.gz *.pdf *.txt

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This way you will get one compressed archive containing each individual file (pdf and txt).

gzip only works on individual files.  Use tar or zip instead, eg:

zip file.`date +%Y-%m-%d.zip` *.pdf *.txt

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or

tar czf  file.`date +%Y-%m-%d.gz` *.pdf *.txt

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or if your tar version doesn't support the -z flag, do

tar cf - *.pdf *.txt | gzip > file.`date +%Y-%m-%d.gz`

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Did you try unzipping the .gz file that you get from the answer you chose? You cannot get individual .txt and .pdf files back from it. Sure you selected the right answer here?

lsbrown1, as gerwinjansen as already mentioned, the solution you have chosen will make it extremely difficult to extract your individual PDF files.

I would replace

gzip -c *.pdf *.txt > xx_xxxxx.`date +%Y-%m-%d`.gz

by

zip xx_xxxxx.`date +%Y-%m-%d` *.pdf *.txt