README 5.1 KB

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115
  1. ZLIB DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARY
  2. zlib 1.2.5 is a general purpose data compression library. All the code is
  3. thread safe. The data format used by the zlib library is described by RFCs
  4. (Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files
  5. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1950.txt (zlib format), rfc1951.txt (deflate format)
  6. and rfc1952.txt (gzip format).
  7. All functions of the compression library are documented in the file zlib.h
  8. (volunteer to write man pages welcome, contact zlib@gzip.org). A usage example
  9. of the library is given in the file example.c which also tests that the library
  10. is working correctly. Another example is given in the file minigzip.c. The
  11. compression library itself is composed of all source files except example.c and
  12. minigzip.c.
  13. To compile all files and run the test program, follow the instructions given at
  14. the top of Makefile.in. In short "./configure; make test", and if that goes
  15. well, "make install" should work for most flavors of Unix. For Windows, use one
  16. of the special makefiles in win32/ or contrib/vstudio/ . For VMS, use
  17. make_vms.com.
  18. Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.org>, or to Gilles Vollant
  19. <info@winimage.com> for the Windows DLL version. The zlib home page is
  20. http://zlib.net/ . Before reporting a problem, please check this site to
  21. verify that you have the latest version of zlib; otherwise get the latest
  22. version and check whether the problem still exists or not.
  23. PLEASE read the zlib FAQ http://zlib.net/zlib_faq.html before asking for help.
  24. Mark Nelson <markn@ieee.org> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan. 1997
  25. issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available at
  26. http://marknelson.us/1997/01/01/zlib-engine/ .
  27. The changes made in version 1.2.5 are documented in the file ChangeLog.
  28. Unsupported third party contributions are provided in directory contrib/ .
  29. zlib is available in Java using the java.util.zip package, documented at
  30. http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/compression/ .
  31. A Perl interface to zlib written by Paul Marquess <pmqs@cpan.org> is available
  32. at CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites, including
  33. http://search.cpan.org/~pmqs/IO-Compress-Zlib/ .
  34. A Python interface to zlib written by A.M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca> is
  35. available in Python 1.5 and later versions, see
  36. http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-zlib.html .
  37. zlib is built into tcl: http://wiki.tcl.tk/4610 .
  38. An experimental package to read and write files in .zip format, written on top
  39. of zlib by Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com>, is available in the
  40. contrib/minizip directory of zlib.
  41. Notes for some targets:
  42. - For Windows DLL versions, please see win32/DLL_FAQ.txt
  43. - For 64-bit Irix, deflate.c must be compiled without any optimization. With
  44. -O, one libpng test fails. The test works in 32 bit mode (with the -n32
  45. compiler flag). The compiler bug has been reported to SGI.
  46. - zlib doesn't work with gcc 2.6.3 on a DEC 3000/300LX under OSF/1 2.1 it works
  47. when compiled with cc.
  48. - On Digital Unix 4.0D (formely OSF/1) on AlphaServer, the cc option -std1 is
  49. necessary to get gzprintf working correctly. This is done by configure.
  50. - zlib doesn't work on HP-UX 9.05 with some versions of /bin/cc. It works with
  51. other compilers. Use "make test" to check your compiler.
  52. - gzdopen is not supported on RISCOS or BEOS.
  53. - For PalmOs, see http://palmzlib.sourceforge.net/
  54. Acknowledgments:
  55. The deflate format used by zlib was defined by Phil Katz. The deflate and
  56. zlib specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch. Thanks to all the
  57. people who reported problems and suggested various improvements in zlib; they
  58. are too numerous to cite here.
  59. Copyright notice:
  60. (C) 1995-2010 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler
  61. This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
  62. warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
  63. arising from the use of this software.
  64. Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
  65. including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
  66. freely, subject to the following restrictions:
  67. 1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
  68. claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
  69. in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
  70. appreciated but is not required.
  71. 2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
  72. misrepresented as being the original software.
  73. 3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
  74. Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler
  75. jloup@gzip.org madler@alumni.caltech.edu
  76. If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not* receiving
  77. lengthy legal documents to sign. The sources are provided for free but without
  78. warranty of any kind. The library has been entirely written by Jean-loup
  79. Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not include third-party code.
  80. If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include in
  81. the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes. Please read
  82. the FAQ for more information on the distribution of modified source versions.