IV
BASIC MANUAL
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY,
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE
GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA,
OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE
USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
ZLIB DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARY
zlib 1.2.8 is a general purpose data compression
library. All the code is thread safe. The data format
used by the zlib library is described by RFCs (Request
for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files http://tools.ietf.
org/html/rfc1950 (zlib format), rfc1951 (deflate format)
and rfc1952 (gzip format).
All functions of the compression library are documented
in the file zlib.h (volunteer to write man pages welcome,
contact [email protected]). A usage example of the library
is given in the file test/example.c which also tests
that the library is working correctly. Another example
is given in the file test/minigzip.c. The compression
library itself is composed of all source files in the root
directory.
To compile all files and run the test program, follow
the instructions given at the top of Makefile.in. In
short ″./configure; make test″, and if that goes well,
″make install″ should work for most flavors of Unix. For
Windows, use one of the special makefiles in win32/ or
contrib/vstudio/ . For VMS, use make_vms.com.
Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.
org>, or to Gilles Vollant <[email protected]> for the
Windows DLL version. The zlib home page is http://
zlib.net/ . Before reporting a problem, please check this
site to verify that you have the latest version of zlib;
otherwise get the latest version and check whether the
problem still exists or not.
PLEASE read the zlib FAQ http://zlib.net/zlib_faq.html
before asking for help.
Mark Nelson <[email protected]> wrote an article about
zlib for the Jan. 1997 issue of Dr. Dobb’s Journal; a
copy of the article is available at http://marknelson.
us/1997/01/01/zlib-engine/ .
The changes made in version 1.2.8 are documented in
the file ChangeLog.
Unsupported third party contributions are provided in
directory contrib/ .
zlib is available in Java using the java.util.zip package,
documented at http://java.sun.com/developer/
technicalArticles/Programming/compression/ .
A Perl interface to zlib written by Paul Marquess
<[email protected]> is available at CPAN
(Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites, including
http://search.cpan.org/~pmqs/IO-Compress-Zlib/ .
A Python interface to zlib written by A.M.Kuchling
<[email protected]> is available in Python 1.5 and later
versions, see http://docs.python.org/library/zlib.html .
zlib is built into tcl: http://wiki.tcl.tk/4610 .
An experimental package to read and write files in .zip
format, written on top of zlib by Gilles Vollant <info@
winimage.com>, is available in the contrib/minizip
directory of zlib.
Notes for some targets:
- For Windows DLL versions, please see win32/
DLL_FAQ.txt
- For 64-bit Irix, deflate.c must be compiled without any
optimization. With - O, one libpng test fails. The test
works in 32 bit mode (with the -n32 compiler flag).
The compiler bug has been reported to SGI.
- zlib doesn’t work with gcc 2.6.3 on a DEC 3000/300LX
under OSF/1 2.1 it works when compiled with cc.
- On Digital Unix 4.0D (formely OSF/1) on AlphaServer,
the cc option -std1 is necessary to get gzprintf
working correctly. This is done by configure.
- zlib doesn’t work on HP-UX 9.05 with some versions
of /bin/cc. It works with other compilers. Use “make
test” to check your compiler.
- gzdopen is not supported on RISCOS or BEOS.
- For PalmOs, see http://palmzlib.sourceforge.net/
Acknowledgments:
The deflate format used by zlib was defined by
Phil Katz. The deflate and zlib specifications were
written by L. Peter Deutsch. Thanks to all the people
who reported problems and suggested various
improvements in zlib; they are too numerous to cite
here.
Copyright notice:
(C) 1995-2013 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler
This software is provided ‘as-is’, without any express
or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be
held liable for any damages arising from the use of this
software.
Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for
any purpose, including commercial applications, and to
alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following
restrictions:
1. The origin of this software must not be
misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote
the original software. If you use this software in
a product, an acknowledgment in the product
documentation would be appreciated but is not
required.
2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as
such, and must not be misrepresented as being
the original software.
3. This notice may not be removed or altered from
any source distribution.
Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler
[email protected] [email protected]
If you use the zlib library in a product, we would
appreciate *not* receiving lengthy legal documents
to sign. The sources are provided for free but without
warranty of any kind. The library has been entirely
written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not
include third-party code.
If you redistribute modified sources, we would
appreciate that you include in the file ChangeLog
history information documenting your changes. Please
read the FAQ for more information on the distribution of
modified source versions.