1 ZLIB DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARY
3 zlib 1.2.0.5 is a general purpose data compression library. All the code is
4 thread safe. The data format used by the zlib library is described by RFCs
5 (Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files
6 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1950.txt (zlib format), rfc1951.txt (deflate format)
7 and rfc1952.txt (gzip format). These documents are also available in other
8 formats from ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html
10 All functions of the compression library are documented in the file zlib.h
11 (volunteer to write man pages welcome, contact jloup@gzip.org). A usage example
12 of the library is given in the file example.c which also tests that the library
13 is working correctly. Another example is given in the file minigzip.c. The
14 compression library itself is composed of all source files except example.c and
17 To compile all files and run the test program, follow the instructions given at
18 the top of Makefile. In short "make test; make install" should work for most
19 machines. For Unix: "./configure; make test; make install" For MSDOS, use one
20 of the special makefiles such as Makefile.msc. For VMS, use Make_vms.com or
23 Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.org>, or to Gilles Vollant
24 <info@winimage.com> for the Windows DLL version. The zlib home page is
25 http://www.zlib.org or http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ Before reporting a problem,
26 please check this site to verify that you have the latest version of zlib;
27 otherwise get the latest version and check whether the problem still exists or
30 PLEASE read the zlib FAQ http://www.gzip.org/zlib/zlib_faq.html before asking
33 Mark Nelson <markn@ieee.org> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan. 1997
34 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available in
35 http://dogma.net/markn/articles/zlibtool/zlibtool.htm
37 The changes made in version 1.2.0.5 are documented in the file ChangeLog.
39 Unsupported third party contributions are provided in directory "contrib".
41 A Java implementation of zlib is available in the Java Development Kit
42 http://www.javasoft.com/products/JDK/1.1/docs/api/Package-java.util.zip.html
43 See the zlib home page http://www.zlib.org for details.
45 A Perl interface to zlib written by Paul Marquess <pmqs@cpan.org> is in the
46 CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites
47 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Compress/
49 A Python interface to zlib written by A.M. Kuchling <amk@magnet.com> is
50 available in Python 1.5 and later versions, see
51 http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-zlib.html
53 A zlib binding for TCL written by Andreas Kupries <a.kupries@westend.com> is
54 availlable at http://www.westend.com/~kupries/doc/trf/man/man.html
56 An experimental package to read and write files in .zip format, written on top
57 of zlib by Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com>, is available at
58 http://www.winimage.com/zLibDll/unzip.html and also in the contrib/minizip
62 Notes for some targets:
64 - To build a Windows DLL version, include in a DLL project zlib.def, zlib.rc
65 and all .c files except example.c and minigzip.c; compile with -DZLIB_DLL The
66 zlib DLL support was initially done by Alessandro Iacopetti and is now
67 maintained by Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com>. Check the zlib DLL home
68 page at http://www.winimage.com/zLibDll
70 From Visual Basic, you can call the DLL functions which do not take a
71 structure as argument: compress, uncompress and all gz* functions. See
72 contrib/visual-basic.txt for more information, or get
73 http://www.tcfb.com/dowseware/cmp-z-it.zip
75 - For 64-bit Irix, deflate.c must be compiled without any optimization. With
76 -O, one libpng test fails. The test works in 32 bit mode (with the -n32
77 compiler flag). The compiler bug has been reported to SGI.
79 - zlib doesn't work with gcc 2.6.3 on a DEC 3000/300LX under OSF/1 2.1 it works
80 when compiled with cc.
82 - On Digital Unix 4.0D (formely OSF/1) on AlphaServer, the cc option -std1 is
83 necessary to get gzprintf working correctly. This is done by configure.
85 - zlib doesn't work on HP-UX 9.05 with some versions of /bin/cc. It works with
86 other compilers. Use "make test" to check your compiler.
88 - gzdopen is not supported on RISCOS, BEOS and by some Mac compilers.
90 - For Turbo C the small model is supported only with reduced performance to
91 avoid any far allocation; it was tested with -DMAX_WBITS=11 -DMAX_MEM_LEVEL=3
93 - For PalmOs, see http://www.cs.uit.no/~perm/PASTA/pilot/software.html Per
94 Harald Myrvang <perm@stud.cs.uit.no>
99 The deflate format used by zlib was defined by Phil Katz. The deflate
100 and zlib specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch. Thanks to all the
101 people who reported problems and suggested various improvements in zlib;
102 they are too numerous to cite here.
106 (C) 1995-2003 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler
108 This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
109 warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
110 arising from the use of this software.
112 Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
113 including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
114 freely, subject to the following restrictions:
116 1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
117 claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
118 in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
119 appreciated but is not required.
120 2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
121 misrepresented as being the original software.
122 3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
124 Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler
125 jloup@gzip.org madler@alumni.caltech.edu
127 If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not*
128 receiving lengthy legal documents to sign. The sources are provided
129 for free but without warranty of any kind. The library has been
130 entirely written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not
131 include third-party code.
133 If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include
134 in the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes. Please
135 read the FAQ for more information on the distribution of modified source