1 .TH ZLIB 3 "7 July 2015"
3 zlib \- compression/decompression library
11 library is a general purpose data compression library.
12 The code is thread safe, assuming that the standard library functions
13 used are thread safe, such as memory allocation routines.
14 It provides in-memory compression and decompression functions,
15 including integrity checks of the uncompressed data.
16 This version of the library supports only one compression method (deflation)
17 but other algorithms may be added later
18 with the same stream interface.
20 Compression can be done in a single step if the buffers are large enough
21 or can be done by repeated calls of the compression function.
23 the application must provide more input and/or consume the output
24 (providing more output space) before each call.
26 The library also supports reading and writing files in
29 with an interface similar to that of stdio.
31 The library does not install any signal handler.
32 The decoder checks the consistency of the compressed data,
33 so the library should never crash even in the case of corrupted input.
35 All functions of the compression library are documented in the file
37 The distribution source includes examples of use of the library
42 as well as other examples in the
46 Changes to this version are documented in the file
48 that accompanies the source.
51 is available in Java using the java.util.zip package:
53 http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/compression/
57 written by Paul Marquess (pmqs@cpan.org),
58 is available at CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites,
61 http://search.cpan.org/~pmqs/IO-Compress-Zlib/
65 written by A.M. Kuchling (amk@magnet.com),
66 is available in Python 1.5 and later versions:
68 http://docs.python.org/library/zlib.html
74 http://wiki.tcl.tk/4610
76 An experimental package to read and write files in .zip format,
79 by Gilles Vollant (info@winimage.com),
82 http://www.winimage.com/zLibDll/minizip.html
91 web site can be found at:
95 The data format used by the zlib library is described by RFC
96 (Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files:
98 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1950 (for the zlib header and trailer format)
100 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1951 (for the deflate compressed data format)
102 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1952 (for the gzip header and trailer format)
104 Mark Nelson wrote an article about
106 for the Jan. 1997 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal;
107 a copy of the article is available at:
109 http://marknelson.us/1997/01/01/zlib-engine/
110 .SH "REPORTING PROBLEMS"
111 Before reporting a problem,
114 web site to verify that you have the latest version of
117 obtain the latest version and see if the problem still exists.
122 http://zlib.net/zlib_faq.html
124 before asking for help.
125 Send questions and/or comments to zlib@gzip.org,
126 or (for the Windows DLL version) to Gilles Vollant (info@winimage.com).
127 .SH AUTHORS AND LICENSE
130 Copyright (C) 1995-2015 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler
132 This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
133 warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
134 arising from the use of this software.
136 Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
137 including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
138 freely, subject to the following restrictions:
142 The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
143 claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
144 in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
145 appreciated but is not required.
147 Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
148 misrepresented as being the original software.
150 This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
152 Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler
154 jloup@gzip.org madler@alumni.caltech.edu
156 The deflate format used by
158 was defined by Phil Katz.
161 specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch.
162 Thanks to all the people who reported problems and suggested various
165 who are too numerous to cite here.
167 UNIX manual page by R. P. C. Rodgers,
168 U.S. National Library of Medicine (rodgers@nlm.nih.gov).