| 1 | .TH ZLIB 3 "19 March 1998" |
| 2 | .SH NAME |
| 3 | zlib \- compression/decompression library |
| 4 | .SH SYNOPSIS |
| 5 | [see |
| 6 | .I zlib.h |
| 7 | for full description] |
| 8 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
| 9 | The |
| 10 | .I zlib |
| 11 | library is a general purpose data compression library. |
| 12 | The code is thread safe. |
| 13 | It provides in-memory compression and decompression functions, |
| 14 | including integrity checks of the uncompressed data. |
| 15 | This version of the library supports only one compression method (deflation) |
| 16 | but other algorithms will be added later and will have the same stream interface. |
| 17 | .LP |
| 18 | Compression can be done in a single step if the buffers are large enough |
| 19 | (for example if an input file is mmap'ed), |
| 20 | or can be done by repeated calls of the compression function. |
| 21 | In the latter case, |
| 22 | the application must provide more input and/or consume the output |
| 23 | (providing more output space) before each call. |
| 24 | .LP |
| 25 | The library also supports reading and writing files in |
| 26 | .I gzip |
| 27 | (.gz) format |
| 28 | with an interface similar to that of stdio. |
| 29 | .LP |
| 30 | The library does not install any signal handler. The decoder checks |
| 31 | the consistency of the compressed data, so the library should never |
| 32 | crash even in case of corrupted input. |
| 33 | .LP |
| 34 | All functions of the compression library are documented in the file |
| 35 | .IR zlib.h. |
| 36 | The distribution source includes examples of use of the library |
| 37 | the files |
| 38 | .I example.c |
| 39 | and |
| 40 | .IR minigzip.c . |
| 41 | .LP |
| 42 | A Java implementation of |
| 43 | .IR zlib |
| 44 | is available in the Java Development Kit 1.1 |
| 45 | .IP |
| 46 | http://www.javasoft.com/products/JDK/1.1/docs/api/Package-java.util.zip.html |
| 47 | .LP |
| 48 | A Perl interface to |
| 49 | .IR zlib , |
| 50 | written by Paul Marquess (pmarquess@bfsec.bt.co.uk) |
| 51 | is available at CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites, |
| 52 | such as: |
| 53 | .IP |
| 54 | ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/Compress/Compress-Zlib* |
| 55 | .LP |
| 56 | A Python interface to |
| 57 | .IR zlib |
| 58 | written by A.M. Kuchling <amk@magnet.com> |
| 59 | is available from the Python Software Association sites, such as: |
| 60 | .IP |
| 61 | ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/contrib/Encoding/zlib*.tar.gz |
| 62 | .SH "SEE ALSO" |
| 63 | Questions about zlib should be sent to: |
| 64 | .IP |
| 65 | zlib@quest.jpl.nasa.gov |
| 66 | or, if this fails, to the author addresses given below. |
| 67 | The zlib home page is: |
| 68 | .IP |
| 69 | http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/ |
| 70 | .LP |
| 71 | The data format used by the zlib library is described by RFC |
| 72 | (Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files: |
| 73 | .IP |
| 74 | ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1950.txt (zlib format) |
| 75 | .br |
| 76 | rfc1951.txt (deflate format) |
| 77 | .br |
| 78 | rfc1952.txt (gzip format) |
| 79 | .LP |
| 80 | These documents are also available in other formats from: |
| 81 | .IP |
| 82 | ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html |
| 83 | .SH AUTHORS |
| 84 | Version 1.1.2 |
| 85 | Copyright (C) 1995-1998 Jean-loup Gailly (jloup@gzip.org) |
| 86 | and Mark Adler (madler@alumni.caltech.edu). |
| 87 | .LP |
| 88 | This software is provided "as-is," |
| 89 | without any express or implied warranty. |
| 90 | In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages |
| 91 | arising from the use of this software. |
| 92 | See the distribution directory with respect to requirements |
| 93 | governing redistribution. |
| 94 | The deflate format used by |
| 95 | .I zlib |
| 96 | was defined by Phil Katz. |
| 97 | The deflate and |
| 98 | .I zlib |
| 99 | specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch. |
| 100 | Thanks to all the people who reported problems and suggested various |
| 101 | improvements in |
| 102 | .IR zlib ; |
| 103 | who are too numerous to cite here. |
| 104 | .LP |
| 105 | UNIX manual page by R. P. C. Rodgers, |
| 106 | U.S. National Library of Medicine (rodgers@nlm.nih.gov). |
| 107 | .\" end of man page |