src/zlib/README

   1 ZLIB DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARY
   2
   3 zlib 1.2.3 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
   9
  10 All functions of the compression library are documented in the file zlib.h
  11 (volunteer to write man pages welcome, contact zlib@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
  15 minigzip.c.
  16
  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.
  21
  22 Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.org>, or to Gilles Vollant
  23 <info@winimage.com> for the Windows DLL version. The zlib home page is
  24 http://www.zlib.org or http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ Before reporting a problem,
  25 please check this site to verify that you have the latest version of zlib;
  26 otherwise get the latest version and check whether the problem still exists or
  27 not.
  28
  29 PLEASE read the zlib FAQ http://www.gzip.org/zlib/zlib_faq.html before asking
  30 for help.
  31
  32 Mark Nelson <markn@ieee.org> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan. 1997
  33 issue of  Dr. Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available in
  34 http://dogma.net/markn/articles/zlibtool/zlibtool.htm
  35
  36 The changes made in version 1.2.3 are documented in the file ChangeLog.
  37
  38 Unsupported third party contributions are provided in directory "contrib".
  39
  40 A Java implementation of zlib is available in the Java Development Kit
  41 http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/zip/package-summary.html
  42 See the zlib home page http://www.zlib.org for details.
  43
  44 A Perl interface to zlib written by Paul Marquess <pmqs@cpan.org> is in the
  45 CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites
  46 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Compress/
  47
  48 A Python interface to zlib written by A.M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca> is
  49 available in Python 1.5 and later versions, see
  50 http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-zlib.html
  51
  52 A zlib binding for TCL written by Andreas Kupries <a.kupries@westend.com> is
  53 availlable at http://www.oche.de/~akupries/soft/trf/trf_zip.html
  54
  55 An experimental package to read and write files in .zip format, written on top
  56 of zlib by Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com>, is available in the
  57 contrib/minizip directory of zlib.
  58
  59
  60 Notes for some targets:
  61
  62 - For Windows DLL versions, please see win32/DLL_FAQ.txt
  63
  64 - For 64-bit Irix, deflate.c must be compiled without any optimization. With
  65   -O, one libpng test fails. The test works in 32 bit mode (with the -n32
  66   compiler flag). The compiler bug has been reported to SGI.
  67
  68 - zlib doesn't work with gcc 2.6.3 on a DEC 3000/300LX under OSF/1 2.1 it works
  69   when compiled with cc.
  70
  71 - On Digital Unix 4.0D (formely OSF/1) on AlphaServer, the cc option -std1 is
  72   necessary to get gzprintf working correctly. This is done by configure.
  73
  74 - zlib doesn't work on HP-UX 9.05 with some versions of /bin/cc. It works with
  75   other compilers. Use "make test" to check your compiler.
  76
  77 - gzdopen is not supported on RISCOS, BEOS and by some Mac compilers.
  78
  79 - For PalmOs, see http://palmzlib.sourceforge.net/
  80
  81 - When building a shared, i.e. dynamic library on Mac OS X, the library must be
  82   installed before testing (do "make install" before "make test"), since the
  83   library location is specified in the library.
  84
  85
  86 Acknowledgments:
  87
  88   The deflate format used by zlib was defined by Phil Katz. The deflate
  89   and zlib specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch. Thanks to all the
  90   people who reported problems and suggested various improvements in zlib;
  91   they are too numerous to cite here.
  92
  93 Copyright notice:
  94
  95  (C) 1995-2004 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler
  96
  97   This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
  98   warranty.  In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
  99   arising from the use of this software.
 100
 101   Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
 102   including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
 103   freely, subject to the following restrictions:
 104
 105   1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
 106      claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
 107      in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
 108      appreciated but is not required.
 109   2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
 110      misrepresented as being the original software.
 111   3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
 112
 113   Jean-loup Gailly        Mark Adler
 114   jloup@gzip.org          madler@alumni.caltech.edu
 115
 116 If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not*
 117 receiving lengthy legal documents to sign. The sources are provided
 118 for free but without warranty of any kind.  The library has been
 119 entirely written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not
 120 include third-party code.
 121
 122 If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include
 123 in the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes. Please
 124 read the FAQ for more information on the distribution of modified source
 125 versions.