README
1ZLIB DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARY
2
3zlib 1.2.2 is a general purpose data compression library. All the code is
4thread safe. The data format used by the zlib library is described by RFCs
5(Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files
6http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1950.txt (zlib format), rfc1951.txt (deflate format)
7and rfc1952.txt (gzip format). These documents are also available in other
8formats from ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html
9
10All 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
12of the library is given in the file example.c which also tests that the library
13is working correctly. Another example is given in the file minigzip.c. The
14compression library itself is composed of all source files except example.c and
15minigzip.c.
16
17To compile all files and run the test program, follow the instructions given at
18the top of Makefile. In short "make test; make install" should work for most
19machines. For Unix: "./configure; make test; make install" For MSDOS, use one
20of the special makefiles such as Makefile.msc. For VMS, use Make_vms.com or
21descrip.mms.
22
23Questions 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
25http://www.zlib.org or http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ Before reporting a problem,
26please check this site to verify that you have the latest version of zlib;
27otherwise get the latest version and check whether the problem still exists or
28not.
29
30PLEASE read the zlib FAQ http://www.gzip.org/zlib/zlib_faq.html before asking
31for help.
32
33Mark Nelson <markn@ieee.org> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan. 1997
34issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available in
35http://dogma.net/markn/articles/zlibtool/zlibtool.htm
36
37The changes made in version 1.2.2 are documented in the file ChangeLog.
38
39Unsupported third party contributions are provided in directory "contrib".
40
41A Java implementation of zlib is available in the Java Development Kit
42http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/zip/package-summary.html
43See the zlib home page http://www.zlib.org for details.
44
45A Perl interface to zlib written by Paul Marquess <pmqs@cpan.org> is in the
46CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites
47http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Compress/
48
49A Python interface to zlib written by A.M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca> is
50available in Python 1.5 and later versions, see
51http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-zlib.html
52
53A zlib binding for TCL written by Andreas Kupries <a.kupries@westend.com> is
54availlable at http://www.oche.de/~akupries/soft/trf/trf_zip.html
55
56An experimental package to read and write files in .zip format, written on top
57of zlib by Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com>, is available in the
58contrib/minizip directory of zlib.
59
60
61Notes for some targets:
62
63- For Windows DLL versions, please see win32/DLL_FAQ.txt
64
65- For 64-bit Irix, deflate.c must be compiled without any optimization. With
66 -O, one libpng test fails. The test works in 32 bit mode (with the -n32
67 compiler flag). The compiler bug has been reported to SGI.
68
69- zlib doesn't work with gcc 2.6.3 on a DEC 3000/300LX under OSF/1 2.1 it works
70 when compiled with cc.
71
72- On Digital Unix 4.0D (formely OSF/1) on AlphaServer, the cc option -std1 is
73 necessary to get gzprintf working correctly. This is done by configure.
74
75- zlib doesn't work on HP-UX 9.05 with some versions of /bin/cc. It works with
76 other compilers. Use "make test" to check your compiler.
77
78- gzdopen is not supported on RISCOS, BEOS and by some Mac compilers.
79
80- For PalmOs, see http://palmzlib.sourceforge.net/
81
82- When building a shared, i.e. dynamic library on Mac OS X, the library must be
83 installed before testing (do "make install" before "make test"), since the
84 library location is specified in the library.
85
86
87Acknowledgments:
88
89 The deflate format used by zlib was defined by Phil Katz. The deflate
90 and zlib specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch. Thanks to all the
91 people who reported problems and suggested various improvements in zlib;
92 they are too numerous to cite here.
93
94Copyright notice:
95
96 (C) 1995-2004 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler
97
98 This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
99 warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
100 arising from the use of this software.
101
102 Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
103 including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
104 freely, subject to the following restrictions:
105
106 1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
107 claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
108 in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
109 appreciated but is not required.
110 2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
111 misrepresented as being the original software.
112 3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
113
114 Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler
115 jloup@gzip.org madler@alumni.caltech.edu
116
117If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not*
118receiving lengthy legal documents to sign. The sources are provided
119for free but without warranty of any kind. The library has been
120entirely written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not
121include third-party code.
122
123If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include
124in the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes. Please
125read the FAQ for more information on the distribution of modified source
126versions.
127