ZLIB DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARY

zlib 1.2.8 is a general purpose data compression library.  All the code is

thread safe.  The data format used by the zlib library is described by RFCs

(Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1950 (zlib format), rfc1951 (deflate format) and

rfc1952 (gzip format).

All functions of the compression library are documented in the file zlib.h

(volunteer to write man pages welcome, contact zlib@gzip.org).  A usage example

of the library is given in the file test/example.c which also tests that

the library is working correctly.  Another example is given in the file

test/minigzip.c.  The compression library itself is composed of all source

files in the root directory.

To compile all files and run the test program, follow the instructions given at

the top of Makefile.in.  In short "./configure; make test", and if that goes

well, "make install" should work for most flavors of Unix.  For Windows, use

one of the special makefiles in win32/ or contrib/vstudio/ .  For VMS, use

make_vms.com.

Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.org>, or to Gilles Vollant</zlib@gzip.org>

<info@winimage.com> for the Windows DLL version.  The zlib home page is</info@winimage.com>

http://zlib.net/ .  Before reporting a problem, please check this site to

verify that you have the latest version of zlib; otherwise get the latest

version and check whether the problem still exists or not.

PLEASE read the zlib FAQ http://zlib.net/zlib_faq.html before asking for help.

Mark Nelson <markn@ieee.org> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan.  1997</markn@ieee.org>

issue of Dr.  Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available at

http://marknelson.us/1997/01/01/zlib-engine/ .

The changes made in version 1.2.8 are documented in the file ChangeLog.

Unsupported third party contributions are provided in directory contrib/ .

zlib is available in Java using the java.util.zip package, documented at

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/compression/ .

A Perl interface to zlib written by Paul Marquess <pmqs@cpan.org> is available</pmqs@cpan.org>

at CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites, including

http://search.cpan.org/~pmqs/IO-Compress-Zlib/ .

A Python interface to zlib written by A.M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca> is</amk@amk.ca>

available in Python 1.5 and later versions, see

http://docs.python.org/library/zlib.html .

zlib is built into tcl: http://wiki.tcl.tk/4610 .

An experimental package to read and write files in .zip format, written on top

of zlib by Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com>, is available in the</info@winimage.com>

contrib/minizip directory of zlib.

Notes for some targets:

- For Windows DLL versions, please see win32/DLL_FAQ.txt

- For 64-bit Irix, deflate.c must be compiled without any optimization. With

  -O, one libpng test fails. The test works in 32 bit mode (with the -n32

  compiler flag). The compiler bug has been reported to SGI.

- zlib doesn't work with gcc 2.6.3 on a DEC 3000/300LX under OSF/1 2.1 it works

  when compiled with cc.

- On Digital Unix 4.0D (formely OSF/1) on AlphaServer, the cc option -std1 is

  necessary to get gzprintf working correctly. This is done by configure.

- zlib doesn't work on HP-UX 9.05 with some versions of /bin/cc. It works with

  other compilers. Use "make test" to check your compiler.

- gzdopen is not supported on RISCOS or BEOS.

- For PalmOs, see http://palmzlib.sourceforge.net/

Acknowledgments:

  The deflate format used by zlib was defined by Phil Katz.  The deflate and

  zlib specifications were written by L.  Peter Deutsch.  Thanks to all the

  people who reported problems and suggested various improvements in zlib; they

  are too numerous to cite here.

Copyright notice:

 (C) 1995-2013 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler

  This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied

  warranty.  In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages

  arising from the use of this software.

  Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,

  including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it

  freely, subject to the following restrictions:

  1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not

     claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software

     in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be

     appreciated but is not required.

  2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be

     misrepresented as being the original software.

  3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

  Jean-loup Gailly        Mark Adler

  jloup@gzip.org          madler@alumni.caltech.edu

If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not* receiving

lengthy legal documents to sign.  The sources are provided for free but without

warranty of any kind.  The library has been entirely written by Jean-loup

Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not include third-party code.

If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include in

the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes.  Please read

the FAQ for more information on the distribution of modified source versions.