| ZLIB DATA COMPRESSION LIBRARY | |
| zlib 1.2.3 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://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1950.txt (zlib format), rfc1951.txt (deflate format) | |
| and rfc1952.txt (gzip format). These documents are also available in other | |
| formats from ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html | |
| 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 example.c which also tests that the library | |
| is working correctly. Another example is given in the file minigzip.c. The | |
| compression library itself is composed of all source files except example.c and | |
| minigzip.c. | |
| To compile all files and run the test program, follow the instructions given at | |
| the top of Makefile. In short "make test; make install" should work for most | |
| machines. For Unix: "./configure; make test; make install". For MSDOS, use one | |
| of the special makefiles such as Makefile.msc. For VMS, use make_vms.com. | |
| Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.org>, or to Gilles Vollant | |
| <info@winimage.com> for the Windows DLL version. The zlib home page is | |
| http://www.zlib.org or http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ 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://www.gzip.org/zlib/zlib_faq.html before asking | |
| for help. | |
| Mark Nelson <markn@ieee.org> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan. 1997 | |
| issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available in | |
| http://dogma.net/markn/articles/zlibtool/zlibtool.htm | |
| The changes made in version 1.2.3 are documented in the file ChangeLog. | |
| Unsupported third party contributions are provided in directory "contrib". | |
| A Java implementation of zlib is available in the Java Development Kit | |
| http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/zip/package-summary.html | |
| See the zlib home page http://www.zlib.org for details. | |
| A Perl interface to zlib written by Paul Marquess <pmqs@cpan.org> is in the | |
| CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites | |
| http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Compress/ | |
| A Python interface to zlib written by A.M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca> is | |
| available in Python 1.5 and later versions, see | |
| http://www.python.org/doc/lib/module-zlib.html | |
| A zlib binding for TCL written by Andreas Kupries <a.kupries@westend.com> is | |
| availlable at http://www.oche.de/~akupries/soft/trf/trf_zip.html | |
| 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 | |
| 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, BEOS and by some Mac compilers. | |
| - For PalmOs, see http://palmzlib.sourceforge.net/ | |
| - When building a shared, i.e. dynamic library on Mac OS X, the library must be | |
| installed before testing (do "make install" before "make test"), since the | |
| library location is specified in the library. | |
| 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) 1995-2004 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. |