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@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +Description + +Zutils is a collection of utilities able to process any combination of +compressed and uncompressed files transparently. If any given file, +including standard input, is compressed, its decompressed content is +used. Compressed files are decompressed on the fly; no temporary files +are created. + +These utilities are not wrapper scripts but safer and more efficient C++ +programs. In particular the '--recursive' option is very efficient in +those utilities supporting it. + +The utilities provided are zcat, zcmp, zdiff, zgrep, ztest and zupdate. +The formats supported are bzip2, gzip, lzip and xz. +Zutils uses external compressors. The compressor to be used for each +format is configurable at runtime. + +zcat, zcmp, zdiff, and zgrep are improved replacements for the shell +scripts provided by GNU gzip. ztest is unique to zutils. zupdate is +similar to gzip's znew. + +NOTE: Bzip2 and lzip provide well-defined values of exit status, which +makes them safe to use with zutils. Gzip and xz may return ambiguous +warning values, making them less reliable back ends for zutils. + +FORMAT NOTE 1: The '--format' option allows the processing of a subset +of formats in recursive mode and when trying compressed file names: +'zgrep foo -r --format=bz2,lz somedir somefile.tar'. + +FORMAT NOTE 2: If the '--force-format' option is given, the files are +passed to the corresponding decompressor without verifying their format, +allowing for example the processing of compress'd (.Z) files with gzip: +'zcmp --force-format=gz file.Z file.lz'. + +LANGUAGE NOTE: Uncompressed = not compressed = plain data; it may never +have been compressed. Decompressed is used to refer to data which have +undergone the process of decompression. + + +Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Antonio Diaz Diaz. + +This file is free documentation: you have unlimited permission to copy, +distribute and modify it. + +The file Makefile.in is a data file used by configure to produce the +Makefile. It has the same copyright owner and permissions that configure +itself. |