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@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@ +Description + +Lzip is a lossless data compressor with a user interface similar to the one +of gzip or bzip2. Lzip uses a simplified form of the 'Lempel-Ziv-Markov +chain-Algorithm' (LZMA) stream format and provides a 3 factor integrity +checking to maximize interoperability and optimize safety. Lzip can compress +about as fast as gzip (lzip -0) or compress most files more than bzip2 +(lzip -9). Decompression speed is intermediate between gzip and bzip2. +Lzip is better than gzip and bzip2 from a data recovery perspective. Lzip +has been designed, written, and tested with great care to replace gzip and +bzip2 as the standard general-purpose compressed format for unix-like +systems. + +For compressing/decompressing large files on multiprocessor machines plzip +can be much faster than lzip at the cost of a slightly reduced compression +ratio. + +For creation and manipulation of compressed tar archives tarlz can be more +efficient than using tar and plzip because tarlz is able to keep the +alignment between tar members and lzip members. + +The lzip file format is designed for data sharing and long-term archiving, +taking into account both data integrity and decoder availability: + + * The lzip format provides very safe integrity checking and some data + recovery means. The program lziprecover can repair bit flip errors + (one of the most common forms of data corruption) in lzip files, and + provides data recovery capabilities, including error-checked merging + of damaged copies of a file. + + * The lzip format is as simple as possible (but not simpler). The lzip + manual provides the source code of a simple decompressor along with a + detailed explanation of how it works, so that with the only help of the + lzip manual it would be possible for a digital archaeologist to extract + the data from a lzip file long after quantum computers eventually + render LZMA obsolete. + + * Additionally the lzip reference implementation is copylefted, which + guarantees that it will remain free forever. + +A nice feature of the lzip format is that a corrupt byte is easier to repair +the nearer it is from the beginning of the file. Therefore, with the help of +lziprecover, losing an entire archive just because of a corrupt byte near +the beginning is a thing of the past. + +Lzip uses the same well-defined exit status values used by bzip2, which +makes it safer than compressors returning ambiguous warning values (like +gzip) when it is used as a back end for other programs like tar or zutils. + +Lzip will automatically use for each file the largest dictionary size that +does not exceed neither the file size nor the limit given. Keep in mind that +the decompression memory requirement is affected at compression time by the +choice of dictionary size limit. + +The amount of memory required for compression is about 1 or 2 times the +dictionary size limit (1 if input file size is less than dictionary size +limit, else 2) plus 9 times the dictionary size really used. The option '-0' +is special and only requires about 1.5 MiB at most. The amount of memory +required for decompression is about 46 kB larger than the dictionary size +really used. + +When compressing, lzip replaces every file given in the command line +with a compressed version of itself, with the name "original_name.lz". +When decompressing, lzip attempts to guess the name for the decompressed +file from that of the compressed file as follows: + +filename.lz becomes filename +filename.tlz becomes filename.tar +anyothername becomes anyothername.out + +(De)compressing a file is much like copying or moving it. Therefore lzip +preserves the access and modification dates, permissions, and, when +possible, ownership of the file just as 'cp -p' does. (If the user ID or +the group ID can't be duplicated, the file permission bits S_ISUID and +S_ISGID are cleared). + +Lzip is able to read from some types of non-regular files if either the +option '-c' or the option '-o' is specified. + +If no file names are specified, lzip compresses (or decompresses) from +standard input to standard output. Lzip will refuse to read compressed data +from a terminal or write compressed data to a terminal, as this would be +entirely incomprehensible and might leave the terminal in an abnormal state. + +Lzip will correctly decompress a file which is the concatenation of two or +more compressed files. The result is the concatenation of the corresponding +decompressed files. Integrity testing of concatenated compressed files is +also supported. + +Lzip can produce multimember files, and lziprecover can safely recover the +undamaged members in case of file damage. Lzip can also split the compressed +output in volumes of a given size, even when reading from standard input. +This allows the direct creation of multivolume compressed tar archives. + +Lzip is able to compress and decompress streams of unlimited size by +automatically creating multimember output. The members so created are large, +about 2 PiB each. + +In spite of its name (Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain-Algorithm), LZMA is not a +concrete algorithm; it is more like "any algorithm using the LZMA coding +scheme". For example, the option '-0' of lzip uses the scheme in almost the +simplest way possible; issuing the longest match it can find, or a literal +byte if it can't find a match. Inversely, a much more elaborated way of +finding coding sequences of minimum size than the one currently used by lzip +could be developed, and the resulting sequence could also be coded using the +LZMA coding scheme. + +Lzip currently implements two variants of the LZMA algorithm: fast +(used by option '-0') and normal (used by all other compression levels). + +The high compression of LZMA comes from combining two basic, well-proven +compression ideas: sliding dictionaries (LZ77/78) and markov models (the +thing used by every compression algorithm that uses a range encoder or +similar order-0 entropy coder as its last stage) with segregation of +contexts according to what the bits are used for. + +The ideas embodied in lzip are due to (at least) the following people: +Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv (for the LZ algorithm), Andrey Markov (for the +definition of Markov chains), G.N.N. Martin (for the definition of range +encoding), Igor Pavlov (for putting all the above together in LZMA), and +Julian Seward (for bzip2's CLI). + +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) 2008-2022 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. |