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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-14 12:56:35 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-14 12:56:35 +0000
commit73b96309074ecfbe47df975bddd3ff65d81d0088 (patch)
treeb4767e09bfaec6951fc6f79bc8fefed95e86ae34 /README
parentInitial commit. (diff)
downloadpdlzip-upstream.tar.xz
pdlzip-upstream.zip
Adding upstream version 1.13.upstream/1.13upstream
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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+Description
+
+Pdlzip is a permissively licensed implementation of the lzip data
+compressor, intended for those who can't distribute (or even use) GPL
+licensed Free Software. The name of pdlzip comes from 'public domain lzip'.
+Pdlzip is written in C and is compatible with lzip 1.4 or newer.
+
+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 to maximize interoperability. The
+maximum dictionary size is 512 MiB so that any lzip file can be decompressed
+on 32-bit machines. Lzip provides accurate and robust 3-factor integrity
+checking. 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.
+
+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.
+
+Pdlzip is also able to decompress legacy lzma-alone (.lzma) files.
+Lzma-alone is a very bad format; it is essentially a raw LZMA stream.
+If you keep any lzma-alone files, it is advisable to recompress them to
+lzip format. Lziprecover can convert some lzma-alone files to lzip format
+without recompressing.
+
+Pdlzip includes public domain compression/decompression code from the LZMA
+SDK (Software Development Kit) written by Igor Pavlov.
+
+I would not write non-copylefted software unless it is too simple to be
+worth copylefting it, but one of the uses of the lzip format is the
+interchange of information, and it is therefore desirable that even the
+users of the most non-free platforms can share lzip files with everybody
+else.
+
+
+Copyright (C) 2010-2024 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.