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@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@ +Description + +Plzip is a massively parallel (multi-threaded) implementation of lzip, +compatible with lzip 1.4 or newer. Plzip uses the compression library lzlib. + +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. + +Plzip can compress/decompress large files on multiprocessor machines much +faster than lzip, at the cost of a slightly reduced compression ratio (0.4 +to 2 percent larger compressed files). Note that the number of usable +threads is limited by file size; on files larger than a few GB plzip can use +hundreds of processors, but on files of only a few MB plzip is no faster +than lzip. + +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. + +When compressing, plzip divides the input file into chunks and compresses as +many chunks simultaneously as worker threads are chosen, creating a +multimember compressed file. Each chunk is compressed in-place (using the +same buffer for input and output), reducing the amount of RAM required. + +When decompressing, plzip decompresses as many members simultaneously as +worker threads are chosen. Files that were compressed with lzip are not +decompressed faster than using lzip (unless the option '-b' was used) +because lzip usually produces single-member files, which can't be +decompressed in parallel. + +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. + +Plzip uses the same well-defined exit status values used by lzip, 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. + +Plzip automatically uses 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. + +When compressing, plzip replaces every file given in the command line +with a compressed version of itself, with the name "original_name.lz". +When decompressing, plzip 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 plzip +preserves the access and modification dates, permissions, and, if you have +appropriate privileges, 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). + +Plzip 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, plzip compresses (or decompresses) from +standard input to standard output. Plzip refuses 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. + +Plzip correctly decompresses 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. + +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) 2009-2024 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. |