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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-19 03:10:08 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-19 03:10:08 +0000
commit5262a872f308b3b584c97d621992fb3877e392b8 (patch)
treeb956c322376141abeafe639bd72cfecdf16954b5 /README
parentInitial commit. (diff)
downloadxz-utils-5262a872f308b3b584c97d621992fb3877e392b8.tar.xz
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Adding upstream version 5.6.1+really5.4.5.upstream/5.6.1+really5.4.5
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
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+
+XZ Utils
+========
+
+ 0. Overview
+ 1. Documentation
+ 1.1. Overall documentation
+ 1.2. Documentation for command-line tools
+ 1.3. Documentation for liblzma
+ 2. Version numbering
+ 3. Reporting bugs
+ 4. Translations
+ 5. Other implementations of the .xz format
+ 6. Contact information
+
+
+0. Overview
+-----------
+
+ XZ Utils provide a general-purpose data-compression library plus
+ command-line tools. The native file format is the .xz format, but
+ also the legacy .lzma format is supported. The .xz format supports
+ multiple compression algorithms, which are called "filters" in the
+ context of XZ Utils. The primary filter is currently LZMA2. With
+ typical files, XZ Utils create about 30 % smaller files than gzip.
+
+ To ease adapting support for the .xz format into existing applications
+ and scripts, the API of liblzma is somewhat similar to the API of the
+ popular zlib library. For the same reason, the command-line tool xz
+ has a command-line syntax similar to that of gzip.
+
+ When aiming for the highest compression ratio, the LZMA2 encoder uses
+ a lot of CPU time and may use, depending on the settings, even
+ hundreds of megabytes of RAM. However, in fast modes, the LZMA2 encoder
+ competes with bzip2 in compression speed, RAM usage, and compression
+ ratio.
+
+ LZMA2 is reasonably fast to decompress. It is a little slower than
+ gzip, but a lot faster than bzip2. Being fast to decompress means
+ that the .xz format is especially nice when the same file will be
+ decompressed very many times (usually on different computers), which
+ is the case e.g. when distributing software packages. In such
+ situations, it's not too bad if the compression takes some time,
+ since that needs to be done only once to benefit many people.
+
+ With some file types, combining (or "chaining") LZMA2 with an
+ additional filter can improve the compression ratio. A filter chain may
+ contain up to four filters, although usually only one or two are used.
+ For example, putting a BCJ (Branch/Call/Jump) filter before LZMA2
+ in the filter chain can improve compression ratio of executable files.
+
+ Since the .xz format allows adding new filter IDs, it is possible that
+ some day there will be a filter that is, for example, much faster to
+ compress than LZMA2 (but probably with worse compression ratio).
+ Similarly, it is possible that some day there is a filter that will
+ compress better than LZMA2.
+
+ XZ Utils supports multithreaded compression. XZ Utils doesn't support
+ multithreaded decompression yet. It has been planned though and taken
+ into account when designing the .xz file format. In the future, files
+ that were created in threaded mode can be decompressed in threaded
+ mode too.
+
+
+1. Documentation
+----------------
+
+1.1. Overall documentation
+
+ README This file
+
+ INSTALL.generic Generic install instructions for those not familiar
+ with packages using GNU Autotools
+ INSTALL Installation instructions specific to XZ Utils
+ PACKAGERS Information to packagers of XZ Utils
+
+ COPYING XZ Utils copyright and license information
+ COPYING.GPLv2 GNU General Public License version 2
+ COPYING.GPLv3 GNU General Public License version 3
+ COPYING.LGPLv2.1 GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1
+
+ AUTHORS The main authors of XZ Utils
+ THANKS Incomplete list of people who have helped making
+ this software
+ NEWS User-visible changes between XZ Utils releases
+ ChangeLog Detailed list of changes (commit log)
+ TODO Known bugs and some sort of to-do list
+
+ Note that only some of the above files are included in binary
+ packages.
+
+
+1.2. Documentation for command-line tools
+
+ The command-line tools are documented as man pages. In source code
+ releases (and possibly also in some binary packages), the man pages
+ are also provided in plain text (ASCII only) and PDF formats in the
+ directory "doc/man" to make the man pages more accessible to those
+ whose operating system doesn't provide an easy way to view man pages.
+
+
+1.3. Documentation for liblzma
+
+ The liblzma API headers include short docs about each function
+ and data type as Doxygen tags. These docs should be quite OK as
+ a quick reference.
+
+ There are a few example/tutorial programs that should help in
+ getting started with liblzma. In the source package the examples
+ are in "doc/examples" and in binary packages they may be under
+ "examples" in the same directory as this README.
+
+ Since the liblzma API has similarities to the zlib API, some people
+ may find it useful to read the zlib docs and tutorial too:
+
+ https://zlib.net/manual.html
+ https://zlib.net/zlib_how.html
+
+
+2. Version numbering
+--------------------
+
+ The version number format of XZ Utils is X.Y.ZS:
+
+ - X is the major version. When this is incremented, the library
+ API and ABI break.
+
+ - Y is the minor version. It is incremented when new features
+ are added without breaking the existing API or ABI. An even Y
+ indicates a stable release and an odd Y indicates unstable
+ (alpha or beta version).
+
+ - Z is the revision. This has a different meaning for stable and
+ unstable releases:
+
+ * Stable: Z is incremented when bugs get fixed without adding
+ any new features. This is intended to be convenient for
+ downstream distributors that want bug fixes but don't want
+ any new features to minimize the risk of introducing new bugs.
+
+ * Unstable: Z is just a counter. API or ABI of features added
+ in earlier unstable releases having the same X.Y may break.
+
+ - S indicates stability of the release. It is missing from the
+ stable releases, where Y is an even number. When Y is odd, S
+ is either "alpha" or "beta" to make it very clear that such
+ versions are not stable releases. The same X.Y.Z combination is
+ not used for more than one stability level, i.e. after X.Y.Zalpha,
+ the next version can be X.Y.(Z+1)beta but not X.Y.Zbeta.
+
+
+3. Reporting bugs
+-----------------
+
+ Naturally it is easiest for me if you already know what causes the
+ unexpected behavior. Even better if you have a patch to propose.
+ However, quite often the reason for unexpected behavior is unknown,
+ so here are a few things to do before sending a bug report:
+
+ 1. Try to create a small example how to reproduce the issue.
+
+ 2. Compile XZ Utils with debugging code using configure switches
+ --enable-debug and, if possible, --disable-shared. If you are
+ using GCC, use CFLAGS='-O0 -ggdb3'. Don't strip the resulting
+ binaries.
+
+ 3. Turn on core dumps. The exact command depends on your shell;
+ for example in GNU bash it is done with "ulimit -c unlimited",
+ and in tcsh with "limit coredumpsize unlimited".
+
+ 4. Try to reproduce the suspected bug. If you get "assertion failed"
+ message, be sure to include the complete message in your bug
+ report. If the application leaves a coredump, get a backtrace
+ using gdb:
+ $ gdb /path/to/app-binary # Load the app to the debugger.
+ (gdb) core core # Open the coredump.
+ (gdb) bt # Print the backtrace. Copy & paste to bug report.
+ (gdb) quit # Quit gdb.
+
+ Report your bug via email or IRC (see Contact information below).
+ Don't send core dump files or any executables. If you have a small
+ example file(s) (total size less than 256 KiB), please include
+ it/them as an attachment. If you have bigger test files, put them
+ online somewhere and include a URL to the file(s) in the bug report.
+
+ Always include the exact version number of XZ Utils in the bug report.
+ If you are using a snapshot from the git repository, use "git describe"
+ to get the exact snapshot version. If you are using XZ Utils shipped
+ in an operating system distribution, mention the distribution name,
+ distribution version, and exact xz package version; if you cannot
+ repeat the bug with the code compiled from unpatched source code,
+ you probably need to report a bug to your distribution's bug tracking
+ system.
+
+
+4. Translations
+---------------
+
+ The xz command line tool and all man pages can be translated.
+ The translations are handled via the Translation Project. If you
+ wish to help translating xz, please join the Translation Project:
+
+ https://translationproject.org/html/translators.html
+
+ Below are notes and testing instructions specific to xz
+ translations.
+
+ Testing can be done by installing xz into a temporary directory:
+
+ ./configure --disable-shared --prefix=/tmp/xz-test
+ # <Edit the .po file in the po directory.>
+ make -C po update-po
+ make install
+ bash debug/translation.bash | less
+ bash debug/translation.bash | less -S # For --list outputs
+
+ Repeat the above as needed (no need to re-run configure though).
+
+ Note especially the following:
+
+ - The output of --help and --long-help must look nice on
+ an 80-column terminal. It's OK to add extra lines if needed.
+
+ - In contrast, don't add extra lines to error messages and such.
+ They are often preceded with e.g. a filename on the same line,
+ so you have no way to predict where to put a \n. Let the terminal
+ do the wrapping even if it looks ugly. Adding new lines will be
+ even uglier in the generic case even if it looks nice in a few
+ limited examples.
+
+ - Be careful with column alignment in tables and table-like output
+ (--list, --list --verbose --verbose, --info-memory, --help, and
+ --long-help):
+
+ * All descriptions of options in --help should start in the
+ same column (but it doesn't need to be the same column as
+ in the English messages; just be consistent if you change it).
+ Check that both --help and --long-help look OK, since they
+ share several strings.
+
+ * --list --verbose and --info-memory print lines that have
+ the format "Description: %s". If you need a longer
+ description, you can put extra space between the colon
+ and %s. Then you may need to add extra space to other
+ strings too so that the result as a whole looks good (all
+ values start at the same column).
+
+ * The columns of the actual tables in --list --verbose --verbose
+ should be aligned properly. Abbreviate if necessary. It might
+ be good to keep at least 2 or 3 spaces between column headings
+ and avoid spaces in the headings so that the columns stand out
+ better, but this is a matter of opinion. Do what you think
+ looks best.
+
+ - Be careful to put a period at the end of a sentence when the
+ original version has it, and don't put it when the original
+ doesn't have it. Similarly, be careful with \n characters
+ at the beginning and end of the strings.
+
+ - Read the TRANSLATORS comments that have been extracted from the
+ source code and included in xz.pot. Some comments suggest
+ testing with a specific command which needs an .xz file. You
+ may use e.g. any tests/files/good-*.xz. However, these test
+ commands are included in translations.bash output, so reading
+ translations.bash output carefully can be enough.
+
+ - If you find language problems in the original English strings,
+ feel free to suggest improvements. Ask if something is unclear.
+
+ - The translated messages should be understandable (sometimes this
+ may be a problem with the original English messages too). Don't
+ make a direct word-by-word translation from English especially if
+ the result doesn't sound good in your language.
+
+ Thanks for your help!
+
+
+5. Other implementations of the .xz format
+------------------------------------------
+
+ 7-Zip and the p7zip port of 7-Zip support the .xz format starting
+ from the version 9.00alpha.
+
+ https://7-zip.org/
+ https://p7zip.sourceforge.net/
+
+ XZ Embedded is a limited implementation written for use in the Linux
+ kernel, but it is also suitable for other embedded use.
+
+ https://tukaani.org/xz/embedded.html
+
+ XZ for Java is a complete implementation written in pure Java.
+
+ https://tukaani.org/xz/java.html
+
+
+6. Contact information
+----------------------
+
+ If you have questions, bug reports, patches etc. related to XZ Utils,
+ the project maintainers Lasse Collin and Jia Tan can be reached via
+ <xz@tukaani.org>.
+
+ You might find Lasse also from #tukaani on Libera Chat (IRC).
+ The nick is Larhzu. The channel tends to be pretty quiet,
+ so just ask your question and someone might wake up.
+