From 36e593940e59cb2aa0b8eae3ffd9a3c36f194190 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Baumann Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2018 11:16:39 +0200 Subject: Adding README.Debian documenting lzip-alternatives. Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann --- debian/lzip.README.Debian | 94 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 94 insertions(+) create mode 100644 debian/lzip.README.Debian diff --git a/debian/lzip.README.Debian b/debian/lzip.README.Debian new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38e3c90 --- /dev/null +++ b/debian/lzip.README.Debian @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +Lzip for Debian +=============== + +1. Lzip implementations +----------------------- + +Lzip is available in different implementations: + + lzip original C++ implementation + plzip parallel C++ implementation + + lziprecover C++ implementation with extra recovery functionality + clzip C implementation + + lunzip C implementation, decompressor only + xlunzip C implementation using lzip_decompress kernel module, decompressor only + + lzd simple C implementation, decompressor only, educational purpose + minilzip simple C implementation, using lzlib, educational purpose + pdlzip simple C implementation, Public Domain + +All Lzip implementations are fully compatible (files can be compressed and +decompressed with any implementation interchangeably). + +All Lzip implementations support the same command line switches: if an option +is not implemented it is silently ignored (e.g. the -n option to set the number +of threads is accepted by all implementations but only plzip makes use of it). + + +2. update-alternatives +---------------------- + +On Debian based systems all Lzip implementations are installed as +lzip.$implementation (e.g. /usr/bin/lzip.plzip) and /usr/bin/lzip is a symlink +managed by update-altenatives to point to the currently selected +implementation. All Lzip packages provide the virtual lzip-alternatives package. + +The following automatic priorities are used: + + Decompressors: + xlunzip -3000 + lzd -2000 + lunzip -1000 + + Compressor and decompressors: + lzlib 1000 + pdlzip 2000 + clzip 3000 + lziprecover 4000 + lzip 5000 + plzip 6000 + + +This allows: + + * users to manually switch the implementation conveniently with: + + sudo update-alternative --config lzip + + if more than one lzip imlementation is installed. + + * automatically have the system use the 'best' implementation installed. + + * allows to switch back and forth, transparently, from single-threaded lzip + to parallel plzip with one update-alternative command - no scripts or + commands need to be changed. + + If you were using lzip before, install plzip and all your lzip operations + are now parallelized automatically. + + +3. Best practise +---------------- + +To make the best use of lzip, the following should be considered: + + * use lzip in scripts and commands, don't hardcode a specific implementation + (e.g. use lzip, not plzip). + + * use alternative depends in debian packages, don't depend on a specific + implementation (e.g. use 'Depends: lzip-alternative | lzip' or + 'Depends: lzip-alternative | plzip', not 'Depends: lzip'). + + +4. See also +----------- + + * tarlz: archiver with multimember lzip compression + * zutils: utilities for dealing with compressed files transparently + + * Xz format inadequate for long-term archiving + http://lzip.nongnu.org/xz_inadequate.html + + -- Daniel Baumann Sun, 26 Aug 2018 11:06:17 +0200 -- cgit v1.2.3