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@@ -2,41 +2,44 @@ 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 (hope)fully compatible with lzip 1.4 -or newer. +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 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. +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 lziprecover program 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. + 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. + * 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. +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. @@ -44,8 +47,8 @@ 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 (de)compression code from the LZMA SDK -(Software Development Kit) written by Igor Pavlov. +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 @@ -54,11 +57,10 @@ users of the most non-free platforms can share lzip files with everybody else. -Copyright (C) 2010-2019 Antonio Diaz Diaz. +Copyright (C) 2010-2024 Antonio Diaz Diaz. This file is free documentation: you have unlimited permission to copy, -distribute and modify it. +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. +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. |