README
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- This is the README for bzip2, a block-sorting file compressor, version
- 0.9.0. This version is fully compatible with the previous public
- release, bzip2-0.1pl2.
- bzip2-0.9.0 is distributed under a BSD-style license. For details,
- see the file LICENSE.
- Complete documentation is available in Postscript form (manual.ps)
- or html (manual_toc.html). A plain-text version of the manual page is
- available as bzip2.txt.
- HOW TO BUILD -- UNIX
- Type `make'.
- This creates binaries "bzip2" and "bzip2recover".
- It also runs four compress-decompress tests to make sure things are
- working properly. If all goes well, you should be up & running.
- Please be sure to read the output from `make' just to be sure that the
- tests went ok.
- To install bzip2 properly:
- * Copy the binaries "bzip2" and "bzip2recover" to a publically visible
- place, possibly /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin.
- * In that directory, make "bunzip2" and "bzcat" be symbolic links
- to "bzip2".
- * Copy the manual page, bzip2.1, to the relevant place.
- Probably the right place is /usr/man/man1/.
- If you want to program with the library, you'll need to copy libbz2.a
- and bzlib.h to /usr/lib and /usr/include respectively.
-
- HOW TO BUILD -- Windows 95, NT, DOS, Mac, etc.
- It's difficult for me to support compilation on all these platforms.
- My approach is to collect binaries for these platforms, and put them
- on my web page (http://www.muraroa.demon.co.uk). Look there.
- VALIDATION
- Correct operation, in the sense that a compressed file can always be
- decompressed to reproduce the original, is obviously of paramount
- importance. To validate bzip2, I used a modified version of Mark
- Nelson's churn program. Churn is an automated test driver which
- recursively traverses a directory structure, using bzip2 to compress
- and then decompress each file it encounters, and checking that the
- decompressed data is the same as the original. There are more details
- in Section 4 of the user guide.
- Please read and be aware of the following:
- WARNING:
- This program (attempts to) compress data by performing several
- non-trivial transformations on it. Unless you are 100% familiar
- with *all* the algorithms contained herein, and with the
- consequences of modifying them, you should NOT meddle with the
- compression or decompression machinery. Incorrect changes can and
- very likely *will* lead to disastrous loss of data.
- DISCLAIMER:
- I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA ARISING FROM THE
- USE OF THIS PROGRAM, HOWSOEVER CAUSED.
- Every compression of a file implies an assumption that the
- compressed file can be decompressed to reproduce the original.
- Great efforts in design, coding and testing have been made to
- ensure that this program works correctly. However, the complexity
- of the algorithms, and, in particular, the presence of various
- special cases in the code which occur with very low but non-zero
- probability make it impossible to rule out the possibility of bugs
- remaining in the program. DO NOT COMPRESS ANY DATA WITH THIS
- PROGRAM UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED TO ACCEPT THE POSSIBILITY, HOWEVER
- SMALL, THAT THE DATA WILL NOT BE RECOVERABLE.
- That is not to say this program is inherently unreliable. Indeed,
- I very much hope the opposite is true. bzip2 has been carefully
- constructed and extensively tested.
- PATENTS:
- To the best of my knowledge, bzip2 does not use any patented
- algorithms. However, I do not have the resources available to
- carry out a full patent search. Therefore I cannot give any
- guarantee of the above statement.
- End of legalities.
- WHAT'S NEW IN 0.9.0 (as compared to 0.1pl2) ?
- * Approx 10% faster compression, 30% faster decompression
- * -t (test mode) is a lot quicker
- * Can decompress concatenated compressed files
- * Programming interface, so programs can directly read/write .bz2 files
- * Less restrictive (BSD-style) licensing
- * Flag handling more compatible with GNU gzip
- * Much more documentation, i.e., a proper user manual
- * Hopefully, improved portability (at least of the library)
- I hope you find bzip2 useful. Feel free to contact me at
- jseward@acm.org
- if you have any suggestions or queries. Many people mailed me with
- comments, suggestions and patches after the releases of bzip-0.15,
- bzip-0.21 and bzip2-0.1pl2, and the changes in bzip2 are largely a
- result of this feedback. I thank you for your comments.
- At least for the time being, bzip2's "home" is
- http://www.muraroa.demon.co.uk.
- Julian Seward
- jseward@acm.org
- Manchester, UK
- 18 July 1996 (version 0.15)
- 25 August 1996 (version 0.21)
- Guildford, Surrey, UK
- 7 August 1997 (bzip2, version 0.1)
- 29 August 1997 (bzip2, version 0.1pl2)
- 23 August 1998 (bzip2, version 0.9.0)