zlib 1.1.4 is a general purpose data compression library. All the code
is thread safe. The data format used by the zlib library
is described by RFCs (Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1950.txt (zlib format), rfc1951.txt (deflate
format) and rfc1952.txt (gzip format). These documents are also available in
other formats from ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html
All functions of the compression library are documented in the file zlib.h
(volunteer to write man pages welcome, contact jloup@gzip.org). A usage
example of the library is given in the file example.c which also tests that
the library is working correctly. Another example is given in the file
minigzip.c. The compression library itself is composed of all source files
except example.c and minigzip.c.
To compile all files and run the test program, follow the instructions
given at the top of Makefile. In short "make test; make install"
should work for most machines. For Unix: "./configure; make test; make install"
For MSDOS, use one of the special makefiles such as Makefile.msc.
For VMS, use Make_vms.com or descrip.mms.
Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.org>, or to
Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com> for the Windows DLL version.
The zlib home page is http://www.zlib.org or http://www.gzip.org/zlib/
Before reporting a problem, please check this site to verify that
you have the latest version of zlib; otherwise get the latest version and
check whether the problem still exists or not.
PLEASE read the zlib FAQ http://www.gzip.org/zlib/zlib_faq.html
Mark Nelson <markn@ieee.org> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan. 1997
issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available in
http://dogma.net/markn/articles/zlibtool/zlibtool.htm
The changes made in version 1.1.4 are documented in the file ChangeLog.
The only changes made since 1.1.3 are bug corrections:
- ZFREE was repeated on same allocation on some error conditions.
This creates a security problem described in
http://www.zlib.org/advisory-2002-03-11.txt
- Returned incorrect error (Z_MEM_ERROR) on some invalid data
- Avoid accesses before window for invalid distances with inflate window