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Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +00001
2 Frequently Asked Questions about zlib
3
4
5If your question is not there, please check the zlib home page
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +00006http://zlib.net/ which may have more recent information.
7The lastest zlib FAQ is at http://zlib.net/zlib_faq.html
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +00008
9
10 1. Is zlib Y2K-compliant?
11
12 Yes. zlib doesn't handle dates.
13
14 2. Where can I get a Windows DLL version?
15
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000016 The zlib sources can be compiled without change to produce a DLL. See the
17 file win32/DLL_FAQ.txt in the zlib distribution. Pointers to the
18 precompiled DLL are found in the zlib web site at http://zlib.net/ .
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000019
20 3. Where can I get a Visual Basic interface to zlib?
21
22 See
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000023 * http://marknelson.us/1997/01/01/zlib-engine/
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000024 * win32/DLL_FAQ.txt in the zlib distribution
25
26 4. compress() returns Z_BUF_ERROR.
27
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000028 Make sure that before the call of compress(), the length of the compressed
29 buffer is equal to the available size of the compressed buffer and not
30 zero. For Visual Basic, check that this parameter is passed by reference
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000031 ("as any"), not by value ("as long").
32
33 5. deflate() or inflate() returns Z_BUF_ERROR.
34
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000035 Before making the call, make sure that avail_in and avail_out are not zero.
36 When setting the parameter flush equal to Z_FINISH, also make sure that
37 avail_out is big enough to allow processing all pending input. Note that a
38 Z_BUF_ERROR is not fatal--another call to deflate() or inflate() can be
39 made with more input or output space. A Z_BUF_ERROR may in fact be
40 unavoidable depending on how the functions are used, since it is not
41 possible to tell whether or not there is more output pending when
42 strm.avail_out returns with zero. See http://zlib.net/zlib_how.html for a
43 heavily annotated example.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000044
45 6. Where's the zlib documentation (man pages, etc.)?
46
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000047 It's in zlib.h . Examples of zlib usage are in the files example.c and
48 minigzip.c, with more in examples/ .
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000049
50 7. Why don't you use GNU autoconf or libtool or ...?
51
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000052 Because we would like to keep zlib as a very small and simple package.
53 zlib is rather portable and doesn't need much configuration.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000054
55 8. I found a bug in zlib.
56
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000057 Most of the time, such problems are due to an incorrect usage of zlib.
58 Please try to reproduce the problem with a small program and send the
59 corresponding source to us at zlib@gzip.org . Do not send multi-megabyte
60 data files without prior agreement.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000061
62 9. Why do I get "undefined reference to gzputc"?
63
64 If "make test" produces something like
65
66 example.o(.text+0x154): undefined reference to `gzputc'
67
68 check that you don't have old files libz.* in /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib or
69 /usr/X11R6/lib. Remove any old versions, then do "make install".
70
7110. I need a Delphi interface to zlib.
72
73 See the contrib/delphi directory in the zlib distribution.
74
7511. Can zlib handle .zip archives?
76
77 Not by itself, no. See the directory contrib/minizip in the zlib
78 distribution.
79
8012. Can zlib handle .Z files?
81
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000082 No, sorry. You have to spawn an uncompress or gunzip subprocess, or adapt
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +000083 the code of uncompress on your own.
84
8513. How can I make a Unix shared library?
86
87 make clean
88 ./configure -s
89 make
90
9114. How do I install a shared zlib library on Unix?
92
93 After the above, then:
94
95 make install
96
97 However, many flavors of Unix come with a shared zlib already installed.
98 Before going to the trouble of compiling a shared version of zlib and
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000099 trying to install it, you may want to check if it's already there! If you
100 can #include <zlib.h>, it's there. The -lz option will probably link to
101 it. You can check the version at the top of zlib.h or with the
102 ZLIB_VERSION symbol defined in zlib.h .
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000103
10415. I have a question about OttoPDF.
105
106 We are not the authors of OttoPDF. The real author is on the OttoPDF web
107 site: Joel Hainley, jhainley@myndkryme.com.
108
10916. Can zlib decode Flate data in an Adobe PDF file?
110
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000111 Yes. See http://www.pdflib.com/ . To modify PDF forms, see
112 http://sourceforge.net/projects/acroformtool/ .
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000113
11417. Why am I getting this "register_frame_info not found" error on Solaris?
115
116 After installing zlib 1.1.4 on Solaris 2.6, running applications using zlib
117 generates an error such as:
118
119 ld.so.1: rpm: fatal: relocation error: file /usr/local/lib/libz.so:
120 symbol __register_frame_info: referenced symbol not found
121
122 The symbol __register_frame_info is not part of zlib, it is generated by
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000123 the C compiler (cc or gcc). You must recompile applications using zlib
124 which have this problem. This problem is specific to Solaris. See
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000125 http://www.sunfreeware.com for Solaris versions of zlib and applications
126 using zlib.
127
12818. Why does gzip give an error on a file I make with compress/deflate?
129
130 The compress and deflate functions produce data in the zlib format, which
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000131 is different and incompatible with the gzip format. The gz* functions in
132 zlib on the other hand use the gzip format. Both the zlib and gzip formats
133 use the same compressed data format internally, but have different headers
134 and trailers around the compressed data.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000135
13619. Ok, so why are there two different formats?
137
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000138 The gzip format was designed to retain the directory information about a
139 single file, such as the name and last modification date. The zlib format
140 on the other hand was designed for in-memory and communication channel
141 applications, and has a much more compact header and trailer and uses a
142 faster integrity check than gzip.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000143
14420. Well that's nice, but how do I make a gzip file in memory?
145
146 You can request that deflate write the gzip format instead of the zlib
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000147 format using deflateInit2(). You can also request that inflate decode the
148 gzip format using inflateInit2(). Read zlib.h for more details.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000149
15021. Is zlib thread-safe?
151
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000152 Yes. However any library routines that zlib uses and any application-
153 provided memory allocation routines must also be thread-safe. zlib's gz*
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000154 functions use stdio library routines, and most of zlib's functions use the
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000155 library memory allocation routines by default. zlib's *Init* functions
156 allow for the application to provide custom memory allocation routines.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000157
158 Of course, you should only operate on any given zlib or gzip stream from a
159 single thread at a time.
160
16122. Can I use zlib in my commercial application?
162
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000163 Yes. Please read the license in zlib.h.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000164
16523. Is zlib under the GNU license?
166
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000167 No. Please read the license in zlib.h.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000168
16924. The license says that altered source versions must be "plainly marked". So
170 what exactly do I need to do to meet that requirement?
171
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000172 You need to change the ZLIB_VERSION and ZLIB_VERNUM #defines in zlib.h. In
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000173 particular, the final version number needs to be changed to "f", and an
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000174 identification string should be appended to ZLIB_VERSION. Version numbers
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000175 x.x.x.f are reserved for modifications to zlib by others than the zlib
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000176 maintainers. For example, if the version of the base zlib you are altering
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000177 is "1.2.3.4", then in zlib.h you should change ZLIB_VERNUM to 0x123f, and
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000178 ZLIB_VERSION to something like "1.2.3.f-zachary-mods-v3". You can also
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000179 update the version strings in deflate.c and inftrees.c.
180
181 For altered source distributions, you should also note the origin and
182 nature of the changes in zlib.h, as well as in ChangeLog and README, along
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000183 with the dates of the alterations. The origin should include at least your
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000184 name (or your company's name), and an email address to contact for help or
185 issues with the library.
186
187 Note that distributing a compiled zlib library along with zlib.h and
188 zconf.h is also a source distribution, and so you should change
189 ZLIB_VERSION and ZLIB_VERNUM and note the origin and nature of the changes
190 in zlib.h as you would for a full source distribution.
191
19225. Will zlib work on a big-endian or little-endian architecture, and can I
193 exchange compressed data between them?
194
195 Yes and yes.
196
19726. Will zlib work on a 64-bit machine?
198
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000199 Yes. It has been tested on 64-bit machines, and has no dependence on any
200 data types being limited to 32-bits in length. If you have any
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000201 difficulties, please provide a complete problem report to zlib@gzip.org
202
20327. Will zlib decompress data from the PKWare Data Compression Library?
204
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000205 No. The PKWare DCL uses a completely different compressed data format than
206 does PKZIP and zlib. However, you can look in zlib's contrib/blast
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000207 directory for a possible solution to your problem.
208
20928. Can I access data randomly in a compressed stream?
210
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000211 No, not without some preparation. If when compressing you periodically use
212 Z_FULL_FLUSH, carefully write all the pending data at those points, and
213 keep an index of those locations, then you can start decompression at those
214 points. You have to be careful to not use Z_FULL_FLUSH too often, since it
215 can significantly degrade compression. Alternatively, you can scan a
216 deflate stream once to generate an index, and then use that index for
217 random access. See examples/zran.c .
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000218
21929. Does zlib work on MVS, OS/390, CICS, etc.?
220
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000221 It has in the past, but we have not heard of any recent evidence. There
222 were working ports of zlib 1.1.4 to MVS, but those links no longer work.
223 If you know of recent, successful applications of zlib on these operating
224 systems, please let us know. Thanks.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000225
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000022630. Is there some simpler, easier to read version of inflate I can look at to
227 understand the deflate format?
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000228
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000229 First off, you should read RFC 1951. Second, yes. Look in zlib's
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000230 contrib/puff directory.
231
23231. Does zlib infringe on any patents?
233
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000234 As far as we know, no. In fact, that was originally the whole point behind
235 zlib. Look here for some more information:
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000236
237 http://www.gzip.org/#faq11
238
23932. Can zlib work with greater than 4 GB of data?
240
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000241 Yes. inflate() and deflate() will process any amount of data correctly.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000242 Each call of inflate() or deflate() is limited to input and output chunks
243 of the maximum value that can be stored in the compiler's "unsigned int"
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000244 type, but there is no limit to the number of chunks. Note however that the
245 strm.total_in and strm_total_out counters may be limited to 4 GB. These
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000246 counters are provided as a convenience and are not used internally by
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000247 inflate() or deflate(). The application can easily set up its own counters
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000248 updated after each call of inflate() or deflate() to count beyond 4 GB.
249 compress() and uncompress() may be limited to 4 GB, since they operate in a
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000250 single call. gzseek() and gztell() may be limited to 4 GB depending on how
251 zlib is compiled. See the zlibCompileFlags() function in zlib.h.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000252
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000253 The word "may" appears several times above since there is a 4 GB limit only
254 if the compiler's "long" type is 32 bits. If the compiler's "long" type is
255 64 bits, then the limit is 16 exabytes.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000256
25733. Does zlib have any security vulnerabilities?
258
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000259 The only one that we are aware of is potentially in gzprintf(). If zlib is
260 compiled to use sprintf() or vsprintf(), then there is no protection
261 against a buffer overflow of an 8K string space (or other value as set by
262 gzbuffer()), other than the caller of gzprintf() assuring that the output
263 will not exceed 8K. On the other hand, if zlib is compiled to use
264 snprintf() or vsnprintf(), which should normally be the case, then there is
265 no vulnerability. The ./configure script will display warnings if an
266 insecure variation of sprintf() will be used by gzprintf(). Also the
267 zlibCompileFlags() function will return information on what variant of
268 sprintf() is used by gzprintf().
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000269
270 If you don't have snprintf() or vsnprintf() and would like one, you can
271 find a portable implementation here:
272
273 http://www.ijs.si/software/snprintf/
274
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000275 Note that you should be using the most recent version of zlib. Versions
276 1.1.3 and before were subject to a double-free vulnerability, and versions
277 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 were subject to an access exception when decompressing
278 invalid compressed data.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000279
28034. Is there a Java version of zlib?
281
282 Probably what you want is to use zlib in Java. zlib is already included
283 as part of the Java SDK in the java.util.zip package. If you really want
284 a version of zlib written in the Java language, look on the zlib home
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000285 page for links: http://zlib.net/ .
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000286
28735. I get this or that compiler or source-code scanner warning when I crank it
288 up to maximally-pedantic. Can't you guys write proper code?
289
290 Many years ago, we gave up attempting to avoid warnings on every compiler
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000291 in the universe. It just got to be a waste of time, and some compilers
292 were downright silly as well as contradicted each other. So now, we simply
293 make sure that the code always works.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000294
29536. Valgrind (or some similar memory access checker) says that deflate is
296 performing a conditional jump that depends on an uninitialized value.
297 Isn't that a bug?
298
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000299 No. That is intentional for performance reasons, and the output of deflate
300 is not affected. This only started showing up recently since zlib 1.2.x
301 uses malloc() by default for allocations, whereas earlier versions used
302 calloc(), which zeros out the allocated memory. Even though the code was
303 correct, versions 1.2.4 and later was changed to not stimulate these
304 checkers.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000305
30637. Will zlib read the (insert any ancient or arcane format here) compressed
307 data format?
308
309 Probably not. Look in the comp.compression FAQ for pointers to various
310 formats and associated software.
311
31238. How can I encrypt/decrypt zip files with zlib?
313
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000314 zlib doesn't support encryption. The original PKZIP encryption is very
315 weak and can be broken with freely available programs. To get strong
316 encryption, use GnuPG, http://www.gnupg.org/ , which already includes zlib
317 compression. For PKZIP compatible "encryption", look at
318 http://www.info-zip.org/
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000319
32039. What's the difference between the "gzip" and "deflate" HTTP 1.1 encodings?
321
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000322 "gzip" is the gzip format, and "deflate" is the zlib format. They should
323 probably have called the second one "zlib" instead to avoid confusion with
324 the raw deflate compressed data format. While the HTTP 1.1 RFC 2616
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000325 correctly points to the zlib specification in RFC 1950 for the "deflate"
326 transfer encoding, there have been reports of servers and browsers that
327 incorrectly produce or expect raw deflate data per the deflate
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000328 specficiation in RFC 1951, most notably Microsoft. So even though the
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000329 "deflate" transfer encoding using the zlib format would be the more
330 efficient approach (and in fact exactly what the zlib format was designed
331 for), using the "gzip" transfer encoding is probably more reliable due to
332 an unfortunate choice of name on the part of the HTTP 1.1 authors.
333
334 Bottom line: use the gzip format for HTTP 1.1 encoding.
335
33640. Does zlib support the new "Deflate64" format introduced by PKWare?
337
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +0000338 No. PKWare has apparently decided to keep that format proprietary, since
339 they have not documented it as they have previous compression formats. In
340 any case, the compression improvements are so modest compared to other more
341 modern approaches, that it's not worth the effort to implement.
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000342
Martin v. Löwisce126ed2010-07-30 20:03:17 +000034341. I'm having a problem with the zip functions in zlib, can you help?
344
345 There are no zip functions in zlib. You are probably using minizip by
346 Giles Vollant, which is found in the contrib directory of zlib. It is not
347 part of zlib. In fact none of the stuff in contrib is part of zlib. The
348 files in there are not supported by the zlib authors. You need to contact
349 the authors of the respective contribution for help.
350
35142. The match.asm code in contrib is under the GNU General Public License.
352 Since it's part of zlib, doesn't that mean that all of zlib falls under the
353 GNU GPL?
354
355 No. The files in contrib are not part of zlib. They were contributed by
356 other authors and are provided as a convenience to the user within the zlib
357 distribution. Each item in contrib has its own license.
358
35943. Is zlib subject to export controls? What is its ECCN?
360
361 zlib is not subject to export controls, and so is classified as EAR99.
362
36344. Can you please sign these lengthy legal documents and fax them back to us
Martin v. Löwisd372aa82006-01-03 06:44:59 +0000364 so that we can use your software in our product?
365
366 No. Go away. Shoo.