zlib 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
LAB developers should not have problems with this compression library, as most calls to zlib functions are done by the Foundation Classes. To be fair with authors of this nice piece of software, here are some common rules when dealing with zlib:
All functions in the compression library are documented in the file zlib.h (volunteer to write man pages welcome, contact zlib@gzip.org).
Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@gzip.org>, or to Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com> for the Windows DLL version.
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.
An experimental package to read and write files in .zip format, written on top of zlib by Gilles Vollant <info@winimage.com>, is available in the contrib/minizip directory of zlib.
The deflate format used by zlib was defined by Phil Katz. The deflate and zlib specifications were written by L. Peter Deutsch. Thanks to all the people who reported problems and suggested various improvements in zlib; they are too numerous to cite here.
This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.
Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:
The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.
If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not* receiving lengthy legal documents to sign. The sources are provided for free but without warranty of any kind. The library has been entirely written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not include third-party code.
If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include in the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes. Please read the FAQ for more information on the distribution of modified source versions.