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9 <book lang="en" id="userman" xreflabel="bzip2 Manual">
12 <title>bzip2 and libbzip2, version 1.0.6</title>
13 <subtitle>A program and library for data compression</subtitle>
15 <year>&bz-lifespan;</year>
16 <holder>Julian Seward</holder>
18 <releaseinfo>Version &bz-version; of &bz-date;</releaseinfo>
22 <firstname>Julian</firstname>
23 <surname>Seward</surname>
25 <orgname>&bz-url;</orgname>
32 <para>This program, <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>, the
33 associated library <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput>, and
34 all documentation, are copyright © &bz-lifespan; Julian Seward.
35 All rights reserved.</para>
37 <para>Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with
38 or without modification, are permitted provided that the
39 following conditions are met:</para>
41 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
43 <listitem><para>Redistributions of source code must retain the
44 above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
45 following disclaimer.</para></listitem>
47 <listitem><para>The origin of this software must not be
48 misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original
49 software. If you use this software in a product, an
50 acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
51 appreciated but is not required.</para></listitem>
53 <listitem><para>Altered source versions must be plainly marked
54 as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original
55 software.</para></listitem>
57 <listitem><para>The name of the author may not be used to
58 endorse or promote products derived from this software without
59 specific prior written permission.</para></listitem>
63 <para>THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR "AS IS" AND ANY
64 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
65 THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
66 PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
67 AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
68 EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
69 TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
70 DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
71 ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
72 LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING
73 IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF
74 THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.</para>
76 <para>PATENTS: To the best of my knowledge,
77 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> and
78 <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput> do not use any patented
79 algorithms. However, I do not have the resources to carry
80 out a patent search. Therefore I cannot give any guarantee of
90 <chapter id="intro" xreflabel="Introduction">
91 <title>Introduction</title>
93 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> compresses files
94 using the Burrows-Wheeler block-sorting text compression
95 algorithm, and Huffman coding. Compression is generally
96 considerably better than that achieved by more conventional
97 LZ77/LZ78-based compressors, and approaches the performance of
98 the PPM family of statistical compressors.</para>
100 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> is built on top of
101 <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput>, a flexible library for
102 handling compressed data in the
103 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> format. This manual
104 describes both how to use the program and how to work with the
105 library interface. Most of the manual is devoted to this
106 library, not the program, which is good news if your interest is
107 only in the program.</para>
109 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
111 <listitem><para><xref linkend="using"/> describes how to use
112 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>; this is the only part
113 you need to read if you just want to know how to operate the
114 program.</para></listitem>
116 <listitem><para><xref linkend="libprog"/> describes the
117 programming interfaces in detail, and</para></listitem>
119 <listitem><para><xref linkend="misc"/> records some
120 miscellaneous notes which I thought ought to be recorded
121 somewhere.</para></listitem>
128 <chapter id="using" xreflabel="How to use bzip2">
129 <title>How to use bzip2</title>
131 <para>This chapter contains a copy of the
132 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> man page, and nothing
135 <sect1 id="name" xreflabel="NAME">
138 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
140 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>,
141 <computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> - a block-sorting file
142 compressor, v1.0.6</para></listitem>
144 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bzcat</computeroutput> -
145 decompresses files to stdout</para></listitem>
147 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput> -
148 recovers data from damaged bzip2 files</para></listitem>
155 <sect1 id="synopsis" xreflabel="SYNOPSIS">
156 <title>SYNOPSIS</title>
158 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
160 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> [
161 -cdfkqstvzVL123456789 ] [ filenames ... ]</para></listitem>
163 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> [
164 -fkvsVL ] [ filenames ... ]</para></listitem>
166 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bzcat</computeroutput> [ -s ] [
167 filenames ... ]</para></listitem>
169 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput>
170 filename</para></listitem>
177 <sect1 id="description" xreflabel="DESCRIPTION">
178 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
180 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> compresses files
181 using the Burrows-Wheeler block sorting text compression
182 algorithm, and Huffman coding. Compression is generally
183 considerably better than that achieved by more conventional
184 LZ77/LZ78-based compressors, and approaches the performance of
185 the PPM family of statistical compressors.</para>
187 <para>The command-line options are deliberately very similar to
188 those of GNU <computeroutput>gzip</computeroutput>, but they are
189 not identical.</para>
191 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> expects a list of
192 file names to accompany the command-line flags. Each file is
193 replaced by a compressed version of itself, with the name
194 <computeroutput>original_name.bz2</computeroutput>. Each
195 compressed file has the same modification date, permissions, and,
196 when possible, ownership as the corresponding original, so that
197 these properties can be correctly restored at decompression time.
198 File name handling is naive in the sense that there is no
199 mechanism for preserving original file names, permissions,
200 ownerships or dates in filesystems which lack these concepts, or
201 have serious file name length restrictions, such as
204 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> and
205 <computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> will by default not
206 overwrite existing files. If you want this to happen, specify
207 the <computeroutput>-f</computeroutput> flag.</para>
209 <para>If no file names are specified,
210 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> compresses from standard
211 input to standard output. In this case,
212 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> will decline to write
213 compressed output to a terminal, as this would be entirely
214 incomprehensible and therefore pointless.</para>
216 <para><computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> (or
217 <computeroutput>bzip2 -d</computeroutput>) decompresses all
218 specified files. Files which were not created by
219 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> will be detected and
220 ignored, and a warning issued.
221 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> attempts to guess the
222 filename for the decompressed file from that of the compressed
223 file as follows:</para>
225 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
227 <listitem><para><computeroutput>filename.bz2 </computeroutput>
229 <computeroutput>filename</computeroutput></para></listitem>
231 <listitem><para><computeroutput>filename.bz </computeroutput>
233 <computeroutput>filename</computeroutput></para></listitem>
235 <listitem><para><computeroutput>filename.tbz2</computeroutput>
237 <computeroutput>filename.tar</computeroutput></para></listitem>
239 <listitem><para><computeroutput>filename.tbz </computeroutput>
241 <computeroutput>filename.tar</computeroutput></para></listitem>
243 <listitem><para><computeroutput>anyothername </computeroutput>
245 <computeroutput>anyothername.out</computeroutput></para></listitem>
249 <para>If the file does not end in one of the recognised endings,
250 <computeroutput>.bz2</computeroutput>,
251 <computeroutput>.bz</computeroutput>,
252 <computeroutput>.tbz2</computeroutput> or
253 <computeroutput>.tbz</computeroutput>,
254 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> complains that it cannot
255 guess the name of the original file, and uses the original name
256 with <computeroutput>.out</computeroutput> appended.</para>
258 <para>As with compression, supplying no filenames causes
259 decompression from standard input to standard output.</para>
261 <para><computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> will correctly
262 decompress a file which is the concatenation of two or more
263 compressed files. The result is the concatenation of the
264 corresponding uncompressed files. Integrity testing
265 (<computeroutput>-t</computeroutput>) of concatenated compressed
266 files is also supported.</para>
268 <para>You can also compress or decompress files to the standard
269 output by giving the <computeroutput>-c</computeroutput> flag.
270 Multiple files may be compressed and decompressed like this. The
271 resulting outputs are fed sequentially to stdout. Compression of
272 multiple files in this manner generates a stream containing
273 multiple compressed file representations. Such a stream can be
274 decompressed correctly only by
275 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> version 0.9.0 or later.
276 Earlier versions of <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> will
277 stop after decompressing the first file in the stream.</para>
279 <para><computeroutput>bzcat</computeroutput> (or
280 <computeroutput>bzip2 -dc</computeroutput>) decompresses all
281 specified files to the standard output.</para>
283 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> will read arguments
284 from the environment variables
285 <computeroutput>BZIP2</computeroutput> and
286 <computeroutput>BZIP</computeroutput>, in that order, and will
287 process them before any arguments read from the command line.
288 This gives a convenient way to supply default arguments.</para>
290 <para>Compression is always performed, even if the compressed
291 file is slightly larger than the original. Files of less than
292 about one hundred bytes tend to get larger, since the compression
293 mechanism has a constant overhead in the region of 50 bytes.
294 Random data (including the output of most file compressors) is
295 coded at about 8.05 bits per byte, giving an expansion of around
298 <para>As a self-check for your protection,
299 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> uses 32-bit CRCs to make
300 sure that the decompressed version of a file is identical to the
301 original. This guards against corruption of the compressed data,
302 and against undetected bugs in
303 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> (hopefully very unlikely).
304 The chances of data corruption going undetected is microscopic,
305 about one chance in four billion for each file processed. Be
306 aware, though, that the check occurs upon decompression, so it
307 can only tell you that something is wrong. It can't help you
308 recover the original uncompressed data. You can use
309 <computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput> to try to recover
310 data from damaged files.</para>
312 <para>Return values: 0 for a normal exit, 1 for environmental
313 problems (file not found, invalid flags, I/O errors, etc.), 2
314 to indicate a corrupt compressed file, 3 for an internal
315 consistency error (eg, bug) which caused
316 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> to panic.</para>
321 <sect1 id="options" xreflabel="OPTIONS">
322 <title>OPTIONS</title>
327 <term><computeroutput>-c --stdout</computeroutput></term>
328 <listitem><para>Compress or decompress to standard
329 output.</para></listitem>
333 <term><computeroutput>-d --decompress</computeroutput></term>
334 <listitem><para>Force decompression.
335 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>,
336 <computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> and
337 <computeroutput>bzcat</computeroutput> are really the same
338 program, and the decision about what actions to take is done on
339 the basis of which name is used. This flag overrides that
340 mechanism, and forces bzip2 to decompress.</para></listitem>
344 <term><computeroutput>-z --compress</computeroutput></term>
345 <listitem><para>The complement to
346 <computeroutput>-d</computeroutput>: forces compression,
347 regardless of the invokation name.</para></listitem>
351 <term><computeroutput>-t --test</computeroutput></term>
352 <listitem><para>Check integrity of the specified file(s), but
353 don't decompress them. This really performs a trial
354 decompression and throws away the result.</para></listitem>
358 <term><computeroutput>-f --force</computeroutput></term>
359 <listitem><para>Force overwrite of output files. Normally,
360 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> will not overwrite
361 existing output files. Also forces
362 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> to break hard links to
363 files, which it otherwise wouldn't do.</para>
364 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> normally declines
365 to decompress files which don't have the correct magic header
366 bytes. If forced (<computeroutput>-f</computeroutput>),
367 however, it will pass such files through unmodified. This is
368 how GNU <computeroutput>gzip</computeroutput> behaves.</para>
373 <term><computeroutput>-k --keep</computeroutput></term>
374 <listitem><para>Keep (don't delete) input files during
375 compression or decompression.</para></listitem>
379 <term><computeroutput>-s --small</computeroutput></term>
380 <listitem><para>Reduce memory usage, for compression,
381 decompression and testing. Files are decompressed and tested
382 using a modified algorithm which only requires 2.5 bytes per
383 block byte. This means any file can be decompressed in 2300k
384 of memory, albeit at about half the normal speed.</para>
385 <para>During compression, <computeroutput>-s</computeroutput>
386 selects a block size of 200k, which limits memory use to around
387 the same figure, at the expense of your compression ratio. In
388 short, if your machine is low on memory (8 megabytes or less),
389 use <computeroutput>-s</computeroutput> for everything. See
390 <xref linkend="memory-management"/> below.</para></listitem>
394 <term><computeroutput>-q --quiet</computeroutput></term>
395 <listitem><para>Suppress non-essential warning messages.
396 Messages pertaining to I/O errors and other critical events
397 will not be suppressed.</para></listitem>
401 <term><computeroutput>-v --verbose</computeroutput></term>
402 <listitem><para>Verbose mode -- show the compression ratio for
403 each file processed. Further
404 <computeroutput>-v</computeroutput>'s increase the verbosity
405 level, spewing out lots of information which is primarily of
406 interest for diagnostic purposes.</para></listitem>
410 <term><computeroutput>-L --license -V --version</computeroutput></term>
411 <listitem><para>Display the software version, license terms and
412 conditions.</para></listitem>
416 <term><computeroutput>-1</computeroutput> (or
417 <computeroutput>--fast</computeroutput>) to
418 <computeroutput>-9</computeroutput> (or
419 <computeroutput>-best</computeroutput>)</term>
420 <listitem><para>Set the block size to 100 k, 200 k ... 900 k
421 when compressing. Has no effect when decompressing. See <xref
422 linkend="memory-management" /> below. The
423 <computeroutput>--fast</computeroutput> and
424 <computeroutput>--best</computeroutput> aliases are primarily
425 for GNU <computeroutput>gzip</computeroutput> compatibility.
426 In particular, <computeroutput>--fast</computeroutput> doesn't
427 make things significantly faster. And
428 <computeroutput>--best</computeroutput> merely selects the
429 default behaviour.</para></listitem>
433 <term><computeroutput>--</computeroutput></term>
434 <listitem><para>Treats all subsequent arguments as file names,
435 even if they start with a dash. This is so you can handle
436 files with names beginning with a dash, for example:
437 <computeroutput>bzip2 --
438 -myfilename</computeroutput>.</para></listitem>
442 <term><computeroutput>--repetitive-fast</computeroutput></term>
443 <term><computeroutput>--repetitive-best</computeroutput></term>
444 <listitem><para>These flags are redundant in versions 0.9.5 and
445 above. They provided some coarse control over the behaviour of
446 the sorting algorithm in earlier versions, which was sometimes
447 useful. 0.9.5 and above have an improved algorithm which
448 renders these flags irrelevant.</para></listitem>
456 <sect1 id="memory-management" xreflabel="MEMORY MANAGEMENT">
457 <title>MEMORY MANAGEMENT</title>
459 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> compresses large
460 files in blocks. The block size affects both the compression
461 ratio achieved, and the amount of memory needed for compression
462 and decompression. The flags <computeroutput>-1</computeroutput>
463 through <computeroutput>-9</computeroutput> specify the block
464 size to be 100,000 bytes through 900,000 bytes (the default)
465 respectively. At decompression time, the block size used for
466 compression is read from the header of the compressed file, and
467 <computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> then allocates itself
468 just enough memory to decompress the file. Since block sizes are
469 stored in compressed files, it follows that the flags
470 <computeroutput>-1</computeroutput> to
471 <computeroutput>-9</computeroutput> are irrelevant to and so
472 ignored during decompression.</para>
474 <para>Compression and decompression requirements, in bytes, can be
477 Compression: 400k + ( 8 x block size )
479 Decompression: 100k + ( 4 x block size ), or
480 100k + ( 2.5 x block size )
483 <para>Larger block sizes give rapidly diminishing marginal
484 returns. Most of the compression comes from the first two or
485 three hundred k of block size, a fact worth bearing in mind when
486 using <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> on small machines.
487 It is also important to appreciate that the decompression memory
488 requirement is set at compression time by the choice of block
491 <para>For files compressed with the default 900k block size,
492 <computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> will require about 3700
493 kbytes to decompress. To support decompression of any file on a
494 4 megabyte machine, <computeroutput>bunzip2</computeroutput> has
495 an option to decompress using approximately half this amount of
496 memory, about 2300 kbytes. Decompression speed is also halved,
497 so you should use this option only where necessary. The relevant
498 flag is <computeroutput>-s</computeroutput>.</para>
500 <para>In general, try and use the largest block size memory
501 constraints allow, since that maximises the compression achieved.
502 Compression and decompression speed are virtually unaffected by
505 <para>Another significant point applies to files which fit in a
506 single block -- that means most files you'd encounter using a
507 large block size. The amount of real memory touched is
508 proportional to the size of the file, since the file is smaller
509 than a block. For example, compressing a file 20,000 bytes long
510 with the flag <computeroutput>-9</computeroutput> will cause the
511 compressor to allocate around 7600k of memory, but only touch
512 400k + 20000 * 8 = 560 kbytes of it. Similarly, the decompressor
513 will allocate 3700k but only touch 100k + 20000 * 4 = 180
516 <para>Here is a table which summarises the maximum memory usage
517 for different block sizes. Also recorded is the total compressed
518 size for 14 files of the Calgary Text Compression Corpus
519 totalling 3,141,622 bytes. This column gives some feel for how
520 compression varies with block size. These figures tend to
521 understate the advantage of larger block sizes for larger files,
522 since the Corpus is dominated by smaller files.</para>
525 Compress Decompress Decompress Corpus
526 Flag usage usage -s usage Size
528 -1 1200k 500k 350k 914704
529 -2 2000k 900k 600k 877703
530 -3 2800k 1300k 850k 860338
531 -4 3600k 1700k 1100k 846899
532 -5 4400k 2100k 1350k 845160
533 -6 5200k 2500k 1600k 838626
534 -7 6100k 2900k 1850k 834096
535 -8 6800k 3300k 2100k 828642
536 -9 7600k 3700k 2350k 828642
542 <sect1 id="recovering" xreflabel="RECOVERING DATA FROM DAMAGED FILES">
543 <title>RECOVERING DATA FROM DAMAGED FILES</title>
545 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> compresses files in
546 blocks, usually 900kbytes long. Each block is handled
547 independently. If a media or transmission error causes a
548 multi-block <computeroutput>.bz2</computeroutput> file to become
549 damaged, it may be possible to recover data from the undamaged
550 blocks in the file.</para>
552 <para>The compressed representation of each block is delimited by
553 a 48-bit pattern, which makes it possible to find the block
554 boundaries with reasonable certainty. Each block also carries
555 its own 32-bit CRC, so damaged blocks can be distinguished from
556 undamaged ones.</para>
558 <para><computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput> is a simple
559 program whose purpose is to search for blocks in
560 <computeroutput>.bz2</computeroutput> files, and write each block
561 out into its own <computeroutput>.bz2</computeroutput> file. You
562 can then use <computeroutput>bzip2 -t</computeroutput> to test
563 the integrity of the resulting files, and decompress those which
564 are undamaged.</para>
566 <para><computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput> takes a
567 single argument, the name of the damaged file, and writes a
568 number of files <computeroutput>rec0001file.bz2</computeroutput>,
569 <computeroutput>rec0002file.bz2</computeroutput>, etc, containing
570 the extracted blocks. The output filenames are designed so that
571 the use of wildcards in subsequent processing -- for example,
572 <computeroutput>bzip2 -dc rec*file.bz2 >
573 recovered_data</computeroutput> -- lists the files in the correct
576 <para><computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput> should be of
577 most use dealing with large <computeroutput>.bz2</computeroutput>
578 files, as these will contain many blocks. It is clearly futile
579 to use it on damaged single-block files, since a damaged block
580 cannot be recovered. If you wish to minimise any potential data
581 loss through media or transmission errors, you might consider
582 compressing with a smaller block size.</para>
587 <sect1 id="performance" xreflabel="PERFORMANCE NOTES">
588 <title>PERFORMANCE NOTES</title>
590 <para>The sorting phase of compression gathers together similar
591 strings in the file. Because of this, files containing very long
592 runs of repeated symbols, like "aabaabaabaab ..." (repeated
593 several hundred times) may compress more slowly than normal.
594 Versions 0.9.5 and above fare much better than previous versions
595 in this respect. The ratio between worst-case and average-case
596 compression time is in the region of 10:1. For previous
597 versions, this figure was more like 100:1. You can use the
598 <computeroutput>-vvvv</computeroutput> option to monitor progress
599 in great detail, if you want.</para>
601 <para>Decompression speed is unaffected by these
604 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> usually allocates
605 several megabytes of memory to operate in, and then charges all
606 over it in a fairly random fashion. This means that performance,
607 both for compressing and decompressing, is largely determined by
608 the speed at which your machine can service cache misses.
609 Because of this, small changes to the code to reduce the miss
610 rate have been observed to give disproportionately large
611 performance improvements. I imagine
612 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> will perform best on
613 machines with very large caches.</para>
619 <sect1 id="caveats" xreflabel="CAVEATS">
620 <title>CAVEATS</title>
622 <para>I/O error messages are not as helpful as they could be.
623 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> tries hard to detect I/O
624 errors and exit cleanly, but the details of what the problem is
625 sometimes seem rather misleading.</para>
627 <para>This manual page pertains to version &bz-version; of
628 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>. Compressed data created by
629 this version is entirely forwards and backwards compatible with the
630 previous public releases, versions 0.1pl2, 0.9.0 and 0.9.5, 1.0.0,
631 1.0.1, 1.0.2 and 1.0.3, but with the following exception: 0.9.0 and
632 above can correctly decompress multiple concatenated compressed files.
633 0.1pl2 cannot do this; it will stop after decompressing just the first
634 file in the stream.</para>
636 <para><computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput> versions
637 prior to 1.0.2 used 32-bit integers to represent bit positions in
638 compressed files, so it could not handle compressed files more
639 than 512 megabytes long. Versions 1.0.2 and above use 64-bit ints
640 on some platforms which support them (GNU supported targets, and
641 Windows). To establish whether or not
642 <computeroutput>bzip2recover</computeroutput> was built with such
643 a limitation, run it without arguments. In any event you can
644 build yourself an unlimited version if you can recompile it with
645 <computeroutput>MaybeUInt64</computeroutput> set to be an
646 unsigned 64-bit integer.</para>
652 <sect1 id="author" xreflabel="AUTHOR">
653 <title>AUTHOR</title>
656 <computeroutput>&bz-email;</computeroutput></para>
658 <para>The ideas embodied in
659 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> are due to (at least) the
660 following people: Michael Burrows and David Wheeler (for the
661 block sorting transformation), David Wheeler (again, for the
662 Huffman coder), Peter Fenwick (for the structured coding model in
663 the original <computeroutput>bzip</computeroutput>, and many
664 refinements), and Alistair Moffat, Radford Neal and Ian Witten
665 (for the arithmetic coder in the original
666 <computeroutput>bzip</computeroutput>). I am much indebted for
667 their help, support and advice. See the manual in the source
668 distribution for pointers to sources of documentation. Christian
669 von Roques encouraged me to look for faster sorting algorithms,
670 so as to speed up compression. Bela Lubkin encouraged me to
671 improve the worst-case compression performance.
672 Donna Robinson XMLised the documentation.
674 patches, helped with portability problems, lent machines, gave
675 advice and were generally helpful.</para>
683 <chapter id="libprog" xreflabel="Programming with libbzip2">
685 Programming with <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput>
688 <para>This chapter describes the programming interface to
689 <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput>.</para>
691 <para>For general background information, particularly about
692 memory use and performance aspects, you'd be well advised to read
693 <xref linkend="using"/> as well.</para>
696 <sect1 id="top-level" xreflabel="Top-level structure">
697 <title>Top-level structure</title>
699 <para><computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput> is a flexible
700 library for compressing and decompressing data in the
701 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> data format. Although
702 packaged as a single entity, it helps to regard the library as
703 three separate parts: the low level interface, and the high level
704 interface, and some utility functions.</para>
706 <para>The structure of
707 <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput>'s interfaces is similar
708 to that of Jean-loup Gailly's and Mark Adler's excellent
709 <computeroutput>zlib</computeroutput> library.</para>
711 <para>All externally visible symbols have names beginning
712 <computeroutput>BZ2_</computeroutput>. This is new in version
713 1.0. The intention is to minimise pollution of the namespaces of
714 library clients.</para>
716 <para>To use any part of the library, you need to
717 <computeroutput>#include <bzlib.h></computeroutput>
718 into your sources.</para>
722 <sect2 id="ll-summary" xreflabel="Low-level summary">
723 <title>Low-level summary</title>
725 <para>This interface provides services for compressing and
726 decompressing data in memory. There's no provision for dealing
727 with files, streams or any other I/O mechanisms, just straight
728 memory-to-memory work. In fact, this part of the library can be
729 compiled without inclusion of
730 <computeroutput>stdio.h</computeroutput>, which may be helpful
731 for embedded applications.</para>
733 <para>The low-level part of the library has no global variables
734 and is therefore thread-safe.</para>
736 <para>Six routines make up the low level interface:
737 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>,
738 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>, and
739 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressEnd</computeroutput> for
740 compression, and a corresponding trio
741 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressInit</computeroutput>,
742 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput> and
743 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressEnd</computeroutput> for
744 decompression. The <computeroutput>*Init</computeroutput>
745 functions allocate memory for compression/decompression and do
746 other initialisations, whilst the
747 <computeroutput>*End</computeroutput> functions close down
748 operations and release memory.</para>
750 <para>The real work is done by
751 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> and
752 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput>. These
753 compress and decompress data from a user-supplied input buffer to
754 a user-supplied output buffer. These buffers can be any size;
755 arbitrary quantities of data are handled by making repeated calls
756 to these functions. This is a flexible mechanism allowing a
757 consumer-pull style of activity, or producer-push, or a mixture
763 <sect2 id="hl-summary" xreflabel="High-level summary">
764 <title>High-level summary</title>
766 <para>This interface provides some handy wrappers around the
767 low-level interface to facilitate reading and writing
768 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> format files
769 (<computeroutput>.bz2</computeroutput> files). The routines
770 provide hooks to facilitate reading files in which the
771 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> data stream is embedded
772 within some larger-scale file structure, or where there are
773 multiple <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> data streams
774 concatenated end-to-end.</para>
776 <para>For reading files,
777 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadOpen</computeroutput>,
778 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput>,
779 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput> and
780 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadGetUnused</computeroutput> are
781 supplied. For writing files,
782 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteOpen</computeroutput>,
783 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWrite</computeroutput> and
784 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteFinish</computeroutput> are
787 <para>As with the low-level library, no global variables are used
788 so the library is per se thread-safe. However, if I/O errors
789 occur whilst reading or writing the underlying compressed files,
790 you may have to consult <computeroutput>errno</computeroutput> to
791 determine the cause of the error. In that case, you'd need a C
792 library which correctly supports
793 <computeroutput>errno</computeroutput> in a multithreaded
796 <para>To make the library a little simpler and more portable,
797 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadOpen</computeroutput> and
798 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteOpen</computeroutput> require you to
799 pass them file handles (<computeroutput>FILE*</computeroutput>s)
800 which have previously been opened for reading or writing
801 respectively. That avoids portability problems associated with
802 file operations and file attributes, whilst not being much of an
803 imposition on the programmer.</para>
808 <sect2 id="util-fns-summary" xreflabel="Utility functions summary">
809 <title>Utility functions summary</title>
811 <para>For very simple needs,
812 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffCompress</computeroutput> and
813 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress</computeroutput> are
814 provided. These compress data in memory from one buffer to
815 another buffer in a single function call. You should assess
816 whether these functions fulfill your memory-to-memory
817 compression/decompression requirements before investing effort in
818 understanding the more general but more complex low-level
821 <para>Yoshioka Tsuneo
822 (<computeroutput>tsuneo@rr.iij4u.or.jp</computeroutput>) has
823 contributed some functions to give better
824 <computeroutput>zlib</computeroutput> compatibility. These
825 functions are <computeroutput>BZ2_bzopen</computeroutput>,
826 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzread</computeroutput>,
827 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzwrite</computeroutput>,
828 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzflush</computeroutput>,
829 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzclose</computeroutput>,
830 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzerror</computeroutput> and
831 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzlibVersion</computeroutput>. You may find
832 these functions more convenient for simple file reading and
833 writing, than those in the high-level interface. These functions
834 are not (yet) officially part of the library, and are minimally
835 documented here. If they break, you get to keep all the pieces.
836 I hope to document them properly when time permits.</para>
838 <para>Yoshioka also contributed modifications to allow the
839 library to be built as a Windows DLL.</para>
846 <sect1 id="err-handling" xreflabel="Error handling">
847 <title>Error handling</title>
849 <para>The library is designed to recover cleanly in all
850 situations, including the worst-case situation of decompressing
851 random data. I'm not 100% sure that it can always do this, so
852 you might want to add a signal handler to catch segmentation
853 violations during decompression if you are feeling especially
854 paranoid. I would be interested in hearing more about the
855 robustness of the library to corrupted compressed data.</para>
857 <para>Version 1.0.3 more robust in this respect than any
858 previous version. Investigations with Valgrind (a tool for detecting
859 problems with memory management) indicate
860 that, at least for the few files I tested, all single-bit errors
861 in the decompressed data are caught properly, with no
862 segmentation faults, no uses of uninitialised data, no out of
863 range reads or writes, and no infinite looping in the decompressor.
864 So it's certainly pretty robust, although
865 I wouldn't claim it to be totally bombproof.</para>
867 <para>The file <computeroutput>bzlib.h</computeroutput> contains
868 all definitions needed to use the library. In particular, you
869 should definitely not include
870 <computeroutput>bzlib_private.h</computeroutput>.</para>
872 <para>In <computeroutput>bzlib.h</computeroutput>, the various
873 return values are defined. The following list is not intended as
874 an exhaustive description of the circumstances in which a given
875 value may be returned -- those descriptions are given later.
876 Rather, it is intended to convey the rough meaning of each return
877 value. The first five actions are normal and not intended to
878 denote an error situation.</para>
883 <term><computeroutput>BZ_OK</computeroutput></term>
884 <listitem><para>The requested action was completed
885 successfully.</para></listitem>
889 <term><computeroutput>BZ_RUN_OK, BZ_FLUSH_OK,
890 BZ_FINISH_OK</computeroutput></term>
892 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>, the requested
893 flush/finish/nothing-special action was completed
894 successfully.</para></listitem>
898 <term><computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput></term>
899 <listitem><para>Compression of data was completed, or the
900 logical stream end was detected during
901 decompression.</para></listitem>
906 <para>The following return values indicate an error of some
912 <term><computeroutput>BZ_CONFIG_ERROR</computeroutput></term>
913 <listitem><para>Indicates that the library has been improperly
914 compiled on your platform -- a major configuration error.
915 Specifically, it means that
916 <computeroutput>sizeof(char)</computeroutput>,
917 <computeroutput>sizeof(short)</computeroutput> and
918 <computeroutput>sizeof(int)</computeroutput> are not 1, 2 and
919 4 respectively, as they should be. Note that the library
920 should still work properly on 64-bit platforms which follow
921 the LP64 programming model -- that is, where
922 <computeroutput>sizeof(long)</computeroutput> and
923 <computeroutput>sizeof(void*)</computeroutput> are 8. Under
924 LP64, <computeroutput>sizeof(int)</computeroutput> is still 4,
925 so <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput>, which doesn't
926 use the <computeroutput>long</computeroutput> type, is
927 OK.</para></listitem>
931 <term><computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR</computeroutput></term>
932 <listitem><para>When using the library, it is important to call
933 the functions in the correct sequence and with data structures
934 (buffers etc) in the correct states.
935 <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput> checks as much as it
936 can to ensure this is happening, and returns
937 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR</computeroutput> if not.
938 Code which complies precisely with the function semantics, as
939 detailed below, should never receive this value; such an event
940 denotes buggy code which you should
941 investigate.</para></listitem>
945 <term><computeroutput>BZ_PARAM_ERROR</computeroutput></term>
946 <listitem><para>Returned when a parameter to a function call is
947 out of range or otherwise manifestly incorrect. As with
948 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR</computeroutput>, this
949 denotes a bug in the client code. The distinction between
950 <computeroutput>BZ_PARAM_ERROR</computeroutput> and
951 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR</computeroutput> is a bit
952 hazy, but still worth making.</para></listitem>
956 <term><computeroutput>BZ_MEM_ERROR</computeroutput></term>
957 <listitem><para>Returned when a request to allocate memory
958 failed. Note that the quantity of memory needed to decompress
959 a stream cannot be determined until the stream's header has
961 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput> and
962 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> may return
963 <computeroutput>BZ_MEM_ERROR</computeroutput> even though some
964 of the compressed data has been read. The same is not true
965 for compression; once
966 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput> or
967 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteOpen</computeroutput> have
968 successfully completed,
969 <computeroutput>BZ_MEM_ERROR</computeroutput> cannot
970 occur.</para></listitem>
974 <term><computeroutput>BZ_DATA_ERROR</computeroutput></term>
975 <listitem><para>Returned when a data integrity error is
976 detected during decompression. Most importantly, this means
977 when stored and computed CRCs for the data do not match. This
978 value is also returned upon detection of any other anomaly in
979 the compressed data.</para></listitem>
983 <term><computeroutput>BZ_DATA_ERROR_MAGIC</computeroutput></term>
984 <listitem><para>As a special case of
985 <computeroutput>BZ_DATA_ERROR</computeroutput>, it is
986 sometimes useful to know when the compressed stream does not
987 start with the correct magic bytes (<computeroutput>'B' 'Z'
988 'h'</computeroutput>).</para></listitem>
992 <term><computeroutput>BZ_IO_ERROR</computeroutput></term>
993 <listitem><para>Returned by
994 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> and
995 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWrite</computeroutput> when there is an
996 error reading or writing in the compressed file, and by
997 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadOpen</computeroutput> and
998 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteOpen</computeroutput> for attempts
999 to use a file for which the error indicator (viz,
1000 <computeroutput>ferror(f)</computeroutput>) is set. On
1001 receipt of <computeroutput>BZ_IO_ERROR</computeroutput>, the
1002 caller should consult <computeroutput>errno</computeroutput>
1003 and/or <computeroutput>perror</computeroutput> to acquire
1004 operating-system specific information about the
1005 problem.</para></listitem>
1009 <term><computeroutput>BZ_UNEXPECTED_EOF</computeroutput></term>
1010 <listitem><para>Returned by
1011 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> when the
1012 compressed file finishes before the logical end of stream is
1013 detected.</para></listitem>
1017 <term><computeroutput>BZ_OUTBUFF_FULL</computeroutput></term>
1018 <listitem><para>Returned by
1019 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffCompress</computeroutput> and
1020 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress</computeroutput> to
1021 indicate that the output data will not fit into the output
1022 buffer provided.</para></listitem>
1031 <sect1 id="low-level" xreflabel=">Low-level interface">
1032 <title>Low-level interface</title>
1035 <sect2 id="bzcompress-init" xreflabel="BZ2_bzCompressInit">
1036 <title>BZ2_bzCompressInit</title>
1041 unsigned int avail_in;
1042 unsigned int total_in_lo32;
1043 unsigned int total_in_hi32;
1046 unsigned int avail_out;
1047 unsigned int total_out_lo32;
1048 unsigned int total_out_hi32;
1052 void *(*bzalloc)(void *,int,int);
1053 void (*bzfree)(void *,void *);
1057 int BZ2_bzCompressInit ( bz_stream *strm,
1063 <para>Prepares for compression. The
1064 <computeroutput>bz_stream</computeroutput> structure holds all
1065 data pertaining to the compression activity. A
1066 <computeroutput>bz_stream</computeroutput> structure should be
1067 allocated and initialised prior to the call. The fields of
1068 <computeroutput>bz_stream</computeroutput> comprise the entirety
1069 of the user-visible data. <computeroutput>state</computeroutput>
1070 is a pointer to the private data structures required for
1073 <para>Custom memory allocators are supported, via fields
1074 <computeroutput>bzalloc</computeroutput>,
1075 <computeroutput>bzfree</computeroutput>, and
1076 <computeroutput>opaque</computeroutput>. The value
1077 <computeroutput>opaque</computeroutput> is passed to as the first
1078 argument to all calls to <computeroutput>bzalloc</computeroutput>
1079 and <computeroutput>bzfree</computeroutput>, but is otherwise
1080 ignored by the library. The call <computeroutput>bzalloc (
1081 opaque, n, m )</computeroutput> is expected to return a pointer
1082 <computeroutput>p</computeroutput> to <computeroutput>n *
1083 m</computeroutput> bytes of memory, and <computeroutput>bzfree (
1084 opaque, p )</computeroutput> should free that memory.</para>
1086 <para>If you don't want to use a custom memory allocator, set
1087 <computeroutput>bzalloc</computeroutput>,
1088 <computeroutput>bzfree</computeroutput> and
1089 <computeroutput>opaque</computeroutput> to
1090 <computeroutput>NULL</computeroutput>, and the library will then
1091 use the standard <computeroutput>malloc</computeroutput> /
1092 <computeroutput>free</computeroutput> routines.</para>
1094 <para>Before calling
1095 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>, fields
1096 <computeroutput>bzalloc</computeroutput>,
1097 <computeroutput>bzfree</computeroutput> and
1098 <computeroutput>opaque</computeroutput> should be filled
1099 appropriately, as just described. Upon return, the internal
1100 state will have been allocated and initialised, and
1101 <computeroutput>total_in_lo32</computeroutput>,
1102 <computeroutput>total_in_hi32</computeroutput>,
1103 <computeroutput>total_out_lo32</computeroutput> and
1104 <computeroutput>total_out_hi32</computeroutput> will have been
1105 set to zero. These four fields are used by the library to inform
1106 the caller of the total amount of data passed into and out of the
1107 library, respectively. You should not try to change them. As of
1108 version 1.0, 64-bit counts are maintained, even on 32-bit
1109 platforms, using the <computeroutput>_hi32</computeroutput>
1110 fields to store the upper 32 bits of the count. So, for example,
1111 the total amount of data in is <computeroutput>(total_in_hi32
1112 << 32) + total_in_lo32</computeroutput>.</para>
1114 <para>Parameter <computeroutput>blockSize100k</computeroutput>
1115 specifies the block size to be used for compression. It should
1116 be a value between 1 and 9 inclusive, and the actual block size
1117 used is 100000 x this figure. 9 gives the best compression but
1118 takes most memory.</para>
1120 <para>Parameter <computeroutput>verbosity</computeroutput> should
1121 be set to a number between 0 and 4 inclusive. 0 is silent, and
1122 greater numbers give increasingly verbose monitoring/debugging
1123 output. If the library has been compiled with
1124 <computeroutput>-DBZ_NO_STDIO</computeroutput>, no such output
1125 will appear for any verbosity setting.</para>
1127 <para>Parameter <computeroutput>workFactor</computeroutput>
1128 controls how the compression phase behaves when presented with
1129 worst case, highly repetitive, input data. If compression runs
1130 into difficulties caused by repetitive data, the library switches
1131 from the standard sorting algorithm to a fallback algorithm. The
1132 fallback is slower than the standard algorithm by perhaps a
1133 factor of three, but always behaves reasonably, no matter how bad
1136 <para>Lower values of <computeroutput>workFactor</computeroutput>
1137 reduce the amount of effort the standard algorithm will expend
1138 before resorting to the fallback. You should set this parameter
1139 carefully; too low, and many inputs will be handled by the
1140 fallback algorithm and so compress rather slowly, too high, and
1141 your average-to-worst case compression times can become very
1142 large. The default value of 30 gives reasonable behaviour over a
1143 wide range of circumstances.</para>
1145 <para>Allowable values range from 0 to 250 inclusive. 0 is a
1146 special case, equivalent to using the default value of 30.</para>
1148 <para>Note that the compressed output generated is the same
1149 regardless of whether or not the fallback algorithm is
1152 <para>Be aware also that this parameter may disappear entirely in
1153 future versions of the library. In principle it should be
1154 possible to devise a good way to automatically choose which
1155 algorithm to use. Such a mechanism would render the parameter
1158 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1162 if the library has been mis-compiled
1165 or blockSize < 1 or blockSize > 9
1166 or verbosity < 0 or verbosity > 4
1167 or workFactor < 0 or workFactor > 250
1169 if not enough memory is available
1174 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1178 if BZ_OK is returned
1179 no specific action needed in case of error
1185 <sect2 id="bzCompress" xreflabel="BZ2_bzCompress">
1186 <title>BZ2_bzCompress</title>
1189 int BZ2_bzCompress ( bz_stream *strm, int action );
1192 <para>Provides more input and/or output buffer space for the
1193 library. The caller maintains input and output buffers, and
1194 calls <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> to transfer
1195 data between them.</para>
1197 <para>Before each call to
1198 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>,
1199 <computeroutput>next_in</computeroutput> should point at the data
1200 to be compressed, and <computeroutput>avail_in</computeroutput>
1201 should indicate how many bytes the library may read.
1202 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> updates
1203 <computeroutput>next_in</computeroutput>,
1204 <computeroutput>avail_in</computeroutput> and
1205 <computeroutput>total_in</computeroutput> to reflect the number
1206 of bytes it has read.</para>
1208 <para>Similarly, <computeroutput>next_out</computeroutput> should
1209 point to a buffer in which the compressed data is to be placed,
1210 with <computeroutput>avail_out</computeroutput> indicating how
1211 much output space is available.
1212 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> updates
1213 <computeroutput>next_out</computeroutput>,
1214 <computeroutput>avail_out</computeroutput> and
1215 <computeroutput>total_out</computeroutput> to reflect the number
1216 of bytes output.</para>
1218 <para>You may provide and remove as little or as much data as you
1219 like on each call of
1220 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>. In the limit,
1221 it is acceptable to supply and remove data one byte at a time,
1222 although this would be terribly inefficient. You should always
1223 ensure that at least one byte of output space is available at
1226 <para>A second purpose of
1227 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> is to request a
1228 change of mode of the compressed stream.</para>
1230 <para>Conceptually, a compressed stream can be in one of four
1231 states: IDLE, RUNNING, FLUSHING and FINISHING. Before
1233 (<computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>) and after
1234 termination (<computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressEnd</computeroutput>),
1235 a stream is regarded as IDLE.</para>
1237 <para>Upon initialisation
1238 (<computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>), the stream
1239 is placed in the RUNNING state. Subsequent calls to
1240 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> should pass
1241 <computeroutput>BZ_RUN</computeroutput> as the requested action;
1242 other actions are illegal and will result in
1243 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR</computeroutput>.</para>
1245 <para>At some point, the calling program will have provided all
1246 the input data it wants to. It will then want to finish up -- in
1247 effect, asking the library to process any data it might have
1248 buffered internally. In this state,
1249 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> will no longer
1250 attempt to read data from
1251 <computeroutput>next_in</computeroutput>, but it will want to
1252 write data to <computeroutput>next_out</computeroutput>. Because
1253 the output buffer supplied by the user can be arbitrarily small,
1254 the finishing-up operation cannot necessarily be done with a
1256 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>.</para>
1258 <para>Instead, the calling program passes
1259 <computeroutput>BZ_FINISH</computeroutput> as an action to
1260 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>. This changes
1261 the stream's state to FINISHING. Any remaining input (ie,
1262 <computeroutput>next_in[0 .. avail_in-1]</computeroutput>) is
1263 compressed and transferred to the output buffer. To do this,
1264 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> must be called
1265 repeatedly until all the output has been consumed. At that
1266 point, <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> returns
1267 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput>, and the stream's
1268 state is set back to IDLE.
1269 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressEnd</computeroutput> should then be
1272 <para>Just to make sure the calling program does not cheat, the
1273 library makes a note of <computeroutput>avail_in</computeroutput>
1274 at the time of the first call to
1275 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> which has
1276 <computeroutput>BZ_FINISH</computeroutput> as an action (ie, at
1277 the time the program has announced its intention to not supply
1278 any more input). By comparing this value with that of
1279 <computeroutput>avail_in</computeroutput> over subsequent calls
1280 to <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>, the library
1281 can detect any attempts to slip in more data to compress. Any
1282 calls for which this is detected will return
1283 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR</computeroutput>. This
1284 indicates a programming mistake which should be corrected.</para>
1286 <para>Instead of asking to finish, the calling program may ask
1287 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> to take all the
1288 remaining input, compress it and terminate the current
1289 (Burrows-Wheeler) compression block. This could be useful for
1290 error control purposes. The mechanism is analogous to that for
1291 finishing: call <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>
1292 with an action of <computeroutput>BZ_FLUSH</computeroutput>,
1293 remove output data, and persist with the
1294 <computeroutput>BZ_FLUSH</computeroutput> action until the value
1295 <computeroutput>BZ_RUN</computeroutput> is returned. As with
1296 finishing, <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>
1297 detects any attempt to provide more input data once the flush has
1300 <para>Once the flush is complete, the stream returns to the
1301 normal RUNNING state.</para>
1303 <para>This all sounds pretty complex, but isn't really. Here's a
1304 table which shows which actions are allowable in each state, what
1305 action will be taken, what the next state is, and what the
1306 non-error return values are. Note that you can't explicitly ask
1307 what state the stream is in, but nor do you need to -- it can be
1308 inferred from the values returned by
1309 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>.</para>
1313 Illegal. IDLE state only exists after BZ2_bzCompressEnd or
1314 before BZ2_bzCompressInit.
1315 Return value = BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR
1318 Compress from next_in to next_out as much as possible.
1319 Next state = RUNNING
1320 Return value = BZ_RUN_OK
1323 Remember current value of next_in. Compress from next_in
1324 to next_out as much as possible, but do not accept any more input.
1325 Next state = FLUSHING
1326 Return value = BZ_FLUSH_OK
1329 Remember current value of next_in. Compress from next_in
1330 to next_out as much as possible, but do not accept any more input.
1331 Next state = FINISHING
1332 Return value = BZ_FINISH_OK
1335 Compress from next_in to next_out as much as possible,
1336 but do not accept any more input.
1337 If all the existing input has been used up and all compressed
1338 output has been removed
1339 Next state = RUNNING; Return value = BZ_RUN_OK
1341 Next state = FLUSHING; Return value = BZ_FLUSH_OK
1345 Return value = BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR
1348 Compress from next_in to next_out as much as possible,
1349 but to not accept any more input.
1350 If all the existing input has been used up and all compressed
1351 output has been removed
1352 Next state = IDLE; Return value = BZ_STREAM_END
1354 Next state = FINISHING; Return value = BZ_FINISH_OK
1358 Return value = BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR
1362 <para>That still looks complicated? Well, fair enough. The
1363 usual sequence of calls for compressing a load of data is:</para>
1367 <listitem><para>Get started with
1368 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>.</para></listitem>
1370 <listitem><para>Shovel data in and shlurp out its compressed form
1371 using zero or more calls of
1372 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> with action =
1373 <computeroutput>BZ_RUN</computeroutput>.</para></listitem>
1375 <listitem><para>Finish up. Repeatedly call
1376 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> with action =
1377 <computeroutput>BZ_FINISH</computeroutput>, copying out the
1378 compressed output, until
1379 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput> is
1380 returned.</para></listitem> <listitem><para>Close up and go home. Call
1381 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressEnd</computeroutput>.</para></listitem>
1385 <para>If the data you want to compress fits into your input
1386 buffer all at once, you can skip the calls of
1387 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress ( ..., BZ_RUN )</computeroutput>
1388 and just do the <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress ( ..., BZ_FINISH
1389 )</computeroutput> calls.</para>
1391 <para>All required memory is allocated by
1392 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>. The
1393 compression library can accept any data at all (obviously). So
1394 you shouldn't get any error return values from the
1395 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> calls. If you
1397 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR</computeroutput>, and indicate
1398 a bug in your programming.</para>
1400 <para>Trivial other possible return values:</para>
1404 if strm is NULL, or strm->s is NULL
1410 <sect2 id="bzCompress-end" xreflabel="BZ2_bzCompressEnd">
1411 <title>BZ2_bzCompressEnd</title>
1414 int BZ2_bzCompressEnd ( bz_stream *strm );
1417 <para>Releases all memory associated with a compression
1420 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1423 BZ_PARAM_ERROR if strm is NULL or strm->s is NULL
1430 <sect2 id="bzDecompress-init" xreflabel="BZ2_bzDecompressInit">
1431 <title>BZ2_bzDecompressInit</title>
1434 int BZ2_bzDecompressInit ( bz_stream *strm, int verbosity, int small );
1437 <para>Prepares for decompression. As with
1438 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>, a
1439 <computeroutput>bz_stream</computeroutput> record should be
1440 allocated and initialised before the call. Fields
1441 <computeroutput>bzalloc</computeroutput>,
1442 <computeroutput>bzfree</computeroutput> and
1443 <computeroutput>opaque</computeroutput> should be set if a custom
1444 memory allocator is required, or made
1445 <computeroutput>NULL</computeroutput> for the normal
1446 <computeroutput>malloc</computeroutput> /
1447 <computeroutput>free</computeroutput> routines. Upon return, the
1448 internal state will have been initialised, and
1449 <computeroutput>total_in</computeroutput> and
1450 <computeroutput>total_out</computeroutput> will be zero.</para>
1452 <para>For the meaning of parameter
1453 <computeroutput>verbosity</computeroutput>, see
1454 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>.</para>
1456 <para>If <computeroutput>small</computeroutput> is nonzero, the
1457 library will use an alternative decompression algorithm which
1458 uses less memory but at the cost of decompressing more slowly
1459 (roughly speaking, half the speed, but the maximum memory
1460 requirement drops to around 2300k). See <xref linkend="using"/>
1461 for more information on memory management.</para>
1463 <para>Note that the amount of memory needed to decompress a
1464 stream cannot be determined until the stream's header has been
1466 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressInit</computeroutput> succeeds, a
1467 subsequent <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput>
1469 <computeroutput>BZ_MEM_ERROR</computeroutput>.</para>
1471 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1475 if the library has been mis-compiled
1477 if ( small != 0 && small != 1 )
1478 or (verbosity <; 0 || verbosity > 4)
1480 if insufficient memory is available
1483 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1487 if BZ_OK was returned
1488 no specific action required in case of error
1494 <sect2 id="bzDecompress" xreflabel="BZ2_bzDecompress">
1495 <title>BZ2_bzDecompress</title>
1498 int BZ2_bzDecompress ( bz_stream *strm );
1501 <para>Provides more input and/out output buffer space for the
1502 library. The caller maintains input and output buffers, and uses
1503 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput> to transfer
1504 data between them.</para>
1506 <para>Before each call to
1507 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput>,
1508 <computeroutput>next_in</computeroutput> should point at the
1509 compressed data, and <computeroutput>avail_in</computeroutput>
1510 should indicate how many bytes the library may read.
1511 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput> updates
1512 <computeroutput>next_in</computeroutput>,
1513 <computeroutput>avail_in</computeroutput> and
1514 <computeroutput>total_in</computeroutput> to reflect the number
1515 of bytes it has read.</para>
1517 <para>Similarly, <computeroutput>next_out</computeroutput> should
1518 point to a buffer in which the uncompressed output is to be
1519 placed, with <computeroutput>avail_out</computeroutput>
1520 indicating how much output space is available.
1521 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput> updates
1522 <computeroutput>next_out</computeroutput>,
1523 <computeroutput>avail_out</computeroutput> and
1524 <computeroutput>total_out</computeroutput> to reflect the number
1525 of bytes output.</para>
1527 <para>You may provide and remove as little or as much data as you
1528 like on each call of
1529 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput>. In the limit,
1530 it is acceptable to supply and remove data one byte at a time,
1531 although this would be terribly inefficient. You should always
1532 ensure that at least one byte of output space is available at
1535 <para>Use of <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput> is
1537 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>.</para>
1539 <para>You should provide input and remove output as described
1540 above, and repeatedly call
1541 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput> until
1542 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput> is returned.
1543 Appearance of <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput>
1544 denotes that <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput>
1545 has detected the logical end of the compressed stream.
1546 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput> will not
1547 produce <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput> until all
1548 output data has been placed into the output buffer, so once
1549 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput> appears, you are
1550 guaranteed to have available all the decompressed output, and
1551 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressEnd</computeroutput> can safely
1554 <para>If case of an error return value, you should call
1555 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressEnd</computeroutput> to clean up
1556 and release memory.</para>
1558 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1562 if strm is NULL or strm->s is NULL
1563 or strm->avail_out < 1
1565 if a data integrity error is detected in the compressed stream
1567 if the compressed stream doesn't begin with the right magic bytes
1569 if there wasn't enough memory available
1571 if the logical end of the data stream was detected and all
1572 output in has been consumed, eg s-->avail_out > 0
1577 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1581 if BZ_OK was returned
1589 <sect2 id="bzDecompress-end" xreflabel="BZ2_bzDecompressEnd">
1590 <title>BZ2_bzDecompressEnd</title>
1593 int BZ2_bzDecompressEnd ( bz_stream *strm );
1596 <para>Releases all memory associated with a decompression
1599 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1603 if strm is NULL or strm->s is NULL
1608 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1619 <sect1 id="hl-interface" xreflabel="High-level interface">
1620 <title>High-level interface</title>
1622 <para>This interface provides functions for reading and writing
1623 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> format files. First, some
1624 general points.</para>
1626 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
1628 <listitem><para>All of the functions take an
1629 <computeroutput>int*</computeroutput> first argument,
1630 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>. After each call,
1631 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> should be consulted
1632 first to determine the outcome of the call. If
1633 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> is
1634 <computeroutput>BZ_OK</computeroutput>, the call completed
1635 successfully, and only then should the return value of the
1636 function (if any) be consulted. If
1637 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> is
1638 <computeroutput>BZ_IO_ERROR</computeroutput>, there was an
1639 error reading/writing the underlying compressed file, and you
1640 should then consult <computeroutput>errno</computeroutput> /
1641 <computeroutput>perror</computeroutput> to determine the cause
1642 of the difficulty. <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>
1643 may also be set to various other values; precise details are
1644 given on a per-function basis below.</para></listitem>
1646 <listitem><para>If <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> indicates
1647 an error (ie, anything except
1648 <computeroutput>BZ_OK</computeroutput> and
1649 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput>), you should
1651 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput> (or
1652 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteClose</computeroutput>, depending on
1653 whether you are attempting to read or to write) to free up all
1654 resources associated with the stream. Once an error has been
1655 indicated, behaviour of all calls except
1656 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput>
1657 (<computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteClose</computeroutput>) is
1658 undefined. The implication is that (1)
1659 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> should be checked
1660 after each call, and (2) if
1661 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> indicates an error,
1662 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput>
1663 (<computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteClose</computeroutput>) should then
1664 be called to clean up.</para></listitem>
1666 <listitem><para>The <computeroutput>FILE*</computeroutput> arguments
1667 passed to <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadOpen</computeroutput> /
1668 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteOpen</computeroutput> should be set
1669 to binary mode. Most Unix systems will do this by default, but
1670 other platforms, including Windows and Mac, will not. If you
1671 omit this, you may encounter problems when moving code to new
1672 platforms.</para></listitem>
1674 <listitem><para>Memory allocation requests are handled by
1675 <computeroutput>malloc</computeroutput> /
1676 <computeroutput>free</computeroutput>. At present there is no
1677 facility for user-defined memory allocators in the file I/O
1678 functions (could easily be added, though).</para></listitem>
1684 <sect2 id="bzreadopen" xreflabel="BZ2_bzReadOpen">
1685 <title>BZ2_bzReadOpen</title>
1688 typedef void BZFILE;
1690 BZFILE *BZ2_bzReadOpen( int *bzerror, FILE *f,
1691 int verbosity, int small,
1692 void *unused, int nUnused );
1695 <para>Prepare to read compressed data from file handle
1696 <computeroutput>f</computeroutput>.
1697 <computeroutput>f</computeroutput> should refer to a file which
1698 has been opened for reading, and for which the error indicator
1699 (<computeroutput>ferror(f)</computeroutput>)is not set. If
1700 <computeroutput>small</computeroutput> is 1, the library will try
1701 to decompress using less memory, at the expense of speed.</para>
1703 <para>For reasons explained below,
1704 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> will decompress the
1705 <computeroutput>nUnused</computeroutput> bytes starting at
1706 <computeroutput>unused</computeroutput>, before starting to read
1707 from the file <computeroutput>f</computeroutput>. At most
1708 <computeroutput>BZ_MAX_UNUSED</computeroutput> bytes may be
1709 supplied like this. If this facility is not required, you should
1710 pass <computeroutput>NULL</computeroutput> and
1711 <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> for
1712 <computeroutput>unused</computeroutput> and
1713 n<computeroutput>Unused</computeroutput> respectively.</para>
1715 <para>For the meaning of parameters
1716 <computeroutput>small</computeroutput> and
1717 <computeroutput>verbosity</computeroutput>, see
1718 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressInit</computeroutput>.</para>
1720 <para>The amount of memory needed to decompress a file cannot be
1721 determined until the file's header has been read. So it is
1722 possible that <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadOpen</computeroutput>
1723 returns <computeroutput>BZ_OK</computeroutput> but a subsequent
1724 call of <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> will return
1725 <computeroutput>BZ_MEM_ERROR</computeroutput>.</para>
1727 <para>Possible assignments to
1728 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>:</para>
1732 if the library has been mis-compiled
1735 or small is neither 0 nor 1
1736 or ( unused == NULL && nUnused != 0 )
1737 or ( unused != NULL && !(0 <= nUnused <= BZ_MAX_UNUSED) )
1739 if ferror(f) is nonzero
1741 if insufficient memory is available
1746 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1749 Pointer to an abstract BZFILE
1755 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1767 <sect2 id="bzread" xreflabel="BZ2_bzRead">
1768 <title>BZ2_bzRead</title>
1771 int BZ2_bzRead ( int *bzerror, BZFILE *b, void *buf, int len );
1774 <para>Reads up to <computeroutput>len</computeroutput>
1775 (uncompressed) bytes from the compressed file
1776 <computeroutput>b</computeroutput> into the buffer
1777 <computeroutput>buf</computeroutput>. If the read was
1778 successful, <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> is set to
1779 <computeroutput>BZ_OK</computeroutput> and the number of bytes
1780 read is returned. If the logical end-of-stream was detected,
1781 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> will be set to
1782 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput>, and the number of
1783 bytes read is returned. All other
1784 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> values denote an
1787 <para><computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> will supply
1788 <computeroutput>len</computeroutput> bytes, unless the logical
1789 stream end is detected or an error occurs. Because of this, it
1790 is possible to detect the stream end by observing when the number
1791 of bytes returned is less than the number requested.
1792 Nevertheless, this is regarded as inadvisable; you should instead
1793 check <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput> after every call
1795 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput>.</para>
1797 <para>Internally, <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput>
1798 copies data from the compressed file in chunks of size
1799 <computeroutput>BZ_MAX_UNUSED</computeroutput> bytes before
1800 decompressing it. If the file contains more bytes than strictly
1801 needed to reach the logical end-of-stream,
1802 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> will almost certainly
1803 read some of the trailing data before signalling
1804 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_END</computeroutput>. To collect the
1805 read but unused data once
1806 <computeroutput>BZ_SEQUENCE_END</computeroutput> has appeared,
1807 call <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadGetUnused</computeroutput>
1809 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput>.</para>
1811 <para>Possible assignments to
1812 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>:</para>
1816 if b is NULL or buf is NULL or len < 0
1818 if b was opened with BZ2_bzWriteOpen
1820 if there is an error reading from the compressed file
1822 if the compressed file ended before
1823 the logical end-of-stream was detected
1825 if a data integrity error was detected in the compressed stream
1827 if the stream does not begin with the requisite header bytes
1828 (ie, is not a bzip2 data file). This is really
1829 a special case of BZ_DATA_ERROR.
1831 if insufficient memory was available
1833 if the logical end of stream was detected.
1838 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1841 number of bytes read
1842 if bzerror is BZ_OK or BZ_STREAM_END
1847 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1850 collect data from buf, then BZ2_bzRead or BZ2_bzReadClose
1852 collect data from buf, then BZ2_bzReadClose or BZ2_bzReadGetUnused
1853 if bzerror is BZ_SEQUENCE_END
1861 <sect2 id="bzreadgetunused" xreflabel="BZ2_bzReadGetUnused">
1862 <title>BZ2_bzReadGetUnused</title>
1865 void BZ2_bzReadGetUnused( int* bzerror, BZFILE *b,
1866 void** unused, int* nUnused );
1869 <para>Returns data which was read from the compressed file but
1870 was not needed to get to the logical end-of-stream.
1871 <computeroutput>*unused</computeroutput> is set to the address of
1872 the data, and <computeroutput>*nUnused</computeroutput> to the
1873 number of bytes. <computeroutput>*nUnused</computeroutput> will
1874 be set to a value between <computeroutput>0</computeroutput> and
1875 <computeroutput>BZ_MAX_UNUSED</computeroutput> inclusive.</para>
1877 <para>This function may only be called once
1878 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> has signalled
1879 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput> but before
1880 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput>.</para>
1882 <para>Possible assignments to
1883 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>:</para>
1888 or unused is NULL or nUnused is NULL
1890 if BZ_STREAM_END has not been signalled
1891 or if b was opened with BZ2_bzWriteOpen
1896 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1905 <sect2 id="bzreadclose" xreflabel="BZ2_bzReadClose">
1906 <title>BZ2_bzReadClose</title>
1909 void BZ2_bzReadClose ( int *bzerror, BZFILE *b );
1912 <para>Releases all memory pertaining to the compressed file
1913 <computeroutput>b</computeroutput>.
1914 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput> does not call
1915 <computeroutput>fclose</computeroutput> on the underlying file
1916 handle, so you should do that yourself if appropriate.
1917 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput> should be called
1918 to clean up after all error situations.</para>
1920 <para>Possible assignments to
1921 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>:</para>
1925 if b was opened with BZ2_bzOpenWrite
1930 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1939 <sect2 id="bzwriteopen" xreflabel="BZ2_bzWriteOpen">
1940 <title>BZ2_bzWriteOpen</title>
1943 BZFILE *BZ2_bzWriteOpen( int *bzerror, FILE *f,
1944 int blockSize100k, int verbosity,
1948 <para>Prepare to write compressed data to file handle
1949 <computeroutput>f</computeroutput>.
1950 <computeroutput>f</computeroutput> should refer to a file which
1951 has been opened for writing, and for which the error indicator
1952 (<computeroutput>ferror(f)</computeroutput>)is not set.</para>
1954 <para>For the meaning of parameters
1955 <computeroutput>blockSize100k</computeroutput>,
1956 <computeroutput>verbosity</computeroutput> and
1957 <computeroutput>workFactor</computeroutput>, see
1958 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>.</para>
1960 <para>All required memory is allocated at this stage, so if the
1961 call completes successfully,
1962 <computeroutput>BZ_MEM_ERROR</computeroutput> cannot be signalled
1963 by a subsequent call to
1964 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWrite</computeroutput>.</para>
1966 <para>Possible assignments to
1967 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>:</para>
1971 if the library has been mis-compiled
1974 or blockSize100k < 1 or blockSize100k > 9
1976 if ferror(f) is nonzero
1978 if insufficient memory is available
1983 <para>Possible return values:</para>
1986 Pointer to an abstract BZFILE
1992 <para>Allowable next actions:</para>
1997 (you could go directly to BZ2_bzWriteClose, but this would be pretty pointless)
2005 <sect2 id="bzwrite" xreflabel="BZ2_bzWrite">
2006 <title>BZ2_bzWrite</title>
2009 void BZ2_bzWrite ( int *bzerror, BZFILE *b, void *buf, int len );
2012 <para>Absorbs <computeroutput>len</computeroutput> bytes from the
2013 buffer <computeroutput>buf</computeroutput>, eventually to be
2014 compressed and written to the file.</para>
2016 <para>Possible assignments to
2017 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>:</para>
2021 if b is NULL or buf is NULL or len < 0
2023 if b was opened with BZ2_bzReadOpen
2025 if there is an error writing the compressed file.
2033 <sect2 id="bzwriteclose" xreflabel="BZ2_bzWriteClose">
2034 <title>BZ2_bzWriteClose</title>
2037 void BZ2_bzWriteClose( int *bzerror, BZFILE* f,
2039 unsigned int* nbytes_in,
2040 unsigned int* nbytes_out );
2042 void BZ2_bzWriteClose64( int *bzerror, BZFILE* f,
2044 unsigned int* nbytes_in_lo32,
2045 unsigned int* nbytes_in_hi32,
2046 unsigned int* nbytes_out_lo32,
2047 unsigned int* nbytes_out_hi32 );
2050 <para>Compresses and flushes to the compressed file all data so
2051 far supplied by <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWrite</computeroutput>.
2052 The logical end-of-stream markers are also written, so subsequent
2053 calls to <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWrite</computeroutput> are
2054 illegal. All memory associated with the compressed file
2055 <computeroutput>b</computeroutput> is released.
2056 <computeroutput>fflush</computeroutput> is called on the
2057 compressed file, but it is not
2058 <computeroutput>fclose</computeroutput>'d.</para>
2060 <para>If <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteClose</computeroutput> is
2061 called to clean up after an error, the only action is to release
2062 the memory. The library records the error codes issued by
2063 previous calls, so this situation will be detected automatically.
2064 There is no attempt to complete the compression operation, nor to
2065 <computeroutput>fflush</computeroutput> the compressed file. You
2066 can force this behaviour to happen even in the case of no error,
2067 by passing a nonzero value to
2068 <computeroutput>abandon</computeroutput>.</para>
2070 <para>If <computeroutput>nbytes_in</computeroutput> is non-null,
2071 <computeroutput>*nbytes_in</computeroutput> will be set to be the
2072 total volume of uncompressed data handled. Similarly,
2073 <computeroutput>nbytes_out</computeroutput> will be set to the
2074 total volume of compressed data written. For compatibility with
2075 older versions of the library,
2076 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteClose</computeroutput> only yields the
2077 lower 32 bits of these counts. Use
2078 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzWriteClose64</computeroutput> if you want
2079 the full 64 bit counts. These two functions are otherwise
2080 absolutely identical.</para>
2082 <para>Possible assignments to
2083 <computeroutput>bzerror</computeroutput>:</para>
2087 if b was opened with BZ2_bzReadOpen
2089 if there is an error writing the compressed file
2097 <sect2 id="embed" xreflabel="Handling embedded compressed data streams">
2098 <title>Handling embedded compressed data streams</title>
2100 <para>The high-level library facilitates use of
2101 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> data streams which form
2102 some part of a surrounding, larger data stream.</para>
2104 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
2106 <listitem><para>For writing, the library takes an open file handle,
2107 writes compressed data to it,
2108 <computeroutput>fflush</computeroutput>es it but does not
2109 <computeroutput>fclose</computeroutput> it. The calling
2110 application can write its own data before and after the
2111 compressed data stream, using that same file handle.</para></listitem>
2113 <listitem><para>Reading is more complex, and the facilities are not as
2114 general as they could be since generality is hard to reconcile
2115 with efficiency. <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput>
2116 reads from the compressed file in blocks of size
2117 <computeroutput>BZ_MAX_UNUSED</computeroutput> bytes, and in
2118 doing so probably will overshoot the logical end of compressed
2119 stream. To recover this data once decompression has ended,
2120 call <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadGetUnused</computeroutput> after
2121 the last call of <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput>
2123 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput>) but before
2125 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadClose</computeroutput>.</para></listitem>
2129 <para>This mechanism makes it easy to decompress multiple
2130 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> streams placed end-to-end.
2131 As the end of one stream, when
2132 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzRead</computeroutput> returns
2133 <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput>, call
2134 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadGetUnused</computeroutput> to collect
2135 the unused data (copy it into your own buffer somewhere). That
2136 data forms the start of the next compressed stream. To start
2137 uncompressing that next stream, call
2138 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadOpen</computeroutput> again, feeding in
2139 the unused data via the <computeroutput>unused</computeroutput> /
2140 <computeroutput>nUnused</computeroutput> parameters. Keep doing
2141 this until <computeroutput>BZ_STREAM_END</computeroutput> return
2142 coincides with the physical end of file
2143 (<computeroutput>feof(f)</computeroutput>). In this situation
2144 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzReadGetUnused</computeroutput> will of
2145 course return no data.</para>
2147 <para>This should give some feel for how the high-level interface
2148 can be used. If you require extra flexibility, you'll have to
2149 bite the bullet and get to grips with the low-level
2155 <sect2 id="std-rdwr" xreflabel="Standard file-reading/writing code">
2156 <title>Standard file-reading/writing code</title>
2158 <para>Here's how you'd write data to a compressed file:</para>
2164 char buf[ /* whatever size you like */ ];
2168 f = fopen ( "myfile.bz2", "w" );
2172 b = BZ2_bzWriteOpen( &bzerror, f, 9 );
2173 if (bzerror != BZ_OK) {
2174 BZ2_bzWriteClose ( b );
2178 while ( /* condition */ ) {
2179 /* get data to write into buf, and set nBuf appropriately */
2180 nWritten = BZ2_bzWrite ( &bzerror, b, buf, nBuf );
2181 if (bzerror == BZ_IO_ERROR) {
2182 BZ2_bzWriteClose ( &bzerror, b );
2187 BZ2_bzWriteClose( &bzerror, b );
2188 if (bzerror == BZ_IO_ERROR) {
2193 <para>And to read from a compressed file:</para>
2199 char buf[ /* whatever size you like */ ];
2203 f = fopen ( "myfile.bz2", "r" );
2207 b = BZ2_bzReadOpen ( &bzerror, f, 0, NULL, 0 );
2208 if ( bzerror != BZ_OK ) {
2209 BZ2_bzReadClose ( &bzerror, b );
2214 while ( bzerror == BZ_OK && /* arbitrary other conditions */) {
2215 nBuf = BZ2_bzRead ( &bzerror, b, buf, /* size of buf */ );
2216 if ( bzerror == BZ_OK ) {
2217 /* do something with buf[0 .. nBuf-1] */
2220 if ( bzerror != BZ_STREAM_END ) {
2221 BZ2_bzReadClose ( &bzerror, b );
2224 BZ2_bzReadClose ( &bzerror, b );
2233 <sect1 id="util-fns" xreflabel="Utility functions">
2234 <title>Utility functions</title>
2237 <sect2 id="bzbufftobuffcompress" xreflabel="BZ2_bzBuffToBuffCompress">
2238 <title>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffCompress</title>
2241 int BZ2_bzBuffToBuffCompress( char* dest,
2242 unsigned int* destLen,
2244 unsigned int sourceLen,
2250 <para>Attempts to compress the data in <computeroutput>source[0
2251 .. sourceLen-1]</computeroutput> into the destination buffer,
2252 <computeroutput>dest[0 .. *destLen-1]</computeroutput>. If the
2253 destination buffer is big enough,
2254 <computeroutput>*destLen</computeroutput> is set to the size of
2255 the compressed data, and <computeroutput>BZ_OK</computeroutput>
2256 is returned. If the compressed data won't fit,
2257 <computeroutput>*destLen</computeroutput> is unchanged, and
2258 <computeroutput>BZ_OUTBUFF_FULL</computeroutput> is
2261 <para>Compression in this manner is a one-shot event, done with a
2262 single call to this function. The resulting compressed data is a
2263 complete <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> format data
2264 stream. There is no mechanism for making additional calls to
2265 provide extra input data. If you want that kind of mechanism,
2266 use the low-level interface.</para>
2268 <para>For the meaning of parameters
2269 <computeroutput>blockSize100k</computeroutput>,
2270 <computeroutput>verbosity</computeroutput> and
2271 <computeroutput>workFactor</computeroutput>, see
2272 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>.</para>
2274 <para>To guarantee that the compressed data will fit in its
2275 buffer, allocate an output buffer of size 1% larger than the
2276 uncompressed data, plus six hundred extra bytes.</para>
2278 <para><computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress</computeroutput>
2279 will not write data at or beyond
2280 <computeroutput>dest[*destLen]</computeroutput>, even in case of
2281 buffer overflow.</para>
2283 <para>Possible return values:</para>
2287 if the library has been mis-compiled
2289 if dest is NULL or destLen is NULL
2290 or blockSize100k < 1 or blockSize100k > 9
2291 or verbosity < 0 or verbosity > 4
2292 or workFactor < 0 or workFactor > 250
2294 if insufficient memory is available
2296 if the size of the compressed data exceeds *destLen
2304 <sect2 id="bzbufftobuffdecompress" xreflabel="BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress">
2305 <title>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress</title>
2308 int BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress( char* dest,
2309 unsigned int* destLen,
2311 unsigned int sourceLen,
2316 <para>Attempts to decompress the data in <computeroutput>source[0
2317 .. sourceLen-1]</computeroutput> into the destination buffer,
2318 <computeroutput>dest[0 .. *destLen-1]</computeroutput>. If the
2319 destination buffer is big enough,
2320 <computeroutput>*destLen</computeroutput> is set to the size of
2321 the uncompressed data, and <computeroutput>BZ_OK</computeroutput>
2322 is returned. If the compressed data won't fit,
2323 <computeroutput>*destLen</computeroutput> is unchanged, and
2324 <computeroutput>BZ_OUTBUFF_FULL</computeroutput> is
2327 <para><computeroutput>source</computeroutput> is assumed to hold
2328 a complete <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> format data
2330 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress</computeroutput> tries
2331 to decompress the entirety of the stream into the output
2334 <para>For the meaning of parameters
2335 <computeroutput>small</computeroutput> and
2336 <computeroutput>verbosity</computeroutput>, see
2337 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressInit</computeroutput>.</para>
2339 <para>Because the compression ratio of the compressed data cannot
2340 be known in advance, there is no easy way to guarantee that the
2341 output buffer will be big enough. You may of course make
2342 arrangements in your code to record the size of the uncompressed
2343 data, but such a mechanism is beyond the scope of this
2346 <para><computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress</computeroutput>
2347 will not write data at or beyond
2348 <computeroutput>dest[*destLen]</computeroutput>, even in case of
2349 buffer overflow.</para>
2351 <para>Possible return values:</para>
2355 if the library has been mis-compiled
2357 if dest is NULL or destLen is NULL
2358 or small != 0 && small != 1
2359 or verbosity < 0 or verbosity > 4
2361 if insufficient memory is available
2363 if the size of the compressed data exceeds *destLen
2365 if a data integrity error was detected in the compressed data
2367 if the compressed data doesn't begin with the right magic bytes
2369 if the compressed data ends unexpectedly
2379 <sect1 id="zlib-compat" xreflabel="zlib compatibility functions">
2380 <title>zlib compatibility functions</title>
2382 <para>Yoshioka Tsuneo has contributed some functions to give
2383 better <computeroutput>zlib</computeroutput> compatibility.
2384 These functions are <computeroutput>BZ2_bzopen</computeroutput>,
2385 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzread</computeroutput>,
2386 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzwrite</computeroutput>,
2387 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzflush</computeroutput>,
2388 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzclose</computeroutput>,
2389 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzerror</computeroutput> and
2390 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzlibVersion</computeroutput>. These
2391 functions are not (yet) officially part of the library. If they
2392 break, you get to keep all the pieces. Nevertheless, I think
2393 they work ok.</para>
2396 typedef void BZFILE;
2398 const char * BZ2_bzlibVersion ( void );
2401 <para>Returns a string indicating the library version.</para>
2404 BZFILE * BZ2_bzopen ( const char *path, const char *mode );
2405 BZFILE * BZ2_bzdopen ( int fd, const char *mode );
2408 <para>Opens a <computeroutput>.bz2</computeroutput> file for
2409 reading or writing, using either its name or a pre-existing file
2410 descriptor. Analogous to <computeroutput>fopen</computeroutput>
2411 and <computeroutput>fdopen</computeroutput>.</para>
2414 int BZ2_bzread ( BZFILE* b, void* buf, int len );
2415 int BZ2_bzwrite ( BZFILE* b, void* buf, int len );
2418 <para>Reads/writes data from/to a previously opened
2419 <computeroutput>BZFILE</computeroutput>. Analogous to
2420 <computeroutput>fread</computeroutput> and
2421 <computeroutput>fwrite</computeroutput>.</para>
2424 int BZ2_bzflush ( BZFILE* b );
2425 void BZ2_bzclose ( BZFILE* b );
2428 <para>Flushes/closes a <computeroutput>BZFILE</computeroutput>.
2429 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzflush</computeroutput> doesn't actually do
2430 anything. Analogous to <computeroutput>fflush</computeroutput>
2431 and <computeroutput>fclose</computeroutput>.</para>
2434 const char * BZ2_bzerror ( BZFILE *b, int *errnum )
2437 <para>Returns a string describing the more recent error status of
2438 <computeroutput>b</computeroutput>, and also sets
2439 <computeroutput>*errnum</computeroutput> to its numerical
2445 <sect1 id="stdio-free"
2446 xreflabel="Using the library in a stdio-free environment">
2447 <title>Using the library in a stdio-free environment</title>
2450 <sect2 id="stdio-bye" xreflabel="Getting rid of stdio">
2451 <title>Getting rid of stdio</title>
2453 <para>In a deeply embedded application, you might want to use
2454 just the memory-to-memory functions. You can do this
2455 conveniently by compiling the library with preprocessor symbol
2456 <computeroutput>BZ_NO_STDIO</computeroutput> defined. Doing this
2457 gives you a library containing only the following eight
2460 <para><computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressInit</computeroutput>,
2461 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompress</computeroutput>,
2462 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzCompressEnd</computeroutput>
2463 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressInit</computeroutput>,
2464 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompress</computeroutput>,
2465 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzDecompressEnd</computeroutput>
2466 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffCompress</computeroutput>,
2467 <computeroutput>BZ2_bzBuffToBuffDecompress</computeroutput></para>
2469 <para>When compiled like this, all functions will ignore
2470 <computeroutput>verbosity</computeroutput> settings.</para>
2475 <sect2 id="critical-error" xreflabel="Critical error handling">
2476 <title>Critical error handling</title>
2478 <para><computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput> contains a number
2479 of internal assertion checks which should, needless to say, never
2480 be activated. Nevertheless, if an assertion should fail,
2481 behaviour depends on whether or not the library was compiled with
2482 <computeroutput>BZ_NO_STDIO</computeroutput> set.</para>
2484 <para>For a normal compile, an assertion failure yields the
2488 <para>bzip2/libbzip2: internal error number N.</para>
2489 <para>This is a bug in bzip2/libbzip2, &bz-version; of &bz-date;.
2490 Please report it to me at: &bz-email;. If this happened
2491 when you were using some program which uses libbzip2 as a
2492 component, you should also report this bug to the author(s)
2493 of that program. Please make an effort to report this bug;
2494 timely and accurate bug reports eventually lead to higher
2495 quality software. Thanks. Julian Seward, &bz-date;.
2496 </para></blockquote>
2498 <para>where <computeroutput>N</computeroutput> is some error code
2499 number. If <computeroutput>N == 1007</computeroutput>, it also
2500 prints some extra text advising the reader that unreliable memory
2501 is often associated with internal error 1007. (This is a
2502 frequently-observed-phenomenon with versions 1.0.0/1.0.1).</para>
2504 <para><computeroutput>exit(3)</computeroutput> is then
2507 <para>For a <computeroutput>stdio</computeroutput>-free library,
2508 assertion failures result in a call to a function declared
2512 extern void bz_internal_error ( int errcode );
2515 <para>The relevant code is passed as a parameter. You should
2516 supply such a function.</para>
2518 <para>In either case, once an assertion failure has occurred, any
2519 <computeroutput>bz_stream</computeroutput> records involved can
2520 be regarded as invalid. You should not attempt to resume normal
2521 operation with them.</para>
2523 <para>You may, of course, change critical error handling to suit
2524 your needs. As I said above, critical errors indicate bugs in
2525 the library and should not occur. All "normal" error situations
2526 are indicated via error return codes from functions, and can be
2527 recovered from.</para>
2534 <sect1 id="win-dll" xreflabel="Making a Windows DLL">
2535 <title>Making a Windows DLL</title>
2537 <para>Everything related to Windows has been contributed by
2539 (<computeroutput>tsuneo@rr.iij4u.or.jp</computeroutput>), so
2540 you should send your queries to him (but perhaps Cc: me,
2541 <computeroutput>&bz-email;</computeroutput>).</para>
2543 <para>My vague understanding of what to do is: using Visual C++
2544 5.0, open the project file
2545 <computeroutput>libbz2.dsp</computeroutput>, and build. That's
2548 <para>If you can't open the project file for some reason, make a
2549 new one, naming these files:
2550 <computeroutput>blocksort.c</computeroutput>,
2551 <computeroutput>bzlib.c</computeroutput>,
2552 <computeroutput>compress.c</computeroutput>,
2553 <computeroutput>crctable.c</computeroutput>,
2554 <computeroutput>decompress.c</computeroutput>,
2555 <computeroutput>huffman.c</computeroutput>,
2556 <computeroutput>randtable.c</computeroutput> and
2557 <computeroutput>libbz2.def</computeroutput>. You will also need
2558 to name the header files <computeroutput>bzlib.h</computeroutput>
2559 and <computeroutput>bzlib_private.h</computeroutput>.</para>
2561 <para>If you don't use VC++, you may need to define the
2563 <computeroutput>_WIN32</computeroutput>.</para>
2565 <para>Finally, <computeroutput>dlltest.c</computeroutput> is a
2566 sample program using the DLL. It has a project file,
2567 <computeroutput>dlltest.dsp</computeroutput>.</para>
2569 <para>If you just want a makefile for Visual C, have a look at
2570 <computeroutput>makefile.msc</computeroutput>.</para>
2572 <para>Be aware that if you compile
2573 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> itself on Win32, you must
2574 set <computeroutput>BZ_UNIX</computeroutput> to 0 and
2575 <computeroutput>BZ_LCCWIN32</computeroutput> to 1, in the file
2576 <computeroutput>bzip2.c</computeroutput>, before compiling.
2577 Otherwise the resulting binary won't work correctly.</para>
2579 <para>I haven't tried any of this stuff myself, but it all looks
2588 <chapter id="misc" xreflabel="Miscellanea">
2589 <title>Miscellanea</title>
2591 <para>These are just some random thoughts of mine. Your mileage
2595 <sect1 id="limits" xreflabel="Limitations of the compressed file format">
2596 <title>Limitations of the compressed file format</title>
2598 <para><computeroutput>bzip2-1.0.X</computeroutput>,
2599 <computeroutput>0.9.5</computeroutput> and
2600 <computeroutput>0.9.0</computeroutput> use exactly the same file
2601 format as the original version,
2602 <computeroutput>bzip2-0.1</computeroutput>. This decision was
2603 made in the interests of stability. Creating yet another
2604 incompatible compressed file format would create further
2605 confusion and disruption for users.</para>
2607 <para>Nevertheless, this is not a painless decision. Development
2608 work since the release of
2609 <computeroutput>bzip2-0.1</computeroutput> in August 1997 has
2610 shown complexities in the file format which slow down
2611 decompression and, in retrospect, are unnecessary. These
2614 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
2616 <listitem><para>The run-length encoder, which is the first of the
2617 compression transformations, is entirely irrelevant. The
2618 original purpose was to protect the sorting algorithm from the
2619 very worst case input: a string of repeated symbols. But
2620 algorithm steps Q6a and Q6b in the original Burrows-Wheeler
2621 technical report (SRC-124) show how repeats can be handled
2622 without difficulty in block sorting.</para></listitem>
2624 <listitem><para>The randomisation mechanism doesn't really need to be
2625 there. Udi Manber and Gene Myers published a suffix array
2626 construction algorithm a few years back, which can be employed
2627 to sort any block, no matter how repetitive, in O(N log N)
2628 time. Subsequent work by Kunihiko Sadakane has produced a
2629 derivative O(N (log N)^2) algorithm which usually outperforms
2630 the Manber-Myers algorithm.</para>
2632 <para>I could have changed to Sadakane's algorithm, but I find
2633 it to be slower than <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>'s
2634 existing algorithm for most inputs, and the randomisation
2635 mechanism protects adequately against bad cases. I didn't
2636 think it was a good tradeoff to make. Partly this is due to
2637 the fact that I was not flooded with email complaints about
2638 <computeroutput>bzip2-0.1</computeroutput>'s performance on
2639 repetitive data, so perhaps it isn't a problem for real
2642 <para>Probably the best long-term solution, and the one I have
2643 incorporated into 0.9.5 and above, is to use the existing
2644 sorting algorithm initially, and fall back to a O(N (log N)^2)
2645 algorithm if the standard algorithm gets into
2646 difficulties.</para></listitem>
2648 <listitem><para>The compressed file format was never designed to be
2649 handled by a library, and I have had to jump though some hoops
2650 to produce an efficient implementation of decompression. It's
2651 a bit hairy. Try passing
2652 <computeroutput>decompress.c</computeroutput> through the C
2653 preprocessor and you'll see what I mean. Much of this
2654 complexity could have been avoided if the compressed size of
2655 each block of data was recorded in the data stream.</para></listitem>
2657 <listitem><para>An Adler-32 checksum, rather than a CRC32 checksum,
2658 would be faster to compute.</para></listitem>
2662 <para>It would be fair to say that the
2663 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> format was frozen before I
2664 properly and fully understood the performance consequences of
2667 <para>Improvements which I was able to incorporate into 0.9.0,
2668 despite using the same file format, are:</para>
2670 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
2672 <listitem><para>Single array implementation of the inverse BWT. This
2673 significantly speeds up decompression, presumably because it
2674 reduces the number of cache misses.</para></listitem>
2676 <listitem><para>Faster inverse MTF transform for large MTF values.
2677 The new implementation is based on the notion of sliding blocks
2678 of values.</para></listitem>
2680 <listitem><para><computeroutput>bzip2-0.9.0</computeroutput> now reads
2681 and writes files with <computeroutput>fread</computeroutput>
2682 and <computeroutput>fwrite</computeroutput>; version 0.1 used
2683 <computeroutput>putc</computeroutput> and
2684 <computeroutput>getc</computeroutput>. Duh! Well, you live
2685 and learn.</para></listitem>
2689 <para>Further ahead, it would be nice to be able to do random
2690 access into files. This will require some careful design of
2691 compressed file formats.</para>
2696 <sect1 id="port-issues" xreflabel="Portability issues">
2697 <title>Portability issues</title>
2699 <para>After some consideration, I have decided not to use GNU
2700 <computeroutput>autoconf</computeroutput> to configure 0.9.5 or
2703 <para><computeroutput>autoconf</computeroutput>, admirable and
2704 wonderful though it is, mainly assists with portability problems
2705 between Unix-like platforms. But
2706 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> doesn't have much in the
2707 way of portability problems on Unix; most of the difficulties
2708 appear when porting to the Mac, or to Microsoft's operating
2709 systems. <computeroutput>autoconf</computeroutput> doesn't help
2710 in those cases, and brings in a whole load of new
2713 <para>Most people should be able to compile the library and
2714 program under Unix straight out-of-the-box, so to speak,
2715 especially if you have a version of GNU C available.</para>
2717 <para>There are a couple of
2718 <computeroutput>__inline__</computeroutput> directives in the
2719 code. GNU C (<computeroutput>gcc</computeroutput>) should be
2720 able to handle them. If you're not using GNU C, your C compiler
2721 shouldn't see them at all. If your compiler does, for some
2722 reason, see them and doesn't like them, just
2723 <computeroutput>#define</computeroutput>
2724 <computeroutput>__inline__</computeroutput> to be
2725 <computeroutput>/* */</computeroutput>. One easy way to do this
2726 is to compile with the flag
2727 <computeroutput>-D__inline__=</computeroutput>, which should be
2728 understood by most Unix compilers.</para>
2730 <para>If you still have difficulties, try compiling with the
2731 macro <computeroutput>BZ_STRICT_ANSI</computeroutput> defined.
2732 This should enable you to build the library in a strictly ANSI
2733 compliant environment. Building the program itself like this is
2734 dangerous and not supported, since you remove
2735 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>'s checks against
2736 compressing directories, symbolic links, devices, and other
2737 not-really-a-file entities. This could cause filesystem
2740 <para>One other thing: if you create a
2741 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> binary for public distribution,
2742 please consider linking it statically (<computeroutput>gcc
2743 -static</computeroutput>). This avoids all sorts of library-version
2744 issues that others may encounter later on.</para>
2746 <para>If you build <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> on
2747 Win32, you must set <computeroutput>BZ_UNIX</computeroutput> to 0
2748 and <computeroutput>BZ_LCCWIN32</computeroutput> to 1, in the
2749 file <computeroutput>bzip2.c</computeroutput>, before compiling.
2750 Otherwise the resulting binary won't work correctly.</para>
2755 <sect1 id="bugs" xreflabel="Reporting bugs">
2756 <title>Reporting bugs</title>
2758 <para>I tried pretty hard to make sure
2759 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> is bug free, both by
2760 design and by testing. Hopefully you'll never need to read this
2761 section for real.</para>
2763 <para>Nevertheless, if <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> dies
2764 with a segmentation fault, a bus error or an internal assertion
2765 failure, it will ask you to email me a bug report. Experience from
2766 years of feedback of bzip2 users indicates that almost all these
2767 problems can be traced to either compiler bugs or hardware
2770 <itemizedlist mark='bullet'>
2772 <listitem><para>Recompile the program with no optimisation, and
2773 see if it works. And/or try a different compiler. I heard all
2774 sorts of stories about various flavours of GNU C (and other
2775 compilers) generating bad code for
2776 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>, and I've run across two
2777 such examples myself.</para>
2779 <para>2.7.X versions of GNU C are known to generate bad code
2780 from time to time, at high optimisation levels. If you get
2781 problems, try using the flags
2782 <computeroutput>-O2</computeroutput>
2783 <computeroutput>-fomit-frame-pointer</computeroutput>
2784 <computeroutput>-fno-strength-reduce</computeroutput>. You
2785 should specifically <emphasis>not</emphasis> use
2786 <computeroutput>-funroll-loops</computeroutput>.</para>
2788 <para>You may notice that the Makefile runs six tests as part
2789 of the build process. If the program passes all of these, it's
2790 a pretty good (but not 100%) indication that the compiler has
2791 done its job correctly.</para></listitem>
2793 <listitem><para>If <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>
2794 crashes randomly, and the crashes are not repeatable, you may
2795 have a flaky memory subsystem.
2796 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> really hammers your
2797 memory hierarchy, and if it's a bit marginal, you may get these
2798 problems. Ditto if your disk or I/O subsystem is slowly
2799 failing. Yup, this really does happen.</para>
2801 <para>Try using a different machine of the same type, and see
2802 if you can repeat the problem.</para></listitem>
2804 <listitem><para>This isn't really a bug, but ... If
2805 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> tells you your file is
2806 corrupted on decompression, and you obtained the file via FTP,
2807 there is a possibility that you forgot to tell FTP to do a
2808 binary mode transfer. That absolutely will cause the file to
2809 be non-decompressible. You'll have to transfer it
2810 again.</para></listitem>
2814 <para>If you've incorporated
2815 <computeroutput>libbzip2</computeroutput> into your own program
2816 and are getting problems, please, please, please, check that the
2817 parameters you are passing in calls to the library, are correct,
2818 and in accordance with what the documentation says is allowable.
2819 I have tried to make the library robust against such problems,
2820 but I'm sure I haven't succeeded.</para>
2822 <para>Finally, if the above comments don't help, you'll have to
2823 send me a bug report. Now, it's just amazing how many people
2824 will send me a bug report saying something like:</para>
2827 bzip2 crashed with segmentation fault on my machine
2830 <para>and absolutely nothing else. Needless to say, a such a
2831 report is <emphasis>totally, utterly, completely and
2832 comprehensively 100% useless; a waste of your time, my time, and
2833 net bandwidth</emphasis>. With no details at all, there's no way
2834 I can possibly begin to figure out what the problem is.</para>
2836 <para>The rules of the game are: facts, facts, facts. Don't omit
2837 them because "oh, they won't be relevant". At the bare
2841 Machine type. Operating system version.
2842 Exact version of bzip2 (do bzip2 -V).
2843 Exact version of the compiler used.
2844 Flags passed to the compiler.
2847 <para>However, the most important single thing that will help me
2848 is the file that you were trying to compress or decompress at the
2849 time the problem happened. Without that, my ability to do
2850 anything more than speculate about the cause, is limited.</para>
2855 <sect1 id="package" xreflabel="Did you get the right package?">
2856 <title>Did you get the right package?</title>
2858 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> is a resource hog.
2859 It soaks up large amounts of CPU cycles and memory. Also, it
2860 gives very large latencies. In the worst case, you can feed many
2861 megabytes of uncompressed data into the library before getting
2862 any compressed output, so this probably rules out applications
2863 requiring interactive behaviour.</para>
2865 <para>These aren't faults of my implementation, I hope, but more
2866 an intrinsic property of the Burrows-Wheeler transform
2867 (unfortunately). Maybe this isn't what you want.</para>
2869 <para>If you want a compressor and/or library which is faster,
2870 uses less memory but gets pretty good compression, and has
2871 minimal latency, consider Jean-loup Gailly's and Mark Adler's
2872 work, <computeroutput>zlib-1.2.1</computeroutput> and
2873 <computeroutput>gzip-1.2.4</computeroutput>. Look for them at
2874 <ulink url="http://www.zlib.org">http://www.zlib.org</ulink> and
2875 <ulink url="http://www.gzip.org">http://www.gzip.org</ulink>
2876 respectively.</para>
2878 <para>For something faster and lighter still, you might try Markus F
2879 X J Oberhumer's <computeroutput>LZO</computeroutput> real-time
2880 compression/decompression library, at
2881 <ulink url="http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource">http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource</ulink>.</para>
2887 <sect1 id="reading" xreflabel="Further Reading">
2888 <title>Further Reading</title>
2890 <para><computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput> is not research
2891 work, in the sense that it doesn't present any new ideas.
2892 Rather, it's an engineering exercise based on existing
2895 <para>Four documents describe essentially all the ideas behind
2896 <computeroutput>bzip2</computeroutput>:</para>
2898 <literallayout>Michael Burrows and D. J. Wheeler:
2899 "A block-sorting lossless data compression algorithm"
2901 Digital SRC Research Report 124.
2902 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/SRC/research-reports/SRC-124.ps.gz
2903 If you have trouble finding it, try searching at the
2904 New Zealand Digital Library, http://www.nzdl.org.
2906 Daniel S. Hirschberg and Debra A. LeLewer
2907 "Efficient Decoding of Prefix Codes"
2908 Communications of the ACM, April 1990, Vol 33, Number 4.
2909 You might be able to get an electronic copy of this
2910 from the ACM Digital Library.
2913 Program bred3.c and accompanying document bred3.ps.
2914 This contains the idea behind the multi-table Huffman coding scheme.
2915 ftp://ftp.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/djw3/
2917 Jon L. Bentley and Robert Sedgewick
2918 "Fast Algorithms for Sorting and Searching Strings"
2919 Available from Sedgewick's web page,
2920 www.cs.princeton.edu/~rs
2923 <para>The following paper gives valuable additional insights into
2924 the algorithm, but is not immediately the basis of any code used
2927 <literallayout>Peter Fenwick:
2928 Block Sorting Text Compression
2929 Proceedings of the 19th Australasian Computer Science Conference,
2930 Melbourne, Australia. Jan 31 - Feb 2, 1996.
2931 ftp://ftp.cs.auckland.ac.nz/pub/peter-f/ACSC96paper.ps</literallayout>
2933 <para>Kunihiko Sadakane's sorting algorithm, mentioned above, is
2934 available from:</para>
2936 <literallayout>http://naomi.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~sada/papers/Sada98b.ps.gz
2939 <para>The Manber-Myers suffix array construction algorithm is
2940 described in a paper available from:</para>
2942 <literallayout>http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/gene/PAPERS/suffix.ps
2945 <para>Finally, the following papers document some
2946 investigations I made into the performance of sorting
2947 and decompression algorithms:</para>
2949 <literallayout>Julian Seward
2950 On the Performance of BWT Sorting Algorithms
2951 Proceedings of the IEEE Data Compression Conference 2000
2952 Snowbird, Utah. 28-30 March 2000.
2955 Space-time Tradeoffs in the Inverse B-W Transform
2956 Proceedings of the IEEE Data Compression Conference 2001
2957 Snowbird, Utah. 27-29 March 2001.