Request for review: xz-utils package description
Having experienced many package descriptions that are hard to read,
I do not want to subject the world to another one. I fear that I
have, though. Would you have time to review the package
descriptions for this compression package?
I would like them to convey that
* xz is supposed to replace LZMA Utils. Its native .xz format is
very similar to .lzma, but it includes a few conveniences people
tend to rely on in other formats: an integrity check and a magic
number for use by 'file'. The xz tools include most of the
functionality of LZMA Utils for dealing with .lzma tools and can
act as a drop-in replacement with the same command names, though
the Debian package does not do that yet.
* Compression is generally comparable to bzip2 -9, often a little
better.
* Unlike deflate and bzip2, xz can make good use of extra memory
at compression and decompression time.
* Memory usage is configurable. At the lowest setting, xz is
respectably fast, and the compression does not suffer too much
for it.
* Decompression is really fast, as long as there is enough
memory available (how much is enough is determined at
compression time, defaulting to about 8 MiB).
* The implementation is not multi-threaded, unfortunately (unlike
lzma_alone)
* The library is fairly low-level: it does not deal with files,
only with in-memory buffers. That is, it includes functions
similar to zlib’s basic stream-oriented functions, but nothing
like the file-oriented utility functions (gzio).
* The API docs are a little scary at first glance, though they
do include all the information one needs to get started if
one is willing to look around.
But there is a danger to saying too much. I look forward to your
thoughts.
Regards,
Jonathan
--
Package: liblzma0
Description: high compression-ratio compression library - runtime
liblzma is a library implementing the Lempel-Ziv/Markov-chain
compression method found in xz, lzma, and 7-Zip. This package
includes the shared library.
.
This library does not support 7-Zip's LZMA-based .7z format (for
that, see p7zip). This library's native file format is .xz, but
the old .lzma format and raw (no headers) streams are also
supported.
.
Compression is generally good (on par with or better than bzip2),
decompression fast, and RAM usage high during compression and low
during decompression.
Package: xz-utils
Description: high compression-ratio compressor
This package includes the xz compression tool and other command
line tools for working with files compressed with the
Lempel-Ziv/Markov-chain compression method. It supports two
formats: .xz and the legacy .lzma format. Commands provided
include xz, unxz, xzcat, xzgrep, and so on.
.
The primary algorithm supported by the .xz format is the LZMA2
algorithm. Compression is generally good (on par with or better
than bzip2), decompression fast, and RAM usage high during
compression and low during decompression.
Package: liblzma-dev
Description: high compression-ratio compression library - development
liblzma is a data compression library with support for several
filters (algorithm implementations). The primary filter is LZMA2,
an extended version of the compression method used in lzma and 7-Zip.
This package includes the development support files.
.
This library does not support 7-Zip's LZMA-based .7z format (for
that, see p7zip). This library's native file format is .xz, but
the old .lzma format and raw (no headers) streams are also
supported.
.
Compression is generally good (on par with or better than bzip2),
decompression fast, and RAM usage high during compression and low
during decompression.
Package: liblzma-doc
Description: high compression-ratio compression library - reference documentation
This package contains documentation for developers using the liblzma
data compression library.
.
Currently it contains only the Doxygen-generated API reference in
HTML format. The purpose of each struct, macro, and function in the
public interface is explained here, but for an overview of XZ Utils
one would have to look elsewhere.
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