1 2 Information to packagers of XZ Utils 3 ==================================== 4 5 0. Preface 6 1. Package naming 7 2. Package description 8 3. License 9 4. configure options 10 5. Additional documentation 11 6. Extra files 12 7. Installing XZ Utils and LZMA Utils in parallel 13 8. Example 14 15 16 0. Preface 17 ---------- 18 19 This document is meant for people who create and maintain XZ Utils 20 packages for operating system distributions. The focus is on GNU/Linux 21 systems, but most things apply to other systems too. 22 23 While the standard "configure && make DESTDIR=$PKG install" should 24 give a pretty good package, there are some details which packagers 25 may want to tweak. 26 27 Packagers should also read the INSTALL file. 28 29 30 1. Package naming 31 ----------------- 32 33 The preferred name for the XZ Utils package is "xz", because that's 34 the name of the upstream tarball. Naturally you may have good reasons 35 to use some other name; I won't get angry about it. ;-) It's just nice 36 to be able to point people to the correct package name without asking 37 what distro they have. 38 39 If your distro policy is to split things into small pieces, here is 40 one suggestion: 41 42 xz xz, xzdec, scripts (xzdiff, xzgrep, etc.), docs 43 xz-lzma lzma, unlzma, lzcat, lzgrep etc. symlinks and 44 lzmadec binary for compatibility with LZMA Utils 45 liblzma liblzma.so.* 46 liblzma-devel liblzma.so, liblzma.a, API headers 47 liblzma-doc Example programs and, if enabled at build time, 48 Doxygen-generated liblzma API docs (HTML) 49 50 51 2. Package description 52 ---------------------- 53 54 Here is a suggestion which you may use as the package description. 55 If you can use only one-line description, pick only the first line. 56 Naturally, feel free to use some other description if you find it 57 better, and maybe send it to me too. 58 59 Library and command line tools for XZ and LZMA compressed files 60 61 XZ Utils provide a general purpose data compression library 62 and command line tools. The native file format is the .xz 63 format, but also the legacy .lzma format is supported. The .xz 64 format supports multiple compression algorithms, of which LZMA2 65 is currently the primary algorithm. With typical files, XZ Utils 66 create about 30 % smaller files than gzip. 67 68 If you are splitting XZ Utils into multiple packages, here are some 69 suggestions for package descriptions: 70 71 xz: 72 73 Command line tools for XZ and LZMA compressed files 74 75 This package includes the xz compression tool and other command 76 line tools from XZ Utils. xz has command line syntax similar to 77 that of gzip. The native file format is the .xz format, but also 78 the legacy .lzma format is supported. The .xz format supports 79 multiple compression algorithms, of which LZMA2 is currently the 80 primary algorithm. With typical files, XZ Utils create about 30 % 81 smaller files than gzip. 82 83 Note that this package doesn't include the files needed for 84 LZMA Utils 4.32.x compatibility. Install also the xz-lzma 85 package to make XZ Utils emulate LZMA Utils 4.32.x. 86 87 xz-lzma: 88 89 LZMA Utils emulation with XZ Utils 90 91 This package includes executables and symlinks to make 92 XZ Utils emulate lzma, unlzma, lzcat, and other command 93 line tools found from the legacy LZMA Utils 4.32.x package. 94 95 liblzma: 96 97 Library for XZ and LZMA compressed files 98 99 liblzma is a general purpose data compression library with 100 an API similar to that of zlib. liblzma supports multiple 101 algorithms, of which LZMA2 is currently the primary algorithm. 102 The native file format is .xz, but also the legacy .lzma 103 format and raw streams (no headers at all) are supported. 104 105 This package includes the shared library. 106 107 liblzma-devel: 108 109 Library for XZ and LZMA compressed files 110 111 This package includes the API headers, static library, and 112 other development files related to liblzma. 113 114 liblzma-doc: 115 116 liblzma API documentation in HTML and example usage 117 118 This package includes the Doxygen-generated liblzma API 119 HTML docs and example programs showing how to use liblzma. 120 121 122 3. License 123 ---------- 124 125 If the package manager supports a license field, you probably should 126 put GPLv2+ there (GNU GPL v2 or later). The interesting parts of 127 XZ Utils are under the BSD Zero Clause License (0BSD), but some less 128 important files ending up into the binary package are under GPLv2+. 129 So it is simplest to just say GPLv2+ if you cannot specify 130 "BSD0 and GPLv2+". 131 132 If you split XZ Utils into multiple packages as described earlier 133 in this file, liblzma and liblzma-dev packages will contain only 134 0BSD-licensed code from XZ Utils (compiler or linker may add some 135 third-party code which may have other licenses). 136 137 138 4. configure options 139 -------------------- 140 141 Unless you are building a package for a distribution that is meant 142 only for embedded systems, don't use the following configure options: 143 144 --enable-debug 145 --enable-encoders (*) 146 --enable-decoders 147 --enable-match-finders 148 --enable-checks 149 --enable-small (*) 150 --disable-threads (*) 151 --disable-microlzma (*) 152 --disable-lzip-decoder (*) 153 154 (*) These are OK when building xzdec and lzmadec as described 155 in INSTALL. 156 157 xzdec and lzmadec don't provide any functionality that isn't already 158 available in the xz tool. Shipping xzdec and lzmadec without size 159 optimization and statically-linked liblzma isn't very useful. Doing 160 that would give users the xzdec man page, which may make it easier 161 for people to find out that such tools exists, but the executables 162 wouldn't have any advantage over the full-featured xz. 163 164 165 5. Additional documentation 166 --------------------------- 167 168 "make install" copies some additional documentation to $docdir 169 (--docdir in configure). There is a copy of the GNU GPL v2, which 170 can be replaced with a symlink if your distro ships with shared 171 copies of the common license texts. 172 173 The Doxygen-generated liblzma API documentation (HTML) is built and 174 installed if the configure option --enable-doxygen is used (it's 175 disabled by default). This requires that Doxygen is available. The 176 API documentation is installed by "make install" to $docdir/api. 177 178 NOTE: The files generated by Doxygen include content from 179 Doxygen itself. Check the license info before distributing 180 the Doxygen-generated files. 181 182 183 6. Extra files 184 -------------- 185 186 The "extra" directory contains some small extra tools or other files. 187 The exact set of extra files can vary between XZ Utils releases. The 188 extra files have only limited use or they are too dangerous to be 189 put directly to $bindir (7z2lzma.sh is a good example, since it can 190 silently create corrupt output if certain conditions are not met). 191 192 If you feel like it, you may copy the extra directory under the doc 193 directory (e.g. /usr/share/doc/xz/extra). Maybe some people will find 194 them useful. However, most people needing these tools probably are 195 able to find them from the source package too. 196 197 The "debug" directory contains some tools that are useful only when 198 hacking on XZ Utils. Don't package these tools. 199 200 201 7. Installing XZ Utils and LZMA Utils in parallel 202 ------------------------------------------------- 203 204 XZ Utils and LZMA Utils 4.32.x can be installed in parallel by 205 omitting the compatibility symlinks (lzma, unlzma, lzcat, lzgrep etc.) 206 from the XZ Utils package. It's probably a good idea to still package 207 the symlinks into a separate package so that users may choose if they 208 want to use XZ Utils or LZMA Utils for handling .lzma files. 209 210 211 8. Example 212 ---------- 213 214 Here is an example for i686 GNU/Linux that 215 - links xz and lzmainfo against shared liblzma; 216 - links size-optimized xzdec and lzmadec against static liblzma 217 while avoiding libpthread dependency; 218 - includes only shared liblzma in the final package; and 219 - copies also the "extra" directory to the package. 220 221 PKG=/tmp/xz-pkg 222 tar xf xz-x.y.z.tar.gz 223 cd xz-x.y.z 224 ./configure \ 225 --prefix=/usr \ 226 --disable-static \ 227 --disable-xzdec \ 228 --disable-lzmadec \ 229 CFLAGS='-march=i686 -mtune=generic -O2' 230 make 231 make DESTDIR=$PKG install-strip 232 make clean 233 ./configure \ 234 --prefix=/usr \ 235 --disable-shared \ 236 --disable-nls \ 237 --disable-encoders \ 238 --enable-small \ 239 --disable-threads \ 240 CFLAGS='-march=i686 -mtune=generic -Os' 241 make -C src/liblzma 242 make -C src/xzdec 243 make -C src/xzdec DESTDIR=$PKG install-strip 244 cp -a extra $PKG/usr/share/doc/xz 245 246
Indexes created Wed Oct 14 00:28:03 UTC 2026