diff options
author | Thomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> | 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100 |
---|---|---|
committer | Thomas Voss <mail@thomasvoss.com> | 2024-11-27 20:54:24 +0100 |
commit | 4bfd864f10b68b71482b35c818559068ef8d5797 (patch) | |
tree | e3989f47a7994642eb325063d46e8f08ffa681dc /doc/rfc/rfc1950.txt | |
parent | ea76e11061bda059ae9f9ad130a9895cc85607db (diff) |
doc: Add RFC documents
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/rfc/rfc1950.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/rfc/rfc1950.txt | 619 |
1 files changed, 619 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/rfc/rfc1950.txt b/doc/rfc/rfc1950.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce6428a --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/rfc/rfc1950.txt @@ -0,0 +1,619 @@ + + + + + + +Network Working Group P. Deutsch +Request for Comments: 1950 Aladdin Enterprises +Category: Informational J-L. Gailly + Info-ZIP + May 1996 + + + ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification version 3.3 + +Status of This Memo + + This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo + does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of + this memo is unlimited. + +IESG Note: + + The IESG takes no position on the validity of any Intellectual + Property Rights statements contained in this document. + +Notices + + Copyright (c) 1996 L. Peter Deutsch and Jean-Loup Gailly + + Permission is granted to copy and distribute this document for any + purpose and without charge, including translations into other + languages and incorporation into compilations, provided that the + copyright notice and this notice are preserved, and that any + substantive changes or deletions from the original are clearly + marked. + + A pointer to the latest version of this and related documentation in + HTML format can be found at the URL + <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html>. + +Abstract + + This specification defines a lossless compressed data format. The + data can be produced or consumed, even for an arbitrarily long + sequentially presented input data stream, using only an a priori + bounded amount of intermediate storage. The format presently uses + the DEFLATE compression method but can be easily extended to use + other compression methods. It can be implemented readily in a manner + not covered by patents. This specification also defines the ADLER-32 + checksum (an extension and improvement of the Fletcher checksum), + used for detection of data corruption, and provides an algorithm for + computing it. + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 1] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + +Table of Contents + + 1. Introduction ................................................... 2 + 1.1. Purpose ................................................... 2 + 1.2. Intended audience ......................................... 3 + 1.3. Scope ..................................................... 3 + 1.4. Compliance ................................................ 3 + 1.5. Definitions of terms and conventions used ................ 3 + 1.6. Changes from previous versions ............................ 3 + 2. Detailed specification ......................................... 3 + 2.1. Overall conventions ....................................... 3 + 2.2. Data format ............................................... 4 + 2.3. Compliance ................................................ 7 + 3. References ..................................................... 7 + 4. Source code .................................................... 8 + 5. Security Considerations ........................................ 8 + 6. Acknowledgements ............................................... 8 + 7. Authors' Addresses ............................................. 8 + 8. Appendix: Rationale ............................................ 9 + 9. Appendix: Sample code ..........................................10 + +1. Introduction + + 1.1. Purpose + + The purpose of this specification is to define a lossless + compressed data format that: + + * Is independent of CPU type, operating system, file system, + and character set, and hence can be used for interchange; + + * Can be produced or consumed, even for an arbitrarily long + sequentially presented input data stream, using only an a + priori bounded amount of intermediate storage, and hence can + be used in data communications or similar structures such as + Unix filters; + + * Can use a number of different compression methods; + + * Can be implemented readily in a manner not covered by + patents, and hence can be practiced freely. + + The data format defined by this specification does not attempt to + allow random access to compressed data. + + + + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 2] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + + 1.2. Intended audience + + This specification is intended for use by implementors of software + to compress data into zlib format and/or decompress data from zlib + format. + + The text of the specification assumes a basic background in + programming at the level of bits and other primitive data + representations. + + 1.3. Scope + + The specification specifies a compressed data format that can be + used for in-memory compression of a sequence of arbitrary bytes. + + 1.4. Compliance + + Unless otherwise indicated below, a compliant decompressor must be + able to accept and decompress any data set that conforms to all + the specifications presented here; a compliant compressor must + produce data sets that conform to all the specifications presented + here. + + 1.5. Definitions of terms and conventions used + + byte: 8 bits stored or transmitted as a unit (same as an octet). + (For this specification, a byte is exactly 8 bits, even on + machines which store a character on a number of bits different + from 8.) See below, for the numbering of bits within a byte. + + 1.6. Changes from previous versions + + Version 3.1 was the first public release of this specification. + In version 3.2, some terminology was changed and the Adler-32 + sample code was rewritten for clarity. In version 3.3, the + support for a preset dictionary was introduced, and the + specification was converted to RFC style. + +2. Detailed specification + + 2.1. Overall conventions + + In the diagrams below, a box like this: + + +---+ + | | <-- the vertical bars might be missing + +---+ + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 3] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + + represents one byte; a box like this: + + +==============+ + | | + +==============+ + + represents a variable number of bytes. + + Bytes stored within a computer do not have a "bit order", since + they are always treated as a unit. However, a byte considered as + an integer between 0 and 255 does have a most- and least- + significant bit, and since we write numbers with the most- + significant digit on the left, we also write bytes with the most- + significant bit on the left. In the diagrams below, we number the + bits of a byte so that bit 0 is the least-significant bit, i.e., + the bits are numbered: + + +--------+ + |76543210| + +--------+ + + Within a computer, a number may occupy multiple bytes. All + multi-byte numbers in the format described here are stored with + the MOST-significant byte first (at the lower memory address). + For example, the decimal number 520 is stored as: + + 0 1 + +--------+--------+ + |00000010|00001000| + +--------+--------+ + ^ ^ + | | + | + less significant byte = 8 + + more significant byte = 2 x 256 + + 2.2. Data format + + A zlib stream has the following structure: + + 0 1 + +---+---+ + |CMF|FLG| (more-->) + +---+---+ + + + + + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 4] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + + (if FLG.FDICT set) + + 0 1 2 3 + +---+---+---+---+ + | DICTID | (more-->) + +---+---+---+---+ + + +=====================+---+---+---+---+ + |...compressed data...| ADLER32 | + +=====================+---+---+---+---+ + + Any data which may appear after ADLER32 are not part of the zlib + stream. + + CMF (Compression Method and flags) + This byte is divided into a 4-bit compression method and a 4- + bit information field depending on the compression method. + + bits 0 to 3 CM Compression method + bits 4 to 7 CINFO Compression info + + CM (Compression method) + This identifies the compression method used in the file. CM = 8 + denotes the "deflate" compression method with a window size up + to 32K. This is the method used by gzip and PNG (see + references [1] and [2] in Chapter 3, below, for the reference + documents). CM = 15 is reserved. It might be used in a future + version of this specification to indicate the presence of an + extra field before the compressed data. + + CINFO (Compression info) + For CM = 8, CINFO is the base-2 logarithm of the LZ77 window + size, minus eight (CINFO=7 indicates a 32K window size). Values + of CINFO above 7 are not allowed in this version of the + specification. CINFO is not defined in this specification for + CM not equal to 8. + + FLG (FLaGs) + This flag byte is divided as follows: + + bits 0 to 4 FCHECK (check bits for CMF and FLG) + bit 5 FDICT (preset dictionary) + bits 6 to 7 FLEVEL (compression level) + + The FCHECK value must be such that CMF and FLG, when viewed as + a 16-bit unsigned integer stored in MSB order (CMF*256 + FLG), + is a multiple of 31. + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 5] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + + FDICT (Preset dictionary) + If FDICT is set, a DICT dictionary identifier is present + immediately after the FLG byte. The dictionary is a sequence of + bytes which are initially fed to the compressor without + producing any compressed output. DICT is the Adler-32 checksum + of this sequence of bytes (see the definition of ADLER32 + below). The decompressor can use this identifier to determine + which dictionary has been used by the compressor. + + FLEVEL (Compression level) + These flags are available for use by specific compression + methods. The "deflate" method (CM = 8) sets these flags as + follows: + + 0 - compressor used fastest algorithm + 1 - compressor used fast algorithm + 2 - compressor used default algorithm + 3 - compressor used maximum compression, slowest algorithm + + The information in FLEVEL is not needed for decompression; it + is there to indicate if recompression might be worthwhile. + + compressed data + For compression method 8, the compressed data is stored in the + deflate compressed data format as described in the document + "DEFLATE Compressed Data Format Specification" by L. Peter + Deutsch. (See reference [3] in Chapter 3, below) + + Other compressed data formats are not specified in this version + of the zlib specification. + + ADLER32 (Adler-32 checksum) + This contains a checksum value of the uncompressed data + (excluding any dictionary data) computed according to Adler-32 + algorithm. This algorithm is a 32-bit extension and improvement + of the Fletcher algorithm, used in the ITU-T X.224 / ISO 8073 + standard. See references [4] and [5] in Chapter 3, below) + + Adler-32 is composed of two sums accumulated per byte: s1 is + the sum of all bytes, s2 is the sum of all s1 values. Both sums + are done modulo 65521. s1 is initialized to 1, s2 to zero. The + Adler-32 checksum is stored as s2*65536 + s1 in most- + significant-byte first (network) order. + + + + + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 6] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + + 2.3. Compliance + + A compliant compressor must produce streams with correct CMF, FLG + and ADLER32, but need not support preset dictionaries. When the + zlib data format is used as part of another standard data format, + the compressor may use only preset dictionaries that are specified + by this other data format. If this other format does not use the + preset dictionary feature, the compressor must not set the FDICT + flag. + + A compliant decompressor must check CMF, FLG, and ADLER32, and + provide an error indication if any of these have incorrect values. + A compliant decompressor must give an error indication if CM is + not one of the values defined in this specification (only the + value 8 is permitted in this version), since another value could + indicate the presence of new features that would cause subsequent + data to be interpreted incorrectly. A compliant decompressor must + give an error indication if FDICT is set and DICTID is not the + identifier of a known preset dictionary. A decompressor may + ignore FLEVEL and still be compliant. When the zlib data format + is being used as a part of another standard format, a compliant + decompressor must support all the preset dictionaries specified by + the other format. When the other format does not use the preset + dictionary feature, a compliant decompressor must reject any + stream in which the FDICT flag is set. + +3. References + + [1] Deutsch, L.P.,"GZIP Compressed Data Format Specification", + available in ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/doc/ + + [2] Thomas Boutell, "PNG (Portable Network Graphics) specification", + available in ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/ + + [3] Deutsch, L.P.,"DEFLATE Compressed Data Format Specification", + available in ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/doc/ + + [4] Fletcher, J. G., "An Arithmetic Checksum for Serial + Transmissions," IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. COM-30, + No. 1, January 1982, pp. 247-252. + + [5] ITU-T Recommendation X.224, Annex D, "Checksum Algorithms," + November, 1993, pp. 144, 145. (Available from + gopher://info.itu.ch). ITU-T X.244 is also the same as ISO 8073. + + + + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 7] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + +4. Source code + + Source code for a C language implementation of a "zlib" compliant + library is available at ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/zlib/. + +5. Security Considerations + + A decoder that fails to check the ADLER32 checksum value may be + subject to undetected data corruption. + +6. Acknowledgements + + Trademarks cited in this document are the property of their + respective owners. + + Jean-Loup Gailly and Mark Adler designed the zlib format and wrote + the related software described in this specification. Glenn + Randers-Pehrson converted this document to RFC and HTML format. + +7. Authors' Addresses + + L. Peter Deutsch + Aladdin Enterprises + 203 Santa Margarita Ave. + Menlo Park, CA 94025 + + Phone: (415) 322-0103 (AM only) + FAX: (415) 322-1734 + EMail: <ghost@aladdin.com> + + + Jean-Loup Gailly + + EMail: <gzip@prep.ai.mit.edu> + + Questions about the technical content of this specification can be + sent by email to + + Jean-Loup Gailly <gzip@prep.ai.mit.edu> and + Mark Adler <madler@alumni.caltech.edu> + + Editorial comments on this specification can be sent by email to + + L. Peter Deutsch <ghost@aladdin.com> and + Glenn Randers-Pehrson <randeg@alumni.rpi.edu> + + + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 8] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + +8. Appendix: Rationale + + 8.1. Preset dictionaries + + A preset dictionary is specially useful to compress short input + sequences. The compressor can take advantage of the dictionary + context to encode the input in a more compact manner. The + decompressor can be initialized with the appropriate context by + virtually decompressing a compressed version of the dictionary + without producing any output. However for certain compression + algorithms such as the deflate algorithm this operation can be + achieved without actually performing any decompression. + + The compressor and the decompressor must use exactly the same + dictionary. The dictionary may be fixed or may be chosen among a + certain number of predefined dictionaries, according to the kind + of input data. The decompressor can determine which dictionary has + been chosen by the compressor by checking the dictionary + identifier. This document does not specify the contents of + predefined dictionaries, since the optimal dictionaries are + application specific. Standard data formats using this feature of + the zlib specification must precisely define the allowed + dictionaries. + + 8.2. The Adler-32 algorithm + + The Adler-32 algorithm is much faster than the CRC32 algorithm yet + still provides an extremely low probability of undetected errors. + + The modulo on unsigned long accumulators can be delayed for 5552 + bytes, so the modulo operation time is negligible. If the bytes + are a, b, c, the second sum is 3a + 2b + c + 3, and so is position + and order sensitive, unlike the first sum, which is just a + checksum. That 65521 is prime is important to avoid a possible + large class of two-byte errors that leave the check unchanged. + (The Fletcher checksum uses 255, which is not prime and which also + makes the Fletcher check insensitive to single byte changes 0 <-> + 255.) + + The sum s1 is initialized to 1 instead of zero to make the length + of the sequence part of s2, so that the length does not have to be + checked separately. (Any sequence of zeroes has a Fletcher + checksum of zero.) + + + + + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 9] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + +9. Appendix: Sample code + + The following C code computes the Adler-32 checksum of a data buffer. + It is written for clarity, not for speed. The sample code is in the + ANSI C programming language. Non C users may find it easier to read + with these hints: + + & Bitwise AND operator. + >> Bitwise right shift operator. When applied to an + unsigned quantity, as here, right shift inserts zero bit(s) + at the left. + << Bitwise left shift operator. Left shift inserts zero + bit(s) at the right. + ++ "n++" increments the variable n. + % modulo operator: a % b is the remainder of a divided by b. + + #define BASE 65521 /* largest prime smaller than 65536 */ + + /* + Update a running Adler-32 checksum with the bytes buf[0..len-1] + and return the updated checksum. The Adler-32 checksum should be + initialized to 1. + + Usage example: + + unsigned long adler = 1L; + + while (read_buffer(buffer, length) != EOF) { + adler = update_adler32(adler, buffer, length); + } + if (adler != original_adler) error(); + */ + unsigned long update_adler32(unsigned long adler, + unsigned char *buf, int len) + { + unsigned long s1 = adler & 0xffff; + unsigned long s2 = (adler >> 16) & 0xffff; + int n; + + for (n = 0; n < len; n++) { + s1 = (s1 + buf[n]) % BASE; + s2 = (s2 + s1) % BASE; + } + return (s2 << 16) + s1; + } + + /* Return the adler32 of the bytes buf[0..len-1] */ + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 10] + +RFC 1950 ZLIB Compressed Data Format Specification May 1996 + + + unsigned long adler32(unsigned char *buf, int len) + { + return update_adler32(1L, buf, len); + } + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Deutsch & Gailly Informational [Page 11] + |