1 GNU gzip NEWS -*- outline -*-
3 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
7 zdiff would exit with status 2 (indicating an error) rather than 1 to
8 indicate differences when both inputs were compressed and different.
10 zdiff would fail to print differences in two compressed inputs
12 zgrep -f - didn't work
15 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.3.13 (2009-09-30) [stable]
19 gzip -d no longer fails with "-" as 2nd or subsequent argument
21 gzip no longer ignores a close-induced write failure, e.g., on NFS
23 gzip -d no longer segfaults on certain invalid inputs
26 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.12 (2007-04-13)
28 * znew now uses $TMPDIR (default /tmp) instead of always using /tmp.
30 * 'gzip -f foo.gz' now creates a file foo.gz.gz instead of complaining.
32 * It is now documented that gzip ignores case when examining file name
33 extensions; for example, 'gzip test.Gz' (without -f) fails because
34 the file name ends in '.Gz'.
36 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.11 (2007-02-05)
38 * As per the GNU coding standards, the behavior of gzip and its
39 companion executables no longer depend on the name used to invoke them.
40 For example, 'gzip' and 'gunzip' are no longer hard links;
41 instead, 'gunzip' is now a small program that invokes 'gzip -d'.
43 * zdiff now checks for subsidiary gzip failures, and works around
44 bugs in IRIX 6 sh, Tru64 4.0F ksh, and Solaris 8 bash.
46 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.10 (2006-12-30)
48 * gzip -c and zcat now work on special files, files with special mode bits,
49 and files with multiple hard links.
50 * gzip -q now exits with status 2 (not 1) when SIGPIPE is received.
51 * zcmp and zdiff did not work in the usual case, due to a typo.
52 * zgrep has many bugs fixed with argument handling, special characters,
54 * zless no longer mishandles $%=~ in file names.
56 Gzip 1.3.9 (2006-12-15)
58 * No major changes; only porting fixes.
60 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.8 (2006-12-08)
62 * Fix some gzip problems:
63 - A security fix from Debian 1.3.5-5 was inadvertently omitted.
64 - The assembler is now invoked with --noexecstack if supported,
65 so that gzip can better resist stack-smashing attacks.
67 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.7 (2006-12-06)
69 * Fix some gzip problems:
70 - Refuse to compress setuid or setgid files, or files with the sticky bit.
71 - Fix more race conditions in setting file permissions and owner,
72 removing output files, following symbolic links, and dealing with
74 - Remove most of the code working around ENAMETOOLONG deficiencies.
75 Systems with those deficiencies are long-dead, and the workarounds
76 had race conditions on modern hosts.
77 - Catch CPU time and file size limit signals, too.
78 - Check for read errors when closing files.
79 - Fix a core dump caused by a stray abort mistakenly introduced in 1.3.6.
80 * Fix some gzexe problems:
81 - Improve resistance to denial-of-service attacks.
82 - Fix some quoting and escaping bugs.
83 - Do not assume /tmp is sticky (though it should be!).
84 - Do not assume the working directory can be written.
85 - Rely on PATH in the generated executable, as the man page says.
86 - Don't assume IFS is sane.
87 - Exit with signal's status, if signaled.
89 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.6 (2006-11-20)
91 * Fix some race conditions in setting file time stamps, permissions, and owner.
92 * Fix some race conditions in signal handling.
93 * When gzip exits due to a signal, it exits with the signal's status, not 1.
94 * gzip now restores file time stamps to the resolution supported by the
95 time-setting primitives of the operating system, typically 1 microsecond.
96 Formerly it restored them only to the nearest second.
97 * gzip -r no longer attempts to reset the last-access times of directories
98 it reads, as this messes up when other processes are reading the directories.
99 * The options --version and --help now work on all gzip-installed executables,
100 and now use a format similar to other GNU programs.
101 * The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU Free
102 Documentation License without invariant sections or cover texts.
103 * Port to current versions of Autoconf, Automake, and Gnulib.
105 Major changes from 1.3.4 to 1.3.5
106 * gzip now removes any output symlink before writing output file.
107 * zgrep etc. scripts now port to POSIX 1003.1-2001 hosts.
108 * zforce no longer assumes 14-byte file name length limit.
109 * zless is now implemented using less and LESSOPEN, not zmore and PAGER.
110 * assembly-language speedups reenabled; were mistakenly disabled in 1.3.
112 Major changes from 1.3.3 to 1.3.4
113 * Less output is lost when decompressing a truncated file.
114 * The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU Free
115 Documentation License.
117 No major changes in 1.3.2 or 1.3.3 (bug fixes only)
119 Major changes from 1.3 to 1.3.1
120 * zgrep now supports --, -H, -h, -L, -l, -C, -d, -m and their long equivalents.
122 Major changes from 1.2.4 to 1.3
123 * Add support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on Solaris 2.6.
124 * Adjust file size listing format for files larger than 10 GB.
125 * New command `zless'.
126 * `zdiff' now reports exit status like `diff' does.
127 * `zcat' is now always called `zcat', not `gzcat'.
128 Similarly for `zdiff', `zgrep', `zmore', `znew', `zforce'.
129 * Warn about a compressed file's trailing zeros only if verbose,
130 for compatibility with recent versions of GNU tar.
131 * Conform to changes to GNU makefile standards.
132 * Port to Autoconf 2.13.
133 * Convert to Automake.
134 * Fix bugs in the following areas:
135 - files larger than 4 GB
136 - security hole involving symlinks from /tmp
137 - security hole involving long file names
138 - permissions bug when compressing a symbolic link to a file
140 - concatenated compressed files on INBUFSIZ boundaries
141 - porting bugs on hosts with signed chars
142 - porting bug with upper and lower case
143 - porting bug for hosts that reserve the names `basename' or `warning'
145 Major changes from 1.2.3 to 1.2.4
146 * By default, do not restore file name and timestamp from those saved
147 inside the .gz file (behave as 'compress'). Added the --name option
148 to force name and timestamp restoration.
149 * Accept - as synonym for stdin.
150 * Use manlinks=so or ln to support either hard links or .so in man pages
151 * Accept foo.gz~ in zdiff.
152 * Added support for Windows NT
153 * Handle ENAMETOOLONG for strict Posix systems
154 * Use --recursive instead of --recurse to comply with Webster and
156 * Allow installation of shell scripts with a g prefix: make G=g install
157 * Install by default zcat as gzcat if gzcat already exists in path.
158 * Let zmore behave as more when invoked without parameters (give help)
159 * Let gzip --list reject files not in gzip format even with --force.
160 * Don't complain about non gzip files for options -rt or -rl.
161 * Added advice in INSTALL for several systems.
163 Major changes from 1.2.2 to 1.2.3
164 * Don't display the output name when decompressing except with --verbose.
165 * Remove usage of alloca in getopt.c and all makefiles.
166 * Added the zfile shell script in subdirectory sample.
167 * Moved the list of compiler bugs from README to INSTALL.
168 * Added vms/Readme.vms.
170 Major changes from 1.2.1 to 1.2.2
171 * Fix a compilation error on Sun with cc (worked with gcc).
173 Major changes from 1.2 to 1.2.1
174 * Let zmore act as more if the data is not gzipped.
175 * made gzexe more secure (don't rely on PATH).
176 * By default, display output name only when the name was actually truncated.
178 Major changes from 1.1.2 to 1.2
179 * Added the --list option to display the file characteristics.
180 * Added the --no-name option: do not save or restore original filename
181 Save the original name by default.
182 * Allow gunzip --suffix "" to attempt decompression on any file
183 regardless of its extension if an original name is present.
184 * Add support for the SCO compress -H format.
185 * gzip --fast now compresses faster (speed close to that of compress)
186 with degraded compression ratio (but still better than compress).
187 Default level changed to -6 (acts exactly as previous level -5) to
188 be a better indication of its placement in the speed/ratio range.
189 * Use smart name truncation: 123456789012.c -> 123456789.c.gz
190 instead of 12345678901.gz
191 * With --force, let zcat pass non gzip'ed data unchanged (zcat == cat)
192 * Added the zgrep shell script.
193 * Made sub.c useful for 16 bit sound, 24 bit images, etc..
194 * Supress warnings about suffix for gunzip -r, except with --verbose.
195 * On MSDOS, use .gz extension when possible (files without extension)
196 * Moved the sample programs to a subdirectory sample.
197 * Added a "Special targets" section in INSTALL.
199 Major changes from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2.
200 * Fix serious bug for VMS (-gz not removed when decompressing).
201 * Allow suffix other than .gz in znew.
202 * Do not display compression ratio when decompressing stdin.
203 * In zmore.in, work around brain damaged stty -g (Ultrix).
204 * Display a correct compression ratio for .Z files.
205 * Added .z to .gz renaming script in INTALL.
206 * Allow setting CFLAGS in configure.
208 Major changes from 1.1 to 1.1.1.
209 * Fix serious bug in vms.c (affects Vax/VMS only).
210 * Added --ascii option.
211 * Add workaround in configure.in for Ultrix (quote eval argument)
213 Major changes from 1.0.7 to 1.1.
214 * Use .gz suffix by default, add --suffix option.
215 * Let gunzip accept a "_z" suffix (used by one 'compress' on Vax/VMS).
216 * Quit when reading garbage from stdin instead of reporting an error.
217 * Added makefile for VAX/MMS and support for wildcards on VMS.
218 * Added support for MSC under OS/2.
219 * Added support for Prime/PRIMOS.
220 * Display compression ratio also when decompressing (with --verbose).
221 * Quit after --version (GNU standard)
222 * Use --force to bypass isatty() check
223 * Continue processing other files in case of recoverable error.
224 * Added comparison of zip and gzip in the readme file.
225 * Added small sample programs (ztouch, sub, add)
226 * Use less memory when compiled with -DSMALL_MEM (for MSDOS).
227 * Remove the "off by more than one minute" time stamp kludge
229 Major changes from 1.0.6 to 1.0.7.
230 * Allow zmore to read from standard input (like more).
231 * Support the 68000 (Atari ST) in match.S.
232 * Retry partial writes (required on Linux when gzip is suspended in a pipe).
233 * Allow full pathnames and renamings in gzexe.
234 * Don't let gzexe compress setuid executables or gzip itself.
235 * Added vms/Makefile.gcc for gcc on the Vax.
236 * Allow installation of binaries and shell scripts in different dirs.
237 * Allows complex PAGER variable in zmore (e.g.: PAGER="col -x | more")
238 * Allow installation of zcat as gzcat.
239 * Several small changes for portability to old or weird systems.
240 * Suppress help message and send compressed data to the terminal when
241 gzip is invoked without parameters and without redirection.
242 * Add compile option GNU_STANDARD to respect the GNU coding standards:
243 with -DGNU_STANDARD, behave as gzip even if invoked under the name gunzip.
244 (I don't like the last two changes, which were requested by the FSF.)
246 Major changes from 1.0.5 to 1.0.6.
247 * Let gzexe detect executables that are already gzexe'd.
248 * Keep file attributes in znew and gzexe if cpmod is available.
249 * Don't try restoring record format on VMS (1.0.5 did not work correctly)
250 * Added asm version for 68000 in amiga/match.a.
251 Use asm version for Atari TT and NeXT.
252 * For OS/2, assume HPFS by default, add flag OS2FAT if necessary.
253 * Fixed some bugs in zdiff and define zcmp as a link to zdiff.
256 Major changes from 1.0.4 to 1.0.5.
257 * For VMS, restore the file type for variable record format, otherwise
258 extract in fixed length format (not perfect, but better than
259 forcing all files to be in stream_LF format).
260 * For VMS, use "-z" default suffix and accept a version number in file names.
261 * For Unix, allow compression of files with name ending in 'z'. Use only
262 .z, .*-z, .tgz, .taz as valid gzip extensions. In the last two cases,
263 extract to .tar by default.
264 * On some versions of MSDOS, files with a 3 character extension could not
266 * Garbage collect files in /tmp created by gzexe.
267 * Fix the 'OS code' byte in the gzip header.
268 * For the Amiga, add the missing utime.h and add support for gcc.
271 Major changes from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4.
272 * Added optimized asm version for 68020.
273 * Add support for DJGPP.
275 * Add support for the Atari ST.
276 * Added zforce to rename gzip'ed files with truncated names.
277 * Do not install with name uncompress (some systems rely on the
278 absence of any check in the old uncompress).
279 * Added missing function (fcfree) in msdos/tailor.c
280 * Let gunzip handle .tgz files, and let gzip skip them.
281 * Added -d option (decompress) for gzexe and try preserving file permissions.
282 * Suppress all warnings with -q.
283 * Use GZIP_OPT for VMS to avoid conflict with program name.
284 * ... and many other small changes (see ChangeLog)
287 Major changes from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3
288 * Added -K option for znew to keep old .Z files if smaller
289 * Added -q option (quiet) to cancel -v in GZIP env variable.
290 * Made gzexe safer on systems with filename limitation to 14 chars.
291 * Fixed bugs in handling of GZIP env variable and incorrect free with Turbo C.
294 Major changes from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2
295 * Added env variable GZIP for default options. Example:
296 for sh: GZIP="-8 -v"; export GZIP
297 for csh: setenv GZIP "-8 -v"
298 * Added support for the Amiga.
299 * znew now keeps the old .Z if it is smaller than the .z file.
300 This can happen for some large and very redundant files.
301 * Do not complain about trailing garbage for record oriented IO (Vax/VMS).
302 This implies however that multi-part gzip files are not supported
304 * Added gzexe to compress rarely used executables.
305 * Reduce memory usage (required for MSDOS and useful on all systems).
306 * Preserve time stamp in znew -P (pipe option) if touch -r works.
309 Major changes from 1.0 to 1.0.1
310 * fix trivial errors in the Borland makefile (msdos/Makefile.bor)
313 Major changes from 0.8.2 to 1.0
314 * gzip now runs on Vax/VMS
315 * gzip will not not overwrite files without -f when using /bin/sh in
317 * Support the test option -t for compressed (.Z) files.
318 Allow some data recovery for bad .Z files.
319 * Added makefiles for MSDOS (Only tested for MSC, not Borland).
320 * still more changes to configure for several systems
323 Major changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
324 * yet more changes to configure for Linux and other systems
325 * Allow zcat on a file with multiple links.
328 Major changes from 0.8 to 0.8.1:
329 * znew has now a pipe option -P to reduce the disk space requirements,
330 but this option does not preserve timestamps.
331 * Fixed some #if directives for compilation with TurboC.
334 Major changes from 0.7 to 0.8:
335 * gzip can now extract .z files created by 'pack'.
336 * configure should no longer believe that every machine is a 386
337 * Fix the entry for /etc/magic in INSTALL.
338 * Add patch for GNU tar 1.11.1 and a pointer to crypt++.el
339 * Uncompress files with multiple links only with -f.
340 * Fix for uncompress of .Z files on 16-bit machines
341 * Create a correct output name for file names of exactly N-1 chars when
342 the system has a limit of N chars.
345 Major changes from 0.6 to 0.7:
346 * Use "make check" instead of "make test".
347 * Keep time stamp and pass options to gzip in znew.
348 * Do not create .z.z files with gzip -r.
349 * Allow again gunzip .zip files (was working in 0.5)
350 * Allow again compilation with TurboC 2.0 (was working in 0.4)
353 Major changes form 0.5 to 0.6:
354 * gunzip reported an error when extracting certain .z files. The .z files
355 produced by gzip 0.5 are correct and can be read by gunzip 0.6.
356 * gunzip now supports multiple compressed members within a single .z file.
357 * Fix the check for i386 in configure.
358 * Added "make test" to check for compiler bugs. (gcc -finline-functions
359 is broken at least on the NeXT.)
360 * Use environment variable PAGER in zmore if it is defined.
361 * Accept gzcat in addition to zcat for people having /usr/bin before
362 /usr/local/bin in their path.
365 ========================================================================
367 Copyright (C) 1999, 2001-2002, 2006-2007, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
368 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Jean-loup Gailly
370 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
371 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
372 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
373 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
374 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the ``GNU Free
375 Documentation License'' file as part of this distribution.