ZLIBC

Zlibc is a read-only compressed filesystem emulation. It allows executables
to uncompress their datafiles on the fly. No kernel patch, no recompilation
of the executables and the libraries is needed. Using gzip -9, a
compression ratio of 1:3 can easily be achieved! (See examples below). This
program has (almost) the same effect as a (read-only) compressed file
system.
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How to install it:

To install zlibc, unpack it using tar xfzvvp zlibc-0.9h.src.tar.gz, and
then execute the following commands:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install

Then point your LD_PRELOAD variable to /lib/uncompress.o (on Linux) or to
/usr/local/lib/uncompress.o on SunOs or Solaris.

$ echo 'This is a test' >testfile
$ gzip testfile
$ cat testfile
cat: testfile: No such file or directory
$ LD_PRELOAD=/lib/uncompress.o
$ export LD_PRELOAD
$ cat testfile
This is a test

See the included documentation for further instructions. This documentation
is supplied as a texinfo file. To print it out, do

$ make dvi
$ dvips zlibc.dvi

To generate an info documentation, do

$ make info

You can then browse this documentation using Emac's info mode, or using a
standalone info browser. You can also generate html, and browse it using
your favorite Web browser:

$ make html

New in release 0.9:

   * Solaris support
   * GNU autoconf
   * Revised documentation
   * General cleanup of the sourcetree (a.out support has been phased out)

How it works:

This package overrides the "open" function (and other similar system call
functions) of the C library. this package uses the LD_PRELOAD variable to
redirect the dynamic linker to use the relevant functions of uncompress.o
instead of the shared library.

Examples: (compressed with gzip -9)

                              Before                     After

  /usr/info/                  1568KB                     512KB

  /usr/lib/emacs/19.19        6750KB                     2550KB

  /usr/local/smalltalk        326KB                      126KB

  /usr/local/lib/lisp         2256KB                     779KB

  /usr/lib/*.a                1094KB                     476KB

  /usr/X386/lib/*.a           1110KB                     470KB

  /usr/include                655KB                      325KB

  /usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/   3158KB (1531KB             1095KB (gzipped)
                              compressed)

  /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/  530KB (479 compressed)     373 (gzipped)

  /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/    892k (323KB compressed)    254KB (gzipped)

  /usr/TeX/macros/            1167KB                     223KB (sic!)

  /usr/TeX/inputs             242KB                      74KB

  /usr/TeX/formats            779KB                      251KB

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Available files:

   * zlibc-0.9h.tar.gz
   * zlibc-0.9h.lsm
   * zlibc-0.9h-2203.diff.gz
   * Frequently asked questions

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There is an zlibc mailing list at zlibc @ www.tux.org . Please send all bug
reports to this list. You may subscribe to the list by sending a message
with 'subscribe zlibc @ tux.org' in its body to majordomo @ tux.org. (N.B.
Please remove the spaces around the "@". I left them there in order to fool
spambots.) Announcements of new zlibc versions will also be sent to the
list, in addition to the linux announce newsgroups. There also exists an
archive of the mailing list. The manual for zlibc-0.9g is available here

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To contact me, mail me at Alain.Knaff at ltnb.lu .
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Last modified: Mon Feb 15 01:04:11 MET 1999