=head1 NAME Compress::LZF - extremely leight-weight Lev-Zimpel-Free compression =head1 SYNOPSIS # import compress/decompress functions use Compress::LZF; # the same as above use Compress::LZF ':compress'; $compressed = compress $uncompressed_data; $original_data = decompress $compressed; # import sfreeze, sfreeze_cref and sfreeze_c use Compress::LZF ':freeze'; $compressed = sfreeze_c [4,5,6]; $original_data = sthaw $compressed; =head1 DESCRIPTION LZF is an extremely fast (not that much slower than a pure memcpy) compression algorithm. It is ideal for applications where you want to save I space but not at the cost of speed. It is ideal for repetitive data as well. The module is self-contained and very small (no large library to be pulled in). It is also free, so there should be no problems incoporating this module into commercial programs. I have no idea wether any patents in any countries apply to this algorithm, but at the moment it is believed that it is free from any patents. =head1 FUNCTIONS =head2 $compressed = compress $uncompressed Try to compress the given string as quickly and as much as possible. In the worst case, the string can enlarge by 1 byte, but that should be the absolute exception. You can expect a 45% compression ratio on large, binary strings. =head2 $decompressed = decompress $compressed Uncompress the string (compressed by C) and return the original data. Decompression errors can result in either broken data (there is no checksum kept) or a runtime error. =head1 SEE ALSO Other Compress::* modules, especially Compress::LZV1 (an older, less speedy module that guarentees only 1 byte overhead worst case) and Compress::Zlib. http://liblzf.plan9.de/ =head1 AUTHOR This perl extension and the underlying liblzf were written by Marc Lehmann (See also http://liblzf.plan9.de/). =head1 BUGS =cut package Compress::LZF; require Exporter; require DynaLoader; $VERSION = 0.1; @ISA = qw/Exporter DynaLoader/; %EXPORT_TAGS = ( freeze => [qw(sfreeze sfreeze_cr sfreeze_c sthaw)], compress => [qw(compress decompress)], ); Exporter::export_tags('compress'); Exporter::export_ok_tags('freeze'); bootstrap Compress::LZF $VERSION; 1;