zlib 1.1.2 is a general purpose data compression library.  All the code
is thread safe.  The data format used by the zlib library
is described by RFCs (Request for Comments) 1950 to 1952 in the files 
ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1950.txt (zlib format), rfc1951.txt (deflate
format) and rfc1952.txt (gzip format). These documents are also available in
other formats from ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html

All functions of the compression library are documented in the file zlib.h
(volunteer to write man pages welcome, contact jloup@gzip.org). A usage
example of the library is given in the file example.c which also tests that
the library is working correctly. Another example is given in the file
minigzip.c. The compression library itself is composed of all source files
except example.c and minigzip.c.

To compile all files and run the test program, follow the instructions
given at the top of Makefile. In short "make test; make install"
should work for most machines.  For MSDOS, use one of the special
makefiles such as Makefile.msc; for VMS, use Make_vms.com or descrip.mms.

Questions about zlib should be sent to <zlib@quest.jpl.nasa.gov> or,
if this fails, to the addresses given below in the Copyright section.
The zlib home page is http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/
The official zlib ftp site is ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/
Mark Nelson <markn@tiny.com> wrote an article about zlib for the Jan. 1997
issue of  Dr. Dobb's Journal; a copy of the article is available in
http://web2.airmail.net/markn/articles/zlibtool/zlibtool.htm

Copyright notice:

 (C) 1995-1998 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler

  This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
  warranty.  In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
  arising from the use of this software.

  Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
  including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
  freely, subject to the following restrictions:

  1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
     claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
     in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
     appreciated but is not required.
  2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
     misrepresented as being the original software.
  3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

  Jean-loup Gailly        Mark Adler
  jloup@gzip.org          madler@alumni.caltech.edu

If you use the zlib library in a product, we would appreciate *not*
receiving lengthy legal documents to sign. The sources are provided
for free but without warranty of any kind.  The library has been
entirely written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler; it does not
include third-party code.

If you redistribute modified sources, we would appreciate that you include
in the file ChangeLog history information documenting your changes.
