LZ4 - Extremely fast compression
================================
LZ4 is lossless compression algorithm,
providing compression speed > 500 MB/s per core,
scalable with multi-cores CPU.
It features an extremely fast decoder,
with speed in multiple GB/s per core,
typically reaching RAM speed limits on multi-core systems.
Speed can be tuned dynamically, selecting an "acceleration" factor
which trades compression ratio for faster speed.
On the other end, a high compression derivative, LZ4_HC, is also provided,
trading CPU time for improved compression ratio.
All versions feature the same decompression speed.
LZ4 is also compatible with [dictionary compression](https://github.com/facebook/zstd#the-case-for-small-data-compression),
and can ingest any input file as dictionary,
including those created by [Zstandard Dictionary Builder](https://github.com/facebook/zstd/blob/v1.3.5/programs/zstd.1.md#dictionary-builder).
(note: only the final 64KB are used).
LZ4 library is provided as open-source software using BSD 2-Clause license.
|Branch |Status |
|------------|---------|
|master | [![Build Status][travisMasterBadge]][travisLink] [![Build status][AppveyorMasterBadge]][AppveyorLink] [![coverity][coverBadge]][coverlink] |
|dev | [![Build Status][travisDevBadge]][travisLink] [![Build status][AppveyorDevBadge]][AppveyorLink] |
[travisMasterBadge]: https://travis-ci.org/lz4/lz4.svg?branch=master "Continuous Integration test suite"
[travisDevBadge]: https://travis-ci.org/lz4/lz4.svg?branch=dev "Continuous Integration test suite"
[travisLink]: https://travis-ci.org/lz4/lz4
[AppveyorMasterBadge]: https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/lz4/lz4?branch=master&svg=true "Windows test suite"
[AppveyorDevBadge]: https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/lz4/lz4?branch=dev&svg=true "Windows test suite"
[AppveyorLink]: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/YannCollet/lz4-1lndh
[coverBadge]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/4735/badge.svg "Static code analysis of Master branch"
[coverlink]: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/4735
> **Branch Policy:**
> - The "master" branch is considered stable, at all times.
> - The "dev" branch is the one where all contributions must be merged
before being promoted to master.
> + If you plan to propose a patch, please commit into the "dev" branch,
or its own feature branch.
Direct commit to "master" are not permitted.
Benchmarks
-------------------------
The benchmark uses [lzbench], from @inikep
compiled with GCC v7.3.0 on Linux 64-bits (Debian 4.15.17-1).
The reference system uses a Core i7-6700K CPU @ 4.0GHz.
Benchmark evaluates the compression of reference [Silesia Corpus]
in single-thread mode.
[lzbench]: https://github.com/inikep/lzbench
[Silesia Corpus]: http://sun.aei.polsl.pl/~sdeor/index.php?page=silesia
| Compressor | Ratio | Compression | Decompression |
| ---------- | ----- | ----------- | ------------- |
| memcpy | 1.000 |13100 MB/s | 13100 MB/s |
|**LZ4 default (v1.8.2)** |**2.101**|**730 MB/s** | **3900 MB/s** |
| LZO 2.09 | 2.108 | 630 MB/s | 800 MB/s |
| QuickLZ 1.5.0 | 2.238 | 530 MB/s | 720 MB/s |
| Snappy 1.1.4 | 2.091 | 525 MB/s | 1750 MB/s |
| [Zstandard] 1.3.4 -1 | 2.877 | 470 MB/s | 1380 MB/s |
| LZF v3.6 | 2.073 | 380 MB/s | 840 MB/s |
| [zlib] deflate 1.2.11 -1| 2.730 | 100 MB/s | 380 MB/s |
|**LZ4 HC -9 (v1.8.2)** |**2.721**| 40 MB/s | **3920 MB/s** |
| [zlib] deflate 1.2.11 -6| 3.099 | 34 MB/s | 410 MB/s |
[zlib]: http://www.zlib.net/
[Zstandard]: http://www.zstd.net/
LZ4 is also compatible and optimized for x32 mode,
for which it provides additional speed performance.
Installation
-------------------------
```
make
make install # this command may require root permissions
```
LZ4's `Makefile` supports standard [Makefile conventions],
including [staged installs], [redirection], or [command redefinition].
It is compatible with parallel builds (`-j#`).
[Makefile conventions]: https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Makefile-Conventions.html
[staged installs]: https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/DESTDIR.html
[redirection]: https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Directory-Variables.html
[command redefinition]: https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Utilities-in-Makefiles.html
Documentation
-------------------------
The raw LZ4 block compression format is detailed within [lz4_Block_format].
Arbitrarily long files or data streams are compressed using multiple blocks,
for streaming requirements. These blocks are organized into a frame,
defined into [lz4_Frame_format].
Interoperable versions of LZ4 must also respect the frame format.
[lz4_Block_format]: doc/lz4_Block_format.md
[lz4_Frame_format]: doc/lz4_Frame_format.md
Other source versions
-------------------------
Beyond the C reference source,
many contributors have created versions of lz4 in multiple languages
(Java, C#, Python, Perl, Ruby, etc.).
A list of known source ports is maintained on the [LZ4 Homepage].
[LZ4 Homepage]: http://www.lz4.org