Lzlib 1.6-rc2 is ready for testing here
http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/lzip/lzlib-1.6-rc2.tar.lz

The sha1sum is:
0829cffaf41138f1b37344e5a56330ddb99c6199  lzlib-1.6-rc2.tar.lz

Please, test it and report any bugs you find.

Lzlib is a data compression library providing in-memory LZMA compression and decompression functions, including integrity checking of the decompressed data. The compressed data format used by the library is the lzip format. Lzlib is written in C.

The lzip file format is designed for long-term data archiving. It is clean, provides very safe 4 factor integrity checking, and is backed by the recovery capabilities of lziprecover.

The homepage is at http://www.nongnu.org/lzip/lzlib.html


Changes in this version:

* Minor changes have been made to the testsuite. (May perhaps affect non-posix systems).

* The license has been changed to "GPL version 2 or later with link exception".

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Rationale for the license change.

I have recently been shocked to know that it is apparently not legal to use lzlib in GPLv2 programs. Linking those programs with lzlib violates the GPLv2. But linking proprietary programs with lzlib is fine and legal!

This problem is not caused by any fault in lzlib's link exception; the LGPLv3 has the same problem. See for example http://nmav.gnutls.org/2013/03/the-perils-of-lgplv3.html

Of course it was never my intention to prevent GPLv2 programs from using lzlib. I'm sorry for any inconveniences my oversight may have caused to distributions, GPLv2 software projects, and users in general.

I am also ashamed of having participated in this schism of the GPL community. The mere proliferation of different free software licenses is a burden in and of itself. From now on I'll license all my projects and contributions in a way compatible with the GPLv2.


Regards,
Antonio Diaz, lzlib author and maintainer.


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