1 GNU gzip NEWS -*- outline -*-
3 * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
7 'gzip -d' no longer fails to report invalid compressed data
8 that uses a dictionary distance outside the input window.
9 [bug present since the beginning]
12 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.12 (2022-04-07) [stable]
14 ** Changes in behavior
16 'gzip -l' no longer misreports file lengths 4 GiB and larger.
17 Previously, 'gzip -l' output the 32-bit value stored in the gzip
18 header even though that is the uncompressed length modulo 2**32.
19 Now, 'gzip -l' calculates the uncompressed length by decompressing
20 the data and counting the resulting bytes. Although this can take
21 much more time, nowadays the correctness pros seem to outweigh the
24 'zless' is no longer installed on platforms lacking 'less'.
28 zgrep applied to a crafted file name with two or more newlines
29 can no longer overwrite an arbitrary, attacker-selected file.
30 This addresses CVE-2022-1271, ZDI-CAN-16587.
31 [bug introduced in gzip-1.3.10]
33 zgrep now names input file on error instead of mislabeling it as
34 "(standard input)", if grep supports the GNU -H and --label options.
36 'zdiff -C 5' no longer misbehaves by treating '5' as a file name.
37 [bug present since the beginning]
39 Configure-time options like --program-prefix now work.
42 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.11 (2021-09-03) [stable]
44 ** Performance improvements
46 IBM Z platforms now support hardware-accelerated deflation.
49 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.10 (2018-12-29) [stable]
51 ** Changes in behavior
53 Compressed gzip output no longer contains the current time as a
54 timestamp when the input is not a regular file. Instead, the output
55 contains a null (zero) timestamp. This makes gzip's behavior more
56 reproducible when used as part of a pipeline. (As a reminder, even
57 regular files will use null timestamps after the year 2106, due to a
58 limitation in the gzip format.)
62 A use of uninitialized memory on some malformed inputs has been fixed.
63 [bug present since the beginning]
65 A few theoretical race conditions in signal handers have been fixed.
66 These bugs most likely do not happen on practical platforms.
67 [bugs present since the beginning]
70 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.9 (2018-01-07) [stable]
74 gzip -d -S SUFFIX file.SUFFIX would fail for any upper-case byte in SUFFIX.
75 E.g., before, this command would fail:
76 $ :|gzip > kT && gzip -d -S T kT
77 gzip: kT: unknown suffix -- ignored
78 [bug present since the beginning]
80 When decompressing data in 'pack' format, gzip no longer mishandles
81 leading zeros in the end-of-block code. [bug introduced in gzip-1.6]
83 When converting from system-dependent time_t format to the 32-bit
84 unsigned MTIME format used in gzip files, if a timestamp does not
85 fit gzip now substitutes zero instead of the timestamp's low-order
86 32 bits, as per Internet RFC 1952. When converting from MTIME to
87 time_t format, if a timestamp does not fit gzip now warns and
88 substitutes the nearest in-range value instead of crashing or
89 silently substituting an implementation-defined value (typically,
90 the timestamp's low-order bits). This affects timestamps before
91 1970 and after 2106, and timestamps after 2038 on platforms with
92 32-bit signed time_t. [bug present since the beginning]
94 Commands implemented via shell scripts are now more consistent about
95 failure status. For example, 'gunzip --help >/dev/full' now
96 consistently exits with status 1 (error), instead of with status 2
97 (warning) on some platforms. [bug present since the beginning]
99 Support for VMS and Amiga has been removed. It was not working anyway,
100 and it reportedly caused file name glitches on MS-Windowsish platforms.
103 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.8 (2016-04-26) [stable]
107 gzip -l no longer falsely reports a write error when writing to a pipe.
108 [bug introduced in gzip-1.7]
110 Port to Oracle Solaris Studio 12 on x86-64.
111 [bug present since at least gzip-1.2.4]
113 When configuring gzip, ./configure DEFS='...-DNO_ASM...' now
114 suppresses assembler again. [bug introduced in gzip-1.3.5]
117 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.7 (2016-03-27) [stable]
119 ** Changes in behavior
121 The GZIP environment variable is now obsolescent; gzip now warns if
122 it is used, and rejects attempts to use dangerous options or operands.
123 You can use an alias or script instead.
125 Installed programs like 'zgrep' now use the PATH environment variable
126 as usual to find subsidiary programs like 'gzip' and 'grep'.
127 Previously they prepended the installation directory to the PATH,
128 which sometimes caused 'make check' to test the wrong gzip executable.
129 [bug introduced in gzip-1.3.13]
133 gzip now accepts the --synchronous option, which causes it to use
134 fsync and similar primitives to transfer output data to the output
135 file's storage device when the file system supports this. Although
136 this option makes gzip safer in the presence of system crashes, it
137 can make gzip considerably slower.
139 gzip now accepts the --rsyncable option. This option is accepted in
140 all modes, but has effect only when compressing: it makes the resulting
141 output more amenable to efficient use of rsync. For example, when a
142 large input file gets a small change, a gzip --rsyncable image of
143 that file will remain largely unchanged, too. Without --rsyncable,
144 even a tiny change in the input could result in a totally different
145 gzip-compressed output file.
149 gzip -k -v no longer reports that files are replaced.
150 [bug present since the beginning]
152 zgrep -f A B C no longer reads A more than once if A is not a regular file.
153 This better supports invocations like 'zgrep -f <(COMMAND) B C' in Bash.
154 [bug introduced in gzip-1.2]
157 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.6 (2013-06-09) [stable]
161 gzip now accepts the --keep (-k) option, for consistency with tools
162 like xz, lzip and bzip2. With this option, gzip no longer removes
163 named input files when compressing or decompressing.
167 gzip -d no longer malfunctions with certain invalid data in 'pack' format.
168 [bug introduced in gzip-0.8]
170 When overwriting, gzip no longer acts as if you typed "y" when you type "n",
171 on some platforms when compiled with optimization.
172 [bug introduced in gzip-1.3.6]
174 zgrep no longer malfunctions with a multi-digit context option like -15.
175 Now, it passes that option to grep (equivalent to -C15) just as it does
176 for single-digit options. [bug introduced in gzip-1.3.12]
178 zmore now acts more like 'more', and is more portable to POSIXish hosts.
181 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.5 (2012-06-17) [stable]
185 gzip -d now decodes and checks header CRC16 checksums as specified by
186 the FHCRC section of Internet RFC 1952.
188 "gzip -d -S '' precious.gz" is now rejected immediately. Before,
189 that command would emulate "rm -i precious.gz", but with an easily-
190 misunderstood prompt. I.e., gzip would ask if it's ok to remove the
191 existing file, "precious.gz". If you made the mistake of saying "yes",
192 it would remove that input file before attempting to uncompress it.
194 gzip -cdf now properly handles input consisting of gzip'd data followed
195 by uncompressed data. Before it would output raw compressed input, too.
196 For example, now "(printf x|gzip; echo y)|gzip -dcf" prints "xy\n",
197 while before it would print "x<compressed data>y\n".
199 gzip -rf no longer compresses files more than once (e.g., replacing
200 FOO with FOO.gz.gz) on file systems such as ZFS where a readdir
201 loop that unlinks and creates files can revisit output files.
204 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.4 (2010-01-20) [stable]
208 gzip -d could segfault and/or clobber the stack, possibly leading to
209 arbitrary code execution. This affects x86_64 but not 32-bit systems.
210 This fixes CVE-2010-0001.
211 For more details, see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/554418
213 gzip -d would fail with a CRC error for some valid inputs.
214 So far, the only valid input known to exhibit this failure was
215 compressed "from FAT filesystem (MS-DOS, OS/2, NT)". In addition,
216 to trigger the failure, your memcpy implementation must copy in
220 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.3.14 (2009-10-30) [beta]
224 gzip no longer fails when there is exactly one trailing NUL byte
225 gzip has always accepted trailing NUL bytes. Note the plural.
227 zdiff would exit with status 2 (indicating an error) rather than 1 to
228 indicate differences when both inputs were compressed and different.
230 zdiff would fail to print differences in two compressed inputs
232 zgrep -f - didn't work
235 * Noteworthy changes in release 1.3.13 (2009-09-30) [stable]
237 ** 'gzip -f foo.gz' now creates a file foo.gz.gz instead of complaining.
241 gzip -d no longer fails with "-" as 2nd or subsequent argument
243 gzip no longer ignores a close-induced write failure, e.g., on NFS
245 gzip -d no longer segfaults on certain invalid inputs
248 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.12 (2007-04-13)
250 * znew now uses $TMPDIR (default /tmp) instead of always using /tmp.
252 * It is now documented that gzip ignores case when examining file name
253 extensions; for example, 'gzip test.Gz' (without -f) fails because
254 the file name ends in '.Gz'.
256 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.11 (2007-02-05)
258 * As per the GNU coding standards, the behavior of gzip and its
259 companion executables no longer depend on the name used to invoke them.
260 For example, 'gzip' and 'gunzip' are no longer hard links;
261 instead, 'gunzip' is now a small program that invokes 'gzip -d'.
263 * zdiff now checks for subsidiary gzip failures, and works around
264 bugs in IRIX 6 sh, Tru64 4.0F ksh, and Solaris 8 bash.
266 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.10 (2006-12-30)
268 * gzip -c and zcat now work on special files, files with special mode bits,
269 and files with multiple hard links.
270 * gzip -q now exits with status 2 (not 1) when SIGPIPE is received.
271 * zcmp and zdiff did not work in the usual case, due to a typo.
272 * zgrep has many bugs fixed with argument handling, special characters,
274 * zless no longer mishandles $%=~ in file names.
276 Gzip 1.3.9 (2006-12-15)
278 * No major changes; only porting fixes.
280 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.8 (2006-12-08)
282 * Fix some gzip problems:
283 - A security fix from Debian 1.3.5-5 was inadvertently omitted.
284 - The assembler is now invoked with --noexecstack if supported,
285 so that gzip can better resist stack-smashing attacks.
287 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.7 (2006-12-06)
289 * Fix some gzip problems:
290 - Refuse to compress setuid or setgid files, or files with the sticky bit.
291 - Fix more race conditions in setting file permissions and owner,
292 removing output files, following symbolic links, and dealing with
294 - Remove most of the code working around ENAMETOOLONG deficiencies.
295 Systems with those deficiencies are long-dead, and the workarounds
296 had race conditions on modern hosts.
297 - Catch CPU time and file size limit signals, too.
298 - Check for read errors when closing files.
299 - Fix a core dump caused by a stray abort mistakenly introduced in 1.3.6.
300 * Fix some gzexe problems:
301 - Improve resistance to denial-of-service attacks.
302 - Fix some quoting and escaping bugs.
303 - Do not assume /tmp is sticky (though it should be!).
304 - Do not assume the working directory can be written.
305 - Rely on PATH in the generated executable, as the man page says.
306 - Don't assume IFS is sane.
307 - Exit with signal's status, if signaled.
309 Major changes in Gzip 1.3.6 (2006-11-20)
311 * Fix some race conditions in setting file timestamps, permissions, and owner.
312 * Fix some race conditions in signal handling.
313 * When gzip exits due to a signal, it exits with the signal's status, not 1.
314 * gzip now restores file timestamps to the resolution supported by the
315 time-setting primitives of the operating system, typically 1 microsecond.
316 Formerly it restored them only to the nearest second.
317 * gzip -r no longer attempts to reset the last-access times of directories
318 it reads, as this messes up when other processes are reading the directories.
319 * The options --version and --help now work on all gzip-installed executables,
320 and now use a format similar to other GNU programs.
321 * The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU Free
322 Documentation License without invariant sections or cover texts.
323 * Port to current versions of Autoconf, Automake, and Gnulib.
325 Major changes from 1.3.4 to 1.3.5
326 * gzip now removes any output symlink before writing output file.
327 * zgrep etc. scripts now port to POSIX 1003.1-2001 hosts.
328 * zforce no longer assumes 14-byte file name length limit.
329 * zless is now implemented using less and LESSOPEN, not zmore and PAGER.
330 * assembly-language speedups reenabled; were mistakenly disabled in 1.3.
332 Major changes from 1.3.3 to 1.3.4
333 * Less output is lost when decompressing a truncated file.
334 * The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU Free
335 Documentation License.
337 No major changes in 1.3.2 or 1.3.3 (bug fixes only)
339 Major changes from 1.3 to 1.3.1
340 * zgrep now supports --, -H, -h, -L, -l, -C, -d, -m and their long equivalents.
342 Major changes from 1.2.4 to 1.3
343 * Add support for large files, e.g. files larger than 2 GB on Solaris 2.6.
344 * Adjust file size listing format for files larger than 10 GB.
345 * New command `zless'.
346 * `zdiff' now reports exit status like `diff' does.
347 * `zcat' is now always called `zcat', not `gzcat'.
348 Similarly for `zdiff', `zgrep', `zmore', `znew', `zforce'.
349 * Warn about a compressed file's trailing zeros only if verbose,
350 for compatibility with recent versions of GNU tar.
351 * Conform to changes to GNU makefile standards.
352 * Port to Autoconf 2.13.
353 * Convert to Automake.
354 * Fix bugs in the following areas:
355 - files larger than 4 GB
356 - security hole involving symlinks from /tmp
357 - security hole involving long file names
358 - permissions bug when compressing a symbolic link to a file
360 - concatenated compressed files on INBUFSIZ boundaries
361 - porting bugs on hosts with signed chars
362 - porting bug with upper and lower case
363 - porting bug for hosts that reserve the names `basename' or `warning'
365 Major changes from 1.2.3 to 1.2.4
366 * By default, do not restore file name and timestamp from those saved
367 inside the .gz file (behave as 'compress'). Added the --name option
368 to force name and timestamp restoration.
369 * Accept - as synonym for stdin.
370 * Use manlinks=so or ln to support either hard links or .so in man pages
371 * Accept foo.gz~ in zdiff.
372 * Added support for Windows NT
373 * Handle ENAMETOOLONG for strict Posix systems
374 * Use --recursive instead of --recurse to comply with Webster and
376 * Allow installation of shell scripts with a g prefix: make G=g install
377 * Install by default zcat as gzcat if gzcat already exists in path.
378 * Let zmore behave as more when invoked without parameters (give help)
379 * Let gzip --list reject files not in gzip format even with --force.
380 * Don't complain about non gzip files for options -rt or -rl.
381 * Added advice in INSTALL for several systems.
383 Major changes from 1.2.2 to 1.2.3
384 * Don't display the output name when decompressing except with --verbose.
385 * Remove usage of alloca in getopt.c and all makefiles.
386 * Added the zfile shell script in subdirectory sample.
387 * Moved the list of compiler bugs from README to INSTALL.
388 * Added vms/Readme.vms.
390 Major changes from 1.2.1 to 1.2.2
391 * Fix a compilation error on Sun with cc (worked with gcc).
393 Major changes from 1.2 to 1.2.1
394 * Let zmore act as more if the data is not gzipped.
395 * made gzexe more secure (don't rely on PATH).
396 * By default, display output name only when the name was actually truncated.
398 Major changes from 1.1.2 to 1.2
399 * Added the --list option to display the file characteristics.
400 * Added the --no-name option: do not save or restore original filename
401 Save the original name by default.
402 * Allow gunzip --suffix "" to attempt decompression on any file
403 regardless of its extension if an original name is present.
404 * Add support for the SCO compress -H format.
405 * gzip --fast now compresses faster (speed close to that of compress)
406 with degraded compression ratio (but still better than compress).
407 Default level changed to -6 (acts exactly as previous level -5) to
408 be a better indication of its placement in the speed/ratio range.
409 * Use smart name truncation: 123456789012.c -> 123456789.c.gz
410 instead of 12345678901.gz
411 * With --force, let zcat pass non gzip'ed data unchanged (zcat == cat)
412 * Added the zgrep shell script.
413 * Made sub.c useful for 16 bit sound, 24 bit images, etc..
414 * Suppress warnings about suffix for gunzip -r, except with --verbose.
415 * On MSDOS, use .gz extension when possible (files without extension)
416 * Moved the sample programs to a subdirectory sample.
417 * Added a "Special targets" section in INSTALL.
419 Major changes from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2.
420 * Fix serious bug for VMS (-gz not removed when decompressing).
421 * Allow suffix other than .gz in znew.
422 * Do not display compression ratio when decompressing stdin.
423 * In zmore.in, work around brain damaged stty -g (Ultrix).
424 * Display a correct compression ratio for .Z files.
425 * Added .z to .gz renaming script in INTALL.
426 * Allow setting CFLAGS in configure.
428 Major changes from 1.1 to 1.1.1.
429 * Fix serious bug in vms.c (affects Vax/VMS only).
430 * Added --ascii option.
431 * Add workaround in configure.in for Ultrix (quote eval argument)
433 Major changes from 1.0.7 to 1.1.
434 * Use .gz suffix by default, add --suffix option.
435 * Let gunzip accept a "_z" suffix (used by one 'compress' on Vax/VMS).
436 * Quit when reading garbage from stdin instead of reporting an error.
437 * Added makefile for VAX/MMS and support for wildcards on VMS.
438 * Added support for MSC under OS/2.
439 * Added support for Prime/PRIMOS.
440 * Display compression ratio also when decompressing (with --verbose).
441 * Quit after --version (GNU standard)
442 * Use --force to bypass isatty() check
443 * Continue processing other files in case of recoverable error.
444 * Added comparison of zip and gzip in the readme file.
445 * Added small sample programs (ztouch, sub, add)
446 * Use less memory when compiled with -DSMALL_MEM (for MSDOS).
447 * Remove the "off by more than one minute" timestamp kludge
449 Major changes from 1.0.6 to 1.0.7.
450 * Allow zmore to read from standard input (like more).
451 * Support the 68000 (Atari ST) in match.S.
452 * Retry partial writes (required on Linux when gzip is suspended in a pipe).
453 * Allow full pathnames and renamings in gzexe.
454 * Don't let gzexe compress setuid executables or gzip itself.
455 * Added vms/Makefile.gcc for gcc on the Vax.
456 * Allow installation of binaries and shell scripts in different dirs.
457 * Allows complex PAGER variable in zmore (e.g.: PAGER="col -x | more")
458 * Allow installation of zcat as gzcat.
459 * Several small changes for portability to old or weird systems.
460 * Suppress help message and send compressed data to the terminal when
461 gzip is invoked without parameters and without redirection.
462 * Add compile option GNU_STANDARD to respect the GNU coding standards:
463 with -DGNU_STANDARD, behave as gzip even if invoked under the name gunzip.
464 (I don't like the last two changes, which were requested by the FSF.)
466 Major changes from 1.0.5 to 1.0.6.
467 * Let gzexe detect executables that are already gzexe'd.
468 * Keep file attributes in znew and gzexe if cpmod is available.
469 * Don't try restoring record format on VMS (1.0.5 did not work correctly)
470 * Added asm version for 68000 in amiga/match.a.
471 Use asm version for Atari TT and NeXT.
472 * For OS/2, assume HPFS by default, add flag OS2FAT if necessary.
473 * Fixed some bugs in zdiff and define zcmp as a link to zdiff.
476 Major changes from 1.0.4 to 1.0.5.
477 * For VMS, restore the file type for variable record format, otherwise
478 extract in fixed length format (not perfect, but better than
479 forcing all files to be in stream_LF format).
480 * For VMS, use "-z" default suffix and accept a version number in file names.
481 * For Unix, allow compression of files with name ending in 'z'. Use only
482 .z, .*-z, .tgz, .taz as valid gzip extensions. In the last two cases,
483 extract to .tar by default.
484 * On some versions of MSDOS, files with a 3 character extension could not
486 * Garbage collect files in /tmp created by gzexe.
487 * Fix the 'OS code' byte in the gzip header.
488 * For the Amiga, add the missing utime.h and add support for gcc.
491 Major changes from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4.
492 * Added optimized asm version for 68020.
493 * Add support for DJGPP.
495 * Add support for the Atari ST.
496 * Added zforce to rename gzip'ed files with truncated names.
497 * Do not install with name uncompress (some systems rely on the
498 absence of any check in the old uncompress).
499 * Added missing function (fcfree) in msdos/tailor.c
500 * Let gunzip handle .tgz files, and let gzip skip them.
501 * Added -d option (decompress) for gzexe and try preserving file permissions.
502 * Suppress all warnings with -q.
503 * Use GZIP_OPT for VMS to avoid conflict with program name.
504 * ... and many other small changes (see ChangeLog)
507 Major changes from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3
508 * Added -K option for znew to keep old .Z files if smaller
509 * Added -q option (quiet) to cancel -v in GZIP env variable.
510 * Made gzexe safer on systems with filename limitation to 14 chars.
511 * Fixed bugs in handling of GZIP env variable and incorrect free with Turbo C.
514 Major changes from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2
515 * Added env variable GZIP for default options. Example:
516 for sh: GZIP="-8 -v"; export GZIP
517 for csh: setenv GZIP "-8 -v"
518 * Added support for the Amiga.
519 * znew now keeps the old .Z if it is smaller than the .z file.
520 This can happen for some large and very redundant files.
521 * Do not complain about trailing garbage for record oriented IO (Vax/VMS).
522 This implies however that multi-part gzip files are not supported
524 * Added gzexe to compress rarely used executables.
525 * Reduce memory usage (required for MSDOS and useful on all systems).
526 * Preserve timestamp in znew -P (pipe option) if touch -r works.
529 Major changes from 1.0 to 1.0.1
530 * fix trivial errors in the Borland makefile (msdos/Makefile.bor)
533 Major changes from 0.8.2 to 1.0
534 * gzip now runs on Vax/VMS
535 * gzip will not not overwrite files without -f when using /bin/sh in
537 * Support the test option -t for compressed (.Z) files.
538 Allow some data recovery for bad .Z files.
539 * Added makefiles for MSDOS (Only tested for MSC, not Borland).
540 * still more changes to configure for several systems
543 Major changes from 0.8.1 to 0.8.2:
544 * yet more changes to configure for Linux and other systems
545 * Allow zcat on a file with multiple links.
548 Major changes from 0.8 to 0.8.1:
549 * znew has now a pipe option -P to reduce the disk space requirements,
550 but this option does not preserve timestamps.
551 * Fixed some #if directives for compilation with TurboC.
554 Major changes from 0.7 to 0.8:
555 * gzip can now extract .z files created by 'pack'.
556 * configure should no longer believe that every machine is a 386
557 * Fix the entry for /etc/magic in INSTALL.
558 * Add patch for GNU tar 1.11.1 and a pointer to crypt++.el
559 * Uncompress files with multiple links only with -f.
560 * Fix for uncompress of .Z files on 16-bit machines
561 * Create a correct output name for file names of exactly N-1 chars when
562 the system has a limit of N chars.
565 Major changes from 0.6 to 0.7:
566 * Use "make check" instead of "make test".
567 * Keep timestamp and pass options to gzip in znew.
568 * Do not create .z.z files with gzip -r.
569 * Allow again gunzip .zip files (was working in 0.5)
570 * Allow again compilation with TurboC 2.0 (was working in 0.4)
573 Major changes form 0.5 to 0.6:
574 * gunzip reported an error when extracting certain .z files. The .z files
575 produced by gzip 0.5 are correct and can be read by gunzip 0.6.
576 * gunzip now supports multiple compressed members within a single .z file.
577 * Fix the check for i386 in configure.
578 * Added "make test" to check for compiler bugs. (gcc -finline-functions
579 is broken at least on the NeXT.)
580 * Use environment variable PAGER in zmore if it is defined.
581 * Accept gzcat in addition to zcat for people having /usr/bin before
582 /usr/local/bin in their path.
585 ========================================================================
587 Copyright (C) 1999, 2001-2002, 2006-2007, 2009-2022 Free Software Foundation,
589 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993 Jean-loup Gailly
591 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
592 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
593 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
594 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
595 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the ``GNU Free
596 Documentation License'' file as part of this distribution.