NAME
Compress::LZF - extremely leight-weight Lev-Zimpel-Free compression
SYNOPSIS
use Compress::LZF;
$compressed = compress $uncompressed_data;
$original_data = decompress $compressed;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 some 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.
FUNCTIONS
$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.
$decompressed = decompress $compressed
Uncompress the string (compressed by compress) and return the original data. Decompression errors can result in either broken data (there is no checksum kept) or a runtime error.
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/
AUTHOR
This perl extension and the underlying liblzf were written by Marc Lehmann <pcg@goof.com> (See also http://liblzf.plan9.de/).