AUTHOR: Robert Connolly <robert@linuxfromscratch.org>

DATE: 2005-06-10

LICENSE: Public Domain

SYNOPSIS: LZMA / 7-zip file compression

DESCRIPTION:
LZMA, or 7-zip, is a new file compression tool which compresses files 10-30% better
than bzip2 or gzip. LZMA has been ported to Linux, BSD, and Windows. 7-zip also uses
more CPU power than bzip2, but its pretty quick to decompress.

PREREQUISITES: None

HINT:
The homepage for the main software is:
	http://www.7-zip.com/sdk.html

Compatable software projects:
	http://p7zip.sourceforge.net/
	http://martinus.geekisp.com/rublog.cgi/Projects/LZMA/
	http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/download/Development/lzma/lzmatool-0.11.tgz

First download this (or the newest version):
http://www.7-zip.org/dl/lzma417.tar.bz2

# Unpack the software:

mkdir lzma417/ &&
tar jxf lzma417.tar.bz2 -C lzma417/

# Compile and install the software:

cd lzma417/SRC/7zip/Compress/LZMA_Alone/ &&
make &&
install lzma /bin/

# There is no man page. Enter 'lzma' to see the help menu. lzma doesn't act like gzip
# or bzip2 by default. A couple small scripts can help:

cat > /tmp/7zip.sh << "EOF"
#!/bin/sh
/bin/lzma e ${1} ${1}.7z &&
rm -f ${1}
EOF
install /tmp/7zip.sh /bin/7zip

cat > /tmp/7unzip.sh << "EOF"
#!/bin/sh
/bin/lzma d ${1} $(echo ${1} | sed -e 's/.7z$//') &&
rm -f ${1}
EOF
install /tmp/7unzip.sh /bin/7unzip

rm /tmp/{7zip,7unzip}.sh

# These two scripts will behave like gzip and gunzip by compressing the file and
# removing the original when successfully completed.

# To compress your kernel with LZMA use one of these patches:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/patches/downloads/linux/
	linux-2.4-lzma-1.patch
	linux-2.6-lzma-1.patch

# Patch it on the kernel and it will work all by itself. The Zlib routines are replaced
# with LZMA. My kernel was 1.3MB before LZMA, and 1.1MB after.

TODO:
  * It would be nice to get LZMA support for kernel modules in modutils.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
  * Thanks to Google for helping me search for information about LZMA.
  * Thanks to the LZMA team at:
	http://www.7-zip.com/sdk.html
  * Thanks to Ming-Ching Tiew for the LZMA kernel patches. 

CHANGELOG:
[2005-06-09]
  * Initial hint.
[2005-06-10]
  * Added urls for compatable software projects.
