ucl ☆

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Description:
Data compression library with small memory footprint

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: compression ucl embedded library nrv

Install: brew install ucl

About:
UCL (UCL data compression library) is a lightweight, portable ANSI C library implementing the real-time compression algorithms used by the NRV (Not Really Vanished) family. It is designed for embedded systems and applications requiring extremely fast decompression and minimal memory footprint, even on low-resource hardware. The library focuses on providing a small code size and high performance, making it ideal for scenarios where space is at a premium.

Key Features:

Ultra-small memory footprint and code size
Fast real-time decompression speeds
Portable ANSI C implementation
Includes NRV compression algorithms (NRV2B, NRV2D, NRV2E)

Use Cases:

Embedded systems and microcontroller firmware compression
Reducing storage requirements for resource-constrained devices
Real-time data decompression in performance-critical applications

Alternatives:

zlib – More widely used and feature-rich, but significantly larger in size and memory usage
LZ4 – Offers extremely fast compression/decompression but focuses more on speed than absolute minimal footprint

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 11, 2025 11:20am		0	VERSION_BUMP	c18dbe6a