zchunk ☆

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Description:
Compressed file format for efficient deltas

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: compression delta-encoding file-format networking efficiency

Install: brew install zchunk

About:
Zchunk is a compressed file format designed for efficient network transmission and storage. It splits files into individual chunks, allowing for differential updates where only modified portions need to be re-downloaded and re-compressed. This significantly reduces bandwidth usage and update times for large datasets like software repositories.

Key Features:

Chunk-based compression for granular updates
Deduplication of unchanged data segments
Support for multiple compression algorithms (ZSTD, LZMA, etc.)
Integrity verification via checksums
Standardized format compatible with existing tools

Use Cases:

Efficiently updating large software package repositories
Distributing container images or virtual machine snapshots
Reducing bandwidth costs for content delivery networks
Synchronizing large datasets over limited connections

Alternatives:

bsdiff – Zchunk operates on a stream or file level with chunking, while bsdiff creates binary patches between two specific file versions.
zstd – Zstd provides high-performance compression, but Zchunk adds the critical feature of chunking for efficient partial updates without re-compressing the whole file.

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 11, 2025 7:06pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	27ed942d