zlib ☆

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Description:
General-purpose lossless data-compression library

Type: Formula | Latest Version: 20051211@0 | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: compression zlib decompression data-compression library

Install: brew install zlib

About:
Zlib is a foundational software library designed for data compression and decompression, widely adopted across the computing industry. It implements the DEFLATE algorithm, which combines LZ77 and Huffman coding, offering an excellent balance between compression ratio and speed. Its main value proposition is providing a highly portable, free, and robust compression solution that requires minimal memory resources.

Key Features:

Implements the DEFLATE compression algorithm (LZ77 + Huffman coding)
Extremely high portability across different platforms and architectures
Low memory footprint, suitable for embedded systems and mobile devices
Free and open-source software with a permissive license

Use Cases:

Compressing network data streams to reduce bandwidth usage
File compression and decompression in command-line tools and applications
Storing compressed data in databases or file systems

Alternatives:

XZ Utils (LZMA) – Offers higher compression ratios but typically requires more memory and CPU time
Brotli – Provides better compression on text data but is more computationally intensive

Version History

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