The lib directory contains several directories. Depending on target use case, it's enough to include only files from relevant directories.

Lizard stable API is exposed within lizard_compress.h and lizard_decompress.h, at the root of lib directory.

The raw Lizard block compression format is detailed within lizard_Block_format. To compress an arbitrarily long file or data stream, multiple blocks are required. Organizing these blocks and providing a common header format to handle their content is the purpose of the Frame format, defined in lizard_Frame_format. lizard command line utility produces files or streams compatible with the Frame format. (Advanced stuff : It's possible to hide xxhash symbols into a local namespace. This is what liblizard does, to avoid symbol duplication in case a user program would link to several libraries containing xxhash symbols.)

Files lizard_common.h, lizard_compress*, lizard_parser_*.h, lizard_decompress*, and entropy\mem.h are required in all circumstances.

To compile:

• Lizard_raw only with levels 10...29 : use the -DLIZARD_NO_HUFFMAN compiler flag
• Lizard_raw with levels 10...49 : include also all files from entropy directory
• Lizard_frame with levels 10...49 : lizard_frame* and all files from entropy and xxhash directories

A more complex lizard_frame_static.h is also provided. It contains definitions which are not guaranteed to remain stable within future versions. It must be used with static linking only.

DLL can be created using MinGW+MSYS with the make liblizard command. This command creates dll\liblizard.dll and the import library dll\liblizard.lib. The import library is only required with Visual C++. The header files lizard.h, lizardhc.h, lizard_frame.h and the dynamic library dll\liblizard.dll are required to compile a project using gcc/MinGW. The dynamic library has to be added to linking options. It means that if a project that uses Lizard consists of a single test-dll.c file it should be compiled with liblizard.lib. For example:

    gcc $(CFLAGS) -Iinclude/ test-dll.c -o test-dll dll\liblizard.dll

The compiled executable will require Lizard DLL which is available at dll\liblizard.dll.

Other files present in the directory are not source code. There are :

• LICENSE : contains the BSD license text
• Makefile : script to compile or install lizard library (static or dynamic)
• liblizard.pc.in : for pkg-config (make install)
• README.md : this file

All source material within lib directory are BSD 2-Clause licensed. See LICENSE for details. The license is also repeated at the top of each source file.