Ethereal-users: Re: [Ethereal-users] zlib version 2.0

Note: This archive is from the project's previous web site, ethereal.com. This list is no longer active.

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 01:51:22 -0800
On Fri, Mar 08, 2002 at 10:38:14AM +0100, Roets, Chris wrote:
> I wonder how ethereal is compiled to the version 2.0, when it is not
> available yet.

Perhaps whoever built that version of Ethereal has some version of zlib,
the creator of which decided to it label "2.0", that whoever built
Ethereal used to build it.

A Google search for "libz 2.0" finds nothing; a Google search for "zlib
2.0" finds only:

	http://slashdot.org/interviews/00/03/10/1043247.shtml

which quotes Jean-Loup Gailly as saying:

	I have worked very closely with Julian Seward, the author of
	bzip and bzip2.  The goal was to integrate a Burrows-Wheeler
	algorithm inside zlib 2.0 (upon which gzip 2.0 is based).  One
	of the requirements was to avoid the kind of arithmetic coding
	used in bzip because of both patent and decoding speed concerns,
	so Julian wrote the Huffman coding code now used in bzip2. 
	Another requirement was to put the code in library form and
	Julian did that too.

	Unfortunately, Julian decided to release bzip2 independently
	instead of staying within the gzip 2.0 project.  It was mainly
	my fault, since I couldn't spend enough time on the other parts
	of the project, and the project was not advancing fast enough. 
	Since Julian left, the project progressed even more slowly, and
	new blood is obviously necessary, because other responsibilities
	no longer leave me enough time for gzip.  If you're an expert in
	data compression, e-mail me to convince me that you are the most
	qualified person to turn the zlib/gzip 2.0 project into an
	overwhelming success :-)

which doesn't speak of zlib 2.0 as a completed project, and finds only a
couple of references to RPMs with the name "zlib-2.0.8-2.i386.rpm" on
"ftp.fynet.com".

The zlib site:

	http://www.gzip.org/zlib/

has no obvious references to a 2.0 release.

So, as per my previous message:

If you got a binary package of Ethereal, you should ask whoever built
the package where they got the zlib with which they linked Ethereal, and
try to get that version of zlib from them.

If you're building it from source, presumably when you linked it you
linked it with some particular version of zlib; do whatever is necessary
to make sure that it gets linked with the same version of zlib when it's
run (I don't know what you would have to do).