Because Squash provides a single API, any algorithms which
Squash has a plugin to support will be useable from any
language for which Squash provides bindings.
The actual integration with individual compression libraries is
done through plugins which can be installed separately from
Squash itself and are not loaded until they are required. This
allows Squash consumers to utilize a great many compression
algorithms without rewriting code or unnecessary bloat.
In addition to a permissively licensed library, Squash
provides some generic tools which use the library for common
tasks. Currently, this includes a command-line interface
similar
to gzip, bzip2, xz, etc.
called squash.
There is
also a
separate project to generate
the
Squash Benchmark.
Plugins
Squash currently has plugins for the following libraries:
* Currently only available or enabled in git; it will be generally available in the next release.
** Currently disabled pending bug fixes in upstream library.
The number of codecs to choose from can be a bit overwhelming.
They all have different performance characteristics, and
Squash
provides benchmarks
to help you decide which codecs are appropriate for your
library, or you can do your own testing—swapping codecs is
typically just a matter of changing a string, so you can try
them all with minimal effort.
Bindings
Squash is written in C, so it should be possible to create
bindings for virtually any programming language. Currently,
Squash has bindings for the following languages:
If you're interested in helping to add support for more
languages, please get in touch with us. This is an
area where we could really use help; it is best if bindings
are written by people familiar with the language (including
idioms and best practices), so we really can't just go about
adding bindings for languages we don't know.
Download
Releases
-
Squash 0.7.0 —
2015-09-20 —
details
-
- Rewrite brotli plugin to avoid threads
- Add new file I/O API
- Replace old file-to-file functions with a new splice API
- Enable wfLZ plugin
- Add zlib-ng plugin
- Add BriefLZ plugin
- Updated many plugins
- Assorted bug fixes and enhancements
-
Squash 0.6.0 —
2015-08-21 —
details
-
-
New plugins:
- yalz77
- copy
- csc
- ncompress
- Disabled Doboz
- Create in-tree copies of all modules
- Use conformant array parameters for buffers
- New API for option parsing and introspection
- Updated many plugins
- Assorted bug fixes and enhancements
-
Squash 0.5.0 —
2015-03-29 —
details
-
If you would like to be notified of new releases via e-mail,
you can subscribe to the squash-announce mailing list.
Git
- Repository
git clone https://github.com/quixdb/squash.git
- Web interface
https://github.com/quixdb/squash
Announcement List
To be notified of new releases via e-mail you can subscribe to
the squash-announce mailing list. We will only send messages
for new releases or other major events.
Licensing
Squash is licensed under
the MIT
License, which is highly permissive and allows Squash to
be integrated into any application virtually without
restriction. That said, please keep in mind that some plugins
use libraries which are subject to more restrictive terms
(such as the GNU
GPL), and using Squash as an intermediary does not release
you from the obligations of those licenses if you choose
to actually use plugins which use those libraries.
Squash includes an API for programmatically determining the
license of a plugin, and it is possible to use it to avoid any
GPL'd plugins even if they are installed. Each plugin's page
in the C documentation lists the license of the library, or
libraries, it uses.
Several of the GPL libraries used by Squash plugins are also
available for integration with proprietary software under
commercial licenses.