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zsyncmake(1)			  File Transfer 		    zsyncmake(1)

NAME
     zsyncmake - Build control file for zsync(1)

SYNTAX
     zsyncmake	[  { -z | -Z } ] [ -e ] [ -C ] [ -u url ] [ -U url ] [ -b block-
     size ] [ -o outfile ] [ -f targetfilename ] [ -v ] filename

     zsync -V

DESCRIPTION
     Constructs a metafile for the zsync client program to use to  perform  par-
     tial  file  downloads.  filename  is the file that users wish to downloads;
     zsyncmake constructs the appropriate metafile and writes filename.zsync  in
     the current directory.

     zsync  will  need at least one URL from which to download the file content.
     If the .zsync will be in the same directory as the file  to  download,  you
     can accept the default - zsync includes a relative URL in the control file.
     If not, use the -u option to specify the URL. You should also specify a URL
     for the uncompressed content with -U if available, as zsync can make use of
     this  for more efficient downloads sometimes. (You can edit the .zsync file
     and add these afterwards - it has a simple key: value format in the  header
     - but I suggest you only do this once you are familiar with the tool.)

     Note that zsyncmake itself does not (currently) verify the URLs or download
     any  data,  you must provide the file data locally and check the URLs your-
     self.

OPTIONS
     -b blocksize
	    Specify the blocksize to the underlying rsync algorithm.  A  smaller
	    blocksize  may be more efficient for files where there are likely to
	    be lots of small, scattered  changes  between  downloads;  a  larger
	    blocksize  is  more efficient for files with fewer or less scattered
	    changes. This blocksize must be a power of two.  If  not  specified,
	    zsyncmake  chooses	one  which it thinks is best for this file (cur-
	    rently either 2048 or 4096 depending on file size) - so normally you
	    should not need to override the default.

     -C     Tells zsyncmake not to  generate  any  instructions  in  the  .zsync
	    telling the client to compress the data it receives. This is implied
	    by	-z, but this option is here in case you compress a file yourself
	    only for the transfer, but want the client to end up with the uncom-
	    pressed file (e.g. you are transferring an ISO, which is  held  com-
	    pressed  on the server, but which the client cannot use unless it is
	    uncompressed). Without -C, zsyncmake will produce directions for the
	    client to compress the file it receives  where  appropriate;  -C  is
	    here so you can stop it telling the client to do that.

     -e     Tells  zsyncmake  that  the client must be able to receive the exact
	    file that was supplied. Without this option, zsyncmake only gives  a
	    weaker guarantee - that the client will receive the data it contains
	    (e.g.  it  might  transfer	the uncompressed version of a .gz to the
	    client). Note that this still doesn't guarantee that the client will
	    get it - the client could ignore the directives in the  zsync  file,
	    or	might  be incapable of exactly reproducing the compression used.
	    But with -e you know that zsyncmake has made it possible to get  the
	    exact data - it will exit with an error if it cannot.

     -f filename
	    Set  the  filename	to  include in the output file (this is what the
	    file will be called when a user finished downloading it).

     -o outputfile
	    Override the default output file name.

     -u url
	    Specifies the URL from which users can download the content  of  the
	    supplied file. Users need the control file in order to find out what
	    parts  of  the file they already have, and they need the URLs to re-
	    trieve the parts of the file that they don't already have.	You  can
	    specify multiple URLs by specifying -u multiple times. If not speci-
	    fied,  zsync assumes that the file and the .zsync will reside in the
	    same public directory, and includes a single relative URL.

     -U url
	    Specifies a URL corresponding to the  decompressed	content  of  the
	    file  (only  applicable  if  it is a gzip file). zsync can sometimes
	    download more efficiently from the uncompressed data than  from  the
	    compressed data - it will take advantage of this if available. If no
	    URLs are specifies, zsync looks for a file without the .gz extension
	    and  assumes that this will be in the same public dir as the .zsync,
	    and includes a relative URL to it.

     -v     Enable verbose messages.

     -V     Prints the version of zsync.

     -z     Compress the file to transfer. Note that this  overwrites  any  file
	    called  filename.gz  without  warning (if you don't give a filename,
	    e.g. because you are reading from stdin, then  zsync  will	use  the
	    name supplied with -f, or as a last fallback, zsync-target.gz).

     zsync can work with compressed data, and, in most cases where the data is
     not already compressed, it is more efficient to compress it first. While
     you can just compress the file to transfer with gzip, if you use this op-
     tion then zsyncmake will compress the file for you, producing a .gz file
     which is optimised for zsync. This can be 30% more efficient at download
     time than compressing with gzip --best - but the compressed file will not
     be as small at that produced by gzip.

     -Z     zsyncmake  automatically  looks inside gzip compressed files and ex-
	    ports the underlying, uncompressed data to the  zsyncmake  file.  In
	    testing  this  has proved to provide greater download efficiency. -Z
	    overrides the default behaviour and treats gzip files as just binary
	    data. Use this if it is essential that the user  receives  the  com-
	    pressed  data  (for  instance  because  a cryptographic signature is
	    available only for the compressed data). zsync is typically  no  use
	    if you specify -Z, unless the gzip file was compressed with the spe-
	    cial --rsync option to make it friendly to differential transfers.

EXAMPLES
     zsyncmake	  -C   -u   http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/sarge/main/bi-
     nary-i386/Packages.gz Packages.gz

     Note use of -C to save the client compressing the file on receipt; the  De-
     bian package system uses the file uncompressed.

     zsyncmake -z my-subversion-dump

     In  this case there is a large, compressible file to transfer. This creates
     a gzipped version of the file (optimised for zsync), and a .zsync	file.  A
     URL  is automatically added assuming that the two files will be served from
     the same directory on the web server.

     zsyncmake		   -e		   -u		   http://www.mirrorser-
     vice.org/sites/ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/dist-
     files/zsync-0.2.2.tar.gz zsync-0.2.2.tar.gz

     This  creates  a  zsync  referring  to  the named source tarball, which the
     client should download from the given URL. This example is for  downloading
     a	source	tarball  for a FreeBSD port, hence -e is specified so the client
     will be able to match its md5sum.

AUTHORS
     Colin Phipps <cph@moria.org.uk>

SEE ALSO
     zsync(1)

Colin Phipps			      0.6.3			    zsyncmake(1)

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