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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
       blocksize ] [ -o	outfile	] [ -f targetfilename ]	[ -v ] filename

       zsync -V

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

       zsync  will  need at least one URL from which to	download the file con-
       tent. If	the .zsync will	be in the same directory as the	file to	 down-
       load, 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  sim-
       ple  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 yourself.

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 down-
	      loads; 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 (currently either 2048	or 4096	 depending  on
	      file size) - so normally you should not need to override the de-
	      fault.

       -C     Tells  zsyncmake	not to generate	any instructions in the	.zsync
	      telling the client to compress the data it receives. This	is im-
	      plied 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	 uncompressed  file (e.g. you are transferring an ISO,
	      which is held compressed 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  ex-
	      act  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	direc-
	      tives in the zsync file, or might	be incapable of	exactly	repro-
	      ducing 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 retrieve the parts of the	file that they	don't  already
	      have.  You  can  specify multiple	URLs by	specifying -u multiple
	      times. If	not specified, 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	avail-
	      able. If no URLs are specifies, zsync looks for a	 file  without
	      the .gz extension	and assumes that this will be in the same pub-
	      lic 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 option 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
	      exports the underlying, uncompressed data	to the zsyncmake file.
	      In testing this has proved to  provide  greater  download	 effi-
	      ciency. -Z overrides the default behaviour and treats gzip files
	      as  just	binary data. Use this if it is essential that the user
	      receives the compressed data (for	 instance  because  a  crypto-
	      graphic  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 special --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
       Debian package system uses the file uncompressed.

       zsyncmake -z my-subversion-dump

       In this case there is a large, compressible file	to transfer. This cre-
       ates 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	 down-
       loading	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)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
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