IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

[pete4abw]

As lrzip-next moves forward, lrzip gets further and further in the rear-view mirror.

Changes Coming

1. Backward compatibility All these silly checks to make earlier versions readable will be gone. lrzip-next version 0.8.x will be the last.
2. Compression level and Rzip compression level will be stored.
3. A new feature to save a comment along with an archive will be available.

While the final layout of the new magic header has not been determined, at least 2 bytes will be added.
1 byte for compression and rzip compression level. Highest possible value is 99 decimal, or maybe 0b10011001 which would be 9 in the high order bits and 9 in the low order bits.
A byte to contain a comment length of length 0 or len < 32 (isn't that long enough?) Maybe longer.
Then a comment from 1 to len. However, if the file will be encrypted, the comment length will be expanded to at least 16 bytes.
Comments will be input on the command line or perhaps STDIN. Some programs, like Rar allow a file to be read to store a comment and this may be considered.

More to come

I am also considering ditching 32 bit processor support. Not really necessary in today's world.

Have other suggestions? Please add them.

These changes will take some time.

[pete4abw]

Changes Made

(whats-next branch)

1. Backward Compatibility extended to lrzip v0.6x. Any older file will cause lrzip-next to abort with an error.
2. Check for 32 bit architectures integrated into configure and it will abort if it detects a long size of 4 bytes. Code related to 32-bit checks has been removed.

[pete4abw]

Now testing a new magic format. lrzip-next version 0.9x format will add two bytes + 0 >= 64 bytes. Will push to the whats-next branch when ready. Comments will be unencrypted, even in encrypted archives. Comments will only be accepted on the command line.

lrzip-next-0.9x file format

Magic extended 2 bytes.

18      lrzip-next compression levels, 0bRRRRLLLL
        high order bits Rzip compression level (magic >> 4)
        low order bits Lrzip compression level (magic  &15)
19      Comment length. 0 means no comment.
20-83   Comment 64 chars max

Rzip Chunk Data as normal...

[pete4abw]

v0.9.0beta is available for review. Please share your feedback via Issues.

INFO output is updated to show both comments and rzip and lrzip-next compression levels.