UnixCompress Rust Reference Documentation
UnixCompress
Current Version: 11.6.1
Chilkat.UnixCompress
Compress files, memory data, or strings into UNIX
Expand UNIX-compressed data back to files, memory, byte arrays, or text
depending on the application workflow.
Compress and uncompress directly between input and output files when
working with existing filesystem data.
Work with compressed or uncompressed byte data in memory when temporary
files are not desired.
Compress and uncompress text using an explicit character set so string
data round-trips correctly.
Use
For an extended overview, see
UnixCompress Class Overview.
Compress, uncompress, and unpack legacy UNIX
.Z files.Chilkat.UnixCompress provides UNIX compress and
uncompress functionality for legacy .Z files. It
supports file-based, memory-based, and string-based workflows, uses LZW
compression, can unpack .tar.Z archives, and includes abort and
progress-related support for longer-running operations.
Compress to .Z
.Z
format using LZW compression.
Uncompress .Z data
File workflows
Memory workflows
String workflows
Unpack tar.Z archives
UnTarZ to decompress and extract legacy
.tar.Z archives in a single workflow.
UnixCompress when the data is in classic UNIX
.Z format or when a .tar.Z archive must be
unpacked. Use Chilkat.Gzip for .gz and
.tar.gz files, Chilkat.Bz2 for
.bz2 files, and Chilkat.Compression for raw
compression algorithms and general-purpose compression workflows.
Object Creation
// Cargo.toml:
// [dependencies]
// chilkat = "11.6"
use chilkat::UnixCompress;
// Once per process, before any other Chilkat call:
chilkat::unlock_bundle("Anything for 30-day trial")?; // shorthand for Global::new().unlock_bundle(..)
let unix_compress = UnixCompress::new();
// ... the native object is freed when `unix_compress` goes out of scope.Creates the underlying native Chilkat object (UnixCompress also implements Default). Every method takes &self, so the object never needs to be declared mut. A UnixCompress is Send but not Sync: it may be moved to another thread, but a reference to it cannot be shared between threads at the same time.
The native object is freed when the UnixCompress is dropped — when it goes out of scope, or explicitly with drop(unix_compress). There is no Dispose method to call.
Errors
Methods that can fail return chilkat::Result<T>, which is Result<T, chilkat::Error>: a method whose only outcome is success or failure returns Result<()>, a method producing a string or an object returns Result<String> or Result<UnixCompress>. The error carries the object's LastErrorText at the time of the failure (Error::last_error_text), the class and method names, and implements std::error::Error, so ? works in any function returning chilkat::Result or a Box<dyn Error>. Properties never fail, and methods that answer a question (has_..., is_..., ...) return a plain bool.
match unix_compress.some_method(...) {
Ok(value) => println!("{value:?}"),
Err(e) => eprintln!("{}", e.last_error_text()),
}Properties
AbortCurrent
pub fn abort_current(&self) -> bool
pub fn set_abort_current(&self, value: bool)
When set to true, causes the currently running method to abort. Methods that always finish quickly (i.e.have no length file operations or network communications) are not affected. If no method is running, then this property is automatically reset to false when the next method is called. When the abort occurs, this property is reset to false. Both synchronous and asynchronous method calls can be aborted. (A synchronous method call could be aborted by setting this property from a separate thread.)
DebugLogFilePath
pub fn debug_log_file_path(&self) -> String
pub fn set_debug_log_file_path(&self, value: &str)
If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.
Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.
Possible causes of hangs include:
- A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
- A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
- An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.
HeartbeatMs
pub fn heartbeat_ms(&self) -> i32
pub fn set_heartbeat_ms(&self, value: i32)
The interval in milliseconds between each AbortCheck event callback, which enables an application to abort certain method calls before they complete. By default, HeartbeatMs is set to 0, meaning no AbortCheck event callbacks will trigger.
LastErrorHtml
Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.
topLastErrorText
Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.
LastErrorXml
Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.
topLastMethodSuccess
pub fn last_method_success(&self) -> bool
pub fn set_last_method_success(&self, value: bool)
Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: true means success, false means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages. Note: This property does not apply to methods that return integer values or to boolean-returning methods where the boolean does not indicate success or failure.
VerboseLogging
pub fn verbose_logging(&self) -> bool
pub fn set_verbose_logging(&self, value: bool)
If set to true, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is false. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.
Version
Methods
CompressFile
Compresses a file to create a UNIX compressed file (.Z). This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.
Returns Ok(()) for success, Err(chilkat::Error) for failure.
CompressStringToFile
Unix compresses and creates a .Z file from string data. The charset specifies the character encoding used for the byte representation of the characters when compressed. The charset can be any one of a large number of character encodings, such as utf-8, iso-8859-1, Windows-1252, ucs-2, etc.
Returns Ok(()) for success, Err(chilkat::Error) for failure.
UncompressFile
Uncompresses a .Z file. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)
Returns Ok(()) for success, Err(chilkat::Error) for failure.
UncompressFileToString
Uncompresses a .Z file that contains a text file. The contents of the text file are returned as a string. The character encoding of the text file is specified by charset. Typical charsets are iso-8859-1, utf-8, windows-1252, shift_JIS, big5, etc.
Returns Err(chilkat::Error) on failure.
UnTarZ
Unpacks a .tar.Z file. The decompress and untar occur in streaming mode. There are no temporary files and the memory footprint is constant (and small) while untarring.
Returns Ok(()) for success, Err(chilkat::Error) for failure.
Events
All Chilkat methods are synchronous: the call returns when the work is done. During a call, UnixCompress raises three events so your application can show progress and offer a way out. Implement the chilkat::EventHandler trait (every method has a do-nothing default, so implement only the events you need) and install it with set_event_handler:
use chilkat::{UnixCompress, EventHandler};
struct Progress;
impl EventHandler for Progress {
fn percent_done(&mut self, pct: i32) -> bool {
println!("{pct}%");
false // return true to abort the method in progress
}
fn progress_info(&mut self, name: &str, value: &str) {
println!("{name}: {value}");
}
}
let unix_compress = UnixCompress::new();
unix_compress.set_event_handler(Progress);
unix_compress.set_heartbeat_ms(250); // raise abort_check 4 times per second during Chilkat callsFor a one-off handler the closure methods avoid writing a type; they may be combined, and each replaces the previously set closure for that one event (installing a closure removes a trait handler set earlier, and vice versa):
unix_compress.on_percent_done(|pct| { println!("{pct}%"); false });
unix_compress.on_progress_info(|name, value| println!("{name}: {value}"));Installs handler as the receiver of this object's events, replacing any handler or closures set earlier. The object owns the handler, which must be Send + 'static.
Removes the handler and any closures; events are no longer delivered.
AbortCheck fires at regular intervals controlled by the HeartbeatMs property (0, the default, disables it); PercentDone fires when an operation's completion percentage is known; ProgressInfo delivers named progress values. Returning true from abort_check or percent_done aborts the running method, which then returns Err.
Events fire on the thread that called the method, before that method returns. A panic inside a handler aborts the running method and is re-raised to the caller once the native library has returned, so it never unwinds through C frames. To abort a long operation from another thread, share an Arc<AtomicBool> with an abort_check handler, or set the object's AbortCurrent property to true.
AbortCheck
fn abort_check(&mut self) -> bool
Enables a method call to be aborted by triggering the AbortCheck event at intervals defined by the HeartbeatMs property. If HeartbeatMs is set to its default value of 0, no events will occur. For instance, set HeartbeatMs to 200 to trigger 5 AbortCheck events per second.
Example (closure form; the EventHandler trait method is equivalent):
unix_compress.set_heartbeat_ms(250); // call abort_check 4 times per second
let stop = std::sync::Arc::new(std::sync::atomic::AtomicBool::new(false));
let flag = stop.clone();
unix_compress.on_abort_check(move || flag.load(std::sync::atomic::Ordering::Relaxed));
// ... another thread may now abort the method in progress with stop.store(true, Ordering::Relaxed)PercentDone
fn percent_done(&mut self, pct: i32) -> bool
This provides the percentage completion for any method involving network communications or time-consuming processing, assuming the progress can be measured as a percentage. This event is triggered only when it's possible and logical to express the operation's progress as a percentage. The pct_done argument will range from 1 to 100. For methods that finish quickly, the number of PercentDone callbacks may vary, but the final callback will have pct_done equal to 100. For longer operations, callbacks will not exceed one per percentage point (e.g., 1, 2, 3, ..., 98, 99, 100).
The PercentDone callback also acts as an AbortCheck event. For fast methods where PercentDone fires, an AbortCheck event may not trigger since the PercentDone callback already provides an opportunity to abort. For longer operations, where time between PercentDone callbacks is extended, AbortCheck callbacks enable more responsive operation termination.
To abort the operation, set the abort output argument to true. This will cause the method to terminate and return a failure status or corresponding failure value.
Example (closure form; the EventHandler trait method is equivalent):
unix_compress.on_percent_done(|pct| {
// pct ranges from 1 to 100.
println!("Percent done: {pct}");
false // return true to abort the method in progress
});ProgressInfo
fn progress_info(&mut self, name: &str, value: &str)
This event callback provides tag name/value pairs that detail what occurs during a method call. To discover existing tag names, create code to handle the event, emit the pairs, and review them. Most tag names are self-explanatory.
Note: Some Chilkat methods don't fire any ProgressInfo events.
Example (closure form; the EventHandler trait method is equivalent):
unix_compress.on_progress_info(|name, value| println!("{name}: {value}"));