Zlib-1.2.1

The Zlib package contains compression and un-compression routines used by some programs.

Approximate build time:  0.1 SBU
Required disk space:     1.5 MB

Zlib installation depends on: Binutils, Coreutils, GCC, Glibc, Make, Sed.

Installation of Zlib

[Note] Note

Zlib is known to build its shared library incorrectly if CFLAGS is specified in the environment. If you are using your own CFLAGS variable, be sure to add the -fPIC directive to your CFLAGS for the duration of the below configure command, then remove it afterwards.

Prepare Zlib for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr --shared

Compile the package:

make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Install the shared library:

make install

Now also build the non-shared (static) library:

make clean
./configure --prefix=/usr
make

To again test the results, issue: make check.

Install the static library:

make install

And fix the permissions on the static library:

chmod 644 /usr/lib/libz.a

It is good policy and common practice to place important libraries into the /lib directory. This matters most in scenarios where /usr is on a separate partition. Essentially, the run-time components of any libraries that are used by programs in /bin or /sbin should reside in /lib so that they are on the root partition and available in the event of /usr being inaccessible.

For the above reason we move the run-time components of the shared Zlib into /lib:

mv /usr/lib/libz.so.* /lib

Now we need to fix the /usr/lib/libz.so symlink because we just moved the file it points to:

ln -sf ../../lib/libz.so.1 /usr/lib/libz.so

Contents of Zlib

Installed libraries: libz[a,so]

Short description

libz* contains compression and un-compression functions used by some programs.