UnixCompress Lazarus Pascal Reference Documentation
UnixCompress
Current Version: 11.6.0
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.
Create / Free
uses
Chilkat.UnixCompress;
var
obj: TUnixCompress;
begin
obj := TUnixCompress.Create;
try
if not obj.IsValid then
raise Exception.Create('Failed to create a TUnixCompress instance.');
// ... use obj ...
finally
obj.Free;
end;
end;
Allocates the underlying CkUnixCompress object and returns a new TUnixCompress instance. Simply adding Chilkat.UnixCompress to the unit's uses clause is enough to locate and bind to the Chilkat shared library (DLL / .so / .dylib) at runtime — no separate load step is required. Check obj.IsValid after calling Create; it is False if the underlying library could not be found/loaded or the object could not be allocated (for example, when unlicensed).
Every TUnixCompress created by calling Create should eventually be released by calling .Free (inherited from TObject). The destructor automatically disposes the underlying CkUnixCompress handle. A native (unmanaged) memory leak occurs if the object is never freed.
Properties
AbortCurrent
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
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
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
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
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
const destPath: string): Boolean;
Compresses a file to create a UNIX compressed file (.Z). This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topCompressStringToFile
const charset: string;
const destPath: string): Boolean;
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 True for success, False for failure.
LoadTaskCaller
function LoadTaskCaller(task: TChilkatBase): Boolean;
UncompressFile
const destPath: string): Boolean;
Uncompresses a .Z file. (This compression uses the LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression algorithm.)
Returns True for success, False for failure.
topUncompressFileToString
const charset: string): string;
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 True for success, False for failure.
UnTarZ
const destDir: string;
bNoAbsolute: Boolean): Boolean;
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 True for success, False for failure.
topEvents
Chilkat for Pascal supports three synchronous event callbacks: OnAbortCheck, OnPercentDone, and OnProgressInfo. Each is a property of the class; assign a method of one of your own objects (an of object handler) to receive the callbacks, or assign nil to unhook. The handler types are declared in the Chilkat.Base unit:
TChilkatAbortCheckEvent = function(Sender: TChilkatBase): Boolean of object;
TChilkatPercentDoneEvent = function(Sender: TChilkatBase; PctDone: Integer): Boolean of object;
TChilkatProgressInfoEvent = procedure(Sender: TChilkatBase; const Name, Value: string) of object;All Chilkat methods are synchronous, so callbacks are invoked on the thread that called the method -- if the method was called from the main thread, it is safe to access UI elements from the handler. The HeartbeatMs property controls the frequency of OnAbortCheck callbacks (the default of 0 means no AbortCheck events fire). Returning True from an OnAbortCheck or OnPercentDone handler aborts the running method.
AbortCheck
property OnAbortCheck: TChilkatAbortCheckEvent;
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.
Event callback implementation:
// A handler is a method of one of your own classes, e.g. a form:
function TMyObject.UnixCompressAbortCheck(Sender: TChilkatBase): Boolean;
begin
// Called every HeartbeatMs milliseconds while a method is running.
// Return True to abort the method; return False to continue.
Result := False;
end;To add an event handler:
unixcompress := TUnixCompress.Create;
unixcompress.HeartbeatMs := 250; // fire OnAbortCheck 4 times per second
unixcompress.OnAbortCheck := MyObject.UnixCompressAbortCheck;PercentDone
property OnPercentDone: TChilkatPercentDoneEvent;
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 pctDone 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 pctDone 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.
Event callback implementation:
// A handler is a method of one of your own classes, e.g. a form:
function TMyObject.UnixCompressPercentDone(Sender: TChilkatBase; PctDone: Integer): Boolean;
begin
// PctDone ranges from 1 to 100.
WriteLn('Percent done: ', PctDone);
// Return True to abort the method; return False to continue.
Result := False;
end;To add an event handler:
unixcompress := TUnixCompress.Create;
unixcompress.OnPercentDone := MyObject.UnixCompressPercentDone;ProgressInfo
property OnProgressInfo: TChilkatProgressInfoEvent;
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.
Event callback implementation:
// A handler is a method of one of your own classes, e.g. a form:
procedure TMyObject.UnixCompressProgressInfo(Sender: TChilkatBase; const Name, Value: string);
begin
WriteLn(Name, ': ', Value);
end;To add an event handler:
unixcompress := TUnixCompress.Create;
unixcompress.OnProgressInfo := MyObject.UnixCompressProgressInfo;