1# zstd
2
3[Zstandard](https://facebook.github.io/zstd/) is a real-time compression algorithm, providing high compression ratios.
4It offers a very wide range of compression / speed trade-off, while being backed by a very fast decoder.
5A high performance compression algorithm is implemented. For now focused on speed.
6
7This package provides [compression](#Compressor) to and [decompression](#Decompressor) of Zstandard content.
8
9This package is pure Go and without use of "unsafe".
10
11The `zstd` package is provided as open source software using a Go standard license.
12
13Currently the package is heavily optimized for 64 bit processors and will be significantly slower on 32 bit processors.
14
15## Installation
16
17Install using `go get -u github.com/klauspost/compress`. The package is located in `github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd`.
18
19[![Go Reference](https://pkg.go.dev/badge/github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd.svg)](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd)
20
21## Compressor
22
23### Status:
24
25STABLE - there may always be subtle bugs, a wide variety of content has been tested and the library is actively
26used by several projects. This library is being [fuzz-tested](https://github.com/klauspost/compress-fuzz) for all updates.
27
28There may still be specific combinations of data types/size/settings that could lead to edge cases,
29so as always, testing is recommended.
30
31For now, a high speed (fastest) and medium-fast (default) compressor has been implemented.
32
33* The "Fastest" compression ratio is roughly equivalent to zstd level 1.
34* The "Default" compression ratio is roughly equivalent to zstd level 3 (default).
35* The "Better" compression ratio is roughly equivalent to zstd level 7.
36* The "Best" compression ratio is roughly equivalent to zstd level 11.
37
38In terms of speed, it is typically 2x as fast as the stdlib deflate/gzip in its fastest mode.
39The compression ratio compared to stdlib is around level 3, but usually 3x as fast.
40
41
42### Usage
43
44An Encoder can be used for either compressing a stream via the
45`io.WriteCloser` interface supported by the Encoder or as multiple independent
46tasks via the `EncodeAll` function.
47Smaller encodes are encouraged to use the EncodeAll function.
48Use `NewWriter` to create a new instance that can be used for both.
49
50To create a writer with default options, do like this:
51
52```Go
53// Compress input to output.
54func Compress(in io.Reader, out io.Writer) error {
55    enc, err := zstd.NewWriter(out)
56    if err != nil {
57        return err
58    }
59    _, err = io.Copy(enc, in)
60    if err != nil {
61        enc.Close()
62        return err
63    }
64    return enc.Close()
65}
66```
67
68Now you can encode by writing data to `enc`. The output will be finished writing when `Close()` is called.
69Even if your encode fails, you should still call `Close()` to release any resources that may be held up.
70
71The above is fine for big encodes. However, whenever possible try to *reuse* the writer.
72
73To reuse the encoder, you can use the `Reset(io.Writer)` function to change to another output.
74This will allow the encoder to reuse all resources and avoid wasteful allocations.
75
76Currently stream encoding has 'light' concurrency, meaning up to 2 goroutines can be working on part
77of a stream. This is independent of the `WithEncoderConcurrency(n)`, but that is likely to change
78in the future. So if you want to limit concurrency for future updates, specify the concurrency
79you would like.
80
81You can specify your desired compression level using `WithEncoderLevel()` option. Currently only pre-defined
82compression settings can be specified.
83
84#### Future Compatibility Guarantees
85
86This will be an evolving project. When using this package it is important to note that both the compression efficiency and speed may change.
87
88The goal will be to keep the default efficiency at the default zstd (level 3).
89However the encoding should never be assumed to remain the same,
90and you should not use hashes of compressed output for similarity checks.
91
92The Encoder can be assumed to produce the same output from the exact same code version.
93However, the may be modes in the future that break this,
94although they will not be enabled without an explicit option.
95
96This encoder is not designed to (and will probably never) output the exact same bitstream as the reference encoder.
97
98Also note, that the cgo decompressor currently does not [report all errors on invalid input](https://github.com/DataDog/zstd/issues/59),
99[omits error checks](https://github.com/DataDog/zstd/issues/61), [ignores checksums](https://github.com/DataDog/zstd/issues/43)
100and seems to ignore concatenated streams, even though [it is part of the spec](https://github.com/facebook/zstd/blob/dev/doc/zstd_compression_format.md#frames).
101
102#### Blocks
103
104For compressing small blocks, the returned encoder has a function called `EncodeAll(src, dst []byte) []byte`.
105
106`EncodeAll` will encode all input in src and append it to dst.
107This function can be called concurrently, but each call will only run on a single goroutine.
108
109Encoded blocks can be concatenated and the result will be the combined input stream.
110Data compressed with EncodeAll can be decoded with the Decoder, using either a stream or `DecodeAll`.
111
112Especially when encoding blocks you should take special care to reuse the encoder.
113This will effectively make it run without allocations after a warmup period.
114To make it run completely without allocations, supply a destination buffer with space for all content.
115
116```Go
117import "github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
118
119// Create a writer that caches compressors.
120// For this operation type we supply a nil Reader.
121var encoder, _ = zstd.NewWriter(nil)
122
123// Compress a buffer.
124// If you have a destination buffer, the allocation in the call can also be eliminated.
125func Compress(src []byte) []byte {
126    return encoder.EncodeAll(src, make([]byte, 0, len(src)))
127}
128```
129
130You can control the maximum number of concurrent encodes using the `WithEncoderConcurrency(n)`
131option when creating the writer.
132
133Using the Encoder for both a stream and individual blocks concurrently is safe.
134
135### Performance
136
137I have collected some speed examples to compare speed and compression against other compressors.
138
139* `file` is the input file.
140* `out` is the compressor used. `zskp` is this package. `zstd` is the Datadog cgo library. `gzstd/gzkp` is gzip standard and this library.
141* `level` is the compression level used. For `zskp` level 1 is "fastest", level 2 is "default"; 3 is "better", 4 is "best".
142* `insize`/`outsize` is the input/output size.
143* `millis` is the number of milliseconds used for compression.
144* `mb/s` is megabytes (2^20 bytes) per second.
145
146```
147Silesia Corpus:
148http://sun.aei.polsl.pl/~sdeor/corpus/silesia.zip
149
150This package:
151file    out     level   insize      outsize     millis  mb/s
152silesia.tar zskp    1   211947520   73101992    643     313.87
153silesia.tar zskp    2   211947520   67504318    969     208.38
154silesia.tar zskp    3   211947520   64595893    2007    100.68
155silesia.tar zskp    4   211947520   60995370    8825    22.90
156
157cgo zstd:
158silesia.tar zstd    1   211947520   73605392    543     371.56
159silesia.tar zstd    3   211947520   66793289    864     233.68
160silesia.tar zstd    6   211947520   62916450    1913    105.66
161silesia.tar zstd    9   211947520   60212393    5063    39.92
162
163gzip, stdlib/this package:
164silesia.tar gzstd   1   211947520   80007735    1654    122.21
165silesia.tar gzkp    1   211947520   80136201    1152    175.45
166
167GOB stream of binary data. Highly compressible.
168https://files.klauspost.com/compress/gob-stream.7z
169
170file        out     level   insize  outsize     millis  mb/s
171gob-stream  zskp    1   1911399616  235022249   3088    590.30
172gob-stream  zskp    2   1911399616  205669791   3786    481.34
173gob-stream  zskp    3   1911399616  175034659   9636    189.17
174gob-stream  zskp    4   1911399616  165609838   50369   36.19
175
176gob-stream  zstd    1   1911399616  249810424   2637    691.26
177gob-stream  zstd    3   1911399616  208192146   3490    522.31
178gob-stream  zstd    6   1911399616  193632038   6687    272.56
179gob-stream  zstd    9   1911399616  177620386   16175   112.70
180
181gob-stream  gzstd   1   1911399616  357382641   10251   177.82
182gob-stream  gzkp    1   1911399616  359753026   5438    335.20
183
184The test data for the Large Text Compression Benchmark is the first
18510^9 bytes of the English Wikipedia dump on Mar. 3, 2006.
186http://mattmahoney.net/dc/textdata.html
187
188file    out level   insize      outsize     millis  mb/s
189enwik9  zskp    1   1000000000  343848582   3609    264.18
190enwik9  zskp    2   1000000000  317276632   5746    165.97
191enwik9  zskp    3   1000000000  292243069   12162   78.41
192enwik9  zskp    4   1000000000  262183768   82837   11.51
193
194enwik9  zstd    1   1000000000  358072021   3110    306.65
195enwik9  zstd    3   1000000000  313734672   4784    199.35
196enwik9  zstd    6   1000000000  295138875   10290   92.68
197enwik9  zstd    9   1000000000  278348700   28549   33.40
198
199enwik9  gzstd   1   1000000000  382578136   9604    99.30
200enwik9  gzkp    1   1000000000  383825945   6544    145.73
201
202Highly compressible JSON file.
203https://files.klauspost.com/compress/github-june-2days-2019.json.zst
204
205file                        out level   insize      outsize     millis  mb/s
206github-june-2days-2019.json zskp    1   6273951764  699045015   10620   563.40
207github-june-2days-2019.json zskp    2   6273951764  617881763   11687   511.96
208github-june-2days-2019.json zskp    3   6273951764  524340691   34043   175.75
209github-june-2days-2019.json zskp    4   6273951764  470320075   170190  35.16
210
211github-june-2days-2019.json zstd    1   6273951764  766284037   8450    708.00
212github-june-2days-2019.json zstd    3   6273951764  661889476   10927   547.57
213github-june-2days-2019.json zstd    6   6273951764  642756859   22996   260.18
214github-june-2days-2019.json zstd    9   6273951764  601974523   52413   114.16
215
216github-june-2days-2019.json gzstd   1   6273951764  1164400847  29948   199.79
217github-june-2days-2019.json gzkp    1   6273951764  1125417694  21788   274.61
218
219VM Image, Linux mint with a few installed applications:
220https://files.klauspost.com/compress/rawstudio-mint14.7z
221
222file                    out level   insize      outsize     millis  mb/s
223rawstudio-mint14.tar    zskp    1   8558382592  3667489370  20210   403.84
224rawstudio-mint14.tar    zskp    2   8558382592  3364592300  31873   256.07
225rawstudio-mint14.tar    zskp    3   8558382592  3158085214  77675   105.08
226rawstudio-mint14.tar    zskp    4   8558382592  2965110639  857750  9.52
227
228rawstudio-mint14.tar    zstd    1   8558382592  3609250104  17136   476.27
229rawstudio-mint14.tar    zstd    3   8558382592  3341679997  29262   278.92
230rawstudio-mint14.tar    zstd    6   8558382592  3235846406  77904   104.77
231rawstudio-mint14.tar    zstd    9   8558382592  3160778861  140946  57.91
232
233rawstudio-mint14.tar    gzstd   1   8558382592  3926257486  57722   141.40
234rawstudio-mint14.tar    gzkp    1   8558382592  3962605659  45113   180.92
235
236CSV data:
237https://files.klauspost.com/compress/nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv.zst
238
239file                    out level   insize      outsize     millis  mb/s
240nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zskp    1   3325605752  641339945   8925    355.35
241nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zskp    2   3325605752  591748091   11268   281.44
242nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zskp    3   3325605752  530289687   25239   125.66
243nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zskp    4   3325605752  476268884   135958  23.33
244
245nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zstd    1   3325605752  687399637   8233    385.18
246nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zstd    3   3325605752  598514411   10065   315.07
247nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zstd    6   3325605752  570522953   20038   158.27
248nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   zstd    9   3325605752  517554797   64565   49.12
249
250nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   gzstd   1   3325605752  928656485   23876   132.83
251nyc-taxi-data-10M.csv   gzkp    1   3325605752  922257165   16780   189.00
252```
253
254## Decompressor
255
256Staus: STABLE - there may still be subtle bugs, but a wide variety of content has been tested.
257
258This library is being continuously [fuzz-tested](https://github.com/klauspost/compress-fuzz),
259kindly supplied by [fuzzit.dev](https://fuzzit.dev/).
260The main purpose of the fuzz testing is to ensure that it is not possible to crash the decoder,
261or run it past its limits with ANY input provided.
262
263### Usage
264
265The package has been designed for two main usages, big streams of data and smaller in-memory buffers.
266There are two main usages of the package for these. Both of them are accessed by creating a `Decoder`.
267
268For streaming use a simple setup could look like this:
269
270```Go
271import "github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
272
273func Decompress(in io.Reader, out io.Writer) error {
274    d, err := zstd.NewReader(in)
275    if err != nil {
276        return err
277    }
278    defer d.Close()
279
280    // Copy content...
281    _, err = io.Copy(out, d)
282    return err
283}
284```
285
286It is important to use the "Close" function when you no longer need the Reader to stop running goroutines.
287See "Allocation-less operation" below.
288
289For decoding buffers, it could look something like this:
290
291```Go
292import "github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd"
293
294// Create a reader that caches decompressors.
295// For this operation type we supply a nil Reader.
296var decoder, _ = zstd.NewReader(nil)
297
298// Decompress a buffer. We don't supply a destination buffer,
299// so it will be allocated by the decoder.
300func Decompress(src []byte) ([]byte, error) {
301    return decoder.DecodeAll(src, nil)
302}
303```
304
305Both of these cases should provide the functionality needed.
306The decoder can be used for *concurrent* decompression of multiple buffers.
307It will only allow a certain number of concurrent operations to run.
308To tweak that yourself use the `WithDecoderConcurrency(n)` option when creating the decoder.
309
310### Dictionaries
311
312Data compressed with [dictionaries](https://github.com/facebook/zstd#the-case-for-small-data-compression) can be decompressed.
313
314Dictionaries are added individually to Decoders.
315Dictionaries are generated by the `zstd --train` command and contains an initial state for the decoder.
316To add a dictionary use the `WithDecoderDicts(dicts ...[]byte)` option with the dictionary data.
317Several dictionaries can be added at once.
318
319The dictionary will be used automatically for the data that specifies them.
320A re-used Decoder will still contain the dictionaries registered.
321
322When registering multiple dictionaries with the same ID, the last one will be used.
323
324It is possible to use dictionaries when compressing data.
325
326To enable a dictionary use `WithEncoderDict(dict []byte)`. Here only one dictionary will be used
327and it will likely be used even if it doesn't improve compression.
328
329The used dictionary must be used to decompress the content.
330
331For any real gains, the dictionary should be built with similar data.
332If an unsuitable dictionary is used the output may be slightly larger than using no dictionary.
333Use the [zstd commandline tool](https://github.com/facebook/zstd/releases) to build a dictionary from sample data.
334For information see [zstd dictionary information](https://github.com/facebook/zstd#the-case-for-small-data-compression).
335
336For now there is a fixed startup performance penalty for compressing content with dictionaries.
337This will likely be improved over time. Just be aware to test performance when implementing.
338
339### Allocation-less operation
340
341The decoder has been designed to operate without allocations after a warmup.
342
343This means that you should *store* the decoder for best performance.
344To re-use a stream decoder, use the `Reset(r io.Reader) error` to switch to another stream.
345A decoder can safely be re-used even if the previous stream failed.
346
347To release the resources, you must call the `Close()` function on a decoder.
348After this it can *no longer be reused*, but all running goroutines will be stopped.
349So you *must* use this if you will no longer need the Reader.
350
351For decompressing smaller buffers a single decoder can be used.
352When decoding buffers, you can supply a destination slice with length 0 and your expected capacity.
353In this case no unneeded allocations should be made.
354
355### Concurrency
356
357The buffer decoder does everything on the same goroutine and does nothing concurrently.
358It can however decode several buffers concurrently. Use `WithDecoderConcurrency(n)` to limit that.
359
360The stream decoder operates on
361
362* One goroutine reads input and splits the input to several block decoders.
363* A number of decoders will decode blocks.
364* A goroutine coordinates these blocks and sends history from one to the next.
365
366So effectively this also means the decoder will "read ahead" and prepare data to always be available for output.
367
368Since "blocks" are quite dependent on the output of the previous block stream decoding will only have limited concurrency.
369
370In practice this means that concurrency is often limited to utilizing about 2 cores effectively.
371
372
373### Benchmarks
374
375These are some examples of performance compared to [datadog cgo library](https://github.com/DataDog/zstd).
376
377The first two are streaming decodes and the last are smaller inputs.
378
379```
380BenchmarkDecoderSilesia-8                          3     385000067 ns/op     550.51 MB/s        5498 B/op          8 allocs/op
381BenchmarkDecoderSilesiaCgo-8                       6     197666567 ns/op    1072.25 MB/s      270672 B/op          8 allocs/op
382
383BenchmarkDecoderEnwik9-8                           1    2027001600 ns/op     493.34 MB/s       10496 B/op         18 allocs/op
384BenchmarkDecoderEnwik9Cgo-8                        2     979499200 ns/op    1020.93 MB/s      270672 B/op          8 allocs/op
385
386Concurrent performance:
387
388BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/kppkn.gtb.zst-16                28915         42469 ns/op    4340.07 MB/s         114 B/op          0 allocs/op
389BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/geo.protodata.zst-16           116505          9965 ns/op    11900.16 MB/s         16 B/op          0 allocs/op
390BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/plrabn12.txt.zst-16              8952        134272 ns/op    3588.70 MB/s         915 B/op          0 allocs/op
391BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/lcet10.txt.zst-16               11820        102538 ns/op    4161.90 MB/s         594 B/op          0 allocs/op
392BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/asyoulik.txt.zst-16             34782         34184 ns/op    3661.88 MB/s          60 B/op          0 allocs/op
393BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/alice29.txt.zst-16              27712         43447 ns/op    3500.58 MB/s          99 B/op          0 allocs/op
394BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/html_x_4.zst-16                 62826         18750 ns/op    21845.10 MB/s        104 B/op          0 allocs/op
395BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/paper-100k.pdf.zst-16          631545          1794 ns/op    57078.74 MB/s          2 B/op          0 allocs/op
396BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/fireworks.jpeg.zst-16         1690140           712 ns/op    172938.13 MB/s         1 B/op          0 allocs/op
397BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/urls.10K.zst-16                 10432        113593 ns/op    6180.73 MB/s        1143 B/op          0 allocs/op
398BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/html.zst-16                    113206         10671 ns/op    9596.27 MB/s          15 B/op          0 allocs/op
399BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallel/comp-data.bin.zst-16          1530615           779 ns/op    5229.49 MB/s           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
400
401BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/kppkn.gtb.zst-16             65217         16192 ns/op    11383.34 MB/s         46 B/op          0 allocs/op
402BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/geo.protodata.zst-16        292671          4039 ns/op    29363.19 MB/s          6 B/op          0 allocs/op
403BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/plrabn12.txt.zst-16          26314         46021 ns/op    10470.43 MB/s        293 B/op          0 allocs/op
404BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/lcet10.txt.zst-16            33897         34900 ns/op    12227.96 MB/s        205 B/op          0 allocs/op
405BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/asyoulik.txt.zst-16         104348         11433 ns/op    10949.01 MB/s         20 B/op          0 allocs/op
406BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/alice29.txt.zst-16           75949         15510 ns/op    9805.60 MB/s          32 B/op          0 allocs/op
407BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/html_x_4.zst-16             173910          6756 ns/op    60624.29 MB/s         37 B/op          0 allocs/op
408BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/paper-100k.pdf.zst-16       923076          1339 ns/op    76474.87 MB/s          1 B/op          0 allocs/op
409BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/fireworks.jpeg.zst-16       922920          1351 ns/op    91102.57 MB/s          2 B/op          0 allocs/op
410BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/urls.10K.zst-16              27649         43618 ns/op    16096.19 MB/s        407 B/op          0 allocs/op
411BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/html.zst-16                 279073          4160 ns/op    24614.18 MB/s          6 B/op          0 allocs/op
412BenchmarkDecoder_DecodeAllParallelCgo/comp-data.bin.zst-16        749938          1579 ns/op    2581.71 MB/s           0 B/op          0 allocs/op
413```
414
415This reflects the performance around May 2020, but this may be out of date.
416
417## Zstd inside ZIP files
418
419It is possible to use zstandard to compress individual files inside zip archives.
420While this isn't widely supported it can be useful for internal files.
421
422To support the compression and decompression of these files you must register a compressor and decompressor.
423
424It is highly recommended registering the (de)compressors on individual zip Reader/Writer and NOT
425use the global registration functions. The main reason for this is that 2 registrations from
426different packages will result in a panic.
427
428It is a good idea to only have a single compressor and decompressor, since they can be used for multiple zip
429files concurrently, and using a single instance will allow reusing some resources.
430
431See [this example](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd#example-ZipCompressor) for
432how to compress and decompress files inside zip archives.
433
434# Contributions
435
436Contributions are always welcome.
437For new features/fixes, remember to add tests and for performance enhancements include benchmarks.
438
439For general feedback and experience reports, feel free to open an issue or write me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/sh0dan).
440
441This package includes the excellent [`github.com/cespare/xxhash`](https://github.com/cespare/xxhash) package Copyright (c) 2016 Caleb Spare.
442