zlib is a common compression library that OpenSAML relies on for deflate/inflate support.

Project website: http://zlib.org/

zlib is provided with most Linux and Unix operating systems.

Non-Windows

If you're building from source on a non-Windows platform, a default build is generally fine.

Windows

On Windows, zlib is pretty much a mess. The only modern project files are for building a DLL that uses the WINAPI calling convention for Visual Basic applications, and the default Makefile doesn't handle debug builds, or create properly versioned DLL and import library names. Short of a total rewrite, I built this by manually adjusting the makefile with different settings, running a build, and then copying the output files into separate directories.

Copying OpenSSL's sound versioning discipline, they also just added two entry points to a patch release.

First I do the 32-bit Release build:

Edit win32/Makefile.msc and change:
- IMPLIB=zlib1.lib
- SHAREDLIB=zlib1_2.dll
nmake /f win32\Makefile.msc
mkdir Release
copy zlib1.* Release
nmake /f win32\Makefile.msc clean

Now, the 64-bit Release build, switching to the x64 Tools command prompt:

mkdir x64
mkdir x64\Release
nmake /f win32\Makefile.msc
copy zlib1.* x64\Release
nmake /f win32\Makefile.msc clean

Now the 32-bit Debug build, switching to the 32-bit Tools command prompt:

Edit win32/Makefile.msc and change:
- IMPLIB=zlib1D.lib
- SHAREDLIB=zlib1_2D.dll
Change CFLAGS and turn /MD into /MDd, and add -D_DEBUG to WFLAGS
nmake win32/Makefile.msc
mkdir Debug
copy zlib1D.* Debug
nmake /f win32\Makefile.msc clean

Now, the 64-bit Debug build, switching back to the x64 Tools command prompt:

mkdir x64\Debug
nmake /f win32\Makefile.msc
copy zlib1D.* x64\Debug
nmake /f win32\Makefile.msc clean

The following files dependencies subdirectory of the cpp-msbuild project can be used to automate the build:

..\cpp-msbuild\dependencies\config.bat to set up the environment
..\cpp-msbuild\dependencies\zlib.bat to create the modified makefiles (requires 'sed' on the path)
X86 build (requires the appropriate VS command line):
```
..\cpp-msbuild\dependencies\zlib-compile.bat .
```
X64 build (requires the appropriate VS command line):
```
..\cpp-msbuild\dependencies\zlib-compile.bat x64
```

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