NAME

       librsync - library for delta compression of streams

SYNOPSYS

        #include <stdio.h>
        #include <stdlib.h>
        #include <librsync.h>

        cc ... -lrsync

DESCRIPTION

       The librsync library implements network delta-compression of streams and files.  The algorithm is similar
       to  that  used  in  the rsync(1) and xdelta(2) programs, but specialized for transfer of arbitrary-length
       octet streams.  Unlike most diff programs, librsync does not require access to both of the files  on  the
       same  machine, but rather only a short ``signature'' of the old file and the complete contents of the new
       file.

       The canonical use of librsync is  in  the  rproxy(8)  reference  implementation  of  the  rsync  proposed
       extension  to  HTTP.   It  may be useful to other programs which wish to do delta-compression in HTTP, or
       within their own protocol.  There are HTTP-specific utility functions within librsync, but they need  not
       be used.

       A number of tools such as rdiff(1) provide command-line and scriptable access to rsync functions.

SEE ALSO

       rdiff(1)

       rdiff and librsync Manual

       http://rproxy.sourceforge.net/ or http://linuxcare.com.au/rproxy/.

       draft-pool-rsync

BUGS

       The rsync protocol is still evolving.  There may be bugs in the implementation.  The interface may change
       in the future, but it is becoming more stable.

       Many  routines will panic in case of error rather than returning an error code to the caller.  Patches to
       fix this are welcome, but at the current state of development aborting seems as  useful  as  trusting  to
       possibly-incomplete checking in the client.

AUTHOR

       Martin Pool <mbp@sourcefrog.net>, with Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org>.

       rdiff development has been supported by Linuxcare, Inc and VA Linux Systems.

Martin Pool                                          $Date$                                          librsync(3)