[gnuastro-commits] master 958018d: Explained Lzip in book, added to checklist

[Mohammad Akhlaghi]

branch: master
commit 958018d3c3144e5f068ad79fdecbb6fa68c1da29
Author: Mohammad Akhlaghi <address@hidden>
Commit: Mohammad Akhlaghi <address@hidden>

    Explained Lzip in book, added to checklist
    
    The Lzip compression algorithm is a new (compared to Gzip) algorithm that
    provides a much better compression rate and archival capacity. From release
    0.2, Gnuastro's tarball will be available in the Lzip and Gzip, so an
    explanation was added to the "Quick start" and "Release tarball" sections
    of the book.
---
 doc/gnuastro.texi         |   38 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 doc/release-checklist.txt |    4 +++-
 2 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/gnuastro.texi b/doc/gnuastro.texi
index 463af6c..f6eb667 100644
--- a/doc/gnuastro.texi
+++ b/doc/gnuastro.texi
@@ -628,23 +628,27 @@ founding basis of the Gnuastro.
 @cindex Check
 @cindex Build
 @cindex Compile
address@hidden GNU Tar
 @cindex Uncompress source
 @cindex Source, uncompress
 Gnuastro has three mandatory dependencies and two optional ones for added
 functionality, see @ref{Dependencies}. The latest official release tarball
 is always available as
 @url{http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-latest.tar.gz,
address@hidden@footnote{The same tar command (@command{$
-tar xf}) can also be used to unpack @file{tar.xz} and @file{tar.lz}
-tarballs.}, see @ref{Release tarball}. If you have downloaded the tarball
-in the @file{TOPGNUASTRO} directory and the dependencies are installed, you
-can unpack, compile, check and install Gnuastro with the following
-commands:
address@hidden For better compression (faster download),
+we also provide an Lzip compressed tarball at
address@hidden://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuastro/gnuastro-latest.tar.lz,
address@hidden, see @ref{Release tarball} for more details
+on the tarball release. If you have downloaded the tarball in the
address@hidden directory and the dependencies are installed, you can
+unpack, compile, check and install Gnuastro with the following commands. If
+you use GNU Tar, the same command (@command{$ tar xf}) can also be used to
+unpack @file{.tar.xz} and @file{.tar.lz} tarballs.
 
 @example
 $ cd TOPGNUASTRO
-$ tar xf gnuastro-latest.tar.gz
-$ cd gnuastro-X.X                  # Replace X.X with version number
+$ tar xf gnuastro-latest.tar.gz    # Also usable for `.lz' and `.xz'.
+$ cd gnuastro-X.X                  # Replace X.X with version number.
 $ ./configure
 $ make
 $ make check
@@ -2707,6 +2711,24 @@ activities, please clone the version controlled source 
as described in
 
 @end table
 
address@hidden Gzip
address@hidden Lzip
+Gnuastro's official tarball is released with two formats: Gzip (with suffix
address@hidden) and Lzip (with suffix @file{.tar.lz}). The former is a very
+well-known and widely used compression program created by GNU and available
+in most systems. The latter provides a better compression rate and more
+robust archival capacity. For example Gnuastro 0.2's tarball was 2.8MB and
+4.2MB with Lzip and Gzip respectively. From the
address@hidden://www.nongnu.org/lzip/lzip.html, Lzip webpage}: ``Lzip is a
+lossless data compressor with a user interface similar to the one of gzip
+or bzip2. Lzip can compress about as fast as gzip (@command{lzip -0}), or
+compress most files more than bzip2 (@command{lzip -9}). Decompression
+speed is intermediate between gzip and bzip2. Lzip is better than gzip and
+bzip2 from a data recovery perspective.'' However, Lzip is currently not
+too common, so it might not be pre-installed in your operating
+system. Installing it from your operating system's package manager or from
+source is very easy.
+
 The GNU FTP server is mirrored (has backups) in various locations on the
 globe (@url{http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html}). You can use the closest
 mirror to your location for a more faster download. Note that only some
diff --git a/doc/release-checklist.txt b/doc/release-checklist.txt
index 8fa41de..2d5e437 100644
--- a/doc/release-checklist.txt
+++ b/doc/release-checklist.txt
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ all the commits needed for this release have been completed.
    $ ./tmpfs-config-make
    $ cd build
    $ make distcheck -j8
+   $ make dist-lzip
 
  - Upload the tarball with the command below: Note that `gnupload'
    uses `ncftpput' which comes with the `ncftp' package. The replaces
@@ -45,7 +46,8 @@ all the commits needed for this release have been completed.
    For a stable release:
 
        $  /path/to/gnulib/build-aux/gnupload --to ftp.gnu.org:gnuastro   \
-               --replace --symlink-regex gnuastro-X.X.tar.gz
+               --replace --symlink-regex                                 \
+               gnuastro-X.X.tar.gz gnuastro-X.X.tar.lz
 
  - Update the the top webpage (`doc/gnuastro-top.html' and possible
    translations).