Install libzip with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• zipcmp
• zipmerge
• ziptool

Project history

The libzip license page carries copyright years beginning in 1999 for Dieter Baron and Thomas Klausner. The project news records the first standalone release, libzip 0.6, on June 9, 2005, when the API was overhauled, the license changed to the three-clause BSD license, man pages were added, and zipcmp and zipmerge were installed.

libzip 1.0 was released on May 3, 2015 with an I/O abstraction layer, native Windows file API support, file modification time support, the zip_error_t type, and a security fix for CVE-2015-2331. The official repository moved from the project Mercurial server to GitHub on December 8, 2017 to make contribution via issues and pull requests easier.

Adoption history

libzip spread because it solves the library case that Info-ZIP-style tools do not: programmatic archive editing with a C API, package-manager-friendly licensing, and no requirement to shell out to zip or unzip. Its own packages page tracks distribution packaging, and the API documentation is structured around both reading and creating or modifying archives.

The project continued to add archive-format features used by downstream software: Zip64 and UTF-8 work in 0.11 in 2013, AES encryption in 1.2.0 in 2017, bzip2 support in 1.3.0 in 2017, traditional PKWare encryption support in 1.7.0 in 2020, and zstd and lzma support in 1.8.0 in 2021.

How it is used

Developers use libzip when an application needs structured ZIP access: opening archives, reading entries, adding or replacing files, setting comments, changing compression or encryption, working with source callbacks, and closing modified archives. The command-line programs are useful for package tests, archive comparison, merging, and scripted edits.

Why package nerds care

libzip matters in package graphs because ZIP is not just a file-compression format: it underlies EPUB, OOXML, OpenDocument, Java archives, app bundles, firmware, and asset containers. A small C library that can modify ZIP archives safely becomes a dependency for runtimes, document tools, language bindings, and build systems.

Timeline

• 1999: libzip copyright history begins with Dieter Baron and Thomas Klausner.
• 2005-06-09: libzip 0.6 became the first standalone release.
• 2013-03-23: libzip 0.11 added Zip64 and UTF-8 support.
• 2015-05-03: libzip 1.0 introduced an I/O abstraction layer and fixed CVE-2015-2331.
• 2017-12-08: The official repository moved from Mercurial to GitHub.
• 2021-06-18: libzip 1.8.0 added zstd and lzma compression support.

Related projects

• libzip sits beside command-line ZIP implementations rather than replacing them. Related concepts and projects include Info-ZIP tools, PKWARE ZIP specifications, zlib, language bindings, and the many document and package formats built on ZIP containers.

Sources

• https://libzip.org/documentation/libzip/
• https://libzip.org/license/
• https://libzip.org/news/
• https://libzip.org/packages/