xdelta

Re: Xdelta 1.1.4

An especially grateful user wrote me to say thanks for the open-source software:

Firstly, Xdelta is an impressive piece of software, and I appreciate you writing it. I've done some tests and found it to be orders of magnitude faster than RTPatch, the expensive commercial diffing tool!

I'm using a Windows ported version of Xdelta 1.1.3 in a project I'm working on here, and it works great. (I realize that XDelta 1.1.3 is old, but I like how fast it is relative to the results). Because that version is licensed under the GPL, I am including a copy of XDelta.exe with the program instead of integrating the code directly. I'm content to continue doing this, as obviously I want to respect your licensing wishes for the software. (*)

Thanks! Another writes:

I hope you can release a bugfix and rub off the beautymarks. xdelta-1.1.x is still used widely and a maintenance release would be appreciated.

Thanks again! =)

This is a maintenence release: Xdelta 1.1.4 remains substantially unchanged since 1999. This release fixes a bug: Compressed data from 32-bit platforms failed to decompress on 64-bit platforms. This is fixed in the decoder (it was a badly-designed "hint", now ignored), so you can now read old 32-bit patches on 64-bit platforms. Patches produced by 1.1.4 are still readable by 1.1.3 on the same platform. Still, Xdelta 1.1.x is losing its edge.

Xdelta3 compresses faster and better, using a standardized data format—VCDIFF, and has no dependence on gzip or bzip2. If using a standardized encoding is not particularly important for you, Xdelta3 supports secondary compression options. Xdelta3 (with the -9 -S djw flags) is comparible in terms of compression, but much faster than bsdiff. Xdelta3 includes a Windows .exe in the official release.

As always, I'm interested in your feedback (file a new issue). Are you compressing gigabyte files with Xdelta3? Have you used dfc-gorilla (by the makers of RTPatch)?