Zstd
zstd is a fast, lossless compression algorithm and tool suite. zstd is available in the Linux kernel to support initramfs compression, compressed kernel modules, and compressed swap space.
zstd originated at Facebook.
Installation
Kernel
General setup --->
Kernel compression mode (ZSTD) --->
(X) ZSTD
[*] Initial RAM filesystem and RAM disk (initramfs/initrd) support
[*] Support initial ramdisk/ramfs compressed using ZSTD
[*] Enable loadable module support --->
Module compression mode (ZSTD) --->
(X) ZSTD
Memory Management options --->
[*] Compressed cache for swap pages (EXPERIMENTAL)
Compressed cache for swap pages default compressor (zstd) --->
(X) zstd
Cryptographic API --->
{*} Zstd compression algorithm
File systems --->
<M> F2FS filesystem support
[*] ZSTD compression support
USE flags
USE flags for app-arch/zstd zstd fast compression library
lz4
|
Enable support for lz4 compression (as implemented in app-arch/lz4) |
lzma
|
Support for LZMA (de)compression algorithm |
split-usr
|
Enable behavior to support maintaining /bin, /lib*, /sbin and /usr/sbin separately from /usr/bin and /usr/lib* |
static-libs
|
Build static versions of dynamic libraries as well |
test
|
Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently) |
zlib
|
Add support for zlib (de)compression |
Emerge
root #emerge --ask app-arch/zstdUsage
Invocation
user $zstd --help*** zstd command line interface 64-bits v1.5.2, by Yann Collet ***
Usage :
zstd [args] [FILE(s)] [-o file]
FILE : a filename
with no FILE, or when FILE is - , read standard input
Arguments :
-# : # compression level (1-19, default: 3)
-d : decompression
-D DICT: use DICT as Dictionary for compression or decompression
-o file: result stored into `file` (only 1 output file)
-f : disable input and output checks. Allows overwriting existing files,
input from console, output to stdout, operating on links,
block devices, etc.
--rm : remove source file(s) after successful de/compression
-k : preserve source file(s) (default)
-h/-H : display help/long help and exit
Advanced arguments :
-V : display Version number and exit
-c : write to standard output (even if it is the console)
-v : verbose mode; specify multiple times to increase verbosity
-q : suppress warnings; specify twice to suppress errors too
--[no-]progress : forcibly display, or never display the progress counter.
note: any (de)compressed output to terminal will mix with progress counter text.
-r : operate recursively on directories
--filelist FILE : read list of files to operate upon from FILE
--output-dir-flat DIR : processed files are stored into DIR
--output-dir-mirror DIR : processed files are stored into DIR respecting original directory structure
--[no-]check : during compression, add XXH64 integrity checksum to frame (default: enabled). If specified with -d, decompressor will ignore/validate checksums in compressed frame (default: validate).
--trace FILE : log tracing information to FILE.
-- : All arguments after "--" are treated as files
Advanced compression arguments :
--ultra : enable levels beyond 19, up to 22 (requires more memory)
--long[=#]: enable long distance matching with given window log (default: 27)
--fast[=#]: switch to very fast compression levels (default: 1)
--adapt : dynamically adapt compression level to I/O conditions
--[no-]row-match-finder : force enable/disable usage of fast row-based matchfinder for greedy, lazy, and lazy2 strategies
--patch-from=FILE : specify the file to be used as a reference point for zstd's diff engine.
-T# : spawns # compression threads (default: 1, 0==# cores)
-B# : select size of each job (default: 0==automatic)
--single-thread : use a single thread for both I/O and compression (result slightly different than -T1)
--auto-threads={physical,logical} (default: physical} : use either physical cores or logical cores as default when specifying -T0
--rsyncable : compress using a rsync-friendly method (-B sets block size)
--exclude-compressed: only compress files that are not already compressed
--stream-size=# : specify size of streaming input from `stdin`
--size-hint=# optimize compression parameters for streaming input of approximately this size
--target-compressed-block-size=# : generate compressed block of approximately targeted size
--no-dictID : don't write dictID into header (dictionary compression only)
--[no-]compress-literals : force (un)compressed literals
--format=zstd : compress files to the .zst format (default)
--format=gzip : compress files to the .gz format
--format=xz : compress files to the .xz format
--format=lzma : compress files to the .lzma format
--format=lz4 : compress files to the .lz4 format
Advanced decompression arguments :
-l : print information about zstd compressed files
--test : test compressed file integrity
-M# : Set a memory usage limit for decompression
--[no-]sparse : sparse mode (default: enabled on file, disabled on stdout)
Dictionary builder :
--train ## : create a dictionary from a training set of files
--train-cover[=k=#,d=#,steps=#,split=#,shrink[=#]] : use the cover algorithm with optional args
--train-fastcover[=k=#,d=#,f=#,steps=#,split=#,accel=#,shrink[=#]] : use the fast cover algorithm with optional args
--train-legacy[=s=#] : use the legacy algorithm with selectivity (default: 9)
-o DICT : DICT is dictionary name (default: dictionary)
--maxdict=# : limit dictionary to specified size (default: 112640)
--dictID=# : force dictionary ID to specified value (default: random)
Benchmark arguments :
-b# : benchmark file(s), using # compression level (default: 3)
-e# : test all compression levels successively from -b# to -e# (default: 1)
-i# : minimum evaluation time in seconds (default: 3s)
-B# : cut file into independent blocks of size # (default: no block)
-S : output one benchmark result per input file (default: consolidated result)
--priority=rt : set process priority to real-time
Parallelization
zstd supports parallel compression in the main zstd utility which can be configured by environment variables or the -T parameter. It does not support parallel decompression in the main tool.
However, a contrib tool pzstd (which is installed alongside zstd) can both compress and decompress in parallel. It takes a different argument for the number of threads (-p). pzstd is not as widely used as zstd.
Configuration
zstd can be configured partly environment variables: ZSTD_NBTHREADS sets the number of threads to use for compression (0 means "autodetect number available") and ZSTD_CLEVEL sets the default compression level.
Create the following file:
/etc/env.d/99zstd# Use number of threads available for parallel compression
ZSTD_NBTHREADS="0"
Then run:
root #env-update && . /etc/profilePortage
To use zstd for Portage compression of both installed files and binary packages:
/etc/portage/make.confPORTAGE_COMPRESS="zstd"
BINPKG_COMPRESS="zstd"
It's possible for zstd to work harder - with the cost of more resource usage and compression time - to achieve a smaller file:
/etc/portage/make.confPORTAGE_COMPRESS="zstd"
BINPKG_COMPRESS="zstd"
# BINPKG_COMPRESS_FLAGS_ZSTD flags:
# * -T0 (already the default but adding here so it's not lost)
# * -22: maximum compression level
# * --ultra: work harder
BINPKG_COMPRESS_FLAGS_ZSTD="-T0 -22 --ultra"
Note that Portage 3.0.38 or newer will attempt to compress binpkgs in parallel based on MAKEOPTS.
Dracut
The kernel must be compiled with support for zstd compression!
To use Zstd for Dracut's compression of initramfs:
/etc/dracut.conf.d/compression.confcompress="zstd"
Currently busybox's kmod doesn't support zstd-compressed modules, and if busybox module is installed in initramfs it ovewrites original kmod. See here
Thus the busybox module should be blacklisted in dracut:
/etc/dracut.confomit_dracutmodules+=" busybox "
systemd
systemd has a Meson configuration option default-compression to allow choosing the preferred default compression algorithm.
To use zstd:
/etc/portage/env/sys-apps/systemdMYMESONARGS="-Ddefault-compression=zstd"
Ensure that USE=zstd is enabled on sys-apps/systemd.
Debug symbols
Valgrind does not yet support this.
Fangrui Song has championed and successfully implemented zstd debug info support in much of the toolchain, with it now being part of the ELF specification. zstd has some significant advantages over the default zlib, including compression ratio.
Portage support to make this truly configurable without a user patch is tracked as bug #906367.
Debug symbols can be compressed using zstd with newer versions of the toolchain:
- >=sys-devel/binutils-2.40[zstd]
- >=dev-libs/elfutils-0.189[zstd]
- >=sys-devel/gdb-13.1[zstd]
- >=sys-devel/llvm-16[zstd] if using lld or lldb, etc
Note that GCC doesn't need USE=zstd as it has a different meaning there.
Portage can be patched to pass --compress-debug-sections=zstd to enable this:
/etc/portage/patches/sys-apps/portage/compressdebug-zstd.patchMake Portage use zstd for debug info compression.
Make sure binutils[zstd], elfutils[zstd], and gdb[zstd] are emerged first!
Portage bug to make this properly configurable: https://bugs.gentoo.org/906367
--- a/bin/estrip
+++ b/bin/estrip
@@ -295,7 +295,7 @@ save_elf_debug() {
mv "${splitdebug}" "${dst}"
else
local objcopy_flags="--only-keep-debug"
- ${FEATURES_compressdebug} && objcopy_flags+=" --compress-debug-sections"
+ ${FEATURES_compressdebug} && objcopy_flags+=" --compress-debug-sections=zstd"
${OBJCOPY} ${objcopy_flags} "${src}" "${dst}" &&
${OBJCOPY} --add-gnu-debuglink="${dst}" "${src}"
fi
Removal
Unmerge
root #emerge --ask --depclean --verbose app-arch/zstdSee also
- Gzip — a data compression utility maintained by the GNU project that uses Lempel-Ziv (LZ77) encoding
- Bzip2 — high-quality, patent free file compressor using the Burrows-Wheeler algorithm.
- Xz-utils — LZMA2-based data compression utility.