Spec conformance: zstd.zig implements the Zstandard 1.6.0 specification natively in Zig - every algorithm, frame element, and default table in this document follows that version.

Getting Started

zstd.zig is a complete native Zig implementation of Zstandard compression. No C bindings, no external dependencies - just Zig.

Version Requirement

This library targets Zig 0.17.0. Download from ziglang.org.

Zig Version	Status
0.17.0	Supported - required for this library
0.16.x	Use library v0.0.3 (previous stable)

Quick Start

Add zstd.zig to your build.zig.zon:

.zstd = .{
    .url = "https://github.com/muhammad-fiaz/zstd.zig/archive/refs/tags/0.0.4.tar.gz",
    .hash = "...",  // use zig fetch --save to get the hash
},

Then in your build.zig:

const target = b.standardTargetOptions(.{});
const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{});
const zstd_dep = b.dependency("zstd", .{
    .target = target,
    .optimize = optimize,
});
exe.root_module.addImport("zstd", zstd_dep.module("zstd"));

Basic Usage

One-Shot Compression

const std = @import("std");
const zstd = @import("zstd");

pub fn main() !void {
    var gpa = std.heap.DebugAllocator(.{}){};
    defer _ = gpa.deinit();
    const allocator = gpa.allocator();

    const original = "Hello, zstd.zig! This text will be compressed.";

    // Compress with default level
    const compressed = try zstd.compress(allocator, original);
    defer allocator.free(compressed);

    // Decompress
    const decompressed = try zstd.decompress(allocator, compressed);
    defer allocator.free(decompressed);

    std.debug.print("Original: {s}\n", .{original});
    std.debug.print("Compressed: {d} bytes\n", .{compressed.len});
    std.debug.print("Decompressed: {s}\n", .{decompressed});
}

With Compression Level

// Use fast compression (level 1)
const fast = try zstd.compressWithLevel(allocator, data, 1);

// Use best compression (level 19)
const best = try zstd.compressWithLevel(allocator, data, 19);

// Use a custom level 12
const custom = try zstd.compressWithLevel(allocator, data, 12);

With Options

const opts = zstd.CompressionOptions{ .level = 9, .checksum = true, .windowLog = 20 };
const compressed = try zstd.compressWithOptions(allocator, data, opts);

Reusable Contexts

For repeated operations with the same settings:

var cctx = zstd.CompressionContext.init(allocator);
defer cctx.deinit();

var dctx = zstd.DecompressionContext.init(allocator);
defer dctx.deinit();

// Compress multiple buffers
const c1 = try cctx.compressAlloc(data1);
defer allocator.free(c1);

const c2 = try cctx.compressAlloc(data2);
defer allocator.free(c2);

const d1 = try dctx.decompressAlloc(c1);
defer allocator.free(d1);

What's Next

• Installation - Detailed setup instructions
• Compression - All compression options
• Decompression - Decompression and frame inspection
• Streaming - Chunk-based processing
• Dictionaries - Dictionary compression