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XZ Utils

XZ Utils, from the Tukaani Project, is an open-source C implementation of the .xz compression format, including the xz tool and the liblzma library. Its core components are under the BSD Zero Clause License (0BSD).

Licensing at a Glance

  • Open source

  1. From version 5.5.2beta onwards the core components of XZ Utils are under the BSD Zero Clause License (0BSD); earlier versions released as public domain remain in the public domain.[1]

  2. Some parts, such as scripts adapted from GNU gzip and some build-system files, are under other free software licences such as LGPLv2.1, GPLv2 or GPLv3.[2]

  3. liblzma and the command-line tools xz, xzdec, lzmadec and lzmainfo are under 0BSD, except that GNU getopt_long (LGPLv2.1+) is linked in on systems without a usable getopt_long.[3]

  4. The xzgrep, xzdiff, xzless and xzmore scripts are adapted from GNU gzip and are under GPLv2+.[4]

  5. Acknowledging XZ Utils when copying significant amounts of its 0BSD code into a project is described as polite but not legally required by the licence.[5]

Products

References

  1. XZ Utils · tukaani.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  2. XZ Utils · tukaani.org · retrieved 2026-09-27
  3. xz/COPYING at master · tukaani-project/xz · GitHub · github.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
  4. xz/COPYING at master · tukaani-project/xz · GitHub · github.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
  5. xz/COPYING at master · tukaani-project/xz · GitHub · github.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
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