7-Zip Extra history
-------------------

This file contains only information about changes related to that package exclusively.
The full history of changes is listed in history.txt in main 7-Zip program.


21.07          2021-12-26
-------------------------
- New switches: -spm and -im!{file_path} to exclude directories from processing 
    for specified paths that don't contain path separator character at the end of path.
- The sorting order of files in archives was slightly changed to be more consistent
  for cases where the name of some directory is the same as the prefix part of the name
  of another directory or file.
- TAR archives created by 7-Zip now are more consistent with archives created by GNU TAR program.


21.06          2021-11-24
-------------------------
- New switch -mmemuse={N}g / -mmemuse=p{N} to set a limit on memory usage (RAM) 
  for compressing and decompressing.
- Bug in versions 21.00-21.05 was fixed:
  7-Zip didn't set attributes of directories during archive extracting.
- Some bugs were fixed.


21.04 beta     2021-11-02
-------------------------
- 7-Zip now reduces the number of working CPU threads for compression,
  if RAM size is not enough for compression with big LZMA2 dictionary.
- 7-Zip now can create and check "file.sha256" text files that contain the list 
  of file names and SHA-256 checksums in format compatible with sha256sum program.
	7-Zip can work with such checksum files as with archives,
	but these files don't contain	real file data.
  The context menu commands for command line version::
    7z a -thash file.sha256 *.txt
    7z t -thash file.sha256
    7z t -thash -shd. file.sha256 
  New -shd{dir_path} switch to set the directory that is used to check files 
  referenced by "file.sha256" file for "Test" operation. 
  If -shd{dir_path} is not specified, 7-Zip uses the directory where "file.sha256" is stored.  
- New -xtd switch to exclude directory metadata records from processing.


21.03 beta     2021-07-20
-------------------------
- The maximum dictionary size for LZMA/LZMA2 compressing was increased to 4 GB (3840 MiB).
- Minor speed optimizations in LZMA/LZMA2 compressing.


21.02 alpha    2021-05-06
-------------------------
- 7-Zip now writes additional field for filename in UTF-8 encoding to zip archives.
  It allows to extract correct file name from zip archives on different systems.
- Some changes and improvements in ZIP and TAR code.


21.01 alpha    2021-03-09
-------------------------
- The improvements for speed of ARM64 version using hardware CPU instructions 
  for AES, CRC-32, SHA-1 and SHA-256.
- The bug in versions 18.02 - 21.00 was fixed:
  7-Zip could not correctly extract some ZIP archives created with xz compression method.
- Some bugs were fixed.


20.02 alpha    2020-08-08
-------------------------
- The default number of LZMA2 chunks per solid block in 7z archive was increased to 64.
  It allows to increase the compression speed for big 7z archives, if there is a big number 
  of CPU cores and threads.
- The speed of PPMd compressing/decompressing was increased for 7z/ZIP archives.
- The new -ssp switch. If the switch -ssp is specified, 7-Zip doesn't allow the system 
  to modify "Last Access Time" property of source files for archiving and hashing operations. 
- Some bugs were fixed.


20.00 alpha    2020-02-06
-------------------------
- 7-Zip now supports new optional match finders for LZMA/LZMA2 compression: bt5 and hc5, 
  that can work faster than bt4 and hc4 match finders for the data with big redundancy.
- The compression ratio was improved for Fast and Fastest compression levels with the 
  following default settings:
   - Fastest level (-mx1) : hc5 match finder with 256 KB dictionary.
   - Fast    level (-mx3) : hc5 match finder with 4 MB dictionary.
- Minor speed optimizations in multithreaded LZMA/LZMA2 compression for Normal/Maximum/Ultra 
  compression levels.
- bzip2 decoding code was updated to support bzip2 archives, created by lbzip2 program.


19.02 alpha    2019-09-05
-------------------------
- 7-Zip now can use new x86/x64 hardware instructions for SHA-1 and SHA-256, supported
  by AMD Ryzen and latest Intel CPUs: Ice Lake and Goldmont.
  It increases
    - the speed of SHA-1/SHA-256 hash value calculation, 
    - the speed of encryption/decryption in zip AES, 
    - the speed of key derivation for encryption/decryption in 7z/zip/rar archives.
- The speed of zip AES encryption and 7z/zip/rar AES decryption was increased with 
  the following improvements:
   - 7-Zip now can use new x86/x64 VAES (AVX Vector AES) instructions, supported by 
     Intel Ice Lake CPU. 
   - The existing code of x86/x64 AES-NI was improved also.
- Some bugs were fixed.


19.00          2019-02-21
-------------------------
- Encryption strength for 7z archives was increased:
  the size of random initialization vector was increased from 64-bit to 128-bit,
  and the pseudo-random number generator was improved.
- Some bugs were fixed.


18.06          2018-12-30
-------------------------
- The speed for LZMA/LZMA2 compressing was increased by 3-10%,
  and there are minor changes in compression ratio.
- Some bugs were fixed.


18.05          2018-04-30
-------------------------
- The speed for LZMA/LZMA2 compressing was increased 
    by 8% for fastest/fast compression levels and 
    by 3% for normal/maximum compression levels.


18.03 beta     2018-03-04
-------------------------
- The speed for single-thread LZMA/LZMA2 decoding
  was increased  by 30% in x64 version and by 3% in x86 version.
- 7-Zip now can use multi-threading for 7z/LZMA2 decoding,
  if there are multiple independent data chunks in LZMA2 stream.


9.35 beta           2014-12-07
------------------------------
  - SFX modules were moved to LZMA SDK package.


9.34 alpha          2014-06-22
------------------------------
  - Minimum supported system now is Windows 2000 for EXE and DLL files.
  - all EXE and DLL files use msvcrt.dll.
  - 7zr.exe now support AES encryption.


9.18                2010-11-02
------------------------------
  - New small SFX module for installers.


9.17                2010-10-04
------------------------------
  - New 7-Zip plugin for FAR Manager x64.


9.10                2009-12-30
------------------------------
  - 7-Zip for installers now supports LZMA2.


9.09                2009-12-12
------------------------------
  - LZMA2 compression method support.
  - Some bugs were fixed.


4.65                2009-02-03
------------------------------
  - Some bugs were fixed.


4.38 beta           2006-04-13
------------------------------
  - SFX for installers now supports new properties in config file:
    Progress, Directory, ExecuteFile, ExecuteParameters.


4.34 beta           2006-02-27
------------------------------
  - ISetProperties::SetProperties:
      it's possible to specify desirable number of CPU threads: 
           PROPVARIANT: name=L"mt", vt = VT_UI4, ulVal = NumberOfThreads
      If "mt" is not defined, 7za.dll will check number of processors in system to set 
      number of desirable threads. 
      Now 7za.dll can use:
        2 threads for LZMA compressing
        N threads for BZip2 compressing
        4 threads for BZip2 decompressing
      Other codecs use only one thread. 
      Note: 7za.dll can use additional "small" threads with low CPU load.
  - It's possible to call ISetProperties::SetProperties to specify "mt" property for decoder.


4.33 beta           2006-02-05
------------------------------
  - Compressing speed and Memory requirements were increased.
    Default dictionary size was increased: Fastest: 64 KB, Fast: 1 MB, 
    Normal: 4 MB, Max: 16 MB, Ultra: 64 MB.
  - 7z/LZMA now can use only these match finders: HC4, BT2, BT3, BT4


4.27                2005-09-21
------------------------------
 - Some GUIDs/interfaces were changed.
   IStream.h:
     ISequentialInStream::Read now works as old ReadPart
     ISequentialOutStream::Write now works as old WritePart
