zstandard_cli 1.5.5

Command-line interface for compressing and decompressing files with Zstandard.

zstandard_cli

Pure-Dart Zstandard API and command-line tools for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with bundled native libraries for x64 and arm64.

Dart API

final codec = ZstandardCLI();
final compressed = await codec.compress(data, compressionLevel: 3);
final decompressed = compressed == null
    ? null
    : await codec.decompress(
        compressed,
        maxOutputSize: 64 * 1024 * 1024,
      );

The Uint8List? extensions expose the same compress and decompress options. Compression levels are 1–22 and empty input produces a valid frame. Decompression supports concatenated frames and frames without a declared content size. It returns null on failure and enforces a 256 MiB output limit by default.

Command line

After dart pub global activate zstandard_cli, use the installed executables:

zstandard-compress --level 5 input.bin
zstandard-decompress input.bin.zstd

The same commands can be run from a package checkout:

dart run zstandard_cli:compress --level 5 input.bin
dart run zstandard_cli:decompress input.bin.zstd

Common options:

-o, --output PATH   output path, or - for stdout
-f, --force         replace an existing output file
-h, --help          show help
    --version       show the package version

Compression also accepts -l, --level 1..22. Decompression accepts -m, --max-output-size BYTES. Use - as the input to read stdin; it defaults to stdout, so pipelines remain binary-clean. File compression appends .zstd. File decompression strips .zstd, or appends .out when the input has no such suffix. Existing outputs are refused unless --force is present; an output that aliases the input is always refused.

Exit codes are 0 for success, 1 for I/O or codec failure, and 2 for invalid arguments or a refused overwrite.

Native library resolution

The package resolves the library through the active Dart package configuration, independent of the process working directory. ZSTANDARD_CLI_LIBRARY can name an explicit library for testing or custom deployment; an executable-adjacent library is also supported for compiled applications. Windows bundles use the static MSVC runtime and do not require a matching redistributable solely for this library.

Testing

dart test
dart analyze

Tests verify empty, unknown-size and concatenated frames, output bounds, symbol exports, CWD-independent loading, file collisions, and CLI exit codes.

See the repository CLI guide for more detail.