LZMA Compression

LZMA (Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain Algorithm) is an improved version of the famous LZ77 compression algorithm. It was improved in the way of maximum increasing of compression ratio, keeping high decompression speed and low memory requirements for decompressing.

Method ID

ID: 03 01 01 (hex) The LZMA method is identified by the 3-byte sequence 03 01 01 in 7z archive format.

Overview

LZMA provides excellent compression ratios through:

Dictionary-based LZ77 algorithm
Range encoding for entropy coding
Markov chain-based probability model
Optimized match finding

LZMA is the original algorithm used in .lzma files and was the default method in 7z archives before LZMA2 was introduced. It remains widely used for single-threaded compression.

Properties File Format

LZMA compressed files have a 13-byte header:

Offset  Size  Description
    1    Special LZMA properties (lc, lp, pb in encoded form)
    4    Dictionary size (little endian)
    8    Uncompressed size (little endian, -1 means unknown)
   -    Compressed data

Compression Parameters

LZMA supports the following encoding properties defined in LzmaEnc.h:13-39:

Dictionary Size (dictSize)

Type: UInt32
Range: (1 << 12) to (1 << 27) for 32-bit, (1 << 12) to (3 << 29) for 64-bit
Default: 1 << 24 (16 MB)The dictionary size determines how far back the encoder can reference previous data. Larger dictionaries provide better compression but require more memory.

UInt32 dictSize; /* (1 << 12) <= dictSize <= (1 << 27) for 32-bit version
                    (1 << 12) <= dictSize <= (3 << 29) for 64-bit version
                    default = (1 << 24) */

The dictionary size is automatically adjusted based on compression level:

Level 0-4: 1 << (level * 2 + 16)
Level 5+: 1 << (level + 20)

Literal Context Bits (lc)

Type: int
Range: 0 to 8
Default: 3Number of high bits of the previous byte used as context for literal encoding.

int lc; /* 0 <= lc <= 8, default = 3 */

Higher values can improve compression of text files but increase memory usage.

Literal Position Bits (lp)

Type: int
Range: 0 to 4
Default: 0Number of low bits of the current position used as context for literal encoding.

int lp; /* 0 <= lp <= 4, default = 0 */

The constraint lc + lp <= 4 is recommended but not enforced. Higher values significantly increase memory usage.

Position Bits (pb)

Type: int
Range: 0 to 4
Default: 2Number of low bits of the current position used as context for match length encoding.

int pb; /* 0 <= pb <= 4, default = 2 */

Compression Level (level)

Type: int
Range: 0 to 9
Default: 5Compression level affects multiple parameters automatically:

int level; /* 0 <= level <= 9 */

Level	Dict Size	Algorithm	Fast Bytes
0	64 KB	Fast	32
1	256 KB	Fast	32
2	1 MB	Fast	32
3	4 MB	Fast	32
4	16 MB	Fast	32
5	16 MB	Normal	32
6	32 MB	Normal	32
7	64 MB	Normal	64
8	128 MB	Normal	64
9	256 MB	Normal	64

Algorithm (algo)

Type: int
Range: 0 (fast) or 1 (normal)
Default: 1

int algo; /* 0 - fast, 1 - normal, default = 1 */

Fast (0): Hash chain mode, faster compression, lower ratio
Normal (1): Binary tree mode, slower compression, better ratio

Fast Bytes (fb)

Type: int
Range: 5 to 273
Default: 32 (level < 7) or 64 (level >= 7)

int fb; /* 5 <= fb <= 273, default = 32 */

Number of fast bytes. Higher values can improve compression ratio but slow down encoding.

Binary Tree Mode (btMode)

Type: int
Range: 0 (hash chain) or 1 (binary tree)
Default: 1

int btMode; /* 0 - hashChain Mode, 1 - binTree mode - normal, default = 1 */

Number of Hash Bytes (numHashBytes)

Type: int
Range: 2, 3, or 4
Default: 4

int numHashBytes; /* 2, 3 or 4, default = 4 */

Match Counter (mc)

Type: UInt32
Range: 1 to 1 << 30
Default: 32

UInt32 mc; /* 1 <= mc <= (1 << 30), default = 32 */

Maximum number of match candidates to check.

Number of Threads (numThreads)

Type: int
Range: 1 or 2
Default: 2 (if multithreading available)

int numThreads; /* 1 or 2, default = 2 */

LZMA supports only limited multithreading (up to 2 threads) for match finding. For better multithreading support, use LZMA2.

Write End Mark (writeEndMark)

Type: unsigned
Range: 0 or 1
Default: 0

unsigned writeEndMark; /* 0 - do not write EOPM, 1 - write EOPM, default = 0 */

Whether to write an end-of-payload marker (EOPM).

Memory Requirements

Encoding

Memory required for compression (LzmaEnc.c:41):

Memory = (dictSize * 11.5 + 6 MB) + state_size

Where:

dictSize: Dictionary size in bytes
state_size: (4 + (1.5 << (lc + lp))) KB
Default state_size (lc=3, lp=0): 16 KB

For level 5 (16 MB dictionary): ~190 MB for encodingFor level 9 (256 MB dictionary): ~2.9 GB for encoding

Decoding

Memory required for decompression:

Memory = dictSize + state_size

Stack usage: 200-400 bytes for local variables
Default state_size: 16 KB
Dictionary buffer: Equal to dictionary size used during encoding

Decompression requires significantly less memory than compression. A file compressed with a 256 MB dictionary only needs ~256 MB to decompress.

API Usage

Encoding

#include "LzmaEnc.h"

// Initialize properties
CLzmaEncProps props;
LzmaEncProps_Init(&props);
props.level = 5;
props.dictSize = 1 << 24;  // 16 MB
props.lc = 3;
props.lp = 0;
props.pb = 2;

// Create encoder
CLzmaEncHandle enc = LzmaEnc_Create(&g_Alloc);
if (enc == 0)
  return SZ_ERROR_MEM;

// Set properties
SRes res = LzmaEnc_SetProps(enc, &props);

// Write properties to header
Byte header[LZMA_PROPS_SIZE + 8];
size_t headerSize = LZMA_PROPS_SIZE;
res = LzmaEnc_WriteProperties(enc, header, &headerSize);

// Encode
res = LzmaEnc_Encode(enc, &outStream.funcTable, &inStream.funcTable,
  NULL, &g_Alloc, &g_Alloc);

// Destroy encoder
LzmaEnc_Destroy(enc, &g_Alloc, &g_Alloc);

Decoding

#include "LzmaDec.h"

// Read LZMA properties (5 bytes)
unsigned char header[LZMA_PROPS_SIZE + 8];
ReadFile(inFile, header, sizeof(header));

// Allocate decoder
CLzmaDec state;
LzmaDec_Construct(&state);
res = LzmaDec_Allocate(&state, header, LZMA_PROPS_SIZE, &g_Alloc);

// Initialize decoder
LzmaDec_Init(&state);

// Decode
for (;;) {
  int res = LzmaDec_DecodeToBuf(&state, dest, &destLen,
    src, &srcLen, finishMode);
  if (res != SZ_OK)
    break;
}

// Free decoder
LzmaDec_Free(&state, &g_Alloc);

Error Codes

LZMA encoder and decoder can return the following status codes:

Code	Description
`SZ_OK`	Success
`SZ_ERROR_DATA`	Data error during decoding
`SZ_ERROR_MEM`	Memory allocation error
`SZ_ERROR_PARAM`	Incorrect parameter in properties
`SZ_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED`	Unsupported properties
`SZ_ERROR_INPUT_EOF`	Needs more bytes in input buffer
`SZ_ERROR_WRITE`	Write callback error
`SZ_ERROR_OUTPUT_EOF`	Output buffer overflow
`SZ_ERROR_PROGRESS`	Break from progress callback
`SZ_ERROR_THREAD`	Multithreading error

Performance Characteristics

Typical performance on modern hardware (Intel Core i7, 3.5 GHz):Compression:

Level 5: ~2-3 MB/s
Level 9: ~1-2 MB/s

Decompression:

~20-40 MB/s (single-threaded)

Compression ratio:

Text files: 15-25% of original size
Executable files: 30-50% of original size
Multimedia files: 70-95% of original size (poorly compressible)

Command Line Usage

# Compress with LZMA method
7z a -m0=LZMA archive.7z file.txt

# Set compression level
7z a -m0=LZMA -mx=9 archive.7z file.txt

# Set dictionary size (32 MB)
7z a -m0=LZMA -md=32m archive.7z file.txt

# Set all parameters
7z a -m0=LZMA -mx=9 -md=64m -mfb=64 archive.7z file.txt

For new archives, consider using LZMA2 instead of LZMA. LZMA2 provides better multithreading support and handles incompressible data more efficiently.

Getting Started

Command Reference

Compression Methods

Archive Formats

Advanced Usage

LZMA Compression

Method ID

Overview

Properties File Format

Compression Parameters

Memory Requirements

Encoding

Decoding

API Usage

Encoding

Decoding

Error Codes

Performance Characteristics

Command Line Usage

See Also

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Getting Started

Command Reference

Compression Methods

Archive Formats

Advanced Usage

​Method ID

​Overview

​Properties File Format

​Compression Parameters

​Memory Requirements

​Encoding

​Decoding

​API Usage

​Encoding

​Decoding

​Error Codes

​Performance Characteristics

​Command Line Usage

​See Also

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Method ID

Overview

Properties File Format

Compression Parameters

Memory Requirements

Encoding

Decoding

API Usage

Encoding

Decoding

Error Codes

Performance Characteristics

Command Line Usage

See Also