This project implements a file compression and decompression utility using the Huffman Coding algorithm. It allows users to compress and decompress text files by building a Huffman tree, generating Huffman codes, and then storing the compressed file. Additionally, the project provides a mechanism to handle file frequencies, which are necessary for decompression.

The program consists of several modules:

• Huffman coding for compressing and decompressing text files.
• Min-heap data structure used to build the Huffman tree.
• File handling for reading and writing files.
• Compression and decompression utilities for file operations.

• Compression: Compress text files using Huffman coding.
• Decompression: Decompress files that were compressed using this algorithm, utilizing the frequencies of characters stored in a separate file.
• Memory Management: Efficient memory handling for the Huffman tree.
• Flexible File Operations: Handle files with different character sets and manage compression and decompression output.

1. Clone this repository:

   https://github.com/Ayush272002/HuffZip.git
   cd HuffZip

2. Build the project using make:

   make

3. Once built, the executable huffman_compression will be located in the build directory.

1. Compression: To compress a file, run the following command:

   ./build/huffman_compression compress <input_file> <output_file>

   This will compress the input file and save the compressed output to the output file.

2. Decompression: To decompress a file, you will need the frequencies file (frequencies.bin) generated during compression:

   ./build/huffman_compression decompress <input_file> <output_file>

   This will decompress the input file and save the result in the output file.

• Build: make
  Compiles the source files and generates the executable huffman_compression in the build directory.

• Clean: make clean
  Removes object files and the executable from the build directory.

• Run: make run
  Builds the project and runs the executable for testing purposes.

• Debug: make debug
  Builds the project with debugging symbols, which can be helpful for tracing issues during development.

/huffman-compression
├── /src                  # Source code files
│   ├── main.c            # Main program entry point
│   ├── huffman.c         # Huffman coding and tree construction
│   ├── minheap.c         # Min-heap data structure for Huffman tree
│   └── file_handler.c    # File handling operations for reading and writing
├── /include              # Header files
│   ├── huffman.h         # Declarations for Huffman coding
│   ├── minheap.h         # Declarations for min-heap data structure
│   └── file_handler.h    # Declarations for file operations
├── /build                # Build directory (created on `make`)
├── Makefile              # Makefile to automate building and cleaning
└── README.md             # Project README

1. Compress a file:

   ./build/huffman_compression compress test.txt test_compressed.txt

2. Decompress the file:

   ./build/huffman_compression decompress test_compressed.txt decompressed.txt

3. Check the content of the decompressed file to verify if the process worked as expected.

• If you encounter a segmentation fault or other issues, ensure that your input file is correctly formatted and does not contain unexpected characters. Additionally, debug with make debug to help track down memory issues.
• Missing Huffman Codes: If the program complains about missing Huffman codes for certain characters during compression, make sure all characters in the input file are handled properly by the generateCodes function.

Feel free to contribute to this project by forking the repository and submitting a pull request. If you find any bugs or have ideas for improvements, don't hesitate to open an issue!

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.