This release adds official FreeBSD build support and fixes several platform compatibility issues.

What's New

• ✅ FreeBSD Build Support: BFC now builds successfully on FreeBSD 14.x
• ✅ Hardware CRC32C on FreeBSD: Proper compiler flags for SSE4.2/CRC32 intrinsics
• ✅ Platform Detection: Support for FreeBSD's amd64 architecture identifier
• ✅ API Bug Fix: Fixed encryption benchmark using incorrect reader API

Changes

Build System

• Add -mcrc32 compiler flag for CRC32 intrinsics on x86_64/amd64
• Detect FreeBSD's 'amd64' architecture (in addition to x86_64/AMD64)
• Switch from set_source_files_properties to target_compile_options for better flag handling

Bug Fixes

• Fix unused parameter warning in bfc_os_advise_nocache() on FreeBSD
• Fix benchmark_encrypt.c to use correct bfc_reader_set_encryption_password() API

Documentation

• Update README with FreeBSD installation instructions
• Add pkgconf dependency requirement for FreeBSD
• Mention FreeBSD in cross-platform support list

Platform Support

• ✅ Linux (tested)
• ✅ macOS (tested)
• ✅ FreeBSD 14.x (tested)

Installation on FreeBSD

# Install dependencies
sudo pkg install cmake pkgconf libzstd libsodium

# Build
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBFC_WITH_ZSTD=ON -DBFC_WITH_SODIUM=ON
make -C build

# Install
sudo make -C build install

Tested On

• FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE with Clang 19.1.7
• x86_64/amd64 architecture
• Hardware CRC32C acceleration verified working

Contributors

Thanks to all contributors who helped make BFC work on FreeBSD!

Full Changelog: v1.2.1...v1.2.2

What's New

Symlink Support

• Full symlink preservation: Create, extract, and list symbolic links with complete metadata preservation
• Cross-platform compatibility: Works on Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS, BSD)
• All symlink types supported: Relative paths, absolute paths, broken links, and directory links
• Integration with existing features: Symlinks work seamlessly with compression (ZSTD) and encryption (ChaCha20-Poly1305)

API Enhancements

• New bfc_add_symlink() function for programmatic symlink creation
• Enhanced CLI commands to handle symlinks across all operations (create, extract, list, info, verify)
• Proper symlink detection using lstat() instead of stat()

CLI Improvements

• Create command: Automatically detects and preserves symlinks during container creation
• Extract command: Restores symlinks with original targets and timestamps using lutimes()
• List command: Displays symlinks with 'l' prefix in file mode (e.g., lrwxrwxrwx)
• Info command: Shows symlink count and type statistics
• Verify command: Validates symlink integrity and targets

Testing & Quality

• Comprehensive unit test coverage for both writer and reader functionality
• Integration tests covering all symlink scenarios
• CI/CD pipeline updated with symlink testing
• Cross-platform build fixes for Linux systems

Technical Details

• Symlink targets are stored as file content within the container format
• Uses existing BFC_TYPE_SYMLINK object type in the BFC format
• Maintains backward compatibility with existing containers
• CRC32C validation ensures symlink target integrity

🐛 Bug Fixes

Fixed -C Flag in Extract Command

• Issue: The -C/--directory option in bfc extract command was failing with "I/O error" when using relative paths to container files
• Root Cause: The CLI was changing to the output directory before opening the container file, breaking relative path resolution
• Fix: Reordered operations to open the container file before changing directories
• Impact: The -C flag now works correctly for extracting to specific directories

🔧 Technical Details

Problem

# This was failing with "I/O error"
bfc extract -C /tmp/output ../path/to/container.bfc

The issue occurred because:

1. CLI parsed -C /tmp/output option
2. Code executed chdir("/tmp/output")
3. Code tried to open ../path/to/container.bfc (now relative to /tmp/output)
4. Container file not found, causing I/O error

Solution

• File: src/cli/cmd_extract.c
• Change: Moved container opening before directory change operation
• Security: Maintains proper error handling and cleanup

Before (Broken)

// Change directory first (BROKEN)
if (opts.output_dir) {
    chdir(opts.output_dir);  // Changes working directory
}
bfc_open(opts.container_file, &reader);  // Relative path now broken

After (Fixed)

// Open container first (FIXED)
bfc_open(opts.container_file, &reader);  // Works with original relative path
if (opts.output_dir) {
    chdir(opts.output_dir);  // Safe to change directory after opening
}

✅ Testing

Verified fix works with various scenarios:

• Relative paths: bfc extract -C /tmp ../container.bfc ✅
• Absolute paths: bfc extract -C /tmp /full/path/container.bfc ✅
• Current directory: bfc extract -C /tmp container.bfc ✅
• All directory preservation options work: -k, -f, etc. ✅

📋 Usage

The -C flag now works as documented:

# Extract all files to /tmp directory
bfc extract -C /tmp archive.bfc

# Extract preserving directory structure to specific location
bfc extract -k -C /tmp/restored archive.bfc

# Extract with force overwrite to specific directory
bfc extract -f -C /tmp archive.bfc

🔄 Backward Compatibility

• No breaking changes: All existing functionality remains unchanged
• API compatibility: Library API unchanged - this is purely a CLI fix
• Container format: No changes to .bfc file format

📦 What's Changed

• Fixed CLI extract -C flag functionality in src/cli/cmd_extract.c
• No changes to library code, container format, or other features
• All tests pass, including new validation for the -C flag

This is a targeted bug fix release that resolves a specific issue with the CLI extraction functionality. Users who encountered the "I/O error" when using bfc extract -C should upgrade to this version.

🔐 NEW: Full Encryption Support

• ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD encryption for secure file storage within BFC containers
• Argon2id key derivation from passwords for robust security
• Reader-specific encryption functions: bfc_reader_set_encryption_password() and bfc_reader_set_encryption_key()
• Encryption detection: bfc_has_encryption() to check if containers use encryption
• CLI integration: Password-based encryption/decryption support in command-line tools
• Encryption status display in container info summary

🗜️ NEW: Compression Support

• ZSTD compression integration for efficient file storage and reduced container sizes
• Configurable compression levels and thresholds for optimal performance
• Automatic compression/decompression handling in reader and writer APIs
• ZSTD streaming context support for large file processing
• Compression recommendations and performance optimizations

🧪 Comprehensive Test Coverage Improvements

• Enhanced overall line coverage from 74.5% to 78.6%, exceeding CI requirements
• Reader module coverage boost from 63.8% to 72.3% line coverage
• 800+ new test lines covering encryption, compression, and edge cases
• Robust edge case testing for malformed containers, corrupted data, and error conditions
• Parameter validation testing for all new encryption and compression APIs
• Integration testing for encryption + compression workflows

🔧 API Enhancements

• New encryption configuration APIs for both writer and reader contexts
• Compression configuration APIs with level and threshold controls
• Enhanced error handling with comprehensive validation across all functions
• Improved container verification with deep integrity checking
• Better CLI user experience with encryption status reporting

📊 Quality & Reliability Improvements

• CI/CD pipeline enhancements with proper coverage thresholds (75%)
• Extensive parameter validation for all new APIs
• Memory safety improvements in encryption and compression code paths
• Better error propagation and handling throughout the library
• Code formatting consistency and improved documentation

🚀 Performance & Security

• Hardware-accelerated encryption where available
• Efficient compression algorithms with streaming support
• Secure key management with proper cleanup and memory protection
• Optimized file I/O for compressed and encrypted content
• Minimal performance overhead for encryption/compression operations

📈 Development Experience

• Enhanced build system with optional dependency management
• Comprehensive examples for encryption and compression workflows
• Improved debugging support with better error messages
• Updated CI/CD workflows with artifact publishing permissions

Breaking Changes

⚠️ None - This release maintains full backward compatibility with v1.0.0

Requirements

• Optional: libsodium for encryption support (-DBFC_WITH_SODIUM=ON)
• Optional: libzstd for compression support (-DBFC_WITH_ZSTD=ON)

Summary

This major feature release transforms BFC from a basic container format into a comprehensive, secure, and efficient file archival solution with enterprise-grade encryption and compression capabilities.

🚀 BFC v1.0.0 - Initial Release

We're excited to announce the first stable release of BFC (Binary File Container), a high-performance, single-file container format for storing files and directories with complete POSIX metadata preservation.

✨ Key Features

• Single-file containers - Everything stored in one .bfc file
• POSIX metadata preservation - Full permissions, timestamps, and file types
• Fast random access - O(log N) file lookup with sorted index
• Integrity validation - CRC32C checksums with hardware acceleration
• Cross-platform support - Linux, macOS, and other Unix systems
• Crash-safe writes - Atomic container creation with index at EOF
• Memory efficient - Optimized for large containers and small memory footprint

📦 Installation

Linux

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i bfc_1.0.0_x86_64.deb

# RHEL/Fedora/CentOS
sudo rpm -i bfc-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

# Manual installation
tar -xzf bfc-1.0.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd bfc-1.0.0-linux-x86_64
sudo ./install.sh

macOS

# Install from DMG (recommended)
# Download and mount bfc-1.0.0-macos-{arch}.dmg
# Drag BFC.app to Applications or run CLI installer

# Manual installation
tar -xzf bfc-1.0.0-macos-{arch}.tar.gz
cd bfc-1.0.0-macos-{arch}
sudo ./install.sh

🔧 Quick Start

# Create a container
bfc create archive.bfc /path/to/files/

# List contents
bfc list archive.bfc

# Extract files
bfc extract archive.bfc

# Verify integrity
bfc verify --deep archive.bfc

# Get detailed information
bfc info archive.bfc

📊 Performance Targets

• Write: ≥300 MB/s for 1 MiB files
• Read: ≥1 GB/s sequential, ≥50 MB/s random 4 KiB
• List: ≤1 ms for directories with ≤1024 entries
• Index load: ≤5 ms for 100K entries on NVMe SSD

🛡️ Security

• Path traversal prevention with strict normalization
• Safe extraction using O_NOFOLLOW and parent directory validation
• CRC32C validation on all read operations
• Bounds checking on all buffer operations
• No arbitrary code execution - pure data format

📚 Documentation

• Usage Guide
• API Documentation
• File Format Specification
• Examples

🏗️ Technical Details

• Language: C17
• Build System: CMake 3.10+
• Compiler: GCC 7+ or Clang 6+
• Dependencies: POSIX-compliant system
• Test Coverage: 80%+ lines, 98%+ functions
• Static Analysis: cppcheck + CodeQL integration

📋 What's Included

Linux Packages

• bfc-1.0.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz - Portable archive
• bfc_1.0.0_x86_64.deb - Debian/Ubuntu package
• bfc-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm - RHEL/Fedora package

macOS Packages

• bfc-1.0.0-macos-x86_64.tar.gz / .dmg - Intel Mac
• bfc-1.0.0-macos-arm64.tar.gz / .dmg - Apple Silicon

Each package includes:

• bfc - CLI tool
• libbfc.{a,so,dylib} - Static and shared libraries
• bfc.h - C API header
• Installation scripts and documentation

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with modern C17, CMake, and GitHub Actions CI/CD. Thanks to the open source community for tools and inspiration.

🐛 Reporting Issues

Found a bug? Please open an issue with:

• BFC version
• Operating system and version
• Steps to reproduce
• Expected vs actual behavior

Full Changelog: https://github.com/zombocoder/bfc/commits/v1.0.0