wtf is rs-async-zip?

async_zip is a library for the Rust programming language that lets applications read and write ZIP files without blocking other work from happening. ZIP files are those familiar compressed archives that bundle multiple files together and shrink their size. The "asynchronous" part means a program using this library can do other things, like respond to user input or handle other network requests, while it's in the middle of reading or writing a large ZIP file, rather than freezing up until the operation finishes. Under the hood, the library works with two popular Rust frameworks for managing concurrent operations, called futures and tokio. It supports several well-known compression methods (Deflate, bzip2, LZMA, zstd, and xz), so it can handle ZIP files created by most standard tools. Developers can read archives from a file on disk, from a stream of data coming over a network, or from data already sitting in memory. Writing works similarly, you can write a complete file's worth of data at once, or stream data in piece by piece. It also includes initial support for ZIP64, which is the extended format needed for very large archives. This library is aimed at Rust developers building applications that need to handle ZIP files efficiently, particularly when responsiveness matters. For example, if you're building a web server that lets users download compressed bundles of files, or a backup tool that archives data in the background while the user keeps working, this library provides the building blocks. It also supports WASM, meaning it could be used in web-based applications that run in the browser. One notable design choice is the use of feature flags, essentially toggles that let developers include only the pieces they need. Someone who only needs Deflate compression and is using the tokio framework can leave out the other compression methods, keeping their application smaller and faster to compile. The project is actively maintained by a single developer who openly welcomes contributions, noting that fully implementing the ZIP specification is a large effort for one person.