Zlib level in JDK7

[Alan Bateman]

Steve Poole wrote:
> :
> I can appreciate why you want to be cautious right now - but it is
> important that the codebase is regularly upgraded. If IcedTea have shown
> that 1.2.5 is "ok"  then I'd say the risk is quite low. 
>
> For JDK 8 it would make sense to discuss the pros and cons of relying on
> the system version of zlib.  I can make the case either way though.
>   
We should probably add a build option around this so there is the option 
of using the system zip library in preference to compiling the zlib copy 
in the repository. However, I don't think we can get away from keeping a 
copy in the repository as we need to be able to compile to platforms 
that don't have zlib.

Do you have cycles to do testing with zlib 1.2.5, ideally on platforms 
other than Linux? (I suggest platforms other than Linux as it does 
appear that this version is used there and it would really help to get 
confirmation that all is well on other platforms too).

-Alan.