Zstandard compression format for Content-Encoding

[nidhijaju]

Request for Mozilla Position on an Emerging Web Specification

• Specification Title: Zstd Content-Encoding
• Specification or proposal URL (if available): https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8878
• Explainer URL (if available): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aDyUw4mAzRdLyZyXpVgWvO-eLpc4ERz7I_7VDIPo9Hc/edit?usp=sharing
• Caniuse.com URL (optional):
• Bugzilla URL (optional): https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=zstd
• Mozillians who can provide input (optional): @martinthomson

Other information

Zstandard, or "zstd", is a data compression mechanism, described in RFC8878, providing high compression ratios. The proposal is to add "zstd" to the tokens in the Accept-Encoding header, and decompress with Zstandard when the token is seen in the Content-Encoding header. It is anticipated to make pages load faster and reduce serving costs, by reducing CPU and/or bandwidth consumption, especially for dynamic content.

Chrome is currently evaluating implementing this, and is interested in other browsers' position on the specification.

[ricea]

I just found out that this was previously closed as defer: #105

I do not have a lot of new information to contribute, except that zstd adoption has continued to grow.

[rektide]

I noticed a couple items down is #771, which is for adding Compression Dictionary support to websites. This is WIP, but it seemingly could/would overcome a primary cause for the defer in #105 / here.

I'll comment in #105 as well.

[valenting]

I think we can close this as positive.

[martinthomson]

We can skip the dashboard for this one.