Physfs is using a deprecated zlib interface that as of the update to zlib 1.2.11 causes the failure to retreive compressed data. A patch is available, but upstream seems unresponsive. I propose applying the patch to physfs in our repos.

I initially discovered the symptoms with [community]/manaplus as described on the forums [1]. As described there, the zlib update exposed latent bugs in at least one other package. These errors have been traced to bugs in erlang and physfs. It seems upstream erlang devs may be working on a fix, but physfs upstream has remained unresponsive.

The manaplus developer was able to trace the issue with manaplus to physfs and create a patch with input from the zlib devs on how to best patch phsfs in a github issue here [2].

A patch for physfs is available [3], but physfs developers have not yet responded to the issue. For my own use, I've applied this patch via an ABS build and can confirm it resolves the issue. I can submit a physfs-patched package to the AUR if needed, but I'd prefer to see this added to the repos. It is likely that the bug in physfs could affect other packages that rely on it resulting in errors in other software that may be challenging to pinpoint.

[1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=222116

[2] https://github.com/madler/zlib/issues/206#issuecomment-274105744

[3] http://download.evolonline.org/manaplus/bug/zip_seek.diff