
``gzip`` --- Support for **gzip** files
***************************************

This module provides a simple interface to compress and decompress
files just like the GNU programs **gzip** and **gunzip** would.

The data compression is provided by the ``zlib`` module.

The ``gzip`` module provides the ``GzipFile`` class which is modeled
after Python's File Object. The ``GzipFile`` class reads and writes
**gzip**-format files, automatically compressing or decompressing the
data so that it looks like an ordinary file object.

Note that additional file formats which can be decompressed by the
**gzip** and **gunzip** programs, such  as those produced by
**compress** and **pack**, are not supported by this module.

For other archive formats, see the ``bz2``, ``zipfile``, and
``tarfile`` modules.

The module defines the following items:

class class gzip.GzipFile([filename[, mode[, compresslevel[, fileobj[, mtime]]]]])

   Constructor for the ``GzipFile`` class, which simulates most of the
   methods of a file object, with the exception of the ``readinto()``
   and ``truncate()`` methods.  At least one of *fileobj* and
   *filename* must be given a non-trivial value.

   The new class instance is based on *fileobj*, which can be a
   regular file, a ``StringIO`` object, or any other object which
   simulates a file.  It defaults to ``None``, in which case
   *filename* is opened to provide a file object.

   When *fileobj* is not ``None``, the *filename* argument is only
   used to be included in the **gzip** file header, which may includes
   the original filename of the uncompressed file.  It defaults to the
   filename of *fileobj*, if discernible; otherwise, it defaults to
   the empty string, and in this case the original filename is not
   included in the header.

   The *mode* argument can be any of ``'r'``, ``'rb'``, ``'a'``,
   ``'ab'``, ``'w'``, or ``'wb'``, depending on whether the file will
   be read or written.  The default is the mode of *fileobj* if
   discernible; otherwise, the default is ``'rb'``. If not given, the
   'b' flag will be added to the mode to ensure the file is opened in
   binary mode for cross-platform portability.

   The *compresslevel* argument is an integer from ``1`` to ``9``
   controlling the level of compression; ``1`` is fastest and produces
   the least compression, and ``9`` is slowest and produces the most
   compression.  The default is ``9``.

   The *mtime* argument is an optional numeric timestamp to be written
   to the stream when compressing.  All **gzip** compressed streams
   are required to contain a timestamp.  If omitted or ``None``, the
   current time is used.  This module ignores the timestamp when
   decompressing; however, some programs, such as **gunzip**, make use
   of it. The format of the timestamp is the same as that of the
   return value of ``time.time()`` and of the ``st_mtime`` member of
   the object returned by ``os.stat()``.

   Calling a ``GzipFile`` object's ``close()`` method does not close
   *fileobj*, since you might wish to append more material after the
   compressed data.  This also allows you to pass a ``StringIO``
   object opened for writing as *fileobj*, and retrieve the resulting
   memory buffer using the ``StringIO`` object's ``getvalue()``
   method.

   ``GzipFile`` supports the ``with`` statement.

   Changed in version 3.1: Support for the ``with`` statement was
   added.

gzip.open(filename[, mode[, compresslevel]])

   This is a shorthand for ``GzipFile(filename,`` ``mode,``
   ``compresslevel)``. The *filename* argument is required; *mode*
   defaults to ``'rb'`` and *compresslevel* defaults to ``9``.


Examples of usage
=================

Example of how to read a compressed file:

   import gzip
   f = gzip.open('/home/joe/file.txt.gz', 'rb')
   file_content = f.read()
   f.close()

Example of how to create a compressed GZIP file:

   import gzip
   content = "Lots of content here"
   f = gzip.open('/home/joe/file.txt.gz', 'wb')
   f.write(content)
   f.close()

Example of how to GZIP compress an existing file:

   import gzip
   f_in = open('/home/joe/file.txt', 'rb')
   f_out = gzip.open('/home/joe/file.txt.gz', 'wb')
   f_out.writelines(f_in)
   f_out.close()
   f_in.close()

See also:

   Module ``zlib``
      The basic data compression module needed to support the **gzip**
      file format.
