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1:mod:`!gzip` --- Support for :program:`gzip` files
2==================================================
3
4.. module:: gzip
5   :synopsis: Interfaces for gzip compression and decompression using file objects.
6
7**Source code:** :source:`Lib/gzip.py`
8
9--------------
10
11This module provides a simple interface to compress and decompress files just
12like the GNU programs :program:`gzip` and :program:`gunzip` would.
13
14The data compression is provided by the :mod:`zlib` module.
15
16The :mod:`gzip` module provides the :class:`GzipFile` class, as well as the
17:func:`.open`, :func:`compress` and :func:`decompress` convenience functions.
18The :class:`GzipFile` class reads and writes :program:`gzip`\ -format files,
19automatically compressing or decompressing the data so that it looks like an
20ordinary :term:`file object`.
21
22Note that additional file formats which can be decompressed by the
23:program:`gzip` and :program:`gunzip` programs, such  as those produced by
24:program:`compress` and :program:`pack`, are not supported by this module.
25
26The module defines the following items:
27
28
29.. function:: open(filename, mode='rb', compresslevel=9, encoding=None, errors=None, newline=None)
30
31   Open a gzip-compressed file in binary or text mode, returning a :term:`file
32   object`.
33
34   The *filename* argument can be an actual filename (a :class:`str` or
35   :class:`bytes` object), or an existing file object to read from or write to.
36
37   The *mode* argument can be any of ``'r'``, ``'rb'``, ``'a'``, ``'ab'``,
38   ``'w'``, ``'wb'``, ``'x'`` or ``'xb'`` for binary mode, or ``'rt'``,
39   ``'at'``, ``'wt'``, or ``'xt'`` for text mode. The default is ``'rb'``.
40
41   The *compresslevel* argument is an integer from 0 to 9, as for the
42   :class:`GzipFile` constructor.
43
44   For binary mode, this function is equivalent to the :class:`GzipFile`
45   constructor: ``GzipFile(filename, mode, compresslevel)``. In this case, the
46   *encoding*, *errors* and *newline* arguments must not be provided.
47
48   For text mode, a :class:`GzipFile` object is created, and wrapped in an
49   :class:`io.TextIOWrapper` instance with the specified encoding, error
50   handling behavior, and line ending(s).
51
52   .. versionchanged:: 3.3
53      Added support for *filename* being a file object, support for text mode,
54      and the *encoding*, *errors* and *newline* arguments.
55
56   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
57      Added support for the ``'x'``, ``'xb'`` and ``'xt'`` modes.
58
59   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
60      Accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
61
62.. exception:: BadGzipFile
63
64   An exception raised for invalid gzip files.  It inherits from :exc:`OSError`.
65   :exc:`EOFError` and :exc:`zlib.error` can also be raised for invalid gzip
66   files.
67
68   .. versionadded:: 3.8
69
70.. class:: GzipFile(filename=None, mode=None, compresslevel=9, fileobj=None, mtime=None)
71
72   Constructor for the :class:`GzipFile` class, which simulates most of the
73   methods of a :term:`file object`, with the exception of the :meth:`~io.IOBase.truncate`
74   method.  At least one of *fileobj* and *filename* must be given a non-trivial
75   value.
76
77   The new class instance is based on *fileobj*, which can be a regular file, an
78   :class:`io.BytesIO` object, or any other object which simulates a file.  It
79   defaults to ``None``, in which case *filename* is opened to provide a file
80   object.
81
82   When *fileobj* is not ``None``, the *filename* argument is only used to be
83   included in the :program:`gzip` file header, which may include the original
84   filename of the uncompressed file.  It defaults to the filename of *fileobj*, if
85   discernible; otherwise, it defaults to the empty string, and in this case the
86   original filename is not included in the header.
87
88   The *mode* argument can be any of ``'r'``, ``'rb'``, ``'a'``, ``'ab'``, ``'w'``,
89   ``'wb'``, ``'x'``, or ``'xb'``, depending on whether the file will be read or
90   written.  The default is the mode of *fileobj* if discernible; otherwise, the
91   default is ``'rb'``.  In future Python releases the mode of *fileobj* will
92   not be used.  It is better to always specify *mode* for writing.
93
94   Note that the file is always opened in binary mode. To open a compressed file
95   in text mode, use :func:`.open` (or wrap your :class:`GzipFile` with an
96   :class:`io.TextIOWrapper`).
97
98   The *compresslevel* argument is an integer from ``0`` to ``9`` controlling
99   the level of compression; ``1`` is fastest and produces the least
100   compression, and ``9`` is slowest and produces the most compression. ``0``
101   is no compression. The default is ``9``.
102
103   The optional *mtime* argument is the timestamp requested by gzip. The time
104   is in Unix format, i.e., seconds since 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970.
105   If *mtime* is omitted or ``None``, the current time is used. Use *mtime* = 0
106   to generate a compressed stream that does not depend on creation time.
107
108   See below for the :attr:`mtime` attribute that is set when decompressing.
109
110   Calling a :class:`GzipFile` object's :meth:`!close` method does not close
111   *fileobj*, since you might wish to append more material after the compressed
112   data.  This also allows you to pass an :class:`io.BytesIO` object opened for
113   writing as *fileobj*, and retrieve the resulting memory buffer using the
114   :class:`io.BytesIO` object's :meth:`~io.BytesIO.getvalue` method.
115
116   :class:`GzipFile` supports the :class:`io.BufferedIOBase` interface,
117   including iteration and the :keyword:`with` statement.  Only the
118   :meth:`~io.IOBase.truncate` method isn't implemented.
119
120   :class:`GzipFile` also provides the following method and attribute:
121
122   .. method:: peek(n)
123
124      Read *n* uncompressed bytes without advancing the file position.
125      At most one single read on the compressed stream is done to satisfy
126      the call.  The number of bytes returned may be more or less than
127      requested.
128
129      .. note:: While calling :meth:`peek` does not change the file position of
130         the :class:`GzipFile`, it may change the position of the underlying
131         file object (e.g. if the :class:`GzipFile` was constructed with the
132         *fileobj* parameter).
133
134      .. versionadded:: 3.2
135
136   .. attribute:: mode
137
138      ``'rb'`` for reading and ``'wb'`` for writing.
139
140      .. versionchanged:: 3.13
141         In previous versions it was an integer ``1`` or ``2``.
142
143   .. attribute:: mtime
144
145      When decompressing, this attribute is set to the last timestamp in the most
146      recently read header.  It is an integer, holding the number of seconds
147      since the Unix epoch (00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970).
148      The initial value before reading any headers is ``None``.
149
150   .. attribute:: name
151
152      The path to the gzip file on disk, as a :class:`str` or :class:`bytes`.
153      Equivalent to the output of :func:`os.fspath` on the original input path,
154      with no other normalization, resolution or expansion.
155
156   .. versionchanged:: 3.1
157      Support for the :keyword:`with` statement was added, along with the
158      *mtime* constructor argument and :attr:`mtime` attribute.
159
160   .. versionchanged:: 3.2
161      Support for zero-padded and unseekable files was added.
162
163   .. versionchanged:: 3.3
164      The :meth:`io.BufferedIOBase.read1` method is now implemented.
165
166   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
167      Added support for the ``'x'`` and ``'xb'`` modes.
168
169   .. versionchanged:: 3.5
170      Added support for writing arbitrary
171      :term:`bytes-like objects <bytes-like object>`.
172      The :meth:`~io.BufferedIOBase.read` method now accepts an argument of
173      ``None``.
174
175   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
176      Accepts a :term:`path-like object`.
177
178   .. deprecated:: 3.9
179      Opening :class:`GzipFile` for writing without specifying the *mode*
180      argument is deprecated.
181
182   .. versionchanged:: 3.12
183      Remove the ``filename`` attribute, use the :attr:`~GzipFile.name`
184      attribute instead.
185
186
187.. function:: compress(data, compresslevel=9, *, mtime=None)
188
189   Compress the *data*, returning a :class:`bytes` object containing
190   the compressed data.  *compresslevel* and *mtime* have the same meaning as in
191   the :class:`GzipFile` constructor above.
192
193   .. versionadded:: 3.2
194   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
195      Added the *mtime* parameter for reproducible output.
196   .. versionchanged:: 3.11
197      Speed is improved by compressing all data at once instead of in a
198      streamed fashion. Calls with *mtime* set to ``0`` are delegated to
199      :func:`zlib.compress` for better speed. In this situation the
200      output may contain a gzip header "OS" byte value other than 255
201      "unknown" as supplied by the underlying zlib implementation.
202
203   .. versionchanged:: 3.13
204      The gzip header OS byte is guaranteed to be set to 255 when this function
205      is used as was the case in 3.10 and earlier.
206
207.. function:: decompress(data)
208
209   Decompress the *data*, returning a :class:`bytes` object containing the
210   uncompressed data. This function is capable of decompressing multi-member
211   gzip data (multiple gzip blocks concatenated together). When the data is
212   certain to contain only one member the :func:`zlib.decompress` function with
213   *wbits* set to 31 is faster.
214
215   .. versionadded:: 3.2
216   .. versionchanged:: 3.11
217      Speed is improved by decompressing members at once in memory instead of in
218      a streamed fashion.
219
220.. _gzip-usage-examples:
221
222Examples of usage
223-----------------
224
225Example of how to read a compressed file::
226
227   import gzip
228   with gzip.open('/home/joe/file.txt.gz', 'rb') as f:
229       file_content = f.read()
230
231Example of how to create a compressed GZIP file::
232
233   import gzip
234   content = b"Lots of content here"
235   with gzip.open('/home/joe/file.txt.gz', 'wb') as f:
236       f.write(content)
237
238Example of how to GZIP compress an existing file::
239
240   import gzip
241   import shutil
242   with open('/home/joe/file.txt', 'rb') as f_in:
243       with gzip.open('/home/joe/file.txt.gz', 'wb') as f_out:
244           shutil.copyfileobj(f_in, f_out)
245
246Example of how to GZIP compress a binary string::
247
248   import gzip
249   s_in = b"Lots of content here"
250   s_out = gzip.compress(s_in)
251
252.. seealso::
253
254   Module :mod:`zlib`
255      The basic data compression module needed to support the :program:`gzip` file
256      format.
257
258
259.. program:: gzip
260
261.. _gzip-cli:
262
263Command Line Interface
264----------------------
265
266The :mod:`gzip` module provides a simple command line interface to compress or
267decompress files.
268
269Once executed the :mod:`gzip` module keeps the input file(s).
270
271.. versionchanged:: 3.8
272
273   Add a new command line interface with a usage.
274   By default, when you will execute the CLI, the default compression level is 6.
275
276Command line options
277^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
278
279.. option:: file
280
281   If *file* is not specified, read from :data:`sys.stdin`.
282
283.. option:: --fast
284
285   Indicates the fastest compression method (less compression).
286
287.. option:: --best
288
289   Indicates the slowest compression method (best compression).
290
291.. option:: -d, --decompress
292
293   Decompress the given file.
294
295.. option:: -h, --help
296
297   Show the help message.
298