How can I decompress a gzip stream with zlib?

Gzip format files (created with the gzip program, for example) use the "deflate" compression algorithm, which is the same compression algorithm as what zlib uses. However, when using zlib to inflate a gzip compressed file, the library returns a Z_DATA_ERROR.

How can I use zlib to decompress a gzip file?

To decompress a gzip format file with zlib, call inflateInit2 with the windowBits parameter as 16+MAX_WBITS, like this:

inflateInit2(&stream, 16+MAX_WBITS);

If you don't do this, zlib will complain about a bad stream format. By default, zlib creates streams with a zlib header, and on inflate does not recognise the different gzip header unless you tell it so. Although this is documented starting in version 1.2.1 of the zlib.h header file, it is not in the zlib manual. From the header file:

> windowBits can also be greater than 15 for optional gzip decoding. Add 32 to windowBits to enable zlib and gzip decoding with automatic header detection, or add 16 to decode only the gzip format (the zlib format will return a Z_DATA_ERROR). If a gzip stream is being decoded, strm->adler is a crc32 instead of an adler32.

python

zlib library supports:

• RFC 1950 (zlib compressed format)
• RFC 1951 (deflate compressed format)
• RFC 1952 (gzip compressed format)

The python zlib module will support these as well.

choosing windowBits

But zlib can decompress all those formats:

• to (de-)compress deflate format, use wbits = -zlib.MAX_WBITS
• to (de-)compress zlib format, use wbits = zlib.MAX_WBITS
• to (de-)compress gzip format, use wbits = zlib.MAX_WBITS | 16

See documentation in http://www.zlib.net/manual.html#Advanced (section inflateInit2)

examples

test data:

>>> deflate_compress = zlib.compressobj(9, zlib.DEFLATED, -zlib.MAX_WBITS)
>>> zlib_compress = zlib.compressobj(9, zlib.DEFLATED, zlib.MAX_WBITS)
>>> gzip_compress = zlib.compressobj(9, zlib.DEFLATED, zlib.MAX_WBITS | 16)
>>> 
>>> text = '''test'''
>>> deflate_data = deflate_compress.compress(text) + deflate_compress.flush()
>>> zlib_data = zlib_compress.compress(text) + zlib_compress.flush()
>>> gzip_data = gzip_compress.compress(text) + gzip_compress.flush()
>>> 

obvious test for zlib:

>>> zlib.decompress(zlib_data)
'test'

test for deflate:

>>> zlib.decompress(deflate_data)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
zlib.error: Error -3 while decompressing data: incorrect header check
>>> zlib.decompress(deflate_data, -zlib.MAX_WBITS)
'test'

test for gzip:

>>> zlib.decompress(gzip_data)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
zlib.error: Error -3 while decompressing data: incorrect header check
>>> zlib.decompress(gzip_data, zlib.MAX_WBITS|16)
'test'

the data is also compatible with gzip module:

>>> import gzip
>>> import StringIO
>>> fio = StringIO.StringIO(gzip_data)
>>> f = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=fio)
>>> f.read()
'test'
>>> f.close()

automatic header detection (zlib or gzip)

adding 32 to windowBits will trigger header detection

>>> zlib.decompress(gzip_data, zlib.MAX_WBITS|32)
'test'
>>> zlib.decompress(zlib_data, zlib.MAX_WBITS|32)
'test'

using gzip instead

For gzip data with gzip header you can use gzip module directly; but please remember that under the hood, gzip uses zlib.

fh = gzip.open('abc.gz', 'rb')
cdata = fh.read()
fh.close()

The structure of zlib and gzip is different. zlib uses RFC 1950 and gzip uses RFC 1952, so have different headers but the rest have the same structure and follows the RFC 1951.