Updated 2014-11-11 13:37:02 by dkf

GNU Zip (or gzip for short) is a stream compression program (like the UNIX compress program), and not an archiver (like the DOS pkzip program) that uses an unpatented (and unpatentable) algorithm for its compression. The program bzip2 can compress even more, but takes more memory to do so. The zlib library uses the same algorithms, and can be used to process or produce gzipped files (IIRC, though there might be a header too.)

This governed by three RFC's

  • RFC 1950 [1] - Zlib Compressed Data Format
  • RFC 1951 [2] - Deflate Compressed Data format
  • RFC 1952 [3] - Gzip File Format

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gzip

See GASP, tkArchive, TkZip,

Also take a look at bzip2 and LZMA for better compression rates

Are there any Tcl bindings for zlib?

18Aug04 PS Yes there is! tclkit has it by default and I created an extension from that. See the zlib page.

gunzip a file with zlib and Tcl
proc gunzip { file {outfile ""} } {
    package require zlib
    # Gunzip the file
    # See http://www.gzip.org/zlib/rfc-gzip.html for gzip file description
    
    set in [open $file r]    
    fconfigure $in -translation binary -buffering none

    set id [read $in 2]
    if { ![string equal $id \x1f\x8b] } {
        error "$file is not a gzip file."
    }
    set cm [read $in 1]
    if { ![string equal $cm \x8] } {
        error "$file: unknown compression method"
    }
    binary scan [read $in 1] b5 FLAGS 
    puts $FLAGS
    foreach {FTEXT FHCRC FEXTRA FNAME FCOMMENT} [split $FLAGS ""] {}
    binary scan [read $in 4] i MTIME
    set XFL [read $in 1]
    set OS [read $in 1]

    if { $FEXTRA } {
        binary scan [read $in 2] S XLEN
        set ExtraData [read $in $XLEN]
    }
    set name ""
    if { $FNAME } {    
        set XLEN 1
        set name [read $in $XLEN]
        set c [read $in 1]
        while { $c != "\x0" } {
            append name $c
            set c [read $in 1]
        }
    }
    set comment ""
    if { $FCOMMENT } {
        set c [read $in 1]
        while { $c != "\x0" } {
            append comment $c
            set c [read $in 1]
        }
    }
    set CRC16 ""
    if { $FHCRC } {
        set CRC16 [read $in 2]
    }

    set cdata [read $in]
    close $in

    binary scan [string range $cdata end-7 end] ii CRC32 ISIZE

    set data [zlib inflate [string range $cdata 0 end-8]]
    
    if { $CRC32 != [zlib crc32 $data] } {
        error "gunzip Checksum mismatch."
    } 
    if { $outfile == "" } {
        set outfile $file
        if { [string equal -nocase [file extension $file] ".gz"] } {
            set outfile [file rootname $file]
        }
    }
    if { [string equal $outfile $file] } {
        error "Will not overwrite input file. sorry."
    }
    set out [open $outfile w]
    fconfigure $out -translation binary -buffering none
    puts -nonewline $out $data
    close $out
    file mtime $outfile $MTIME
}

18Aug04 PS

LES: Would someone tell me HOW this is better than [exec gzip filename]?

PS: gzip might not be installed? And with a small tweak, you'd just get the file content - put that together with vfs::tar and you might be able to mount tar.gz files...

SRIV Stock Windows installs don't have gzip. Think cross platform. "Better" is in the eye of the beholder. Nice work.

DKF: Here's a cheap way to invoke gzip on Windows. Note that just using exec gzip -c <<$d does not work because of translation issues.
proc gzip d {
    set data [open foo.tmp w]
    fconfigure $data -translation binary
    puts -nonewline $data $d
    close $data

    set f [open "|gzip -c <foo.tmp" r]
    fconfigure $f -translation binary
    set d [read $f]
    close $f
    after 100 ;# Ugly hack to give gzip time to exit so we can kill foo.tmp on Windows
    file delete foo.tmp
    return $d
}

14Dec06 gl : Here is a way to read and write gzip .gz files transparently and on the fly -- including channels like "stdin" -- with the help of Trf:
package require Trf

namespace eval gz {
    variable CRC

    # Attach to a channel for writing -- i.e., write .gz header, enable compression
    proc attach_w {f} { l for writing -- i.e., write .gz header, enable compression
        # Write header
        puts -nonewline $f [binary format "H*iH*" "1f8b0800" [clock seconds] "0003"]

        set CRC [binary format x4]

        # Init/attach compression
        zip -attach $f -mode compress -nowrap 1
        fconfigure $f -translation binary -encoding binary

        # Init/attach CRC
        crc-zlib -attach $f -mode transparent -write-destination ::gz::CRC($f) -write-type variable
        fconfigure $f -translation binary -encoding binary
        fconfigure $f -translation binary -encoding binary
        return $f
    }

    # Detach from a channel for writing -- i.e., write .gz footer incl. CRC
    proc detach_w {f} {
        variable CRC
        set SIZE [tell $f]

        unstack $f   ; # CRC
        unstack $f   ; # gzip

        puts -nonewline $f $CRC($f)
        puts -nonewline $f [binary format "i" [expr $SIZE % 0x100000000]]
    }


    # Attach to a channel for reading -- i.e., read and check .gz header, enable decompression
    proc attach_r {f} {
        # (using code from [http://wiki.tcl.tk/6175])
        set id [read $f 2]
        if { ![string equal $id \x1f\x8b] } {
            error "GZip channel $f: not a gzip file."
        }

        set cm [read $f 1]
        if { ![string equal $cm \x8] } {
            error "GZip channel $file: unknown compression method."
        }
        binary scan [read $f 1] b5 FLAGS
        puts $FLAGS
        foreach {FTEXT FHCRC FEXTRA FNAME FCOMMENT} [split $FLAGS ""] {}
        binary scan [read $f 4] i MTIME
        set XFL [read $f 1]
        set OS [read $f 1]

        if { $FEXTRA } {
            binary scan [read $f 2] S XLEN
            set ExtraData [read $f $XLEN]
        }
        set name ""
        if { $FNAME } {
            set c [read $f 1]
            while { $c != "\x0" } {
                append name $c
                set c [read $f 1]
            }
        }
        set comment ""
        if { $FCOMMENT } {
            set c [read $f 1]
            while { $c != "\x0" } {
                append comment $c
                set c [read $f 1]
            }
        }
        set CRC16 ""
        if { $FHCRC } {
            set CRC16 [read $f 2]
        }

        # Init/attach decompression

        zip -attach $f -mode compress -nowrap 1
        fconfigure $f -translation binary -encoding binary


        # Init/attach CRC
        crc-zlib -attach $f -mode transparent -read-destination ::gz::CRC($f) -read-type variable
        fconfigure $f -translation binary -encoding binary

        return $f
    }

    # Detach from a channel for reading -- i.e., check .gz footer incl. CRC
    proc detach_r {f} { nel for reading -- i.e., check .gz footer incl. CRC
        variable CRC
        set cmpSize [expr [tell $f] % 0x100000000]
        binary scan $CRC($f) i cmpCRC

        unstack $f   ; # CRC
        unstack $f   ; # gzip

        binary scan [read $f 4] i gzCRC
        binary scan [read $f 4] i gzSize
        binary scan [read $f 4] i gzSize
        if {$gzCRC != $cmpCRC} {
            error "GZip channel $f: CRC mismatch."
        }
        if {$gzSize != $cmpSize} {
             error "GZip channel $f: Size mismatch."
        }
    }
} 

# Demo program: 
#   Decompress to stdout: gztest.tcl filename.gz
#   Compress to stdout:   gztest.tcl filename  

if {[llength $argv] != 1} {
    puts "Usage: gztest.tcl filename"
    exit -2
} 
set fn [lindex $argv 0]

set f [open $fn r]
fconfigure $f -translation binary
 
if {[string match "*.gz" $fn]} {
     # Is .gz
     ::gz::attach_r $f
     fcopy $f stdout
     ::gz::detach_r $f
} else {
     # Is not .gz
     ::gz::attach_w stdout
     fcopy $f stdout
     ::gz::detach_w stdout
}

To save people headaches working out how to do this for HTTP streams:
    set gzip [binary format "H*iH*" "1f8b0800" [clock seconds] "0003"]
    append gzip [zlib deflate $content]
    append gzip [binary format i [zlib crc32 $content]]
    append gzip [binary format i [string length $content]]
    set content-encoding gzip

(CMcC modded this snipped 10Jul07 after much head-scratching and some experimentation)

BAS I was able to send gzipped content by doing:
    fconfigure $chan -translation binary
    set gzip [zlib gzip $content -header [list crc [zlib crc32 $content] time [clock seconds] os 3]]
    set content-encoding gzip

os 3 just means it was generated from Unix OS.