Index: Doc/library/gzip.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/library/gzip.rst	(revision 77470)
+++ Doc/library/gzip.rst	(working copy)
@@ -72,7 +72,10 @@
    .. versionchanged:: 2.7
       Support for the :keyword:`with` statement was added.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 2.7
+      Support for zero-padded files was added.
 
+
 .. function:: open(filename[, mode[, compresslevel]])
 
    This is a shorthand for ``GzipFile(filename,`` ``mode,`` ``compresslevel)``.
Index: Lib/gzip.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/gzip.py	(revision 77470)
+++ Lib/gzip.py	(working copy)
@@ -330,6 +330,15 @@
         elif isize != (self.size & 0xffffffffL):
             raise IOError, "Incorrect length of data produced"
 
+        # Gzip files can be padded with zeroes and still have archives.
+        # Consume all zero bytes and set the file position to the first
+        # non-zero byte. See http://www.gzip.org/#faq8
+        c = "\x00"
+        while c and c == "\x00":
+            c = self.fileobj.read(1)
+        if c:
+            self.fileobj.seek(-1, 1)
+
     @property
     def closed(self):
         return self.fileobj is None
Index: Lib/test/test_gzip.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_gzip.py	(revision 77470)
+++ Lib/test/test_gzip.py	(working copy)
@@ -252,6 +252,18 @@
         else:
             self.fail("1/0 didn't raise an exception")
 
+    def test_zero_padded_file(self):
+        with gzip.GzipFile(self.filename, "wb") as f:
+            f.write(data1 * 50)
+
+        # Pad the file with zeroes
+        with open(self.filename, "ab") as f:
+            f.write("\x00" * 50)
+
+        with gzip.GzipFile(self.filename, "rb") as f:
+            d = f.read()
+            self.assertEqual(d, data1 * 50, "Incorrect data in file")
+
 def test_main(verbose=None):
     test_support.run_unittest(TestGzip)
 
Index: Misc/NEWS
===================================================================
--- Misc/NEWS	(revision 77470)
+++ Misc/NEWS	(working copy)
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@
   Extension extra options may change the output without changing the .c
   file). Initial patch by Collin Winter.
 
+- Issue #2846: Add support for gzip.GzipFile reading zero-padded files.
+
 Build
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