--- gzip.rst.orig 2008-03-27 16:29:52.365781229 +0100 +++ gzip.rst 2008-03-27 17:14:46.724779879 +0100 @@ -5,15 +5,19 @@ .. module:: gzip :synopsis: Interfaces for gzip compression and decompression using file objects. +This module provides a simple interface to compress and decompress files just +like the GNU programs :program:`gzip` and :program:`gunzip` would. -The data compression provided by the ``zlib`` module is compatible with that -used by the GNU compression program :program:`gzip`. Accordingly, the -:mod:`gzip` module provides the :class:`GzipFile` class to read and write +The data compression is provided by the :mod:``zlib`` module. + +The :mod:`gzip` module provides the :class:`GzipFile` class which is modeled +after Python's File Object. The :class:`GzipFile` class reads and writes :program:`gzip`\ -format files, automatically compressing or decompressing the -data so it looks like an ordinary file object. Note that additional file -formats which can be decompressed by the :program:`gzip` and :program:`gunzip` -programs, such as those produced by :program:`compress` and :program:`pack`, -are not supported by this module. +data. + +Note that additional file formats which can be decompressed by the +:program:`gzip` and :program:`gunzip` programs, such as those produced by +:program:`compress` and :program:`pack`, are not supported by this module. For other archive formats, see the :mod:`bz2`, :mod:`zipfile`, and :mod:`tarfile` modules. @@ -63,6 +67,35 @@ *compresslevel* defaults to ``9``. +.. _gzip-usage-examples: + +Examples of usage +----------------- + +Example of how to decompress a 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() + + .. seealso:: Module :mod:`zlib`