@stardazed/zlib

Compress and decompress data with the deflate algorithm, and read and write this data in deflate, gzip or raw format containers.

Installation & Usage

pnpm add @stardazed/zlib
yarn add @stardazed/zlib
npm install @stardazed/zlib

This library is only available as an ES module. The interface is fully typed.

Error Handling

Every call in this API, including class constructors, can encounter one or more errors. Since these errors only occur when data is malformed or when the API is used incorrectly, these errors will throw exceptions. The examples below do not show error handling for brevity, but in production code be aware that all functions can potentially throw.

Decompression

In most cases, call inflate on compressed data and you're done.

import { inflate } from "@stardazed/zlib";

const deflatedData = /* An ArrayBuffer or a buffer view (e.g. Uint8Array) */;
const data = inflate(deflatedData);

inflate also takes an optional 2nd argument which is the dictionary field in the options listed below.

If you want more control over the process, including streaming in data chunks as you receive them, then use the Inflater class.

The Inflater class takes the following options:

raw: boolean (default false)
Set to true if you only have the compressed data, mostly for advanced embedding use cases.

dictionary: BufferSource (default: undefined)
Provide an optional precalculated lookup dictionary for deflate format sources that were compressed with the same dictionary. (advanced use case)

import { Inflater, mergeBuffers } from "@stardazed/zlib";

const inflater = new Inflater(options /* see above */);
const outputs = [];

// then, each time a new chunk of data becomes available:
outputs.push(...inflater.append(compressedData)); // ArrayBuffer or buffer view
// append returns zero or more Uint8Arrays

// use the built-in mergeBuffers utility to merge all outputs together
const data = mergeBuffers(outputs);

// when all data has been appended:
const result = inflater.finish();

// result object layout:
{
    success: boolean; // overall indicator of proper decompression
    complete: boolean; // was the input data complete?
    checksum: "match" | "mismatch" | "unchecked"; // data validity result
    fileSize: "match" | "mismatch" | "unchecked"; // size check result (gzip only)
    fileName: string; // stored original file name (gzip only, "" otherwise)
    modDate: Date | undefined; // stored modification date (gzip only)
}

Since the deflate algorithm can handle incomplete data, the result for broken input streams is not an error, but the details are given for you to act upon in whatever manner is suitable. Use the success field for most use cases.

⚠️ You cannot reuse an Inflater instance, to decompress another source, create a new Inflater instance.

Compression

In most cases, call deflate on some data and you're done.

import { deflate } from "@stardazed/zlib";

const data = /* An ArrayBuffer or a buffer view (e.g. Uint8Array) */;
const compressedData = deflate(data);

deflate also takes an optional 2nd parameter for options, see below.

If you want to stream in data chunks as you receive them, then use the Deflater class.

The Deflater class and the deflate function take the following options:

format: "raw" | "deflate" | "gzip" (default: "deflate")
Specifies what container is to be used for the output. raw outputs no metadata at all.

fileName: string (default: undefined)
Provide an optional file name for the data being compressed. Only affects output if format is set to gzip.

level: 1..9 (default: 6)
Specifies how hard deflate will try to compress your data. Higher means smaller but also slower and there are diminishing returns. The default is almost always the best trade-off.

dictionary: BufferSource (default: undefined)
Provide an optional precalculated lookup dictionary for deflate format files. Advanced use case, can result in slightly smaller files and improved compression time.

import { Deflater, mergeBuffers } from "@stardazed/zlib";

const deflater = new Deflater(options /* see above */);
const outputs = [];

// then, each time a new chunk of data becomes available:
outputs.push(...deflater.append(data)); // ArrayBuffer or buffer view
// append returns an array of zero or more Uint8Arrays

// when all data has been appended:
outputs.push(...deflater.finish());
// finish also returns an array of zero or more Uint8Arrays

// use the built-in mergeBuffers utility to merge all outputs together
const compressedData = mergeBuffers(outputs);

⚠️ You cannot reuse a Deflater instance, to compress another source, create a new Deflater instance.

Checksums

This library exports the adler32 and crc32 checksum functions. When using the deflate and inflate APIs above, checksums are handled automatically, but if you need to generate or verify checksums for other data you can call the functions directly.

import { adler32, crc32 } from "@stardazed/zlib";

let a = 1; // initial seed for adler32
let c = 0; // initial seed for crc32
for (const data of my_magical_data_fountain) {
    // data can be an ArrayBuffer or a buffer view (e.g. Uint8Array)
    a = adler32(data, a);
    c = crc32(data, c);
}

Keep feeding in the resulting checksum as the seed for the next step to continue the checksum generation.

Copyright

(c) @zenmumbler: conversion to TypeScript, modularized, modernized, optimized and extended
Based on zip.js (c) 2013 by Gildas Lormeau: https://gildas-lormeau.github.io/zip.js/
zip.js is based on JZlib 1.0.2 ymnk, JCraft,Inc.
Based on zlib (c) 1995-Present Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler

License

zlib