Difference between revisions of "Gzip"
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== See Also == | == See Also == | ||
* [[bzip2]] | * [[bzip2]] | ||
| + | * [[tar]] | ||
== External Links == | == External Links == | ||
Revision as of 13:01, 30 November 2013
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Contents
File format
The gzip file (.gz) format consists of:
- a file header
- optional headers
- extra fields
- original file name
- comment
- header checksum
- compressed data (commonly used compression method DEFLATE, without zlib header)
- a file footer
| Characteristics | Description |
|---|---|
| Byte order | little-endian |
| Date and time values | Filetime in UTC |
| Character string | ISO 8859-1 (LATIN-1) |
File header
The file header is 10 bytes in size and contains:
| Offset | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | 0x1f 0x8b | Signature (or identification byte 1 and 2) |
| 2 | 1 | Compression Method | |
| 3 | 1 | Flags | |
| 4 | 4 | Last modification time Contains a POSIX timestamp. | |
| 8 | 1 | Compression flags (or extra flags) | |
| 9 | 1 | Operating system Value that indicates on which operating system the gzip file was created. |
Compression method
| Value | Identifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 - 7 | Reserved | |
| 8 | deflate | deflate compressed data |
Flags
| Value | Identifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x01 | FTEXT | If set the uncompressed data needs to be treated as text instead of binary data. This flag hints end-of-line conversion for cross-platform text files but does not enforce it. |
| 0x02 | FHCRC | The file contains a header checksum (CRC-16) |
| 0x04 | FEXTRA | The file contains extra fields |
| 0x08 | FNAME | The file contains an original file name string |
| 0x10 | FCOMMENT | The file contains comment |
| 0x20 | Reserved | |
| 0x40 | Reserved | |
| 0x80 | Reserved |
Notes:
- Reserved flags bits must be zero.
- The FHCRC bit was never set by versions of gzip up to 1.2.4, even though it was documented with a different meaning in gzip 1.2.4.
Compression flags
This value contains flags specific to the compression method.
Compression flags - deflate
If compression method value is 8 (deflate) the following compression flags can be used:
| Value | Identifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x02 | compressor used maximum compression, slowest algorithm | |
| 0x04 | compressor used fastest algorithm |
Operating System
| Value | Identifier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | FAT filesystem (MS-DOS, OS/2, NT/Win32) | |
| 1 | Amiga | |
| 2 | VMS (or OpenVMS) | |
| 3 | Unix | |
| 4 | VM/CMS | |
| 5 | Atari TOS | |
| 6 | HPFS filesystem (OS/2, NT) | |
| 7 | Macintosh | |
| 8 | Z-System | |
| 9 | CP/M | |
| 10 | TOPS-20 | |
| 11 | NTFS filesystem (NT) | |
| 12 | QDOS | |
| 13 | Acorn RISCOS | |
| 255 | unknown |
Optional headers
Extra fields
This value is present in the file if the FEXTRA flag is set in the file header flags.
The extra field are variable of size and contains:
| Offset | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | Extra field data size Value in bytes. | |
| 2 | ... | Extra field data |
Original file name
This value is present in the file if the FNAME flag is set in the file header flags.
This is the original name of the file being compressed, with any directory components removed, and, if the file being compressed is on a file system with case insensitive names, forced to lower case.
Contains an ISO 8859-1 (LATIN-1) string with end-of-string character.
Comment
This value is present in the file if the FCOMMENT flag is set in the file header flags.
Contains an ISO 8859-1 (LATIN-1) string with end-of-string character. Line breaks should be denoted by a single line feed character.
Header checksum
The header checksum contain a CRC-16 that consists of the two least significant bytes of the CRC-32 for all bytes of the gzip header up to and not including the CRC-16.
The file footer is 8 bytes in size and contains:
| Offset | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | Checksum (CRC-32) | |
| 4 | 4 | Uncompressed data size Value in bytes. |
