gzipGzipFile

GzipFile is a class in Python's standard library gzip module that provides a file-like interface for gzip-compressed data. It can be used to read from or write to gzip files, performing compression or decompression on the fly as data passes through the object. The class is designed to integrate with Python’s IO system, making it natural to use with with statements and other file-like operations.

Construction and parameters: GzipFile(filename=None, mode='rb', fileobj=None, mtime=None, compresslevel=None) allows you to specify either a filename or an existing binary file-like object as the underlying stream. Typical modes are 'rb' for reading and 'wb' for writing; the underlying stream is treated as binary. When writing, you can set compresslevel (1–9) to balance speed and compression ratio, and mtime controls the modification time stored in the gzip header. If filename is provided, the class opens that file; if fileobj is provided, it uses the given stream.

Interface and usage: As a file-like object, GzipFile implements read(), write(), close(), and flush(), among other standard methods. In read mode, it decompresses data from the underlying stream; in write mode, it compresses uncompressed data before writing. It can be used in a with block and, for text data, can be wrapped by an appropriate text wrapper (for example, io.TextIOWrapper) or by using gzip.open in text mode.

Notes: Seek support in gzip streams is limited and not generally suitable for random access. GzipFile is often used directly for binary data or as the underlying object for higher-level wrappers, and it is complemented by the gzip.open function, a convenience interface that handles opening and (optionally) text wrapping.