Compres...::Bzip2(3)

✨ NAME ✨

Compress::Raw::Bzip2 — Low-Level Interface to bzip2 compression library.

Okay so bestie, quick vibe check: this is the Compres...::Bzip2(3) page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation, and the ellipsis in the header is canon — we are not fixing it. 💅 The whole energy here is low-level bzip2 interface, and honestly it's giving “tiny but powerful.”

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

use Compress::Raw::Bzip2 ;

my ($bz, $status) = new Compress::Raw::Bzip2 [OPTS]
    or die "Cannot create bzip2 object: $bzerno\n";

$status = $bz->bzdeflate($input, $output);
$status = $bz->bzflush($output);
$status = $bz->bzclose($output);

my ($bz, $status) = new Compress::Raw::Bunzip2 [OPTS]
    or die "Cannot create bunzip2 object: $bzerno\n";

$status = $bz->bzinflate($input, $output);

my $version = Compress::Raw::Bzip2::bzlibversion();

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Compress::Raw::Bzip2 gives you an interface to the in-memory compression/uncompression functions from the bzip2 compression library. No cap.

The primary purpose for the existence of Compress::Raw::Bzip2 is for use by the IO::Compress::Bzip2 and IO::Compress::Bunzip2 modules, but it can absolutely be used on its own for simple compression/uncompression tasks. Solo era? lowkey yes. ✨

🧡 Compression 🧡

($z, $status) = new Compress::Raw::Bzip2 $appendOutput, $blockSize100k, $workfactor;

Creates a new compression object. Iconic.

If successful, it will return the initialised compression object, $z, and a $status of BZ_OK in a list context. In scalar context it returns the deflation object, $z, only.

If not successful, the returned compression object, $z, will be undef and $status will hold the a bzip2 error code. Bestie, that “the a” is in the original and I’m leaving it exactly as found. 🙈

Below is a list of the valid options:

• $appendOutput — controls whether the compressed data is appended to the output buffer in the bzdeflate, bzflush and bzclose methods. Defaults to 1.
• $blockSize100k — to quote the bzip2 documentation:

blockSize100k specifies the block size to be used for compression. It should be a value between 1 and 9 inclusive, and the actual block size used is 100000 x this figure. 9 gives the best compression but takes most memory.

Defaults to 1.

• $workfactor — to quote the bzip2 documentation:

This parameter controls how the compression phase behaves when presented with worst case, highly repetitive, input data. If compression runs into difficulties caused by repetitive data, the library switches from the standard sorting algorithm to a fallback algorithm. The fallback is slower than the standard algorithm by perhaps a factor of three, but always behaves reasonably, no matter how bad the input. Lower values of workFactor reduce the amount of effort the standard algorithm will expend before resorting to the fallback. You should set this parameter carefully; too low, and many inputs will be handled by the fallback algorithm and so compress rather slowly, too high, and your average-to-worst case compression times can become very large. The default value of 30 gives reasonable behaviour over a wide range of circumstances. Allowable values range from 0 to 250 inclusive. 0 is a special case, equivalent to using the default value of 30.

Defaults to 0.

$status = $bz->bzdeflate($input, $output);

Reads the contents of $input, compresses it and writes the compressed data to $output.

Returns BZ_RUN_OK on success and a bzip2 error code on failure.

If appendOutput is enabled in the constructor for the bzip2 object, the compressed data will be appended to $output. If not enabled, $output will be truncated before the compressed data is written to it.

$status = $bz->bzflush($output);

Flushes any pending compressed data to $output.

Returns BZ_RUN_OK on success and a bzip2 error code on failure.

$status = $bz->bzclose($output);

Terminates the compressed data stream and flushes any pending compressed data to $output.

Returns BZ_STREAM_END on success and a bzip2 error code on failure.

Example

(yep, the original page has this heading and then no example text — mysterious, ghosted, honestly kind of iconic 👻💅)

💙 Uncompression 💙

($z, $status) = new Compress::Raw::Bunzip2 $appendOutput, $consumeInput, $small, $verbosity, $limitOutput;

If successful, it will return the initialised uncompression object, $z, and a $status of BZ_OK in a list context. In scalar context it returns the deflation object, $z, only. Yes, it says deflation object here too — original wording, preserved with love. 🫶

If not successful, the returned uncompression object, $z, will be undef and $status will hold the a bzip2 error code.

Below is a list of the valid options:

• $appendOutput — controls whether the compressed data is appended to the output buffer in the bzinflate, bzflush and bzclose methods. Defaults to 1.
• $consumeInput — listed as an option right here; the original page doesn’t give it its own separate description in this spot, and its behavior shows up in the bzinflate section below. iykyk.
• $small — to quote the bzip2 documentation:

If small is nonzero, the library will use an alternative decompression algorithm which uses less memory but at the cost of decompressing more slowly (roughly speaking, half the speed, but the maximum memory requirement drops to around 2300k).

Defaults to 0.

• $limitOutput — the LimitOutput option changes the behavior of the $i->bzinflate method so that the amount of memory used by the output buffer can be limited.

When LimitOutput is used the size of the output buffer used will either be the 16k or the amount of memory already allocated to $output, whichever is larger. Predicting the output size available is tricky, so don’t rely on getting an exact output buffer size.

When LimitOutout is not specified $i->bzinflate will use as much memory as it takes to write all the uncompressed data it creates by uncompressing the input buffer. (Yes, LimitOutout is spelled exactly like that in the original. We protect the typo in this house.)

If LimitOutput is enabled, the ConsumeInput option will also be enabled.

This option defaults to false.

• $verbosity — this parameter is ignored. Defaults to 0.

$status = $z->bzinflate($input, $output);

Uncompresses $input and writes the uncompressed data to $output.

Returns BZ_OK if the uncompression was successful, but the end of the compressed data stream has not been reached. Returns BZ_STREAM_END on successful uncompression and the end of the compression stream has been reached.

If consumeInput is enabled in the constructor for the bunzip2 object, $input will have all compressed data removed from it after uncompression. On BZ_OK return this will mean that $input will be an empty string; when BZ_STREAM_END $input will either be an empty string or will contain whatever data immediately followed the compressed data stream.

If appendOutput is enabled in the constructor for the bunzip2 object, the uncompressed data will be appended to $output. If not enabled, $output will be truncated before the uncompressed data is written to it.

🌈 Misc 🌈

my $version = Compress::Raw::Bzip2::bzlibversion();

Returns the version of the underlying bzip2 library. Cute little info drop. 💖

🎀 Constants 🎀

The following bzip2 constants are exported by this module

BZ_RUN
BZ_FLUSH
BZ_FINISH

BZ_OK
BZ_RUN_OK
BZ_FLUSH_OK
BZ_FINISH_OK
BZ_STREAM_END
BZ_SEQUENCE_ERROR
BZ_PARAM_ERROR
BZ_MEM_ERROR
BZ_DATA_ERROR
BZ_DATA_ERROR_MAGIC
BZ_IO_ERROR
BZ_UNEXPECTED_EOF
BZ_OUTBUFF_FULL
BZ_CONFIG_ERROR

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🌟 SUPPORT 🌟

General feedback/questions/bug reports should be sent to <https://github.com/pmqs/Compress-Raw-Bzip2/issues> (preferred) or <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Compress-Raw-Bzip2>.

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💖 SEE ALSO 💖

The whole squad, no one left out:

• Compress::Zlib
• IO::Compress::Gzip
• IO::Uncompress::Gunzip
• IO::Compress::Deflate
• IO::Uncompress::Inflate
• IO::Compress::RawDeflate
• IO::Uncompress::RawInflate
• IO::Compress::Bzip2
• IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2
• IO::Compress::Lzma
• IO::Uncompress::UnLzma
• IO::Compress::Xz
• IO::Uncompress::UnXz
• IO::Compress::Lzip
• IO::Uncompress::UnLzip
• IO::Compress::Lzop
• IO::Uncompress::UnLzop
• IO::Compress::Lzf
• IO::Uncompress::UnLzf
• IO::Compress::Zstd
• IO::Uncompress::UnZstd
• IO::Uncompress::AnyInflate
• IO::Uncompress::AnyUncompress

Also:

• IO::Compress::FAQ
• File::GlobMapper
• Archive::Zip
• Archive::Tar
• IO::Zlib

The primary site for the bzip2 program is <https://sourceware.org/bzip2/>.

See the module Compress::Bzip2.

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🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

This module was written by Paul Marquess, pmqs@cpan.org.

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📜 MODIFICATION HISTORY 📜

See the Changes file.

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👑 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 👑

Copyright (c) 2005-2026 Paul Marquess. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

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and that’s the whole page, bestie 💅💖 — this was perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-03-09, from the Compres...::Bzip2(3) page. periodt. 🎀