IO::Com...:Deflate(3)

📦 version 2.220.0, in opensuse-leap 16.0

🌸 NAME 🌸

IO::Compress::Deflate — write RFC 1950 files/buffers. That's the whole mission, bestie. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Okay so here's the whole API platter. Copy-paste responsibly:

use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;

my $status = deflate $input => $output [,OPTS]
    or die "deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

my $z = IO::Compress::Deflate->new( $output [,OPTS] )
    or die "deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

$z->print($string);
$z->printf($format, $string);
$z->write($string);
$z->syswrite($string [, $length, $offset]);
$z->flush();
$z->tell();
$z->eof();
$z->seek($position, $whence);
$z->binmode();
$z->fileno();
$z->opened();
$z->autoflush();
$z->input_line_number();
$z->newStream( [OPTS] );

$z->deflateParams();

$z->close() ;

$DeflateError ;

# IO::File mode

print $z $string;
printf $z $format, $string;
tell $z
eof $z
seek $z, $position, $whence
binmode $z
fileno $z
close $z ;

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

This module provides a Perl interface that allows writing compressed data to files or buffer as defined in RFC 1950. It's giving compression main character energy. 📦✨

For reading RFC 1950 files/buffers, see the companion module IO::Uncompress::Inflate. 🫶

🎀 Functional Interface 🎀

A top-level function, deflate, is provided to carry out "one-shot" compression between buffers and/or files. For finer control over the compression process, see the "OO Interface" section.

use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;

deflate $input_filename_or_reference => $output_filename_or_reference [,OPTS]
    or die "deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

Heads up: the functional interface needs Perl5.005 or better. No cap.

`deflate $input_filename_or_reference => $output_filename_or_reference [,OPTS]`

deflate expects at least two parameters, $input_filename_or_reference and $output_filename_or_reference, and zero or more optional parameters (see "Optional Parameters").

The $input_filename_or_reference parameter

The parameter, $input_filename_or_reference, is used to define the source of the uncompressed data.

It can take one of the following forms:

A filename — If the $input_filename_or_reference parameter is a simple scalar, it is assumed to be a filename. This file will be opened for reading and the input data will be read from it.
A filehandle — If the $input_filename_or_reference parameter is a filehandle, the input data will be read from it. The string '-' can be used as an alias for standard input.
A scalar reference — If $input_filename_or_reference is a scalar reference, the input data will be read from $$input_filename_or_reference.
An array reference — If $input_filename_or_reference is an array reference, each element in the array must be a filename.

The input data will be read from each file in turn.

The complete array will be walked to ensure that it only contains valid filenames before any data is compressed.

An Input FileGlob string — If $input_filename_or_reference is a string that is delimited by the characters < and > deflate will assume that it is an input fileglob string. The input is the list of files that match the fileglob.

See File::GlobMapper for more details.

If the $input_filename_or_reference parameter is any other type, undef will be returned.

The $output_filename_or_reference parameter

The parameter $output_filename_or_reference is used to control the destination of the compressed data. This parameter can take one of these forms.

A filename — If the $output_filename_or_reference parameter is a simple scalar, it is assumed to be a filename. This file will be opened for writing and the compressed data will be written to it.
A filehandle — If the $output_filename_or_reference parameter is a filehandle, the compressed data will be written to it. The string '-' can be used as an alias for standard output.
A scalar reference — If $output_filename_or_reference is a scalar reference, the compressed data will be stored in $$output_filename_or_reference.
An Array Reference — If $output_filename_or_reference is an array reference, the compressed data will be pushed onto the array.
An Output FileGlob — If $output_filename_or_reference is a string that is delimited by the characters < and > deflate will assume that it is an output fileglob string. The output is the list of files that match the fileglob.

When $output_filename_or_reference is a fileglob string, $input_filename_or_reference must also be a fileglob string. Anything else is an error.

See File::GlobMapper for more details.

If the $output_filename_or_reference parameter is any other type, undef will be returned.

📝 Notes 📝

When $input_filename_or_reference maps to multiple files/buffers and $output_filename_or_reference is a single file/buffer the input files/buffers will be stored in $output_filename_or_reference as a concatenated series of compressed data streams. 🌈

🎛️ Optional Parameters 🎛️

The optional parameters for the one-shot function deflate are (for the most part) identical to those used with the OO interface defined in the "Constructor Options" section. The exceptions are listed below:

AutoClose => 0|1 — This option applies to any input or output data streams to deflate that are filehandles.

If AutoClose is specified, and the value is true, it will result in all input and/or output filehandles being closed once deflate has completed.

This parameter defaults to 0.

BinModeIn => 0|1 — This option is now a no-op. All files will be read in binmode.
Append => 0|1 — The behaviour of this option is dependent on the type of output data stream.
- A Buffer — If Append is enabled, all compressed data will be appended to the end of the output buffer. Otherwise the output buffer will be cleared before any compressed data is written to it.
- A Filename — If Append is enabled, the file will be opened in append mode. Otherwise the contents of the file, if any, will be truncated before any compressed data is written to it.
- A Filehandle — If Append is enabled, the filehandle will be positioned to the end of the file via a call to seek before any compressed data is written to it. Otherwise the file pointer will not be moved.

When Append is specified, and set to true, it will append all compressed data to the output data stream.

So when the output is a filehandle it will carry out a seek to the eof before writing any compressed data. If the output is a filename, it will be opened for appending. If the output is a buffer, all compressed data will be appended to the existing buffer.

Conversely when Append is not specified, or it is present and is set to false, it will operate as follows.

When the output is a filename, it will truncate the contents of the file before writing any compressed data. If the output is a filehandle its position will not be changed. If the output is a buffer, it will be wiped before any compressed data is output.

Defaults to 0.

🧪 Oneshot Examples 🧪

Here are a few examples that show the capabilities of the module. 🧚

🌀 Streaming

This very simple command line example demonstrates the streaming capabilities of the module. The code reads data from STDIN, compresses it, and writes the compressed data to STDOUT.

$ echo hello world | perl -MIO::Compress::Deflate=deflate -e 'deflate \*STDIN => \*STDOUT' >output.1950

The special filename "-" can be used as a standin for both "\*STDIN" and "\*STDOUT", so the above can be rewritten as

$ echo hello world | perl -MIO::Compress::Deflate=deflate -e 'deflate "-" => "-"' >output.1950

📁 Compressing a file from the filesystem

To read the contents of the file "file1.txt" and write the compressed data to the file "file1.txt.1950".

use strict ;
use warnings ;
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;

my $input = "file1.txt";
deflate $input => "$input.1950"
    or die "deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

🫶 Reading from a Filehandle and writing to an in-memory buffer

To read from an existing Perl filehandle, $input, and write the compressed data to a buffer, $buffer.

use strict ;
use warnings ;
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;
use IO::File ;

my $input = IO::File->new( "<file1.txt" )
    or die "Cannot open 'file1.txt': $!\n" ;
my $buffer ;
deflate $input => \$buffer
    or die "deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

🌈 Compressing multiple files

To compress all files in the directory "/my/home" that match "*.txt" and store the compressed data in the same directory

use strict ;
use warnings ;
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;

deflate '</my/home/*.txt>' => '<*.1950>'
    or die "deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

and if you want to compress each file one at a time, this will do the trick

use strict ;
use warnings ;
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;

for my $input ( glob "/my/home/*.txt" )
{
    my $output = "$input.1950" ;
    deflate $input => $output
        or die "Error compressing '$input': $DeflateError\n";
}

🦋 OO Interface 🦋

Okay bestie, this is the object-oriented era of IO::Compress::Deflate, and it’s genuinely giving main character energy. 💅

✨ Constructor ✨

The constructor format is literally this, no cap:

my $z = IO::Compress::Deflate->new( $output [,OPTS] )
    or die "IO::Compress::Deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

It takes one mandatory parameter, $output (defined below), and zero or more OPTS, which are defined in Constructor Options. 🎀

It returns an IO::Compress::Deflate object on success and undef on failure. The variable $DeflateError will contain an error message on failure. 😭

If you are running Perl 5.005 or better, the object $z returned from IO::Compress::Deflate can be used exactly like an IO::File filehandle. That means all normal output file operations can be carried out with $z. For example, to write to a compressed file/buffer you can use either of these forms:

$z->print("hello world\n");
print $z "hello world\n";

Below is a simple example of using the OO interface to create an output file myfile.1950 and write some data to it. 🫶

my $filename = "myfile.1950";
my $z = IO::Compress::Deflate->new($filename)
    or die "IO::Compress::Deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

$z->print("abcde");
$z->close();

See the Examples for more. ✨

The mandatory parameter $output is used to control the destination of the compressed data. This parameter can take one of these forms:

A filename — if the $output parameter is a simple scalar, it is assumed to be a filename. This file will be opened for writing and the compressed data will be written to it. 📁
A filehandle — if the $output parameter is a filehandle, the compressed data will be written to it. The string '-' can be used as an alias for standard output. 🌊
A scalar reference — if $output is a scalar reference, the compressed data will be stored in $$output. 🎀

If the $output parameter is any other type, IO::Compress::Deflate::new will return undef. 💀

🎀 Constructor Options 🎀

OPTS is any combination of zero or more of the following options. Slay, let’s go through them one by one. 👑

AutoClose => 0|1 — this option is only valid when the $output parameter is a filehandle. If specified, and the value is true, it will result in the $output being closed once either the close method is called or the IO::Compress::Deflate object is destroyed. This parameter defaults to 0. 🔥
Append => 0|1 — opens $output in append mode. The behaviour of this option is dependent on the type of $output.
- A Buffer — if $output is a buffer and Append is enabled, all compressed data will be append to the end of $output. Otherwise $output will be cleared before any data is written to it.
- A Filename — if $output is a filename and Append is enabled, the file will be opened in append mode. Otherwise the contents of the file, if any, will be truncated before any compressed data is written to it.
- A Filehandle — if $output is a filehandle, the file pointer will be positioned to the end of the file via a call to seek before any compressed data is written to it. Otherwise the file pointer will not be moved. This parameter defaults to 0. 🌸
Merge => 0|1 — this option is used to compress input data and append it to an existing compressed data stream in $output. The end result is a single compressed data stream stored in $output. It is a fatal error to attempt to use this option when $output is not an RFC 1950 data stream. 😭 There are a number of other limitations with the Merge option:
1. This module needs to have been built with zlib 1.2.1 or better to work. A fatal error will be thrown if Merge is used with an older version of zlib.
2. If $output is a file or a filehandle, it must be seekable. This parameter defaults to 0. 💅
-Level — defines the compression level used by zlib. The value should either be a number between 0 and 9 (0 means no compression and 9 is maximum compression), or one of the symbolic constants defined below. ⭐

Z_NO_COMPRESSION
Z_BEST_SPEED
Z_BEST_COMPRESSION
Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION

The default is Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION. Note, these constants are not imported by IO::Compress::Deflate by default. 🙈

use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(:strategy);
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(:constants);
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(:all);

-Strategy — defines the strategy used to tune the compression. Use one of the symbolic constants defined below. 🦋

Z_FILTERED
Z_HUFFMAN_ONLY
Z_RLE
Z_FIXED
Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY

The default is Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY. ✨

Strict => 0|1 — this is a placeholder option. That’s it, that’s the whole vibe. 🎀

💖 Examples 💖

🌊 Streaming 🌊

This very simple command line example demonstrates the streaming capabilities of the module. The code reads data from STDIN or all the files given on the commandline, compresses it, and writes the compressed data to STDOUT. 🫶

use strict ;
use warnings ;
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;

my $z = IO::Compress::Deflate->new("-", Stream => 1)
    or die "IO::Compress::Deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

while (<>) {
    $z->print("abcde");
}
$z->close();

Note the use of "-" to means "STDOUT". Alternatively you can use "\*STDOUT". 🌈

📁 Compressing a file from the filesystem 📁

To read the contents of the file file1.txt and write the compressed data to the file file1.txt.1950 there are a few options. 👑

Start by creating the compression object and opening the input file:

use strict ;
use warnings ;
use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError) ;

my $input = "file1.txt";
my $z = IO::Compress::Deflate->new("file1.txt.1950")
    or die "IO::Compress::Deflate failed: $DeflateError\n";

# open the input file
open my $fh, "<", "file1.txt"
    or die "Cannot open file1.txt: $!\n";

# loop through the input file & write to the compressed file
while (<$fh>) {
    $z->print($_);
}

# not forgetting to close the compressed file
$z->close();

💅 METHODS 💅

okay bestie, this is where the object actually does stuff. main character energy only ✨

🖨️ `print`

Usage is:

$z->print($data)
print $z $data

Compresses and outputs the contents of the $data parameter. This has the same behaviour as the print built-in. Returns true if successful. slay 💖

🧾 `printf`

Usage is:

$z->printf($format, $data)
printf $z $format, $data

Compresses and outputs the contents of the $data parameter. Returns true if successful. cute and formatted, no cap ✨

✍️ `syswrite`

Usage is:

$z->syswrite $data
$z->syswrite $data, $length
$z->syswrite $data, $length, $offset

Compresses and outputs the contents of the $data parameter.

Returns the number of uncompressed bytes written, or undef if unsuccessful. lowkey important: it counts uncompressed bytes 🫶

📝 `write`

Usage is:

$z->write $data
$z->write $data, $length
$z->write $data, $length, $offset

Compresses and outputs the contents of the $data parameter.

Returns the number of uncompressed bytes written, or undef if unsuccessful. same energy as syswrite, different little name 💅

🚿 `flush`

Usage is:

$z->flush;
$z->flush($flush_type);

Flushes any pending compressed data to the output file/buffer.

This method takes an optional parameter, $flush_type, that controls how the flushing will be carried out. By default the $flush_type used is Z_FINISH. Other valid values for $flush_type are Z_NO_FLUSH, Z_SYNC_FLUSH, Z_FULL_FLUSH and Z_BLOCK.

bestie pls be careful: it is strongly recommended that you only set the flush_type parameter if you fully understand the implications of what it does — overuse of flush can seriously degrade the level of compression achieved. See the zlib documentation for details. 🔥

Returns true on success.

📍 `tell`

Usage is:

$z->tell()
tell $z

Returns the uncompressed file offset. it's giving "where are we rn" ✨

🏁 `eof`

Usage is:

$z->eof();
eof($z);

Returns true if the close method has been called. that's the whole vibe check 💀

⏩ `seek`

Usage is:

$z->seek($position, $whence);
seek($z, $position, $whence);

Provides a sub-set of the seek functionality, with the restriction that it is only legal to seek forward in the output file/buffer. It is a fatal error to attempt to seek backward. 🚨

Empty parts of the file/buffer will have NULL (0x00) bytes written to them.

The $whence parameter takes one of the usual values, namely SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR or SEEK_END.

Returns 1 on success, 0 on failure.

🧊 `binmode`

Usage is:

$z->binmode
binmode $z ;

This is a noop provided for completeness. literally just here so the vibes are complete 🎀

👀 `opened`

Usage is:

$z->opened()

Returns true if the object currently refers to an opened file/buffer.

🌀 `autoflush`

Usage is:

my $prev = $z->autoflush()
my $prev = $z->autoflush(EXPR)

If the $z object is associated with a file or a filehandle, this method returns the current autoflush setting for the underlying filehandle. If EXPR is present, and is non-zero, it will enable flushing after every write/print operation.

If $z is associated with a buffer, this method has no effect and always returns undef.

Note that the special variable $| cannot be used to set or retrieve the autoflush setting. not me finding out the usual trick doesn't work here 🙈

🔢 `input_line_number`

Usage is:

$z->input_line_number()
$z->input_line_number(EXPR)

This method always returns undef when compressing. that's it, that's the method 💅

📁 `fileno`

Usage is:

$z->fileno()
fileno($z)

If the $z object is associated with a file or a filehandle, fileno will return the underlying file descriptor. Once the close method is called fileno will return undef.

If the $z object is associated with a buffer, this method will return undef.

🔒 `close`

Usage is:

$z->close() ;
close $z ;

Flushes any pending compressed data and then closes the output file/buffer.

For most versions of Perl this method will be automatically invoked if the IO::Compress::Deflate object is destroyed (either explicitly or by the variable with the reference to the object going out of scope). The exceptions are Perl versions 5.005 through 5.00504 and 5.8.0. In these cases, the close method will be called automatically, but not until global destruction of all live objects when the program is terminating.

Therefore, if you want your scripts to be able to run on all versions of Perl, you should call close explicitly and not rely on automatic closing. fr fr, just call it yourself 🫶

Returns true on success, otherwise 0.

If the AutoClose option has been enabled when the IO::Compress::Deflate object was created, and the object is associated with a file, the underlying file will also be closed.

🆕 `newStream([OPTS])`

Usage is:

$z->newStream( [OPTS] )

Closes the current compressed data stream and starts a new one.

OPTS consists of any of the options that are available when creating the $z object.

See the Constructor Options section for more details. new stream, new me ✨

🧩 `deflateParams`

Usage is:

$z->deflateParams

TODO

and yes bestie, the manual literally says TODO 💀 iconic honestly.

💌 IMPORTING 💌

A number of symbolic constants are required by some methods in IO::Compress::Deflate. None are imported by default.

:all — Imports deflate, $DeflateError and all symbolic constants that can be used by IO::Compress::Deflate. Same as doing this:

use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(deflate $DeflateError :constants) ;

:constants — Import all symbolic constants. Same as doing this:

use IO::Compress::Deflate qw(:flush :level :strategy) ;

:flush — These symbolic constants are used by the flush method.

Z_NO_FLUSH
Z_PARTIAL_FLUSH
Z_SYNC_FLUSH
Z_FULL_FLUSH
Z_FINISH
Z_BLOCK

:level — These symbolic constants are used by the Level option in the constructor.

Z_NO_COMPRESSION
Z_BEST_SPEED
Z_BEST_COMPRESSION
Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION

:strategy — These symbolic constants are used by the Strategy option in the constructor.

Z_FILTERED
Z_HUFFMAN_ONLY
Z_RLE
Z_FIXED
Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

🧪 Apache::GZip Revisited

See IO::Compress::FAQ. go read the FAQ bestie, it's giving helpful 💖

📡 Working with Net::FTP

See IO::Compress::FAQ. same FAQ, different example vibe ✨

🫶 SUPPORT 🫶

General feedback/questions/bug reports should be sent to <https://github.com/pmqs/IO-Compress/issues> (preferred) or <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=IO-Compress>. they literally want to hear from you, no cap 💌

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

Compress::Zlib
IO::Compress::Gzip
IO::Uncompress::Gunzip
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
IO::Compress::FAQ
File::GlobMapper
Archive::Zip
Archive::Tar
IO::Zlib

For RFC 1950, 1951 and 1952 see <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1950>, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1951> and <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1952>.

The zlib compression library was written by Jean-loup Gailly gzip@prep.ai.mit.edu and Mark Adler madler@alumni.caltech.edu.

The primary site for the zlib compression library is <http://www.zlib.org>.

The primary site for the zlib-ng compression library is <https://github.com/zlib-ng/zlib-ng>.

The primary site for gzip is <http://www.gzip.org>.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

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

🕰️ MODIFICATION HISTORY 🕰️

See the Changes file.

📜 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 📜

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

okay bestie, that's the whole page 💖 this version is from perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-05-17, and the footer energy is IO::Com...:Deflate(3) — now go compress something iconic ✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from

opensuse-leap 16.0: perl-IO-Compress 2.220.0-bp160.1.1 · Artistic-1.0 OR GPL-1.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms

IO::Com...:Deflate(3)

🌸 NAME 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

🎀 Functional Interface 🎀

deflate $input_filename_or_reference => $output_filename_or_reference [,OPTS]

📝 Notes 📝

🎛️ Optional Parameters 🎛️

🧪 Oneshot Examples 🧪

🌀 Streaming

📁 Compressing a file from the filesystem

🫶 Reading from a Filehandle and writing to an in-memory buffer

🌈 Compressing multiple files

🦋 OO Interface 🦋

✨ Constructor ✨

🎀 Constructor Options 🎀

💖 Examples 💖

🌊 Streaming 🌊

📁 Compressing a file from the filesystem 📁

💅 METHODS 💅

🖨️ print

🧾 printf

✍️ syswrite

📝 write

🚿 flush

📍 tell

🏁 eof

⏩ seek

🧊 binmode

👀 opened

🌀 autoflush

🔢 input_line_number

📁 fileno

🔒 close

🆕 newStream([OPTS])

🧩 deflateParams

💌 IMPORTING 💌

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

🧪 Apache::GZip Revisited

📡 Working with Net::FTP

🫶 SUPPORT 🫶

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

👑 AUTHOR 👑

🕰️ MODIFICATION HISTORY 🕰️

📜 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 📜

`deflate $input_filename_or_reference => $output_filename_or_reference [,OPTS]`

🖨️ `print`

🧾 `printf`

✍️ `syswrite`

📝 `write`

🚿 `flush`

📍 `tell`

🏁 `eof`

⏩ `seek`

🧊 `binmode`

👀 `opened`

🌀 `autoflush`

🔢 `input_line_number`

📁 `fileno`

🔒 `close`

🆕 `newStream([OPTS])`

🧩 `deflateParams`