Python: Inflate and Deflate implementations

Question

I am interfacing with a server that requires that data sent to it is compressed with Deflate algorithm (Huffman encoding + LZ77) and also sends data that I need to Inflate.

I know that Python includes Zlib, and that the C libraries in Zlib support calls to Inflate and Deflate, but these apparently are not provided by the Python Zlib module. It does provide Compress and Decompress, but when I make a call such as the following:

result_data = zlib.decompress( base64_decoded_compressed_string )

I receive the following error:

Error -3 while decompressing data: incorrect header check

Gzip does no better; when making a call such as:

result_data = gzip.GzipFile( fileobj = StringIO.StringIO( base64_decoded_compressed_string ) ).read()

I receive the error:

IOError: Not a gzipped file

which makes sense as the data is a Deflated file not a true Gzipped file.

Now I know that there is a Deflate implementation available (Pyflate), but I do not know of an Inflate implementation.

It seems that there are a few options:

1. Find an existing implementation (ideal) of Inflate and Deflate in Python
2. Write my own Python extension to the zlib c library that includes Inflate and Deflate
3. Call something else that can be executed from the command line (such as a Ruby script, since Inflate/Deflate calls in zlib are fully wrapped in Ruby)
4. ?

I am seeking a solution, but lacking a solution I will be thankful for insights, constructive opinions, and ideas.

Additional information: The result of deflating (and encoding) a string should, for the purposes I need, give the same result as the following snippet of C# code, where the input parameter is an array of UTF bytes corresponding to the data to compress:

public static string DeflateAndEncodeBase64(byte[] data)
{
    if (null == data || data.Length < 1) return null;
    string compressedBase64 = "";

    //write into a new memory stream wrapped by a deflate stream
    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
    {
        using (DeflateStream deflateStream = new DeflateStream(ms, CompressionMode.Compress, true))
        {
            //write byte buffer into memorystream
            deflateStream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
            deflateStream.Close();

            //rewind memory stream and write to base 64 string
            byte[] compressedBytes = new byte[ms.Length];
            ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
            ms.Read(compressedBytes, 0, (int)ms.Length);
            compressedBase64 = Convert.ToBase64String(compressedBytes);
        }
    }
    return compressedBase64;
}

Running this .NET code for the string "deflate and encode me" gives the result

7b0HYBxJliUmL23Ke39K9UrX4HShCIBgEyTYkEAQ7MGIzeaS7B1pRyMpqyqBymVWZV1mFkDM7Z28995777333nvvvfe6O51OJ/ff/z9cZmQBbPbOStrJniGAqsgfP358Hz8iZvl5mbV5mi1nab6cVrM8XeT/Dw==

When "deflate and encode me" is run through the Python Zlib.compress() and then base64 encoded, the result is "eJxLSU3LSSxJVUjMS1FIzUvOT0lVyE0FAFXHB6k=".

It is clear that zlib.compress() is not an implementation of the same algorithm as the standard Deflate algorithm.

More Information:

The first 2 bytes of the .NET deflate data ("7b0HY..."), after b64 decoding are 0xEDBD, which does not correspond to Gzip data (0x1f8b), BZip2 (0x425A) data, or Zlib (0x789C) data.

The first 2 bytes of the Python compressed data ("eJxLS..."), after b64 decoding are 0x789C. This is a Zlib header.

SOLVED

To handle the raw deflate and inflate, without header and checksum, the following things needed to happen:

On deflate/compress: strip the first two bytes (header) and the last four bytes (checksum).

On inflate/decompress: there is a second argument for window size. If this value is negative it suppresses headers. here are my methods currently, including the base64 encoding/decoding - and working properly:

import zlib
import base64

def decode_base64_and_inflate( b64string ):
    decoded_data = base64.b64decode( b64string )
    return zlib.decompress( decoded_data , -15)

def deflate_and_base64_encode( string_val ):
    zlibbed_str = zlib.compress( string_val )
    compressed_string = zlibbed_str[2:-4]
    return base64.b64encode( compressed_string )

Answer 1

You can still use the zlib module to inflate/deflate data. The gzip module uses it internally, but adds a file-header to make it into a gzip-file. Looking at the gzip.py file, something like this could work:

import zlib

def deflate(data, compresslevel=9):
    compress = zlib.compressobj(
            compresslevel,        # level: 0-9
            zlib.DEFLATED,        # method: must be DEFLATED
            -zlib.MAX_WBITS,      # window size in bits:
                                  #   -15..-8: negate, suppress header
                                  #   8..15: normal
                                  #   16..30: subtract 16, gzip header
            zlib.DEF_MEM_LEVEL,   # mem level: 1..8/9
            0                     # strategy:
                                  #   0 = Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY
                                  #   1 = Z_FILTERED
                                  #   2 = Z_HUFFMAN_ONLY
                                  #   3 = Z_RLE
                                  #   4 = Z_FIXED
    )
    deflated = compress.compress(data)
    deflated += compress.flush()
    return deflated

def inflate(data):
    decompress = zlib.decompressobj(
            -zlib.MAX_WBITS  # see above
    )
    inflated = decompress.decompress(data)
    inflated += decompress.flush()
    return inflated

I don't know if this corresponds exactly to whatever your server requires, but those two functions are able to round-trip any data I tried.

The parameters maps directly to what is passed to the zlib library functions.

Python ⇒ C
zlib.compressobj(...) ⇒ deflateInit(...)
compressobj.compress(...) ⇒ deflate(...)
zlib.decompressobj(...) ⇒ inflateInit(...)
decompressobj.decompress(...) ⇒ inflate(...)

The constructors create the structure and populate it with default values, and pass it along to the init-functions. The compress/decompress methods update the structure and pass it to inflate/deflate.