The Gz module

type in_channel

type out_channel

exception Error of string

val version : string

Output funcions

open_out opens the given filename for writing. The optional compression argument specifies the level of compression : 0 is no compression, 1 is fastest , 9 is best but slowest. The default is a compromise (6, I think). Refer to the zlib manual (i.e the header file zlib.h) for an explanation of the zstrategy argument. setparams allows to modify these two parameters after the channel has been opened.

type zstrategy = | Default | Filtered | Huffman_only

val open_out : ?compression:int -> ?strategy:zstrategy ->
  string -> out_channel

external setparams : out_channel -> compression:int -> strategy:zstrategy -> unit
  = "wrap_gzsetparams"

These functions output substrings, strings, char or char value (int argument). The external ones use the zlib functions, the usual Caml ones are only wrappers around those. output_string and write will correctly handle null characters embedded in Caml strings. output_value uses the Marshal module.

external write : out_channel -> buf:string -> pos:int -> len:int -> unit
  = "wrap_gzwrite"

external output_string : out_channel -> string -> unit
  = "wrap_gzputs"

external output_char : out_channel -> char -> unit 
  = "wrap_gzputc"

external output_byte : out_channel -> int -> unit 
  = "wrap_gzputc"

val output_newline : out_channel -> unit

val output_endline : out_channel -> string -> unit

val output_value : out_channel -> 'a -> unit

The flush function should be used with caution because it can degrade compression. The optional flush argument defaults to Sync_flush.

type flush = | Sync_flush | Full_flush | Finish_flush

val flush : ?flush:flush -> out_channel -> unit

seek_out set the position of the next write operation on the channel. Only forward seeks are supported; seek_out then compresses a sequence of zeroes up to the new starting position. It raises Invalid_argument if called with a negative offset.

val seek_out : out_channel -> offset:int -> unit

val pos_out  : out_channel -> int

close_out flushes all pending output if necessary, closes the compressed file and deallocates all the (de)compression state. Any subsequent use of the channel will raise an Error exception.

external close_out : out_channel -> unit
  = "wrap_gzclose"

Input functions

val open_in  : string -> in_channel

read reads characters from the stream and returns the number of bytes actually read ; it does not raise End_of_file. input_char and input_line should appropriately raise End_of_file if necessary. input_value uses module Marshal.

external read : in_channel -> buf:string -> pos:int -> len:int -> int
  = "wrap_gzread"

external input_char : in_channel -> char 
  = "wrap_gzgetc"

val input_line : in_channel -> string

val input_value : in_channel -> 'a

The seek_in function is emulated but can be extremely slow.

external rewind : in_channel -> unit
  = "wrap_gzrewind"

val seek_in : in_channel -> offset:int -> unit

val pos_in  : in_channel -> int

external close_in : in_channel -> unit
  = "wrap_gzclose"

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.