python-xz
Pure Python implementation of the XZ file format with random access support
Leveraging the lzma module for fast (de)compression
📖 Documentation | 📃 Changelog
A XZ file can be composed of several streams and blocks. This allows for fast random
access when reading, but this is not supported by Python's builtin lzma
module (which
would read all previous blocks for nothing).
| lzma | lzmaffi | python-xz |
---|
module type | builtin | cffi (C extension) | pure Python |
📄 read | | | |
random access | ❌ no1 | ✔️ yes2 | ✔️ yes2 |
several blocks | ✔️ yes | ✔️✔️ yes3 | ✔️✔️ yes3 |
several streams | ✔️ yes | ✔️ yes | ✔️✔️ yes4 |
stream padding | ❌ no5 | ✔️ yes | ✔️ yes |
📝 write | | | |
w mode | ✔️ yes | ✔️ yes | ✔️ yes |
x mode | ✔️ yes | ❌ no | ✔️ yes |
a mode | ✔️ new stream | ✔️ new stream | ⏳ planned |
r+ /w+ /… modes | ❌ no | ❌ no | ✔️ yes |
several blocks | ❌ no | ❌ no | ✔️ yes |
several streams | ❌ no6 | ❌ no6 | ✔️ yes |
stream padding | ❌ no | ❌ no | ⏳ planned |
Notes
- Reading from a position will read the file from the very beginning
- Reading from a position will read the file from the beginning of the block
- Block positions available with the
block_boundaries
attribute - Stream positions available with the
stream_boundaries
attribute - Related issue
- Possible by manually closing and re-opening in append mode
Install
Install python-xz
with pip:
$ python -m pip install python-xz
An unofficial package for conda is also available, see issue #5
for more information.
Usage
The API is similar to lzma: you can use either xz.open
or xz.XZFile
.
Read mode
>>> with xz.open('example.xz') as fin:
... fin.read(18)
... fin.stream_boundaries
... fin.block_boundaries
... fin.seek(1000)
... fin.read(31)
...
b'Hello, world! \xf0\x9f\x91\x8b'
[0, 2000]
[0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000]
1000
b'\xe2\x9c\xa8 Random access is fast! \xf0\x9f\x9a\x80'
Opening in text mode works as well, but notice that seek arguments as well as boundaries
are still in bytes (just like with lzma.open
).
>>> with xz.open('example.xz', 'rt') as fin:
... fin.read(15)
... fin.stream_boundaries
... fin.block_boundaries
... fin.seek(1000)
... fin.read(26)
...
'Hello, world! 👋'
[0, 2000]
[0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000]
1000
'✨ Random access is fast! 🚀'
Write mode
Writing is only supported from the end of file. It is however possible to truncate the
file first. Note that truncating is only supported on block boundaries.
>>> with xz.open('test.xz', 'w') as fout:
... fout.write(b'Hello, world!\n')
... fout.write(b'This sentence is still in the previous block\n')
... fout.change_block()
... fout.write(b'But this one is in its own!\n')
...
14
45
28
Advanced usage:
- Modes like
r+
/w+
/x+
allow to open for both read and write at the same time;
however in the current implementation, a block with writing in progress is
automatically closed when reading data from it. - The
check
, preset
and filters
arguments to xz.open
and xz.XZFile
allow to
configure the default values for new streams and blocks. - Change block with the
change_block
method (the preset
and filters
attributes can
be changed beforehand to apply to the new block). - Change stream with the
change_stream
method (the check
attribute can be changed
beforehand to apply to the new stream).
FAQ
How does random-access works?
XZ files are made of a number of streams, and each stream is composed of a number of
block. This can be seen with xz --list
:
$ xz --list file.xz
Strms Blocks Compressed Uncompressed Ratio Check Filename
1 13 16.8 MiB 297.9 MiB 0.056 CRC64 file.xz
To read data from the middle of the 10th block, we will decompress the 10th block from
its start it until we reach the middle (and drop that decompressed data), then returned
the decompressed data from that point.
Choosing the good block size is a tradeoff between seeking time during random access and
compression ratio.
How can I create XZ files optimized for random-access?
You can open the file for writing and use the change_block
method to create several
blocks.
Other tools allow to create XZ files with several blocks as well:
$ xz -T0 file
$ xz --block-size 16M file
$ xz --block-list 16M,32M,8M,42M file
- PIXZ creates files with several blocks by default:
$ pixz file
Python version support
As a general rule, all Python versions that are both released and still officially
supported are supported by python-xz
and tested against (both
CPython and PyPy implementations).
If you have other use cases or find issues with some Python versions, feel free to
open a ticket!