On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 12:09 PM, Cameron Simpson <c...@zip.com.au> wrote: > On 29Oct2015 11:39, Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> If it's only zipped, it's not opaque. Just `zcat` or `zgrep` and >>> process away. The whole base64+minus_newlines thing does opaquify >>> and doesn't really save all that much for the trouble. >> >> >> If you zip the whole file as a whole, yes. If you zip individual >> pieces, you can't zcat it (at least, I don't think so?). > > > If it is pure gzip, then yes you can. So this: > > gunzip < file1.gz; gunzip < file2.gz > > and this: > > cat file1.gz file2.gz | gunzip > > should produce the same output. I think this works at the record level too. > > Of course all bets are off once you wrap the records in some outer layer (I > have a file format with is little records which may have the data section > zipped).
I was thinking in terms of having them wrapped, yes. Though I didn't think of the possibility of merely abutting compressed streams; with a bit of seeking and footling around, you could possibly make the file more tailable. Lots of options, but I still think uncompressed text is best. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
