gzinspector 0.2.1

A tool to inspect gzip/zlib compressed files
Documentation

GZInspector

A robust command-line tool for inspecting and analyzing GZIP/ZLIB compressed files. GZInspector provides detailed information about compression chunks, headers, and content previews with support for both human-readable and JSON output formats.

Features

  • đŸ“Ļ Chunk-by-chunk analysis of GZIP files
  • 📊 Detailed compression statistics and ratios
  • 🔍 Content preview capabilities
  • đŸŽ¯ Support for concatenated GZIP files
  • 💾 Multiple output formats (human-readable and JSON)
  • 📝 Comprehensive header information including timestamps and flags
  • 🔄 Automatic encoding detection and handling

Installation

Pre-built Binary (Linux)

To install the pre-built binary for Linux:

# Download the binary
# Download latest release from:
# https://github.com/jt55401/gzinspector/releases/latest
wget $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/jt55401/gzinspector/releases/latest | grep "browser_download_url.*tar\.gz" | cut -d '"' -f 4)

# Or browse all releases at:
# https://github.com/jt55401/gzinspector/releases

# Extract the binary
tar -xzf gzinspector-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

# Move the binary to a directory in your PATH
sudo mv gzinspector /usr/local/bin/

From Source

To install GZInspector from source, you'll need Rust and Cargo installed on your system. Then:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jt55401/gzinspector.git

# Build the project
cd gzinspector
cargo build --release

# The binary will be available at target/release/gzinspector

Usage

gzinspector [OPTIONS] <FILE>

Options

  • -o, --output-format <FORMAT>: Output format (human or json) [default: human]
  • -p, --preview <PREVIEW>: Preview content (format: HEAD:TAIL, e.g. '5:3' shows first 5 and last 3 lines)
  • -c, --chunks <CHUNKS>: Only show first and last N chunks (format: HEAD:TAIL, e.g. '5:3' shows first 5 and last 3)
  • -e, --encoding <ENCODING>: Encoding for preview [default: utf-8]
  • -h, --help: Display help information
  • -V, --version: Display version information

Examples

Basic file inspection:

gzinspector example.gz

Show JSON output:

gzinspector -o json example.gz

Preview content (first 5 lines and last 3 lines):

gzinspector -p 5:3 example.gz

Output Format

Human-readable Output

The human-readable output includes:

đŸ“Ļ #1    │ 📍 0         │ 🔓 2.5x │ đŸ“Ĩ 1.2KB   │ 📤 3.0KB   │ ℹī¸  deflate|EXTRA|NAME|example.txt

Where:

  • đŸ“Ļ #N: Chunk number
  • 📍: Offset in file
  • 🔓/🔒: Compression ratio (with direction indicator)
  • đŸ“Ĩ: Compressed size
  • 📤: Uncompressed size
  • ℹī¸: Header information

JSON Output

JSON output provides detailed information in a machine-readable format:

{
  "chunk_number": 1,
  "offset": 0,
  "compressed_size": 1234,
  "uncompressed_size": 3000,
  "compression_ratio": 2.43,
  "header_info": "deflate|EXTRA|NAME|example.txt"
}

File Summary

Both output formats include a summary showing:

  • Total number of chunks
  • Total compressed size
  • Total uncompressed size
  • Average compression ratio

Dependencies

  • flate2: GZIP/ZLIB compression library
  • serde: Serialization framework
  • clap: Command line argument parsing
  • chrono: Date and time functionality
  • crc32fast: CRC32 checksum calculation

Building from Source

  1. Ensure you have Rust installed (1.56.0 or later)
  2. Clone the repository
  3. Run cargo build --release

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Jason Grey (jason@jason-grey.com)

Version History

  • 0.1.0: Initial release

    • Basic GZIP file inspection
    • Human-readable and JSON output formats
    • Content preview functionality

  • 0.2.0: Chunks release

    • Ability to show first N and last N chunks of the file
    • Shows progress bar during tail scan of large files