Create a zip file from a generator in Python?

gzip.GzipFile writes the data in gzipped chunks , which you can set the size of your chunks according to the numbers of lines read from the files.

an example:

file = gzip.GzipFile('blah.gz', 'wb')
sourcefile = open('source', 'rb')
chunks = []
for line in sourcefile:
  chunks.append(line)
  if len(chunks) >= X: 
      file.write("".join(chunks))
      file.flush()
      chunks = []

The gzip library will take a file-like object for compression.

class GzipFile([filename [,mode [,compresslevel [,fileobj]]]])

You still need to provide a nominal filename for inclusion in the zip file, but you can pass your data-source to the fileobj.

(This answer differs from that of Damnsweet, in that the focus should be on the data-source being incrementally read, not the compressed file being incrementally written.)

And I see now the original questioner won’t accept Gzip 🙁

Some (many? most?) compression algorithms are based on looking at redundancies across the entire file.

Some compression libraries will choose between several compression algorithms based on which works best on the file.

I believe the ZipFile module does this, so it wants to see the entire file, not just pieces at a time.

Hence, it won’t work with generators or files to big to load in memory. That would explain the limitation of the Zipfile library.

The essential compression is done by zlib.compressobj. ZipFile (under Python 2.5 on MacOSX appears to be compiled). The Python 2.3 version is as follows.

You can see that it builds the compressed file in 8k chunks. Taking out the source file information is complex because a lot of source file attributes (like uncompressed size) is recorded in the zip file header.

def write(self, filename, arcname=None, compress_type=None):
    """Put the bytes from filename into the archive under the name
    arcname."""

    st = os.stat(filename)
    mtime = time.localtime(st.st_mtime)
    date_time = mtime[0:6]
    # Create ZipInfo instance to store file information
    if arcname is None:
        zinfo = ZipInfo(filename, date_time)
    else:
        zinfo = ZipInfo(arcname, date_time)
    zinfo.external_attr = st[0] << 16L      # Unix attributes
    if compress_type is None:
        zinfo.compress_type = self.compression
    else:
        zinfo.compress_type = compress_type
    self._writecheck(zinfo)
    fp = open(filename, "rb")

    zinfo.flag_bits = 0x00
    zinfo.header_offset = self.fp.tell()    # Start of header bytes
    # Must overwrite CRC and sizes with correct data later
    zinfo.CRC = CRC = 0
    zinfo.compress_size = compress_size = 0
    zinfo.file_size = file_size = 0
    self.fp.write(zinfo.FileHeader())
    zinfo.file_offset = self.fp.tell()      # Start of file bytes
    if zinfo.compress_type == ZIP_DEFLATED:
        cmpr = zlib.compressobj(zlib.Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION,
             zlib.DEFLATED, -15)
    else:
        cmpr = None
    while 1:
        buf = fp.read(1024 * 8)
        if not buf:
            break
        file_size = file_size + len(buf)
        CRC = binascii.crc32(buf, CRC)
        if cmpr:
            buf = cmpr.compress(buf)
            compress_size = compress_size + len(buf)
        self.fp.write(buf)
    fp.close()
    if cmpr:
        buf = cmpr.flush()
        compress_size = compress_size + len(buf)
        self.fp.write(buf)
        zinfo.compress_size = compress_size
    else:
        zinfo.compress_size = file_size
    zinfo.CRC = CRC
    zinfo.file_size = file_size
    # Seek backwards and write CRC and file sizes
    position = self.fp.tell()       # Preserve current position in file
    self.fp.seek(zinfo.header_offset + 14, 0)
    self.fp.write(struct.pack("<lLL", zinfo.CRC, zinfo.compress_size,
          zinfo.file_size))
    self.fp.seek(position, 0)
    self.filelist.append(zinfo)
    self.NameToInfo[zinfo.filename] = zinfo

I took Chris B.’s answer and created a complete solution. Here it is in case anyone else is interested:

import os
import threading
from zipfile import *
import zlib, binascii, struct

class ZipEntryWriter(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self, zf, zinfo, fileobj):
        self.zf = zf
        self.zinfo = zinfo
        self.fileobj = fileobj

        zinfo.file_size = 0
        zinfo.flag_bits = 0x00
        zinfo.header_offset = zf.fp.tell()

        zf._writecheck(zinfo)
        zf._didModify = True

        zinfo.CRC = 0
        zinfo.compress_size = compress_size = 0
        zf.fp.write(zinfo.FileHeader())

        super(ZipEntryWriter, self).__init__()

    def run(self):
        zinfo = self.zinfo
        zf = self.zf
        file_size = 0
        CRC = 0

        if zinfo.compress_type == ZIP_DEFLATED:
            cmpr = zlib.compressobj(zlib.Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION, zlib.DEFLATED, -15)
        else:
            cmpr = None
        while True:
            buf = self.fileobj.read(1024 * 8)
            if not buf:
                self.fileobj.close()
                break

            file_size = file_size + len(buf)
            CRC = binascii.crc32(buf, CRC)
            if cmpr:
                buf = cmpr.compress(buf)
                compress_size = compress_size + len(buf)

            zf.fp.write(buf)

        if cmpr:
            buf = cmpr.flush()
            compress_size = compress_size + len(buf)
            zf.fp.write(buf)
            zinfo.compress_size = compress_size
        else:
            zinfo.compress_size = file_size

        zinfo.CRC = CRC
        zinfo.file_size = file_size

        position = zf.fp.tell()
        zf.fp.seek(zinfo.header_offset + 14, 0)
        zf.fp.write(struct.pack("<lLL", zinfo.CRC, zinfo.compress_size, zinfo.file_size))
        zf.fp.seek(position, 0)
        zf.filelist.append(zinfo)
        zf.NameToInfo[zinfo.filename] = zinfo

class EnhZipFile(ZipFile, object):

    def _current_writer(self):
        return hasattr(self, 'cur_writer') and self.cur_writer or None

    def assert_no_current_writer(self):
        cur_writer = self._current_writer()
        if cur_writer and cur_writer.isAlive():
            raise ValueError('An entry is already started for name: %s' % cur_write.zinfo.filename)

    def write(self, filename, arcname=None, compress_type=None):
        self.assert_no_current_writer()
        super(EnhZipFile, self).write(filename, arcname, compress_type)

    def writestr(self, zinfo_or_arcname, bytes):
        self.assert_no_current_writer()
        super(EnhZipFile, self).writestr(zinfo_or_arcname, bytes)

    def close(self):
        self.finish_entry()
        super(EnhZipFile, self).close()

    def start_entry(self, zipinfo):
        """
        Start writing a new entry with the specified ZipInfo and return a
        file like object. Any data written to the file like object is
        read by a background thread and written directly to the zip file.
        Make sure to close the returned file object, before closing the
        zipfile, or the close() would end up hanging indefinitely.

        Only one entry can be open at any time. If multiple entries need to
        be written, make sure to call finish_entry() before calling any of
        these methods:
        - start_entry
        - write
        - writestr
        It is not necessary to explicitly call finish_entry() before closing
        zipfile.

        Example:
            zf = EnhZipFile('tmp.zip', 'w')
            w = zf.start_entry(ZipInfo('t.txt'))
            w.write("some text")
            w.close()
            zf.close()
        """
        self.assert_no_current_writer()
        r, w = os.pipe()
        self.cur_writer = ZipEntryWriter(self, zipinfo, os.fdopen(r, 'r'))
        self.cur_writer.start()
        return os.fdopen(w, 'w')

    def finish_entry(self, timeout=None):
        """
        Ensure that the ZipEntry that is currently being written is finished.
        Joins on any background thread to exit. It is safe to call this method
        multiple times.
        """
        cur_writer = self._current_writer()
        if not cur_writer or not cur_writer.isAlive():
            return
        cur_writer.join(timeout)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    zf = EnhZipFile('c:/tmp/t.zip', 'w')
    import time
    w = zf.start_entry(ZipInfo('t.txt', time.localtime()[:6]))
    w.write("Line1n")
    w.write("Line2n")
    w.close()
    zf.finish_entry()
    w = zf.start_entry(ZipInfo('p.txt', time.localtime()[:6]))
    w.write("Some textn")
    w.close()
    zf.close()

Now with python 2.7 you can add data to the zipfile insted of the file :

http://docs.python.org/2/library/zipfile#zipfile.ZipFile.writestr

This is 2017. If you are still looking to do this elegantly, use Python Zipstream by allanlei.
So far, it is probably the only well written library to accomplish that.

In case anyone stumbles upon this question, which is still relevant in 2017 for Python 2.7, here’s a working solution for a true streaming zip file, with no requirement for the output to be seekable as in the other cases. The secret is to set bit 3 of the general purpose bit flag (see https://pkware.cachefly.net/webdocs/casestudies/APPNOTE.TXT section 4.3.9.1).

Note that this implementation will always create a ZIP64-style file, allowing the streaming to work for arbitrarily large files. It includes an ugly hack to force the zip64 end of central directory record, so be aware it will cause all zipfiles written by your process to become ZIP64-style.

import io
import zipfile
import zlib
import binascii
import struct

class ByteStreamer(io.BytesIO):
    '''
    Variant on BytesIO which lets you write and consume data while
    keeping track of the total filesize written. When data is consumed
    it is removed from memory, keeping the memory requirements low.
    '''
    def __init__(self):
        super(ByteStreamer, self).__init__()
        self._tellall = 0

    def tell(self):
        return self._tellall

    def write(self, b):
        orig_size = super(ByteStreamer, self).tell()
        super(ByteStreamer, self).write(b)
        new_size = super(ByteStreamer, self).tell()
        self._tellall += (new_size - orig_size)

    def consume(self):
        bytes = self.getvalue()
        self.seek(0)
        self.truncate(0)
        return bytes

class BufferedZipFileWriter(zipfile.ZipFile):
    '''
    ZipFile writer with true streaming (input and output).
    Created zip files are always ZIP64-style because it is the only safe way to stream
    potentially large zip files without knowing the full size ahead of time.

    Example usage:
    >>> def stream():
    >>>     bzfw = BufferedZip64FileWriter()
    >>>     for arc_path, buffer in inputs:  # buffer is a file-like object which supports read(size)
    >>>         for chunk in bzfw.streambuffer(arc_path, buffer):
    >>>             yield chunk
    >>>     yield bzfw.close()
    '''
    def __init__(self, compression=zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED):
        self._buffer = ByteStreamer()
        super(BufferedZipFileWriter, self).__init__(self._buffer, mode='w', compression=compression, allowZip64=True)

    def streambuffer(self, zinfo_or_arcname, buffer, chunksize=2**16):
        if not isinstance(zinfo_or_arcname, zipfile.ZipInfo):
            zinfo = zipfile.ZipInfo(filename=zinfo_or_arcname,
                                    date_time=time.localtime(time.time())[:6])
            zinfo.compress_type = self.compression
            zinfo.external_attr = 0o600 << 16     # ?rw-------
        else:
            zinfo = zinfo_or_arcname

        zinfo.file_size = file_size = 0
        zinfo.flag_bits = 0x08  # Streaming mode: crc and size come after the data
        zinfo.header_offset = self.fp.tell()

        self._writecheck(zinfo)
        self._didModify = True

        zinfo.CRC = CRC = 0
        zinfo.compress_size = compress_size = 0
        self.fp.write(zinfo.FileHeader())
        if zinfo.compress_type == zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED:
            cmpr = zlib.compressobj(zlib.Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION, zlib.DEFLATED, -15)
        else:
            cmpr = None

        while True:
            buf = buffer.read(chunksize)
            if not buf:
                break

            file_size += len(buf)
            CRC = binascii.crc32(buf, CRC) & 0xffffffff
            if cmpr:
                buf = cmpr.compress(buf)
                compress_size += len(buf)

            self.fp.write(buf)
            compressed_bytes = self._buffer.consume()
            if compressed_bytes:
                yield compressed_bytes

        if cmpr:
            buf = cmpr.flush()
            compress_size += len(buf)
            self.fp.write(buf)
            zinfo.compress_size = compress_size
            compressed_bytes = self._buffer.consume()
            if compressed_bytes:
                yield compressed_bytes
        else:
            zinfo.compress_size = file_size

        zinfo.CRC = CRC
        zinfo.file_size = file_size

        # Write CRC and file sizes after the file data
        # Always write as zip64 -- only safe way to stream what might become a large zipfile
        fmt = '<LQQ'
        self.fp.write(struct.pack(fmt, zinfo.CRC, zinfo.compress_size, zinfo.file_size))

        self.fp.flush()
        self.filelist.append(zinfo)
        self.NameToInfo[zinfo.filename] = zinfo
        yield self._buffer.consume()

    # The close method needs to be patched to force writing a ZIP64 file
    # We'll hack ZIP_FILECOUNT_LIMIT to do the forcing
    def close(self):
        tmp = zipfile.ZIP_FILECOUNT_LIMIT
        zipfile.ZIP_FILECOUNT_LIMIT = 0
        super(BufferedZipFileWriter, self).close()
        zipfile.ZIP_FILECOUNT_LIMIT = tmp
        return self._buffer.consume()

Changed in Python 3.5 (from official docs): Added support for writing to unseekable streams.

This means that now for zipfile.ZipFile we can use streams which do not store the entire file in memory. Such streams do not support movement over the entire data volume.

So this is simple generator:

from zipfile import ZipFile, ZipInfo

def zipfile_generator(path, stream):
    with ZipFile(stream, mode='w') as zf:
        z_info = ZipInfo.from_file(path)
        with open(path, 'rb') as entry, zf.open(z_info, mode='w') as dest:
            for chunk in iter(lambda: entry.read(16384), b''):
                dest.write(chunk)
                # Yield chunk of the zip file stream in bytes.
                yield stream.get()
    # ZipFile was closed.
    yield stream.get()

path is a string path of the large file or directory or pathlike object.

stream is the unseekable stream instance of the class like this (designed according to official docs):

from io import RawIOBase

class UnseekableStream(RawIOBase):
    def __init__(self):
        self._buffer = b''

    def writable(self):
        return True

    def write(self, b):
        if self.closed:
            raise ValueError('Stream was closed!')
        self._buffer += b
        return len(b)

    def get(self):
        chunk = self._buffer
        self._buffer = b''
        return chunk

You can try this code online: https://repl.it/@IvanErgunov/zipfilegenerator

There is also another way to create a generator without ZipInfo and manually reading and dividing your large file. You can pass the queue.Queue() object to your UnseekableStream() object and write to this queue in another thread. Then in current thread you can simply read chunks from this queue in iterable way. See docs

P.S.
Python Zipstream by allanlei is outdated and unreliable way. It was an attempt to add support for unseekable streams before it was done officially.

gzip.GzipFile writes the data in gzipped chunks , which you can set the size of your chunks according to the numbers of lines read from the files.

an example:

file = gzip.GzipFile('blah.gz', 'wb')
sourcefile = open('source', 'rb')
chunks = []
for line in sourcefile:
  chunks.append(line)
  if len(chunks) >= X: 
      file.write("".join(chunks))
      file.flush()
      chunks = []

You can use stream-zip for this (full disclosure: written mostly by me).

Say you have generators of bytes you want to zip:

def file_data_1():
    yield b'Some bytes a'
    yield b'Some bytes b'

def file_data_2():
    yield b'Some bytes c'
    yield b'Some bytes d'

You can created a single iterable of the zipped bytes of these generators:

from datetime import datetime
from stream_zip import ZIP_64, stream_zip

def zip_member_files():
    modified_at = datetime.now()
    perms = 0o600
    yield 'my-file-1.txt', modified_at, perms, ZIP_64, file_data_1()
    yield 'my-file-2.txt', modified_at, perms, ZIP_64, file_data_2()

zipped_chunks = stream_zip(zip_member_files()):

And then, for example, save this iterable to disk by:

with open('my.zip', 'wb') as f:
    for chunk in zipped_chunks:
        f.write(chunk)