How to read a .gz file line-by-line in C++?

Question

I have 3 terabyte .gz file and want to read its uncompressed content line-by-line in a C++ program. As the file is quite huge, I want to avoid loading it completely in memor

Answer 1

Here is some code with which you can read normal and zipped files line by line:

char line[0x10000];
FILE *infile=open_file(file);
bool gzipped=endsWith(file, ".gz");
if(gzipped) 
    init_gzip_stream(infile,&line[0]);
while (readLine(infile,line,gzipped)) {
    if(line[0]==0)continue;// skip gzip new_block
    printf(line);
}


#include 
#define CHUNK 0x100
#define OUT_CHUNK CHUNK*100
unsigned char gzip_in[CHUNK];
unsigned char gzip_out[OUT_CHUNK];
///* These are parameters to inflateInit2. See http://zlib.net/manual.html for the exact meanings. */
#define windowBits 15
#define ENABLE_ZLIB_GZIP 32
z_stream strm = {0};
z_stream init_gzip_stream(FILE* file,char* out){// unsigned     
        strm.zalloc = Z_NULL;
        strm.zfree = Z_NULL;
        strm.opaque = Z_NULL;
        strm.next_in = gzip_in;
        strm.avail_in = 0;
        strm.next_out = gzip_out;
        inflateInit2 (& strm, windowBits | ENABLE_ZLIB_GZIP);
    return strm;
}

bool inflate_gzip(FILE* file, z_stream strm,size_t bytes_read){
            strm.avail_in = (int)bytes_read;
            do {
                strm.avail_out = OUT_CHUNK;
                inflate (& strm, Z_NO_FLUSH);
//              printf ("%s",gzip_out);
            }while (strm.avail_out == 0);
            if (feof (file)) {
                inflateEnd (& strm);
                return false;
            }
    return true;// all OK
}


char* first_line=(char*)&gzip_out[0];
char* current_line=first_line;
char* next_line=first_line;
char hangover[1000];
bool readLine(FILE* infile,char* line,bool gzipped){
    if(!gzipped)
        return fgets(line, sizeof(line), infile) != NULL;
    else{
        bool ok=true;
        current_line=next_line;
        if(!current_line || strlen(current_line)==0 || next_line-current_line>OUT_CHUNK){
            current_line=first_line;
            size_t bytes_read = fread (gzip_in, sizeof (char), CHUNK, infile);
            ok=inflate_gzip(infile,strm,bytes_read);
            strcpy(line,hangover);
        }
        if(ok){
            next_line=strstr(current_line,"\n");
            if(next_line){
                next_line[0]=0;
                next_line++;
                strcpy(line+strlen(hangover),current_line);
                hangover[0]=0;
            }else{
                strcpy(hangover,current_line);
                line[0]=0;// skip that one!!
            }
        }
        return ok;
    }
}