'Compress string with GZip using qCompress?

I have a string of hex data (0a000a0165787a... etc) that I write to a file like this:

void Output(QString FilePath, QString Output)
{
    QFile file(FilePath);
    if(!file.open(QIODevice::WriteOnly))
    {
        qDebug() << "Error";
        return;
    }
    QByteArray array = QByteArray::fromHex(Output.toLatin1());
    file.write(array);
    file.flush();
    file.close();
}

This file then needs to be compressed using GZip.

How could I use qCompress to either compress this file OR compress the original string?

Thanks for your time :)



Solution 1:[1]

This is what worked for me:

QByteArray compress(const QByteArray& data)
{
    auto compressedData = qCompress(data);
    //  Strip the first six bytes (a 4-byte length put on by qCompress and a 2-byte zlib header)
    // and the last four bytes (a zlib integrity check).
    compressedData.remove(0, 6);
    compressedData.chop(4);

    QByteArray header;
    QDataStream ds1(&header, QIODevice::WriteOnly);
    // Prepend a generic 10-byte gzip header (see RFC 1952),
    ds1 << quint16(0x1f8b)
        << quint16(0x0800)
        << quint16(0x0000)
        << quint16(0x0000)
        << quint16(0x000b);

    // Append a four-byte CRC-32 of the uncompressed data
    // Append 4 bytes uncompressed input size modulo 2^32
    QByteArray footer;
    QDataStream ds2(&footer, QIODevice::WriteOnly);
    ds2.setByteOrder(QDataStream::LittleEndian);
    ds2 << crc32buf(data)
        << quint32(data.size());

    return header + compressedData + footer;
}

crc32 code can from any library or you can code it yourself. This is my crc32 code

static const quint32 crc_32_tab[] = { /* CRC polynomial 0xedb88320 */
    0x00000000, 0x77073096, 0xee0e612c, 0x990951ba, 0x076dc419, 0x706af48f,
    0xe963a535, 0x9e6495a3, 0x0edb8832, 0x79dcb8a4, 0xe0d5e91e, 0x97d2d988,
    0x09b64c2b, 0x7eb17cbd, 0xe7b82d07, 0x90bf1d91, 0x1db71064, 0x6ab020f2,
    0xf3b97148, 0x84be41de, 0x1adad47d, 0x6ddde4eb, 0xf4d4b551, 0x83d385c7,
    0x136c9856, 0x646ba8c0, 0xfd62f97a, 0x8a65c9ec, 0x14015c4f, 0x63066cd9,
    0xfa0f3d63, 0x8d080df5, 0x3b6e20c8, 0x4c69105e, 0xd56041e4, 0xa2677172,
    0x3c03e4d1, 0x4b04d447, 0xd20d85fd, 0xa50ab56b, 0x35b5a8fa, 0x42b2986c,
    0xdbbbc9d6, 0xacbcf940, 0x32d86ce3, 0x45df5c75, 0xdcd60dcf, 0xabd13d59,
    0x26d930ac, 0x51de003a, 0xc8d75180, 0xbfd06116, 0x21b4f4b5, 0x56b3c423,
    0xcfba9599, 0xb8bda50f, 0x2802b89e, 0x5f058808, 0xc60cd9b2, 0xb10be924,
    0x2f6f7c87, 0x58684c11, 0xc1611dab, 0xb6662d3d, 0x76dc4190, 0x01db7106,
    0x98d220bc, 0xefd5102a, 0x71b18589, 0x06b6b51f, 0x9fbfe4a5, 0xe8b8d433,
    0x7807c9a2, 0x0f00f934, 0x9609a88e, 0xe10e9818, 0x7f6a0dbb, 0x086d3d2d,
    0x91646c97, 0xe6635c01, 0x6b6b51f4, 0x1c6c6162, 0x856530d8, 0xf262004e,
    0x6c0695ed, 0x1b01a57b, 0x8208f4c1, 0xf50fc457, 0x65b0d9c6, 0x12b7e950,
    0x8bbeb8ea, 0xfcb9887c, 0x62dd1ddf, 0x15da2d49, 0x8cd37cf3, 0xfbd44c65,
    0x4db26158, 0x3ab551ce, 0xa3bc0074, 0xd4bb30e2, 0x4adfa541, 0x3dd895d7,
    0xa4d1c46d, 0xd3d6f4fb, 0x4369e96a, 0x346ed9fc, 0xad678846, 0xda60b8d0,
    0x44042d73, 0x33031de5, 0xaa0a4c5f, 0xdd0d7cc9, 0x5005713c, 0x270241aa,
    0xbe0b1010, 0xc90c2086, 0x5768b525, 0x206f85b3, 0xb966d409, 0xce61e49f,
    0x5edef90e, 0x29d9c998, 0xb0d09822, 0xc7d7a8b4, 0x59b33d17, 0x2eb40d81,
    0xb7bd5c3b, 0xc0ba6cad, 0xedb88320, 0x9abfb3b6, 0x03b6e20c, 0x74b1d29a,
    0xead54739, 0x9dd277af, 0x04db2615, 0x73dc1683, 0xe3630b12, 0x94643b84,
    0x0d6d6a3e, 0x7a6a5aa8, 0xe40ecf0b, 0x9309ff9d, 0x0a00ae27, 0x7d079eb1,
    0xf00f9344, 0x8708a3d2, 0x1e01f268, 0x6906c2fe, 0xf762575d, 0x806567cb,
    0x196c3671, 0x6e6b06e7, 0xfed41b76, 0x89d32be0, 0x10da7a5a, 0x67dd4acc,
    0xf9b9df6f, 0x8ebeeff9, 0x17b7be43, 0x60b08ed5, 0xd6d6a3e8, 0xa1d1937e,
    0x38d8c2c4, 0x4fdff252, 0xd1bb67f1, 0xa6bc5767, 0x3fb506dd, 0x48b2364b,
    0xd80d2bda, 0xaf0a1b4c, 0x36034af6, 0x41047a60, 0xdf60efc3, 0xa867df55,
    0x316e8eef, 0x4669be79, 0xcb61b38c, 0xbc66831a, 0x256fd2a0, 0x5268e236,
    0xcc0c7795, 0xbb0b4703, 0x220216b9, 0x5505262f, 0xc5ba3bbe, 0xb2bd0b28,
    0x2bb45a92, 0x5cb36a04, 0xc2d7ffa7, 0xb5d0cf31, 0x2cd99e8b, 0x5bdeae1d,
    0x9b64c2b0, 0xec63f226, 0x756aa39c, 0x026d930a, 0x9c0906a9, 0xeb0e363f,
    0x72076785, 0x05005713, 0x95bf4a82, 0xe2b87a14, 0x7bb12bae, 0x0cb61b38,
    0x92d28e9b, 0xe5d5be0d, 0x7cdcefb7, 0x0bdbdf21, 0x86d3d2d4, 0xf1d4e242,
    0x68ddb3f8, 0x1fda836e, 0x81be16cd, 0xf6b9265b, 0x6fb077e1, 0x18b74777,
    0x88085ae6, 0xff0f6a70, 0x66063bca, 0x11010b5c, 0x8f659eff, 0xf862ae69,
    0x616bffd3, 0x166ccf45, 0xa00ae278, 0xd70dd2ee, 0x4e048354, 0x3903b3c2,
    0xa7672661, 0xd06016f7, 0x4969474d, 0x3e6e77db, 0xaed16a4a, 0xd9d65adc,
    0x40df0b66, 0x37d83bf0, 0xa9bcae53, 0xdebb9ec5, 0x47b2cf7f, 0x30b5ffe9,
    0xbdbdf21c, 0xcabac28a, 0x53b39330, 0x24b4a3a6, 0xbad03605, 0xcdd70693,
    0x54de5729, 0x23d967bf, 0xb3667a2e, 0xc4614ab8, 0x5d681b02, 0x2a6f2b94,
    0xb40bbe37, 0xc30c8ea1, 0x5a05df1b, 0x2d02ef8d
};

quint32 updateCRC32(unsigned char ch, quint32 crc)
{
    return (crc_32_tab[((crc) ^ ((quint8)ch)) & 0xff] ^ ((crc) >> 8));
}

quint32 crc32buf(const QByteArray& data)
{
    return ~std::accumulate(
        data.begin(),
        data.end(),
        quint32(0xFFFFFFFF),
        [](quint32 oldcrc32, char buf){ return updateCRC32(buf, oldcrc32); });
}

Solution 2:[2]

You could rewrap the deflate data to make it a gzip stream. Strip the first six bytes (a 4-byte length put on by qCompress and a 2-byte zlib header) and the last four bytes (a zlib integrity check). Then prepend a generic 10-byte gzip header (see RFC 1952), and append a four-byte CRC-32 of the uncompressed data, and a four-byte length of the uncompressed data. This requires that you have a CRC-32 routine available.

Solution 3:[3]

Sorry for opening a dead post, but as of KDE 5 they have begun to make what they call "Tier 1" libraries. This is something that requires only Qt to run, but is a part of the KDE package.

You can download and use KArchive to do exactly what you are looking for, there are nice examples in the source.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried it out myself yet, so please report back if you could find this useful.

Solution 4:[4]

I know it is kind of late, but for anyone that faces the same problem this is my approach:

Firstly, I get all the content of the source file.

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    QCoreApplication a(argc, argv);
    
    QString sourcePath = "F:/blabla/sample.txt";
    QString destinationPath = "F:/blabla/sample.txt.gz";
    QFile sFile(sourcePath);
    if (sFile.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly)) {
        QByteArray sourceData;
        QDataStream in1(&sFile);
        while(!in1.atEnd())
        {
            char *c = new char[1];
            in1.readRawData(c,1);
            sourceData.push_back(*c);
            delete []c;
        }
        sFile.close();

        QByteArray destinationData = gzCompress(sourceData);
        QFile dFile(destinationPath);
        if (dFile.open(QIODevice::WriteOnly)) {
            dFile.write(destinationData);
            dFile.close();
        }
    }

    return a.exec();
}

And then this is the way I compress my data:

QByteArray gzCompress(const QByteArray &data) {
    const char header[10] = {
        0x1f, static_cast<char>(0x8b),  // ID1 + ID2
        8,          // Compression Method
        0,          // Flags
        0, 0, 0, 0, // Modification Time
        2,          // Extra Flags
        static_cast<char>(255),     // Operating System
    };

    QByteArray compressedData = qCompress(data);
    compressedData.remove(0, 6); // Qt size + zlib header
    compressedData.remove(compressedData.size() - 4, 4); // zlib footer

    QByteArray result;
    result.append(header, 10);
    result.append(compressedData);
    result.append(render32BitInt(calculateCrc32(data)));
    result.append(render32BitInt(static_cast<unsigned long>(data.size())));
    return result;
}

Finally for the crc code:

typedef unsigned long crc_t;

static const crc_t crc_table[256] = {
    0x00000000, 0x77073096, 0xee0e612c, 0x990951ba,
    0x076dc419, 0x706af48f, 0xe963a535, 0x9e6495a3,
    0x0edb8832, 0x79dcb8a4, 0xe0d5e91e, 0x97d2d988,
    0x09b64c2b, 0x7eb17cbd, 0xe7b82d07, 0x90bf1d91,
    0x1db71064, 0x6ab020f2, 0xf3b97148, 0x84be41de,
    0x1adad47d, 0x6ddde4eb, 0xf4d4b551, 0x83d385c7,
    0x136c9856, 0x646ba8c0, 0xfd62f97a, 0x8a65c9ec,
    0x14015c4f, 0x63066cd9, 0xfa0f3d63, 0x8d080df5,
    0x3b6e20c8, 0x4c69105e, 0xd56041e4, 0xa2677172,
    0x3c03e4d1, 0x4b04d447, 0xd20d85fd, 0xa50ab56b,
    0x35b5a8fa, 0x42b2986c, 0xdbbbc9d6, 0xacbcf940,
    0x32d86ce3, 0x45df5c75, 0xdcd60dcf, 0xabd13d59,
    0x26d930ac, 0x51de003a, 0xc8d75180, 0xbfd06116,
    0x21b4f4b5, 0x56b3c423, 0xcfba9599, 0xb8bda50f,
    0x2802b89e, 0x5f058808, 0xc60cd9b2, 0xb10be924,
    0x2f6f7c87, 0x58684c11, 0xc1611dab, 0xb6662d3d,
    0x76dc4190, 0x01db7106, 0x98d220bc, 0xefd5102a,
    0x71b18589, 0x06b6b51f, 0x9fbfe4a5, 0xe8b8d433,
    0x7807c9a2, 0x0f00f934, 0x9609a88e, 0xe10e9818,
    0x7f6a0dbb, 0x086d3d2d, 0x91646c97, 0xe6635c01,
    0x6b6b51f4, 0x1c6c6162, 0x856530d8, 0xf262004e,
    0x6c0695ed, 0x1b01a57b, 0x8208f4c1, 0xf50fc457,
    0x65b0d9c6, 0x12b7e950, 0x8bbeb8ea, 0xfcb9887c,
    0x62dd1ddf, 0x15da2d49, 0x8cd37cf3, 0xfbd44c65,
    0x4db26158, 0x3ab551ce, 0xa3bc0074, 0xd4bb30e2,
    0x4adfa541, 0x3dd895d7, 0xa4d1c46d, 0xd3d6f4fb,
    0x4369e96a, 0x346ed9fc, 0xad678846, 0xda60b8d0,
    0x44042d73, 0x33031de5, 0xaa0a4c5f, 0xdd0d7cc9,
    0x5005713c, 0x270241aa, 0xbe0b1010, 0xc90c2086,
    0x5768b525, 0x206f85b3, 0xb966d409, 0xce61e49f,
    0x5edef90e, 0x29d9c998, 0xb0d09822, 0xc7d7a8b4,
    0x59b33d17, 0x2eb40d81, 0xb7bd5c3b, 0xc0ba6cad,
    0xedb88320, 0x9abfb3b6, 0x03b6e20c, 0x74b1d29a,
    0xead54739, 0x9dd277af, 0x04db2615, 0x73dc1683,
    0xe3630b12, 0x94643b84, 0x0d6d6a3e, 0x7a6a5aa8,
    0xe40ecf0b, 0x9309ff9d, 0x0a00ae27, 0x7d079eb1,
    0xf00f9344, 0x8708a3d2, 0x1e01f268, 0x6906c2fe,
    0xf762575d, 0x806567cb, 0x196c3671, 0x6e6b06e7,
    0xfed41b76, 0x89d32be0, 0x10da7a5a, 0x67dd4acc,
    0xf9b9df6f, 0x8ebeeff9, 0x17b7be43, 0x60b08ed5,
    0xd6d6a3e8, 0xa1d1937e, 0x38d8c2c4, 0x4fdff252,
    0xd1bb67f1, 0xa6bc5767, 0x3fb506dd, 0x48b2364b,
    0xd80d2bda, 0xaf0a1b4c, 0x36034af6, 0x41047a60,
    0xdf60efc3, 0xa867df55, 0x316e8eef, 0x4669be79,
    0xcb61b38c, 0xbc66831a, 0x256fd2a0, 0x5268e236,
    0xcc0c7795, 0xbb0b4703, 0x220216b9, 0x5505262f,
    0xc5ba3bbe, 0xb2bd0b28, 0x2bb45a92, 0x5cb36a04,
    0xc2d7ffa7, 0xb5d0cf31, 0x2cd99e8b, 0x5bdeae1d,
    0x9b64c2b0, 0xec63f226, 0x756aa39c, 0x026d930a,
    0x9c0906a9, 0xeb0e363f, 0x72076785, 0x05005713,
    0x95bf4a82, 0xe2b87a14, 0x7bb12bae, 0x0cb61b38,
    0x92d28e9b, 0xe5d5be0d, 0x7cdcefb7, 0x0bdbdf21,
    0x86d3d2d4, 0xf1d4e242, 0x68ddb3f8, 0x1fda836e,
    0x81be16cd, 0xf6b9265b, 0x6fb077e1, 0x18b74777,
    0x88085ae6, 0xff0f6a70, 0x66063bca, 0x11010b5c,
    0x8f659eff, 0xf862ae69, 0x616bffd3, 0x166ccf45,
    0xa00ae278, 0xd70dd2ee, 0x4e048354, 0x3903b3c2,
    0xa7672661, 0xd06016f7, 0x4969474d, 0x3e6e77db,
    0xaed16a4a, 0xd9d65adc, 0x40df0b66, 0x37d83bf0,
    0xa9bcae53, 0xdebb9ec5, 0x47b2cf7f, 0x30b5ffe9,
    0xbdbdf21c, 0xcabac28a, 0x53b39330, 0x24b4a3a6,
    0xbad03605, 0xcdd70693, 0x54de5729, 0x23d967bf,
    0xb3667a2e, 0xc4614ab8, 0x5d681b02, 0x2a6f2b94,
    0xb40bbe37, 0xc30c8ea1, 0x5a05df1b, 0x2d02ef8d
};

crc_t crc_reflect(crc_t data, size_t data_len) {
    unsigned int i;
    crc_t ret;

    ret = data & 0x01;
    for (i = 1; i < data_len; i++) {
        data >>= 1;
        ret = (ret << 1) | (data & 0x01);
    }
    return ret;
}

// Updates the crc value with new data.
crc_t crc_update(crc_t crc, const unsigned char *data, size_t data_len) {
    unsigned int tbl_idx;

    while (data_len--) {
        tbl_idx = (crc ^ *data) & 0xff;
        crc = (crc_table[tbl_idx] ^ (crc >> 8)) & 0xffffffff;

        data++;
    }
    return crc & 0xffffffff;
}

inline QByteArray render32BitInt(unsigned long value)
{
    unsigned char data[4];
    data[0] = (value      ) & 255;
    data[1] = (value >>  8) & 255;
    data[2] = (value >> 16) & 255;
    data[3] = (value >> 24) & 255;
    return QByteArray(reinterpret_cast<char *>(data), 4);
}

inline unsigned long calculateCrc32(const QByteArray &data) {
    char *cData = const_cast<char *>(data.data());
    crc_t crc;
    crc = 0xffffffff;
    crc = crc_update(crc,
                     reinterpret_cast<unsigned char *>(cData),
                     static_cast<unsigned int>(data.size()));
    crc = crc ^ 0xffffffff;
    return crc;
}

For a full working example please see this demo project.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1
Solution 2 Mark Adler
Solution 3 Paul
Solution 4 michalis