Minimum Requirements for GZIP Compliance

The GZIP format is characterized by its minimal requirements for header and structure information. The figure following shall demonstrate the coding of a test file that only contains 1 Byte ("1", 31h). The file was coded with "gzip -n -9 Test.dat" (-> no file name, best compression):

File Contents Test.dat.gz (hex):

  GZIP  CM FL MODTIME     CF OS
  1F 8B 08 00 00 00 00 00 02 0B
  compr. Data
  33 04 00 
  CRC32       FileSize
  B7 EF DC 83 01 00 00 00

Data formats designed in such a way are normally not suitable for file exchange between different operating systems. But they are ideal for coding of data transfers, e.g. in context with http.

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