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261029.14 · 2026-10-29, Version 27.0.0-alpha.0.0.0 (Alpha)
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Zlib

Stability: 2 - Stable

The node:zlib module provides compression functionality implemented using Gzip, Deflate/Inflate, Brotli, and Zstd.

To access it:

import zlib from 'node:zlib';
const zlib = require('node:zlib');

Compression and decompression are built around the Node.js Streams API.

Compressing or decompressing a stream (such as a file) can be accomplished by piping the source stream through a zlib Transform stream into a destination stream:

import {
  createReadStream,
  createWriteStream,
} from 'node:fs';
import process from 'node:process';
import { createGzip } from 'node:zlib';
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream';

const gzip = createGzip();
const source = createReadStream('input.txt');
const destination = createWriteStream('input.txt.gz');

pipeline(source, gzip, destination, (err) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
});
const {
  createReadStream,
  createWriteStream,
} = require('node:fs');
const { createGzip } = require('node:zlib');
const { pipeline } = require('node:stream');

const gzip = createGzip();
const source = createReadStream('input.txt');
const destination = createWriteStream('input.txt.gz');

pipeline(source, gzip, destination, (err) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
});

Or, using the promise pipeline API:

import {
  createReadStream,
  createWriteStream,
} from 'node:fs';
import { createGzip } from 'node:zlib';
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream/promises';

async function do_gzip(input, output) {
  const gzip = createGzip();
  const source = createReadStream(input);
  const destination = createWriteStream(output);
  await pipeline(source, gzip, destination);
}

await do_gzip('input.txt', 'input.txt.gz');
const {
  createReadStream,
  createWriteStream,
} = require('node:fs');
const { createGzip } = require('node:zlib');
const { pipeline } = require('node:stream/promises');

async function do_gzip(input, output) {
  const gzip = createGzip();
  const source = createReadStream(input);
  const destination = createWriteStream(output);
  await pipeline(source, gzip, destination);
}

do_gzip('input.txt', 'input.txt.gz')
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  });

It is also possible to compress or decompress data in a single step:

import process from 'node:process';
import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';
import { deflate, unzip } from 'node:zlib';

const input = '.................................';
deflate(input, (err, buffer) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
  console.log(buffer.toString('base64'));
});

const buffer = Buffer.from('eJzT0yMAAGTvBe8=', 'base64');
unzip(buffer, (err, buffer) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
  console.log(buffer.toString());
});

// Or, Promisified

import { promisify } from 'node:util';
const do_unzip = promisify(unzip);

const unzippedBuffer = await do_unzip(buffer);
console.log(unzippedBuffer.toString());
const { deflate, unzip } = require('node:zlib');

const input = '.................................';
deflate(input, (err, buffer) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
  console.log(buffer.toString('base64'));
});

const buffer = Buffer.from('eJzT0yMAAGTvBe8=', 'base64');
unzip(buffer, (err, buffer) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  }
  console.log(buffer.toString());
});

// Or, Promisified

const { promisify } = require('node:util');
const do_unzip = promisify(unzip);

do_unzip(buffer)
  .then((buf) => console.log(buf.toString()))
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    process.exitCode = 1;
  });

Threadpool usage and performance considerations

All zlib APIs, except those that are explicitly synchronous, use the Node.js internal threadpool. This can lead to surprising effects and performance limitations in some applications.

Creating and using a large number of zlib objects simultaneously can cause significant memory fragmentation.

import zlib from 'node:zlib';
import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const payload = Buffer.from('This is some data');

// WARNING: DO NOT DO THIS!
for (let i = 0; i < 30000; ++i) {
  zlib.deflate(payload, (err, buffer) => {});
}
const zlib = require('node:zlib');

const payload = Buffer.from('This is some data');

// WARNING: DO NOT DO THIS!
for (let i = 0; i < 30000; ++i) {
  zlib.deflate(payload, (err, buffer) => {});
}

In the preceding example, 30,000 deflate instances are created concurrently. Because of how some operating systems handle memory allocation and deallocation, this may lead to significant memory fragmentation.

It is strongly recommended that the results of compression operations be cached to avoid duplication of effort.

Compressing HTTP requests and responses

The node:zlib module can be used to implement support for the gzip, deflate, br, and zstd content-encoding mechanisms defined by HTTP.

The HTTP Accept-Encoding header is used within an HTTP request to identify the compression encodings accepted by the client. The Content-Encoding header is used to identify the compression encodings actually applied to a message.

The examples given below are drastically simplified to show the basic concept. Using zlib encoding can be expensive, and the results ought to be cached. See Memory usage tuning for more information on the speed/memory/compression tradeoffs involved in zlib usage.

// Client request example
import fs from 'node:fs';
import zlib from 'node:zlib';
import http from 'node:http';
import process from 'node:process';
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream';

const request = http.get({ host: 'example.com',
                           path: '/',
                           port: 80,
                           headers: { 'Accept-Encoding': 'br,gzip,deflate,zstd' } });
request.on('response', (response) => {
  const output = fs.createWriteStream('example.com_index.html');

  const onError = (err) => {
    if (err) {
      console.error('An error occurred:', err);
      process.exitCode = 1;
    }
  };

  switch (response.headers['content-encoding']) {
    case 'br':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createBrotliDecompress(), output, onError);
      break;
    // Or, just use zlib.createUnzip() to handle both of the following cases:
    case 'gzip':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createGunzip(), output, onError);
      break;
    case 'deflate':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createInflate(), output, onError);
      break;
    case 'zstd':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createZstdDecompress(), output, onError);
      break;
    default:
      pipeline(response, output, onError);
      break;
  }
});
// Client request example
const zlib = require('node:zlib');
const http = require('node:http');
const fs = require('node:fs');
const { pipeline } = require('node:stream');

const request = http.get({ host: 'example.com',
                           path: '/',
                           port: 80,
                           headers: { 'Accept-Encoding': 'br,gzip,deflate,zstd' } });
request.on('response', (response) => {
  const output = fs.createWriteStream('example.com_index.html');

  const onError = (err) => {
    if (err) {
      console.error('An error occurred:', err);
      process.exitCode = 1;
    }
  };

  switch (response.headers['content-encoding']) {
    case 'br':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createBrotliDecompress(), output, onError);
      break;
    // Or, just use zlib.createUnzip() to handle both of the following cases:
    case 'gzip':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createGunzip(), output, onError);
      break;
    case 'deflate':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createInflate(), output, onError);
      break;
    case 'zstd':
      pipeline(response, zlib.createZstdDecompress(), output, onError);
      break;
    default:
      pipeline(response, output, onError);
      break;
  }
});
// server example
// Running a gzip operation on every request is quite expensive.
// It would be much more efficient to cache the compressed buffer.
import zlib from 'node:zlib';
import http from 'node:http';
import fs from 'node:fs';
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream';

http.createServer((request, response) => {
  const raw = fs.createReadStream('index.html');
  // Store both a compressed and an uncompressed version of the resource.
  response.setHeader('Vary', 'Accept-Encoding');
  const acceptEncoding = request.headers['accept-encoding'] || '';

  const onError = (err) => {
    if (err) {
      // If an error occurs, there's not much we can do because
      // the server has already sent the 200 response code and
      // some amount of data has already been sent to the client.
      // The best we can do is terminate the response immediately
      // and log the error.
      response.end();
      console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    }
  };

  // Note: This is not a conformant accept-encoding parser.
  // See https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.3
  if (/\bdeflate\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'deflate' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createDeflate(), response, onError);
  } else if (/\bgzip\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'gzip' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createGzip(), response, onError);
  } else if (/\bbr\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'br' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createBrotliCompress(), response, onError);
  } else if (/\bzstd\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'zstd' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createZstdCompress(), response, onError);
  } else {
    response.writeHead(200, {});
    pipeline(raw, response, onError);
  }
}).listen(1337);
// server example
// Running a gzip operation on every request is quite expensive.
// It would be much more efficient to cache the compressed buffer.
const zlib = require('node:zlib');
const http = require('node:http');
const fs = require('node:fs');
const { pipeline } = require('node:stream');

http.createServer((request, response) => {
  const raw = fs.createReadStream('index.html');
  // Store both a compressed and an uncompressed version of the resource.
  response.setHeader('Vary', 'Accept-Encoding');
  const acceptEncoding = request.headers['accept-encoding'] || '';

  const onError = (err) => {
    if (err) {
      // If an error occurs, there's not much we can do because
      // the server has already sent the 200 response code and
      // some amount of data has already been sent to the client.
      // The best we can do is terminate the response immediately
      // and log the error.
      response.end();
      console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    }
  };

  // Note: This is not a conformant accept-encoding parser.
  // See https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.3
  if (/\bdeflate\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'deflate' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createDeflate(), response, onError);
  } else if (/\bgzip\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'gzip' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createGzip(), response, onError);
  } else if (/\bbr\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'br' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createBrotliCompress(), response, onError);
  } else if (/\bzstd\b/.test(acceptEncoding)) {
    response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Encoding': 'zstd' });
    pipeline(raw, zlib.createZstdCompress(), response, onError);
  } else {
    response.writeHead(200, {});
    pipeline(raw, response, onError);
  }
}).listen(1337);

By default, the zlib methods will throw an error when decompressing truncated data. However, if it is known that the data is incomplete, or the desire is to inspect only the beginning of a compressed file, it is possible to suppress the default error handling by changing the flushing method that is used to decompress the last chunk of input data:

// This is a truncated version of the buffer from the above examples
const buffer = Buffer.from('eJzT0yMA', 'base64');

zlib.unzip(
  buffer,
  // For Brotli, the equivalent is zlib.constants.BROTLI_OPERATION_FLUSH.
  // For Zstd, the equivalent is zlib.constants.ZSTD_e_flush.
  { finishFlush: zlib.constants.Z_SYNC_FLUSH },
  (err, buffer) => {
    if (err) {
      console.error('An error occurred:', err);
      process.exitCode = 1;
    }
    console.log(buffer.toString());
  });

This will not change the behavior in other error-throwing situations, e.g. when the input data has an invalid format. Using this method, it will not be possible to determine whether the input ended prematurely or lacks the integrity checks, making it necessary to manually check that the decompressed result is valid.

Memory usage tuning

For zlib-based streams

From zlib/zconf.h, modified for Node.js usage:

The memory requirements for deflate are (in bytes):

(1 << (windowBits + 2)) + (1 << (memLevel + 9));

That is: 128K for windowBits = 15 + 128K for memLevel = 8 (default values) plus a few kilobytes for small objects.

For example, to reduce the default memory requirements from 256K to 128K, the options should be set to:

const options = { windowBits: 14, memLevel: 7 };

This will, however, generally degrade compression.

The memory requirements for inflate are (in bytes) 1 << windowBits. That is, 32K for windowBits = 15 (default value) plus a few kilobytes for small objects.

This is in addition to a single internal output slab buffer of size chunkSize, which defaults to 16K.

The speed of zlib compression is affected most dramatically by the level setting. A higher level will result in better compression, but will take longer to complete. A lower level will result in less compression, but will be much faster.

In general, greater memory usage options will mean that Node.js has to make fewer calls to zlib because it will be able to process more data on each write operation. So, this is another factor that affects the speed, at the cost of memory usage.

For Brotli-based streams

There are equivalents to the zlib options for Brotli-based streams, although these options have different ranges than the zlib ones:

See below for more details on Brotli-specific options.

For Zstd-based streams

Stability: 1 - Experimental

There are equivalents to the zlib options for Zstd-based streams, although these options have different ranges than the zlib ones:

See below for more details on Zstd-specific options.

Flushing

Calling .flush() on a compression stream will make zlib return as much output as currently possible. This may come at the cost of degraded compression quality, but can be useful when data needs to be available as soon as possible.

In the following example, flush() is used to write a compressed partial HTTP response to the client:

import zlib from 'node:zlib';
import http from 'node:http';
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream';

http.createServer((request, response) => {
  // For the sake of simplicity, the Accept-Encoding checks are omitted.
  response.writeHead(200, { 'content-encoding': 'gzip' });
  const output = zlib.createGzip();
  let i;

  pipeline(output, response, (err) => {
    if (err) {
      // If an error occurs, there's not much we can do because
      // the server has already sent the 200 response code and
      // some amount of data has already been sent to the client.
      // The best we can do is terminate the response immediately
      // and log the error.
      clearInterval(i);
      response.end();
      console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    }
  });

  i = setInterval(() => {
    output.write(`The current time is ${Date()}\n`, () => {
      // The data has been passed to zlib, but the compression algorithm may
      // have decided to buffer the data for more efficient compression.
      // Calling .flush() will make the data available as soon as the client
      // is ready to receive it.
      output.flush();
    });
  }, 1000);
}).listen(1337);
const zlib = require('node:zlib');
const http = require('node:http');
const { pipeline } = require('node:stream');

http.createServer((request, response) => {
  // For the sake of simplicity, the Accept-Encoding checks are omitted.
  response.writeHead(200, { 'content-encoding': 'gzip' });
  const output = zlib.createGzip();
  let i;

  pipeline(output, response, (err) => {
    if (err) {
      // If an error occurs, there's not much we can do because
      // the server has already sent the 200 response code and
      // some amount of data has already been sent to the client.
      // The best we can do is terminate the response immediately
      // and log the error.
      clearInterval(i);
      response.end();
      console.error('An error occurred:', err);
    }
  });

  i = setInterval(() => {
    output.write(`The current time is ${Date()}\n`, () => {
      // The data has been passed to zlib, but the compression algorithm may
      // have decided to buffer the data for more efficient compression.
      // Calling .flush() will make the data available as soon as the client
      // is ready to receive it.
      output.flush();
    });
  }, 1000);
}).listen(1337);

Constants

zlib constants

All of the constants defined in zlib.h are also defined on require('node:zlib').constants. In the normal course of operations, it will not be necessary to use these constants. They are documented so that their presence is not surprising. This section is taken almost directly from the zlib documentation.

Previously, the constants were available directly from require('node:zlib'), for instance zlib.Z_NO_FLUSH. Accessing the constants directly from the module is currently still possible but is deprecated.

Allowed flush values.

Return codes for the compression/decompression functions. Negative values are errors, positive values are used for special but normal events.

Compression levels.

Compression strategy.

Brotli constants

There are several options and other constants available for Brotli-based streams:

Flush operations

The following values are valid flush operations for Brotli-based streams:

Compressor options

There are several options that can be set on Brotli encoders, affecting compression efficiency and speed. Both the keys and the values can be accessed as properties of the zlib.constants object.

The most important options are:

The following flags can be set for advanced control over the compression algorithm and memory usage tuning:

Decompressor options

These advanced options are available for controlling decompression:

Zstd constants

Stability: 1 - Experimental

There are several options and other constants available for Zstd-based streams:

Flush operations

The following values are valid flush operations for Zstd-based streams:

Compressor options

There are several options that can be set on Zstd encoders, affecting compression efficiency and speed. Both the keys and the values can be accessed as properties of the zlib.constants object.

The most important options are:

Strategy options

The following constants can be used as values for the ZSTD_c_strategy parameter:

Example:

const stream = zlib.createZstdCompress({
  params: {
    [zlib.constants.ZSTD_c_strategy]: zlib.constants.ZSTD_btultra,
  },
});

Pledged Source Size

It’s possible to specify the expected total size of the uncompressed input via opts.pledgedSrcSize, which must be a non-negative safe integer. If the size doesn’t match at the end of the input, compression will fail with the code ZSTD_error_srcSize_wrong.

zlib.zstdCompress() defaults opts.pledgedSrcSize to the byte length of its input.

Decompressor options

These advanced options are available for controlling decompression:

Class: Options

Each zlib-based class takes an options object. No options are required.

Some options are only relevant when compressing and are ignored by the decompression classes.

See the deflateInit2 and inflateInit2 documentation for more information.

Class: BrotliOptions

Each Brotli-based class takes an options object. All options are optional.

For example:

const stream = zlib.createBrotliCompress({
  chunkSize: 32 * 1024,
  params: {
    [zlib.constants.BROTLI_PARAM_MODE]: zlib.constants.BROTLI_MODE_TEXT,
    [zlib.constants.BROTLI_PARAM_QUALITY]: 4,
    [zlib.constants.BROTLI_PARAM_SIZE_HINT]: fs.statSync(inputFile).size,
  },
});

Class: zlib.BrotliCompress

Compress data using the Brotli algorithm.

Class: zlib.BrotliDecompress

Decompress data using the Brotli algorithm.

Class: zlib.Deflate

Compress data using deflate.

Class: zlib.DeflateRaw

Compress data using deflate, and do not append a zlib header.

Class: zlib.Gunzip

Decompress a gzip stream.

Class: zlib.Gzip

Compress data using gzip.

Class: zlib.Inflate

Decompress a deflate stream.

Class: zlib.InflateRaw

Decompress a raw deflate stream.

Class: zlib.Unzip

Decompress either a Gzip- or Deflate-compressed stream by auto-detecting the header.

Class: zlib.ZipBuffer

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this class among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

An in-memory, zero-copy view over the entries of a ZIP archive already held in a Buffer, TypedArray, DataView, or ArrayBuffer. Its set of entries can be edited - entries added or removed - but, unlike ZipFile, those edits are not written into the source buffer: a newly added entry is held as a separate in-memory ZipEntry (the passed buffer is a fixed-size view with no room to append to), and removal just drops the entry from ZipBuffer’s index. The original bytes are never modified. zipBuffer.toBuffer() serializes the current set of entries into a fresh archive.

ZipBuffer does not copy the archive you hand it. It keeps a view onto that memory and reads each entry’s content lazily and directly from it, which is what makes construction cheap regardless of archive size. The trade-off is that you must not modify or reuse that memory - including the ArrayBuffer backing a TypedArray/DataView - while the ZipBuffer, or any ZipEntry obtained from it, is still in use: a later read would observe the change and may fail or return corrupt data. Pass a copy (for example Buffer.from(source)) if the source might be mutated or reused.

add() and toBuffer() each have a *Sync counterpart (addSync(), toBufferSync()) that performs the same compression work synchronously. As with the synchronous node:fs APIs, these block the Node.js event loop and further JavaScript execution until the operation completes; use them only where synchronous execution is appropriate (for example, short-lived scripts or startup code), not in code that must stay responsive.

import { ZipBuffer } from 'node:zlib';
import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const zip = new ZipBuffer(readFileSync('archive.zip'));
for (const [name, entry] of zip) {
  console.log(name, entry.size);
}
await zip.add('hello.txt', Buffer.from('Hello, world!'));
zip.delete('unwanted.txt');
writeFileSync('archive.zip', await zip.toBuffer());
const { ZipBuffer } = require('node:zlib');
const { readFileSync, writeFileSync } = require('node:fs');

async function main() {
  const zip = new ZipBuffer(readFileSync('archive.zip'));
  for (const [name, entry] of zip) {
    console.log(name, entry.size);
  }
  await zip.add('hello.txt', Buffer.from('Hello, world!'));
  zip.delete('unwanted.txt');
  writeFileSync('archive.zip', await zip.toBuffer());
}
main();

new zlib.ZipBuffer(buffer)

Parses the archive’s central directory. Throws an ERR_ZIP_INVALID_ARCHIVE or ERR_ZIP_UNSUPPORTED_FEATURE error if buffer is not a well-formed, supported archive.

buffer is not copied: the ZipBuffer retains a zero-copy view of it (for a TypedArray, DataView, or ArrayBuffer, of the underlying ArrayBuffer) and reads entry content directly from it on demand. Do not mutate or reuse that memory while the ZipBuffer or any entry read from it is still live; pass a copy if it might change.

zipBuffer.add(filename, data[, options])

Equivalent to zipBuffer.addEntry(await zlib.ZipEntry.create(filename, data, options)).

zipBuffer.addSync(filename, data[, options])

The synchronous version of zipBuffer.add(). Equivalent to zipBuffer.addEntry(zlib.ZipEntry.createSync(filename, data, options)).

zipBuffer.addEntry(entry)

Adds an already-built entry, keyed by its own zipEntry.name. Replaces any existing entry of that name.

zipBuffer.clear()

Removes every entry.

zipBuffer.comment

The archive-level comment, preserved byte-for-byte across zipBuffer.toBuffer() calls unless overridden. The bytes are decoded as UTF-8 when they are valid UTF-8 and as CP437 otherwise (the field carries no encoding flag of its own).

zipBuffer.delete(name)

zipBuffer.entries()

zipBuffer.forEach(callback[, thisArg])

Calls callback once for each entry, in the order the archive lists them.

zipBuffer.get(name)

Throws ERR_ZIP_ENTRY_NOT_FOUND if the archive has no entry named name.

zipBuffer.has(name)

zipBuffer.keys()

zipBuffer.size

The number of entries in the archive.

zipBuffer.toBuffer([options])

Serializes the current set of entries - in the order they were added or read - into a fresh archive, switching to Zip64 structures automatically as needed (see zlib.createZipArchive()).

zipBuffer.toBufferSync([options])

The synchronous version of zipBuffer.toBuffer() (see zlib.createZipArchiveSync()).

zipBuffer.values()

zipBuffer.writable

Always true.

Class: zlib.ZipEntry

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this class among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

A single file or directory inside a ZIP archive. Instances are produced by ZipBuffer and ZipFile, or created directly for writing with ZipEntry.create()/ZipEntry.createStream().

create() and content() each have a *Sync counterpart (the streaming contentIterator() does not). As with the synchronous node:fs APIs, these block the Node.js event loop and further JavaScript execution until the operation (including any deflate/inflate pass) completes; use them only where synchronous execution is appropriate (for example, short-lived scripts or startup code), not in code that must stay responsive.

Static method: zlib.ZipEntry.create(filename, data[, options])

Compresses data (unless method is 'store', or compression would not reduce its size) and computes its CRC-32.

When the entry ends up stored uncompressed (because method is 'store', or because compression would not reduce the size), the entry retains a zero-copy view of data rather than a copy, and its CRC-32 has already been recorded. Do not mutate data after creating the entry; pass a copy if it might change.

The MS-DOS date/time fields ZIP uses for modified have 2-second resolution and no time zone. When modified does not fall on a whole 2-second boundary, an Info-ZIP extended-timestamp extra field is written as well, recording the whole (UTC) second so the time round-trips more precisely (see zipEntry.modified). This applies to every entry-creation path.

Static method: zlib.ZipEntry.createStream(filename, source[, options])

Creates an entry whose content is compressed on the fly as it is serialized by zlib.createZipArchive(), without buffering source in memory. Its size, compressedSize, and crc32 only become available once serialization has finished. There is no synchronous counterpart: streaming entries only make sense with an asynchronous, incrementally-produced source.

source is drained exactly once, during serialization. Until that happens the entry has no readable content, so zipEntry.content(), zipEntry.contentSync(), and zipEntry.contentIterator() throw ERR_INVALID_STATE. If the entry is serialized by adding it to a writable ZipFile with zipFile.addEntry() (or addEntrySync()), it is then promoted in place to a file-backed entry pointing at the copy just written, so it becomes readable (and can be serialized again) for as long as that ZipFile stays open. Serializing it any other way (for example directly through zlib.createZipArchive()) leaves it spent and unreadable.

Because source may hold an operating-system resource (a file read stream, say), a streaming entry is disposable: its Symbol.dispose and Symbol.asyncDispose methods destroy source if it has not been consumed. An entry passed to an archive is disposed by that archive (see zlib.createZipArchive()); dispose an entry directly only when it was built but never handed to one. Disposal is a no-op for non-streaming entries - in particular a file-backed entry never closes the ZipFile descriptor it borrows.

Static method: zlib.ZipEntry.createSymlink(filename, target[, options])

Creates a symbolic-link entry: a stored entry whose content is target and whose Unix mode type bits mark it as a symlink, so zipEntry.isSymlink is true when it is read back. Extraction tools that honor symlink entries recreate the link; treat target as untrusted (see zipEntry.name on path safety).

Static method: zlib.ZipEntry.createSync(filename, data[, options])

The synchronous version of zlib.ZipEntry.create().

Static method: zlib.ZipEntry.read(buffer)

Parses every entry out of buffer directly, without indexing it into a ZipBuffer. Like ZipBuffer, the yielded entries hold zero-copy views of buffer rather than copies of their content, so the same rule applies: do not mutate or reuse buffer while any of them is still in use.

zipEntry.comment

zipEntry.compressed

true if the entry’s content is stored in compressed form (any compression method, currently deflate or Zstandard); false if it is stored uncompressed.

zipEntry.compressedSize

zipEntry.content([options])

Throws an ERR_ZIP_ENTRY_TOO_LARGE error if the entry’s declared size exceeds maxSize, an ERR_ZIP_ENTRY_CORRUPT error if the content fails CRC-32 verification or does not match its declared size, and an ERR_INVALID_STATE error for a streaming entry (zlib.ZipEntry.createStream()) whose content is not yet available (see that method for when a streaming entry becomes readable).

zipEntry.contentSync([options])

The synchronous version of zipEntry.content().

zipEntry.contentIterator([options])

Unlike zipEntry.content(), this does not buffer the whole member in memory. For a file-backed entry (one returned by zipFile.get()) the compressed bytes are read from disk as the iterator is consumed and nothing is retained; the entry is valid only while its ZipFile is open.

Because streaming is the bounded-memory path for arbitrarily large members, it is not capped by zlib.getMaxZipContentSize() the way zipEntry.content() is - that default guards a single large allocation, which streaming never makes. Output is still bounded per chunk to the declared uncompressed size; pass maxSize to impose an explicit ceiling.

For an in-memory entry stored without compression, the yielded chunks are zero-copy views of the entry’s retained content; do not mutate them.

The yielded chunks are provisional until the iterator completes. CRC-32 verification (and the final declared-size check) can only run once every byte has been read, so a corrupt or truncated entry is reported by the iterator throwing after the last chunk, not before the first. Each chunk is still bounded so the total never exceeds the declared size or maxSize, but a consumer that must not act on unverified bytes should buffer them (or use zipEntry.content(), which verifies before returning anything) rather than processing chunks as they arrive.

zipEntry.crc32

zipEntry.flags

The entry’s raw general-purpose bit flag.

zipEntry.isDirectory

true if the entry is a directory (its name ends with /).

zipEntry.isFile

true if the entry is a regular file — that is, neither a directory nor a symbolic link.

true if the entry is a symbolic link (its Unix mode type bits are S_IFLNK); its content is the link target. Always false for archives not written on a Unix-like system. When extracting, treat a symlink’s target as untrusted — see zipEntry.name on path safety.

zipEntry.mode

The entry’s Unix mode permission bits, including the setuid, setgid, and sticky bits (the low 12 bits, 0o7777), or 0 if the archive was not written on a Unix-like system. The file-type bits are not included here; use zipEntry.isDirectory / zipEntry.isSymlink for the type.

zipEntry.modified

The entry’s last-modification time. When the archive carries a higher-fidelity timestamp in an extra field — an NTFS (0x000a), Info-ZIP extended (0x5455), or Info-ZIP Unix (0x5855) field, as most modern tools write — that absolute (UTC) time is used; otherwise the coarse, local-time MS-DOS date/time field (2-second resolution) is used.

Some tools store their high-fidelity timestamp only in the local file header, so on a file-backed entry (one returned by zipFile.get()) the first read of this property may perform a small synchronous positioned disk read to resolve that header. If that read fails, the value silently falls back to the central-directory data.

zipEntry.method

The entry’s raw compression method: 0 for stored, 8 for deflate, 93 for Zstandard.

zipEntry.name

The entry’s name, decoded from the central directory, which is treated as authoritative — a local file header that disagrees is ignored, so a mismatched-header (“ZIP-confusion”) archive cannot make name disagree with what is read. The bytes are decoded from a valid Info-ZIP Unicode Path extra field (0x7075) when one is present; otherwise as UTF-8 when the language-encoding flag (general-purpose bit 11) is set or the bytes are valid UTF-8 (plenty of tools wrote UTF-8 names without ever setting the flag); and as CP437 — the historical default — only when they are not. See zipEntry.nameBuffer for the raw bytes.

The name is returned verbatim: it is never normalized, and a name containing .., a leading /, a drive letter, or backslashes is neither rewritten nor rejected. A ZipFile/ZipBuffer never writes to disk, so guarding against path traversal (“Zip Slip”) when extracting is the caller’s responsibility.

zipEntry.nameBuffer

The entry’s raw name bytes, before any character decoding. Useful when the archive’s names are in an encoding other than UTF-8 or CP437 and the caller wants to decode them itself.

zipEntry.rawContent([options])

The content is neither decompressed nor checked against zipEntry.crc32, which covers the uncompressed bytes.

Throws an ERR_ZIP_ENTRY_TOO_LARGE error if the entry’s compressed size exceeds maxSize, and an ERR_INVALID_STATE error for a streaming entry (zlib.ZipEntry.createStream()) whose content is not yet available.

zipEntry.rawContentSync([options])

The synchronous version of zipEntry.rawContent().

zipEntry.rawContentIterator([options])

Unlike zipEntry.rawContent(), this does not buffer the whole member in memory. For a file-backed entry (one returned by zipFile.get()) the bytes are read from disk as the iterator is consumed and nothing is retained; the entry is valid only while its ZipFile is open. For an in-memory entry, the yielded chunk is a zero-copy view of the entry’s retained content; do not mutate it.

zipEntry.size

The entry’s uncompressed size, in bytes.

Class: zlib.ZipFile

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this class among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

A random-access view over the entries of a ZIP archive on disk. Only the archive’s tail and central directory are read up front; member content is read from disk lazily, on demand. Writable when opened with { writable: true }: zipFile.addEntry()/zipFile.add() append the new member’s data where the central directory used to be, then rewrite the central directory immediately after it; zipFile.delete() just rewrites the central directory. Both mean the file is altered as soon as the method’s returned Promise fulfills. Deleted or replaced members are left behind as dead space; zipFile.compact() produces a stream with none.

These in-place edits are not crash-atomic. Rewriting the central directory happens in place, so a write that fails partway - the disk fills, the device disconnects, the process is killed - can leave the archive on disk with a partial or missing central directory, i.e. unreadable, even though the member data before it is intact. The rejected call surfaces the underlying error and the ZipFile object is left usable (its in-memory view is not discarded, so a caller can attempt recovery - for example re-writing the entries elsewhere with zipFile.compact()), but that in-memory view may no longer match the bytes on disk. Write to a copy, or compact() into a fresh file, when durability across a failure matters.

Every method has a *Sync counterpart. As with the synchronous node:fs APIs, these block the Node.js event loop and further JavaScript execution until the operation completes; use them only where synchronous execution is appropriate (for example, short-lived scripts or startup code), not in code that must stay responsive. A synchronous method throws ERR_INVALID_STATE if called while an asynchronous add(), addEntry(), delete(), or close() on the same ZipFile has not settled yet, since letting the two interleave could corrupt the archive.

import { ZipFile } from 'node:zlib';
import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const zip = await ZipFile.open('archive.zip', { writable: true });
try {
  const entry = await zip.get('member.txt');
  console.log((await entry.content()).toString());
  for await (const chunk of await zip.stream('huge.bin')) {
    // Process each chunk without buffering the whole member.
  }
  await zip.add('new.txt', Buffer.from('hello'));
  await zip.delete('unwanted.txt');
} finally {
  await zip.close();
}
const { ZipFile } = require('node:zlib');

async function main() {
  const zip = await ZipFile.open('archive.zip', { writable: true });
  try {
    const entry = await zip.get('member.txt');
    console.log((await entry.content()).toString());
    for await (const chunk of await zip.stream('huge.bin')) {
      // Process each chunk without buffering the whole member.
    }
    await zip.add('new.txt', Buffer.from('hello'));
    await zip.delete('unwanted.txt');
  } finally {
    await zip.close();
  }
}
main();

Static method: zlib.ZipFile.open(filename[, options])

Throws an ERR_ZIP_ARCHIVE_TOO_LARGE error if the archive’s central directory is too large to buffer in memory.

Static method: zlib.ZipFile.openSync(filename[, options])

The synchronous version of zlib.ZipFile.open().

zipFile.add(filename, data[, options])

Equivalent to zipFile.addEntry(await zlib.ZipEntry.create(filename, data, options)).

zipFile.addEntry(entry)

Writes entry where the central directory currently starts, then rewrites the central directory to include it, replacing any existing entry of the same name. Throws ERR_ZIP_NOT_WRITABLE if the ZipFile was not opened with { writable: true }.

The returned (same) entry is left readable: a streaming entry created with zlib.ZipEntry.createStream(), which would otherwise be spent once serialized, is promoted in place to a file-backed entry pointing at the copy just written (valid while this ZipFile is open). In-memory entries keep their own buffer unchanged.

zipFile.addEntrySync(entry)

The synchronous version of zipFile.addEntry(). entry must not be a pending streaming entry (one created with zlib.ZipEntry.createStream()) - there is no synchronous way to drain its asynchronous source.

zipFile.addSync(filename, data[, options])

The synchronous version of zipFile.add(). Equivalent to zipFile.addEntrySync(zlib.ZipEntry.createSync(filename, data, options)).

zipFile.close()

Closes the underlying file handle.

Closing does not invalidate outstanding objects: ZipEntry objects previously returned by zipFile.get() and the ZipFile’s own methods will fail with system-level errors (for example EBADF) if used after close, rather than a dedicated Node.js error code. The same applies to zipFile.closeSync().

zipFile.closeSync()

The synchronous version of zipFile.close().

zipFile.comment

The archive-level comment, preserved byte-for-byte across zipFile.addEntry()/zipFile.delete() calls. The bytes are decoded as UTF-8 when they are valid UTF-8 and as CP437 otherwise (the field carries no encoding flag of its own).

zipFile.compact([comment])

Does not modify the open file; pipe the result into a new one:

import { createWriteStream } from 'node:fs';
zip.compact().pipe(createWriteStream('compacted.zip'));

zipFile.compactSync([comment])

The synchronous version of zipFile.compact(). Does not modify the open file.

zipFile.delete(name)

Rewrites the central directory without writing any new content - the archive does not grow. Throws ERR_ZIP_NOT_WRITABLE if the ZipFile was not opened with { writable: true }.

zipFile.deleteSync(name)

The synchronous version of zipFile.delete().

zipFile.entries()

zipFile.entriesSync()

The synchronous version of zipFile.entries().

zipFile.forEach(callback[, thisArg])

zipFile.forEachSync(callback[, thisArg])

The synchronous version of zipFile.forEach(): callback is invoked with a resolved ZipEntry instead of a Promise.

zipFile.get(name)

Returns a lazy, file-backed ZipEntry for name. Nothing is read from disk here and no content is buffered: the returned entry reads (and, for zipEntry.content(), decompresses) its member straight from the file on each access, and the ZipFile retains no member content. The entry is valid only while this ZipFile is open. Reading its content later may throw ERR_ZIP_ENTRY_TOO_LARGE if the member is too large to hold in a single buffer; use zipEntry.contentIterator() (or zipFile.stream()) instead. Throws ERR_ZIP_ENTRY_NOT_FOUND if the archive has no entry named name.

zipFile.getSync(name)

The synchronous version of zipFile.get(). Like get(), it reads nothing up front and only builds the lazy handle, so it does not itself block on I/O - but reads performed later through the returned entry (such as zipEntry.contentSync()) do; see the note above on synchronous methods.

zipFile.has(name)

zipFile.keys()

zipFile.size

The number of entries in the archive.

zipFile.stream(name[, options])

Convenience wrapper that resolves to a Readable over zipEntry.contentIterator() of zipFile.get()(name); the compressed bytes are read from disk as the stream is consumed. The returned promise rejects with ERR_ZIP_ENTRY_NOT_FOUND if the archive has no entry named name.

zipFile.values()

zipFile.valuesSync()

The synchronous version of zipFile.values().

zipFile.writable

Whether this ZipFile was opened with { writable: true }.

Class: zlib.ZlibBase

Not exported by the node:zlib module. It is documented here because it is the base class of the compressor/decompressor classes.

This class inherits from stream.Transform, allowing node:zlib objects to be used in pipes and similar stream operations.

zlib.bytesWritten

The zlib.bytesWritten property specifies the number of bytes written to the engine, before the bytes are processed (compressed or decompressed, as appropriate for the derived class).

zlib.close([callback])

Close the underlying handle.

zlib.flush([kind, ]callback)

Flush pending data. Don’t call this frivolously, premature flushes negatively impact the effectiveness of the compression algorithm.

Calling this only flushes data from the internal zlib state, and does not perform flushing of any kind on the streams level. Rather, it behaves like a normal call to .write(), i.e. it will be queued up behind other pending writes and will only produce output when data is being read from the stream.

zlib.params(level, strategy, callback)

This function is only available for zlib-based streams, i.e. not Brotli.

Dynamically update the compression level and compression strategy. Only applicable to deflate algorithm.

zlib.reset()

For inflate and deflate streams, reset the compressor/decompressor to factory defaults.

For Brotli streams, start a new compression or decompression session while preserving the configured parameters and dictionary.

For Zstd streams, cancel the current frame and start a new session while preserving the configured parameters and dictionary. If pledgedSrcSize was configured for a Zstd compressor, it applies again to the next frame.

Resetting a gzip stream after it has emitted output for an incomplete member causes the stream to error with ERR_ZLIB_INCOMPLETE_FRAME. Resetting at that point would discard the member state while the bytes already written out remain at the start of the output stream, leaving it undecodable. Call .end(), or start over with a new gzip stream, instead. zlib-wrapped deflate may still reset() after a flush; callers that reuse the compressor discard the first output. Raw deflate has no wrapper header, so reset() after a flush still concatenates.

Calling reset() while a write is in progress throws an Error.

Resetting an incomplete Zstd compression frame after it has emitted output causes the stream to error with ERR_ZLIB_INCOMPLETE_FRAME. Resetting at that point would discard the frame state while the bytes already written out remain at the start of the output stream, leaving it undecodable. Call .end(), or start over with a new stream, instead.

Class: ZstdOptions

Stability: 1 - Experimental

Each Zstd-based class takes an options object. All options are optional.

For example:

const stream = zlib.createZstdCompress({
  chunkSize: 32 * 1024,
  params: {
    [zlib.constants.ZSTD_c_compressionLevel]: 10,
    [zlib.constants.ZSTD_c_checksumFlag]: 1,
  },
});

Class: zlib.ZstdCompress

Stability: 1 - Experimental

Compress data using the Zstd algorithm.

Class: zlib.ZstdDecompress

Stability: 1 - Experimental

Decompress data using the Zstd algorithm. Concatenated Zstd and skippable frames are decoded as a single stream.

zlib.constants

Provides an object enumerating Zlib-related constants.

zlib.crc32(data[, value])

Computes a 32-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check checksum of data. If value is specified, it is used as the starting value of the checksum, otherwise, 0 is used as the starting value.

The CRC algorithm is designed to compute checksums and to detect error in data transmission. It’s not suitable for cryptographic authentication.

To be consistent with other APIs, if the data is a string, it will be encoded with UTF-8 before being used for computation. If users only use Node.js to compute and match the checksums, this works well with other APIs that uses the UTF-8 encoding by default.

Some third-party JavaScript libraries compute the checksum on a string based on str.charCodeAt() so that it can be run in browsers. If users want to match the checksum computed with this kind of library in the browser, it’s better to use the same library in Node.js if it also runs in Node.js. If users have to use zlib.crc32() to match the checksum produced by such a third-party library:

  1. If the library accepts Uint8Array as input, use TextEncoder in the browser to encode the string into a Uint8Array with UTF-8 encoding, and compute the checksum based on the UTF-8 encoded string in the browser.
  2. If the library only takes a string and compute the data based on str.charCodeAt(), on the Node.js side, convert the string into a buffer using Buffer.from(str, 'utf16le').
import zlib from 'node:zlib';
import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

let crc = zlib.crc32('hello');  // 907060870
crc = zlib.crc32('world', crc);  // 4192936109

crc = zlib.crc32(Buffer.from('hello', 'utf16le'));  // 1427272415
crc = zlib.crc32(Buffer.from('world', 'utf16le'), crc);  // 4150509955
const zlib = require('node:zlib');
const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

let crc = zlib.crc32('hello');  // 907060870
crc = zlib.crc32('world', crc);  // 4192936109

crc = zlib.crc32(Buffer.from('hello', 'utf16le'));  // 1427272415
crc = zlib.crc32(Buffer.from('world', 'utf16le'), crc);  // 4150509955

zlib.crc32c(data[, value])

Computes a 32-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check checksum of data using the Castagnoli polynomial (CRC-32C, RFC 3720 section 12.1). If value is specified, it is used as the starting value of the checksum, otherwise, 0 is used as the starting value. Passing the result of a previous call as value continues the checksum, as with zlib.crc32().

CRC-32C is a different checksum from the CRC-32 computed by zlib.crc32(); the two produce different results for the same input. CRC-32C is used by protocols and formats such as iSCSI, SCTP, ext4, Btrfs, and the Snappy framing format, and has better error detection properties than CRC-32.

The CRC algorithm is designed to compute checksums and to detect error in data transmission. It’s not suitable for cryptographic authentication.

Strings are encoded as UTF-8, in the same way as zlib.crc32().

import zlib from 'node:zlib';

let crc = zlib.crc32c('hello');  // 2591144780
crc = zlib.crc32c('world', crc);  // 1456190592
const zlib = require('node:zlib');

let crc = zlib.crc32c('hello');  // 2591144780
crc = zlib.crc32c('world', crc);  // 1456190592

zlib.createBrotliCompress([options])

Creates and returns a new BrotliCompress object.

zlib.createBrotliDecompress([options])

Creates and returns a new BrotliDecompress object.

zlib.createDeflate([options])

Creates and returns a new Deflate object.

zlib.createDeflateRaw([options])

Creates and returns a new DeflateRaw object.

An upgrade of zlib from 1.2.8 to 1.2.11 changed behavior when windowBits is set to 8 for raw deflate streams. zlib would automatically set windowBits to 9 if was initially set to 8. Newer versions of zlib will throw an exception, so Node.js restored the original behavior of upgrading a value of 8 to 9, since passing windowBits = 9 to zlib actually results in a compressed stream that effectively uses an 8-bit window only.

zlib.createGunzip([options])

Creates and returns a new Gunzip object.

zlib.createGzip([options])

Creates and returns a new Gzip object. See example.

zlib.createInflate([options])

Creates and returns a new Inflate object.

zlib.createInflateRaw([options])

Creates and returns a new InflateRaw object.

zlib.createUnzip([options])

Creates and returns a new Unzip object.

zlib.createZipArchive(entries[, options])

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this function among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

Serializes entries into a ZIP archive, switching to Zip64 structures automatically once the entry count, or any offset or size, exceeds what the classic 32-/16-bit ZIP fields can hold. The returned Readable is also an AsyncIterable of the same {Buffer} chunks it streams.

Entries are written in iteration order and nothing deduplicates names: an iterable that yields two entries with the same name produces an archive containing both, and most extraction tools keep the one that appears later. ZipBuffer and ZipFile add() methods replace entries by name instead.

The entries are owned by the returned stream: each is consumed as the archive is produced and must not be reused afterwards. This matters for streaming entries (from zlib.ZipEntry.createStream()), which hold an underlying source such as a file read stream. If the returned stream is destroyed before it is fully consumed - for example, the destination of a pipeline() fails - it disposes the entry it was serializing and every entry still queued behind it, destroying their sources so no descriptor leaks. Consume the stream to the end, or destroy it (directly, through a failed pipeline(), or with await using), to guarantee this cleanup; a stream that is neither consumed nor destroyed cannot release anything. A ZipEntry that is never handed to an archive can be released directly with Symbol.dispose / Symbol.asyncDispose.

Throws an ERR_ZIP_ARCHIVE_TOO_LARGE error if the archive comment exceeds 65,535 bytes when encoded as UTF-8.

import { createWriteStream } from 'node:fs';
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream/promises';
import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';
import { ZipEntry, createZipArchive } from 'node:zlib';

const entries = [
  await ZipEntry.create('hello.txt', Buffer.from('Hello, world!')),
  await ZipEntry.create('data/', Buffer.alloc(0)),
];
await pipeline(
  createZipArchive(entries, 'created by node:zlib'),
  createWriteStream('archive.zip'),
);
const { createWriteStream } = require('node:fs');
const { pipeline } = require('node:stream/promises');
const { ZipEntry, createZipArchive } = require('node:zlib');

async function main() {
  const entries = [
    await ZipEntry.create('hello.txt', Buffer.from('Hello, world!')),
    await ZipEntry.create('data/', Buffer.alloc(0)),
  ];
  await pipeline(
    createZipArchive(entries, 'created by node:zlib'),
    createWriteStream('archive.zip'),
  );
}
main();

Passing options.baseOffset produces an archive that is valid immediately when placed after other content in the same file, without relying on a reader’s self-extracting-archive detection to compensate for the shift:

import { createWriteStream } from 'node:fs';
import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';
import { ZipEntry, createZipArchive } from 'node:zlib';

const prefix = Buffer.from('#!/bin/sh\nexit 0\n');
const entries = [await ZipEntry.create('hello.txt', Buffer.from('Hello, world!'))];
const out = createWriteStream('self-extracting.zip');
out.write(prefix);
createZipArchive(entries, { baseOffset: prefix.byteLength }).pipe(out);

zlib.createZipArchiveSync(entries[, options])

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this function among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

The synchronous version of zlib.createZipArchive(). Blocks the Node.js event loop and further JavaScript execution until the whole archive (including any deflate passes) has been produced; use only where synchronous execution is appropriate (for example, short-lived scripts or startup code), not in code that must stay responsive. entries must be a plain (synchronous) Iterable - a streaming entry created with zlib.ZipEntry.createStream() throws when its turn to serialize comes up, since draining its asynchronous source has no synchronous equivalent.

As with zlib.createZipArchive(), the entries are owned by the returned iterator and must not be reused. If iteration stops early - including the throw on a streaming entry - the entry that stopped it and every entry still queued behind it are disposed, releasing any sources they hold.

zlib.zipFiles(files[, options])

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this function among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

Builds an archive from files on disk. For each [sourcePath, entryName] pair it reads sourcePath and adds an entry named entryName, capturing the file’s Unix mode and modification time. A directory becomes a directory entry; a regular file’s contents are streamed in (as a zlib.ZipEntry.createStream() entry) without being buffered in memory. Directory contents are not walked recursively — list each path you want included.

When followSymlinks is true (the default) a symbolic link is resolved and archived as its target file; when it is false the link itself is stored as a symbolic-link entry whose content is the target path (see zlib.ZipEntry.createSymlink()).

import { zipFiles } from 'node:zlib';
import { createWriteStream } from 'node:fs';
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream/promises';

await pipeline(
  zipFiles([
    ['/data/report.pdf', 'report.pdf'],
    ['/data/notes.txt', 'docs/notes.txt'],
  ]),
  createWriteStream('archive.zip'),
);

zlib.createZstdCompress([options])

Stability: 1 - Experimental

Creates and returns a new ZstdCompress object.

zlib.createZstdDecompress([options])

Stability: 1 - Experimental

Creates and returns a new ZstdDecompress object.

zlib.getMaxZipContentSize()

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this function among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

The current default ceiling, in bytes, applied by zipEntry.content() when no explicit maxSize is given. Default: 268435456 (256 MiB).

zlib.setMaxZipContentSize(size)

Stability: 1.0 - Early development

The ZIP archive API is experimental. Using any part of it (this function among them) emits an experimental warning the first time; merely importing node:zlib does not.

Sets the default ceiling used by zipEntry.content() when no explicit maxSize option is given. This is a guard against zip bombs: an archive whose central directory declares a member larger than this is rejected before allocating memory for it. Streaming reads (zipEntry.contentIterator(), zipFile.stream()) are bounded-memory by design and are not affected by this setting.

Convenience methods

All of these take a {Buffer}, {TypedArray}, {DataView}, {ArrayBuffer}, or string as the first argument, an optional second argument to supply options to the zlib classes and will call the supplied callback with callback(error, result).

Every method has a *Sync counterpart, which accept the same arguments, but without a callback.

zlib.brotliCompress(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.brotliCompressSync(buffer[, options])

Compress a chunk of data with BrotliCompress.

zlib.brotliDecompress(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.brotliDecompressSync(buffer[, options])

Decompress a chunk of data with BrotliDecompress.

zlib.deflate(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.deflateSync(buffer[, options])

Compress a chunk of data with Deflate.

zlib.deflateRaw(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.deflateRawSync(buffer[, options])

Compress a chunk of data with DeflateRaw.

zlib.gunzip(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.gunzipSync(buffer[, options])

Decompress a chunk of data with Gunzip.

zlib.gzip(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.gzipSync(buffer[, options])

Compress a chunk of data with Gzip.

zlib.inflate(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.inflateSync(buffer[, options])

Decompress a chunk of data with Inflate.

zlib.inflateRaw(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.inflateRawSync(buffer[, options])

Decompress a chunk of data with InflateRaw.

zlib.unzip(buffer[, options], callback)

zlib.unzipSync(buffer[, options])

Decompress a chunk of data with Unzip.

zlib.zstdCompress(buffer[, options], callback)

Stability: 1 - Experimental

zlib.zstdCompressSync(buffer[, options])

Stability: 1 - Experimental

Compress a chunk of data with ZstdCompress.

zlib.zstdDecompress(buffer[, options], callback)

Stability: 1 - Experimental

zlib.zstdDecompressSync(buffer[, options])

Stability: 1 - Experimental

Decompress a chunk of data with ZstdDecompress.

Iterable Compression

Stability: 1 - Experimental

The node:zlib/iter module provides compression and decompression transforms for use with the node:stream/iter iterable streams API.

This module is available only when the --experimental-stream-iter CLI flag is enabled.

Each algorithm has both an async variant (stateful async generator, for use with pull() and pipeTo()) and a sync variant (stateful sync generator, for use with pullSync() and pipeToSync()).

The async transforms run compression on the libuv threadpool, overlapping I/O with JavaScript execution. The sync transforms run compression directly on the main thread.

Note: The defaults for these transforms are tuned for streaming throughput, and differ from the defaults in node:zlib. In particular, gzip/deflate default to level 4 (not 6) and memLevel 9 (not 8), and Brotli defaults to quality 6 (not 11). These choices match common HTTP server configurations and provide significantly faster compression with only a small reduction in compression ratio. All defaults can be overridden via options.

import { from, pull, bytes, text } from 'node:stream/iter';
import { compressGzip, decompressGzip } from 'node:zlib/iter';

// Async round-trip
const compressed = await bytes(pull(from('hello'), compressGzip()));
const original = await text(pull(from(compressed), decompressGzip()));
console.log(original); // 'hello'
const { from, pull, bytes, text } = require('node:stream/iter');
const { compressGzip, decompressGzip } = require('node:zlib/iter');

async function run() {
  const compressed = await bytes(pull(from('hello'), compressGzip()));
  const original = await text(pull(from(compressed), decompressGzip()));
  console.log(original); // 'hello'
}

run().catch(console.error);
import { fromSync, pullSync, textSync } from 'node:stream/iter';
import { compressGzipSync, decompressGzipSync } from 'node:zlib/iter';

// Sync round-trip
const compressed = pullSync(fromSync('hello'), compressGzipSync());
const original = textSync(pullSync(compressed, decompressGzipSync()));
console.log(original); // 'hello'
const { fromSync, pullSync, textSync } = require('node:stream/iter');
const { compressGzipSync, decompressGzipSync } = require('node:zlib/iter');

const compressed = pullSync(fromSync('hello'), compressGzipSync());
const original = textSync(pullSync(compressed, decompressGzipSync()));
console.log(original); // 'hello'

compressBrotli([options])

compressBrotliSync([options])

Create a Brotli compression transform. Output is compatible with zlib.brotliDecompress() and decompressBrotli()/decompressBrotliSync().

compressDeflate([options])

compressDeflateSync([options])

Create a deflate compression transform. Output is compatible with zlib.inflate() and decompressDeflate()/decompressDeflateSync().

compressGzip([options])

compressGzipSync([options])

Create a gzip compression transform. Output is compatible with zlib.gunzip() and decompressGzip()/decompressGzipSync().

compressZstd([options])

compressZstdSync([options])

Create a Zstandard compression transform. Output is compatible with zlib.zstdDecompress() and decompressZstd()/decompressZstdSync().

decompressBrotli([options])

decompressBrotliSync([options])

Create a Brotli decompression transform.

decompressDeflate([options])

decompressDeflateSync([options])

Create a deflate decompression transform.

decompressGzip([options])

decompressGzipSync([options])

Create a gzip decompression transform.

decompressZstd([options])

decompressZstdSync([options])

Create a Zstandard decompression transform.