# 12. Data Compression and Archiving

The modules described in this chapter support data compression with the zlib, gzip, and bzip2 algorithms, and the creation of ZIP- and tar-format archives. See also Archiving operations provided by the `shutil` module.

- 12.1. `zlib` — Compression compatible with gzip
- 12.2. `gzip` — Support for gzip files
  - 12.2.1. Examples of usage
- 12.3. `bz2` — Compression compatible with bzip2
  - 12.3.1. (De)compression of files
  - 12.3.2. Sequential (de)compression
  - 12.3.3. One-shot (de)compression
- 12.4. `zipfile` — Work with ZIP archives
  - 12.4.1. ZipFile Objects
  - 12.4.2. PyZipFile Objects
  - 12.4.3. ZipInfo Objects
  - 12.4.4. Command-Line Interface
    - 12.4.4.1. Command-line options
- 12.5. `tarfile` — Read and write tar archive files
  - 12.5.1. TarFile Objects
  - 12.5.2. TarInfo Objects
  - 12.5.3. Examples
  - 12.5.4. Supported tar formats
  - 12.5.5. Unicode issues