Php/docs/intro.zlib
This module enables you to transparently read and write gzip (.gz) compressed files, through versions of most of the filesystem functions which work with gzip-compressed files (and uncompressed files, too, but not with sockets).
Note:
Version 4.0.4 introduced a fopen-wrapper for
.gz-files, so that you can use a specialzlib:URL to access compressed files transparently using the normal f*() file access functions if you prefix the filename or path withzlib:when calling fopen(). This feature requires a C runtime library that provides thefopencookie()function. Up to now the GNU libc seems to be the only library that provides this feature.In PHP 4.3.0,
zlib:has been changed tocompress.zlib://to prevent ambiguities with filenames containing ':' characters. Thefopencookie()function is no longer required. More information is available in the section about zlib://.
