zipstream-new

What it is and what it does

zipstream-new is a zip archive generator that produces output as an iterator of byte chunks rather than a single file object. This design allows you to stream large archives directly to clients (e.g., via HTTP) without materializing the entire zip in memory or on disk first. It wraps Python's standard zipfile module and supports both file-system paths and byte iterables as input, making it useful for web applications that need to serve dynamically generated archives.

The package works by yielding chunks as you iterate over the ZipFile object, which you can then send directly to a response stream. It supports optional zlib compression and allows mixing filesystem files with streamed content in a single archive. However, the project has been abandoned since 2020, with no updates or maintenance for over 2 years.

Use it for:

• Stream a large collection of files as a zip download from a Flask or Django web app without buffering the entire archive.
• Generate a zip archive from data that arrives as a byte stream or generator, avoiding disk writes.
• Serve compressed archives on-demand in resource-constrained environments where memory is limited.
• Combine filesystem files and dynamically generated content into a single streamed zip archive.
• Implement partial flushing of zip data during generation to begin sending chunks to the client before all files are processed.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Generates zip archives as iterators of byte chunks, enabling streaming downloads without storing the entire archive in memory or on disk.

Yes, if you need streaming zip generation and can accept the maintenance risk. The package is stable and has no known vulnerabilities, but it is abandoned and will not receive updates. Use it only if the core streaming functionality meets your needs and you are comfortable maintaining a fork if issues arise. The GPLv3 license is a hard blocker for proprietary applications.

Install

zipstream-new on PyPI

pip install zipstream-new

uv add zipstream-new

poetry add zipstream-new

Installing zipstream-new

Before you install

Installation is straightforward with no runtime dependencies. However, the project is abandoned—last commit was 2023-04-25 and no releases since 2020-09-14. Maintenance has stalled for over 2 years, so expect no bug fixes or updates.

License in practice

Licensed under GPLv3 (copyleft). Any application that distributes this code or a derivative must also be open source under a compatible license. This is a significant constraint for proprietary software.

Quickstart

pip install zipstream-new

import zipstream

z = zipstream.ZipFile()
z.write('/path/to/file')

with open('archive.zip', 'wb') as f:
    for chunk in z:
        f.write(chunk)

Verify before relying

• Whether the package works reliably with current Python versions (3.10+) given its abandonment status.
• Compatibility with modern web frameworks beyond the Flask/Django examples shown.
• Whether zlib compression (ZIP_DEFLATED) is available and functional in all deployment environments.

Package facts

Evidence: zipstream_new-1.1.8-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: zip, streaming

Tags

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