Zlib compression incompatibile C vs C# implementations

Question

I'm trying to decompress data compressed with zlib algorithm in C# using 2 most legitimate libraries compatible with zlib algorithm and I got similar exception thrown.

Using DotNetZip:

Ionic.Zlib.ZlibException: Bad state (invalid stored block lengths)

Using Zlib.Net:

inflate: invalid stored block lenghts

but using same data as input to zlib-flate command on linux using only default parameters, works great and decompressed without any warnings (output is correct):

zlib-flate -uncompress < ./dbgZlib

Any suggestions what I can do in order to decompress this data in C# or why actually decompression failing in this case?

Compressed data as hex:

root@localhost:~# od -t x1 -An ./dbgZlib |tr -d '\n '
789c626063520b666060606262d26160d05307329999e70a6400e93c2066644080cf8c938c0c0c4d0d0d0d2d839c437c02dcfd0c0c0c11d28ea121013e7e41860ce18e210640e06810141669c080051840012eb970d790800090f99eee409ea189025e806c8e8b5354a89b13d81c136ca60f3a000e5fd6af0fb14a3221873e96400506374cd6c7d52dc8d98980657e7e06460ace0a4ce86e80da9f0249030edf816c16481ab06b60404f03931169c0cdc728c0db0fd928681a3042a481480347336c6e21320d78fb8155195a9090067ca3420387771a400a546aa70100000000ffff

Compressed data as base64:

root@localhost:~# base64 ./dbgZlib
eJxiYGNSC2ZgYGBiYtJhYNBTBzKZmecKZADpPCBmZECAz4yTjAwMTQ0NDS2DnEN8Atz9DAwMEdKO
oSEBPn5BhgzhjiEGQOBoEBQWacCABRhAAS65cNeQgACQ+Z7uQJ6hiQJegGyOi1NUqJsT2BwTbKYP
OgAOX9avD7FKMiGHPpZABQY3TNbH1S3I2YmAZX5+BkYKzgpM6G6A2p8CSQMO34FsFkgasGtgQE8D
kxFpwM3HKMDbD9koaBowQqSBSANHM2xuITINePuBVRlakJAGfKNCA4d3GkAKVGqnAQAAAAD//w==

Data after decompression, encoded with base64 look like this:

root@localhost:~# zlib-flate -uncompress < ./dbgZlib | base64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Answer 1

The problem is that you are using zlib-flate as a general-purpose compression algorithm which, according to the manpage for it, you should not do:

This program should not be used as a general purpose compression tool. Use something like gzip(1) instead.

So perhaps you should follow the instructions given by your tools and not use them for things that they are not intended for. Use gzip and the System.IO.Compression.GZipStream instead, it's much simpler, especially when you're looking for cross-platform compatible compression algorithms.

That said...

The reason that you can't inflate the data is that it lacks a correct GZIP header. If you add the right header to it you will get something that can be decompressed.

For instance:

public static byte[] DecompressZLibRaw(byte[] bCompressed)
{
    byte[] bHdr = new byte[] { 0x1F, 0x8b, 0x08, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };

    using (var sOutput = new MemoryStream()) 
    using (var sCompressed = new MemoryStream())
    {
        sCompressed.Write(bHdr, 0, bHdr.Length);
        sCompressed.Write(bCompressed, 0, bCompressed.Length);
        sCompressed.Position = 0;
        using (var decomp = new GZipStream(sCompressed, CompressionMode.Decompress))
        {
            decomp.CopyTo(sOutput);
        }
        return sOutput.ToArray();
    }
}

Adding the header makes all the difference.

---

NB: There are two bytes in the 10-byte GZIP header that are not stripped from your source. These are normally used to store the compression flags and the source file system. In the compressed data you present they are invalid values. Additionally the file footer is abbreviated to 5 bytes instead of 8 bytes... all of which is not actually required for decompression. Which probably has a lot to do with why the manpage says not to use this for general compression.