Bz2file is a Python library for reading and writing bzip2-compressed files.

It contains a drop-in replacement for the file interface in the standard library's bz2 module, including features from the latest development version of CPython that are not available in older releases.

Bz2file is compatible with CPython 2.6, 2.7, and 3.0 through 3.4, as well as PyPy 2.0.

• Supports multi-stream files.
• Can read from or write to any file-like object.
• Can open files in either text or binary mode.
• Added methods: peek(), read1(), readinto(), fileno(), readable(), writable(), seekable().

To install bz2file, run: :

$ pip install bz2file

The open() function and BZ2File class in this module provide the same features and interface as the ones in the standard library's bz2 module in the current development version of CPython, documented here.

0.98: 19 January 2014

• Added support for the 'x' family of modes.
• Ignore non-bz2 data at the end of a file, rather than raising an exception.
• Tests now pass on PyPy.

0.95: 08 October 2012

• Added the open() function.
• Improved performance when reading in small chunks.
• Removed the fileobj argument to BZ2File(). To wrap an existing file object, pass it as the first argument (filename).

0.9: 04 February 2012

• Initial release.