March 27, 2026
Unzip Wars: Tiny Code, Big Feelings
Gzip decompression in 250 lines of Rust
Rust dev “unzips” gzip in 250 lines — applause, “copycat” cries, and error-check drama
TLDR: A coder built a super-short Rust program to open gzip files, and the comments exploded over line counts, missing error checks, and whether it’s just a port of existing C code. It’s a bite-size lesson in a core web tool that reignited debates about simplicity, safety, and giving credit.
A developer wrote a tiny Rust program that can decompress gzip files in about 250 lines—and the internet instantly split into camps. Fans loved the “back to basics” tour of how gzip works (the format that shrinks web pages and logs), while skeptics rolled their eyes at the author’s jab that “C stands for CVE,” calling it unnecessary shade.
Then the line-count Olympics began. One commenter flexed that Plan 9’s gzip fits in a few hundred lines, dropping the phrase “31 years of cruft” to explain why classic libraries ballooned. Others zeroed in on safety and rigor, grumbling that a short demo likely means thin error checks—with one particularly salty take accusing Rust culture of “throw and forget” error handling. That lit up the thread.
The biggest spark? Accusations of originality. A sharp-eyed reader claimed the Rust code looked like “a fairly straightforward port” of zlib’s puff.c, shifting the debate from “wow, so small!” to “wait, who gets credit?” Meanwhile, a calm voice stepped in with deep-dive resources on DEFLATE and gzip, like this clean spec, cooling tempers. Verdict: a neat educational demo that unzipped the internet’s feelings—complete with memes about “inflated” egos and “deflated” patience.
Key Points
- •A gzip decompressor was implemented in about 250 lines of Rust to focus on core decompression concepts.
- •The implementation reads from files or standard input and omits checksums and rarely used gzip features.
- •Gzip is parsed by verifying the magic number, skipping the fixed header, and handling only the FNAME flag.
- •DEFLATE blocks are processed by type: stored (uncompressed), fixed Huffman, and dynamic Huffman blocks.
- •Bit reading follows DEFLATE’s least-significant-bit-first order, accumulating bits across byte boundaries.