tzst

1.3.3 verified Fri May 01 auth: no python

A Python library for creating and extracting TAR archives with Zstandard (zstd) compression. It provides a high-level API similar to Python's built-in tarfile but with superior compression ratios and performance. Current version 1.3.3, requires Python >=3.12.

pip install tzst

Common errors

error ImportError: cannot import name 'open' from 'tzst' ↓

cause Older version of tzst may not have open; or tzst not installed.

fix

Upgrade to latest: pip install --upgrade tzst

error TypeError: open() got an unexpected keyword argument 'level' ↓

cause The open() function uses 'compression_level' not 'level'.

fix

Use compression_level parameter: open('archive.tar.zst', 'w', compression_level=5)

Warnings

breaking tzst requires Python >=3.12. Older Python versions will raise ImportError. ↓

fix Upgrade Python to 3.12 or later.

gotcha The open() function has a different signature from zstandard or tarfile. Do not use zstandard's open() as it produces raw zstd streams, not tzst archives. ↓

fix Always use from tzst import open.

Imports

open
```
from tzst import open
```
The open function is the main entry point for reading/writing tzst archives.
TarInfo
wrong
```
from tarfile import TarInfo
```
correct
```
from tzst import TarInfo
```
TarInfo is re-exported from tzst, but using tarfile's TarInfo may cause type mismatches.

Quickstart

Basic usage: open a tzst archive with open() context manager, add files, extract all.

from tzst import open
import os

# Create a tzst archive
with open('example.tar.zst', 'w') as tf:
    tf.add('file1.txt')
    tf.add('directory/')

# Extract a tzst archive
with open('example.tar.zst', 'r') as tf:
    tf.extractall(path='./extracted')

# Compress existing tar file
import tarfile
with tarfile.open('example.tar', 'w') as tar:
    tar.add('file1.txt')
# then compress with zstd? Actually tzst handles it directly
# For reading stream
with open('example.tar.zst', 'r') as tf:
    for member in tf:
        print(member.name)