We often get questions about how the deflate() and inflate() functions should be used. Users wonder

We often get questions about how the deflate() and inflate() functions should be used. Users wonder when they should provide more input, when they should use more output, what to do with a Z_BUF_ERROR, how to make sure the process terminates properly, and so on. So for those who have read zlib.h (a few times), and would like further edification, below is an annotated example in C of simple routines to compress and decompress from an input file to an output file using deflate() and inflate() respectively. The annotations are interspersed between lines of the code. So please read between the lines. We hope this helps explain some of the intricacies of zlib.