Show HN: Zeekstd – Rust Implementation of the ZSTD Seekable Format

Jun 16, 2025 - 12:00
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Show HN: Zeekstd – Rust Implementation of the ZSTD Seekable Format

Zeekstd

A Rust implementation of the Zstandard Seekable Format.

The seekable format splits compressed data into a series of independent "frames", each compressed individually, so that decompression of a section in the middle of an archive only requires zstd to decompress at most a frame's worth of extra data, instead of the entire archive.

Zeekstd makes additions to the seekable format by implementing an updated version of the specification, however, it is fully compatible with the initial version of the seekable format.

Compression

A seekable Encoder will start new frames automatically at 2MiB of uncompressed data. See EncodeOptions to change this and other compression parameters.

use std::{fs::File, io};
use zeekstd::Encoder;

fn main() -> zeekstd::Result<()> {
    let mut input = File::open("data")?;
    let output = File::create("seekable.zst")?;
    let mut encoder = Encoder::new(output)?;
    io::copy(&mut input, &mut encoder)?;
    // End compression and write the seek table to the end of the seekable
    encoder.finish()?;

    Ok(())
}

Decompression

By default, the seekable Decoder decompresses everything, from the first to the last frame, but can also be configured to decompress only specific frames.

use std::{fs::File, io};
use zeekstd::Decoder;

fn main() -> zeekstd::Result<()> {
    let input = File::open("seekable.zst")?;
    let mut output = File::create("decompressed")?;
    let mut decoder = Decoder::new(input)?;
    // Decompress everything
    io::copy(&mut decoder, &mut output)?;

    let mut partial = File::create("partial")?;
    // Decompress only specific frames
    decoder.set_lower_frame(2);
    decoder.set_upper_frame(5);
    io::copy(&mut decoder, &mut partial)?;

    Ok(())
}

CLI

This repo also contains a CLI tool that uses the library.

License

  • The zstd C library is under a dual BSD/GPLv2 license.
  • Zeekstd is under a BSD 2-Clause License.

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