libzim module allows you to read and write ZIM
files in Python. It provides a shallow python
interface on top of the C++ libzim library.
It is primarily used in openZIM scrapers like sotoki or youtube2zim.
pip install libzimOur PyPI wheels bundle a recent release of the C++ libzim and are available for the following platforms:
- macOS for
x86_64andarm64 - GNU/Linux for
x86_64,armhfandaarch64 - Linux+musl for
x86_64andaarch64 - Windows for
x64
Wheels are available for CPython only (but can be built for Pypy).
Users on other platforms can install the source distribution (see Building below).
git clone git@github.com:openzim/python-libzim.git && cd python-libzim
# hatch run test:coverageSee CONTRIBUTING.md for additional details then Open a ticket or submit a Pull Request on Github 🤗!
from libzim.reader import Archive
from libzim.search import Query, Searcher
from libzim.suggestion import SuggestionSearcher
zim = Archive("test.zim")
print(f"Main entry is at {zim.main_entry.get_item().path}")
entry = zim.get_entry_by_path("home/fr")
print(f"Entry {entry.title} at {entry.path} is {entry.get_item().size}b.")
print(bytes(entry.get_item().content).decode("UTF-8"))
# searching using full-text index
search_string = "Welcome"
query = Query().set_query(search_string)
searcher = Searcher(zim)
search = searcher.search(query)
search_count = search.getEstimatedMatches()
print(f"there are {search_count} matches for {search_string}")
print(list(search.getResults(0, search_count)))
# accessing suggestions
search_string = "kiwix"
suggestion_searcher = SuggestionSearcher(zim)
suggestion = suggestion_searcher.suggest(search_string)
suggestion_count = suggestion.getEstimatedMatches()
print(f"there are {suggestion_count} matches for {search_string}")
print(list(suggestion.getResults(0, suggestion_count)))from libzim.writer import Creator, Item, StringProvider, FileProvider, Hint
class MyItem(Item):
def __init__(self, title, path, content = "", fpath = None):
super().__init__()
self.path = path
self.title = title
self.content = content
self.fpath = fpath
def get_path(self):
return self.path
def get_title(self):
return self.title
def get_mimetype(self):
return "text/html"
def get_contentprovider(self):
if self.fpath is not None:
return FileProvider(self.fpath)
return StringProvider(self.content)
def get_hints(self):
return {Hint.FRONT_ARTICLE: True}
content = """<html><head><meta charset="UTF-8"><title>Web Page Title</title></head>
<body><h1>Welcome to this ZIM</h1><p>Kiwix</p></body></html>"""
item = MyItem("Hello Kiwix", "home", content)
item2 = MyItem("Bonjour Kiwix", "home/fr", None, "home-fr.html")
with Creator("test.zim").config_indexing(True, "eng") as creator:
creator.set_mainpath("home")
creator.add_item(item)
creator.add_item(item2)
illustration = pathlib.Path("icon48x48.png").read_bytes()
creator.add_illustration(48, illustration)
for name, value in {
"creator": "python-libzim",
"description": "Created in python",
"name": "my-zim",
"publisher": "You",
"title": "Test ZIM",
"language": "eng",
"date": "2024-06-30"
}.items():
creator.add_metadata(name.title(), value)The reading part of the libzim is most of the time thread safe. Searching and creating part are not. libzim documentation
python-libzim disables the GIL on most of C++ libzim calls. You must prevent concurrent access yourself. This is easily done by wrapping all creator calls with a threading.Lock()
lock = threading.Lock()
with Creator("test.zim") as creator:
# Thread #1
with lock:
creator.add_item(item1)
# Thread #2
with lock:
creator.add_item(item2)libzim being a binary extension, there is no Python source to provide types information. We provide them as type stub files. When using pyright, you would normally receive a warning when importing from libzim as there could be discrepencies between actual sources and the (manually crafted) stub files.
You can disable the warning via reportMissingModuleSource = "none".
libzim package building offers different behaviors via environment variables
| Variable | Example | Use case |
|---|---|---|
LIBZIM_DL_VERSION |
8.1.1 or 2023-04-14 |
Specify the C++ libzim binary version to download and bundle. Either a release version string or a date, in which case it downloads a nightly |
USE_SYSTEM_LIBZIM |
1 |
Uses LDFLAG and CFLAGS to find the libzim to link against. Resulting wheel won't bundle C++ libzim. |
DONT_DOWNLOAD_LIBZIM |
1 |
Disable downloading of C++ libzim. Place headers in include/ and libzim dylib/so in libzim/ if no using system libzim. It will be bundled in wheel. |
PROFILE |
0 |
Enable profile tracing in Cython extension. Required for Cython code coverage reporting. |
SIGN_APPLE |
1 |
Set to sign and notarize the extension for macOS. Requires following informations |
APPLE_SIGNING_IDENTITY |
Developer ID Application: OrgName (ID) |
Required for signing on macOS |
APPLE_SIGNING_KEYCHAIN_PATH |
/tmp/build.keychain |
Path to the Keychain containing the certificate to sign for macOS with |
APPLE_SIGNING_KEYCHAIN_PROFILE |
build |
Name of the profile in the specified Keychain |
On Windows, built wheels needs to be fixed post-build to move the bundled DLLs (libzim and libicu) next to the wrapper (Windows does not support runtime path).
After building you wheel, run
python setup.py repair_win_wheel --wheel=dist/xxx.whl --destdir wheels\Similarily, if you install as editable (pip install -e .), you need to place those DLLs at the root
of the repo.
Move-Item -Force -Path .\libzim\*.dll -Destination .\python3 -m build# using system-installed C++ libzim
brew install libzim # macOS
apt-get install libzim-devel # debian
dnf install libzim-dev # fedora
USE_SYSTEM_LIBZIM=1 python3 -m build --wheel
# using a specific C++ libzim
USE_SYSTEM_LIBZIM=1 \
CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include" \
LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib"
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/lib" \
LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/lib" \
python3 -m build --wheelOn platforms for which there is no official binary available, you'd have to compile C++ libzim from source first then either use DONT_DOWNLOAD_LIBZIM or USE_SYSTEM_LIBZIM.