---
title: Compressing single files
framework: accelerate
role: article
role_heading: Article
path: accelerate/compressing-single-files
---

# Compressing single files

Compress a single file and store the result on the file system.

## Overview

Overview In this article, you’ll learn how to use AppleArchive to compress a single-source file, and write the compressed data to a file. The code below compresses a file named myFile.pdf using the Algorithm.lzfse algorithm, and stores the result in a file named myFile.pdf.lzfse. Create the file stream to read the source file The ArchiveByteStream class provides static factory methods that create streams for different functions. In this case, use fileStream(path:mode:options:permissions:) to create a byte stream that reads the source file: let sourceFilePath = FilePath(NSTemporaryDirectory() + "myFile.pdf")

guard let readFileStream = ArchiveByteStream.fileStream(         path: sourceFilePath,         mode: .readOnly,         options: [ ],         permissions: FilePermissions(rawValue: 0o644)) else {     return } defer {     try? readFileStream.close() } Create the file stream to write the compressed file You also use fileStream(path:mode:options:permissions:) to create the file stream that writes the compressed file to the file system. In this case, use the writeOnly mode: let archiveFilePath = FilePath(NSTemporaryDirectory() + "myFile.pdf.lzfse")

guard let writeFileStream = ArchiveByteStream.fileStream(         path: archiveFilePath,         mode: .writeOnly,         options: [ .create ],         permissions: FilePermissions(rawValue: 0o644)) else {     return } defer {     try? writeFileStream.close() } Create the compression stream Create the compression stream, and specify the compression algorithm as lzfse. Specify the file-writing stream as the stream that receives the compressed data: guard let compressStream = ArchiveByteStream.compressionStream(         using: .lzfse,         writingTo: writeFileStream) else {     return } defer {     try? compressStream.close() } Compress the source file Finally, call process(readingFrom:writingTo:) to send the output of the file-reading stream to the compression stream. In turn, the compression stream sends its output to the file-writing stream: do {     _ = try ArchiveByteStream.process(readingFrom: readFileStream,                                       writingTo: compressStream) } catch {     print("Handle `ArchiveByteStream.process` failed.") } On return, myFile.pdf.lzfse exists in NSTemporaryDirectory() and contains the compressed contents of myFile.pdf.

## See Also

### Directories, Files, and Data Archives

- [Decompressing single files](accelerate/decompressing-single-files.md)
- [Compressing file system directories](accelerate/compressing-file-system-directories.md)
- [Decompressing and extracting an archived directory](accelerate/decompressing-and-extracting-an-archived-directory.md)
- [Compressing and saving a string to the file system](accelerate/compressing-and-saving-a-string-to-the-file-system.md)
- [Decompressing and parsing an archived string](accelerate/decompressing-and-parsing-an-archived-string.md)