Return to Answer

It is also possible to decompress it using standard shell-script + gzip, if you don't have, or want to use openssl or other tools.
The trick is to prepend the gzip magic number and compress method to the actual data from zlib.compress:

printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - /tmp/data |gzip -dc >/tmp/out

Edits:
@d0sboots commented: For RAW Deflate data, you need to add 2 more null bytes:
→ "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"

This Q on SO gives more information about this approach. An answer there suggests that there is also an 8 byte footer.

Users @Vitali-Kushner and @mark-bessey reported success even with truncated files, so a gzip footer does not seem strictly required.

@tobias-kienzler suggested this function for the bashrc:
zlibd() (printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" | cat - "$@" | gzip -dc)

It is also possible to decompress it using standard shell-script + gzip, if you don't have, or want to use openssl or other tools.
The trick is to prepend the gzip magic number and compress method to the actual data from zlib.compress:

printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - /tmp/data |gzip -dc >/tmp/out

Edits:
@d0sboots commented: For RAW Deflate data, you need to add 2 more null bytes:
→ "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"

This Q on SO gives more information about this approach. An answer there suggests that there is also an 8 byte footer.

Users @Vitali-Kushner and @mark-bessey reported success even with truncated files, so a gzip footer does not seem strictly required.

@tobias-kienzler suggested this function for the bashrc:
zlibd() (printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" | cat - "$@" | gzip -dc)

It is also possible to decompress it using standard shell-script + gzip, if you don't have, or want to use openssl or other tools.
The trick is to prepend the gzip magic number and compress method to the actual data from zlib.compress:

printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - /tmp/data |gzip -dc >/tmp/out

Edits:
@d0sboots commented: For RAW Deflate data, you need to add 2 more null bytes:
→ "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"

This Q on SO gives more information about this approach. An answer there suggests that there is also an 8 byte footer.

Users @Vitali-Kushner and @mark-bessey reported success even with truncated files, so a gzip footer does not seem strictly required.

@tobias-kienzler suggested this function for the bashrc:
zlipd() (printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - $@ |gzip -dc)

It is also possible to decompress it using standard shell-script + gzip, if you don't have, or want to use openssl or other tools.
The trick is to prepend the gzip magic number and compress method to the actual data from zlib.compress:

printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - /tmp/data |gzip -dc >/tmp/out

Edits:
@d0sboots commented: For RAW Deflate data, you need to add 2 more null bytes:
→ "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"

This Q on SO gives more information about this approach. An answer there suggests that there is also an 8 byte footer.

Users @Vitali-Kushner and @mark-bessey reported success even with truncated files, so a gzip footer does not seem strictly required.

@tobias-kienzler suggested this function for the bashrc:
zlibd() (printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" | cat - "$@" | gzip -dc)

It is also possible to decompress it using standard shell script + gzip. The trick is to prepend the gzip magic number and compress method (see http://www.onicos.com/staff/iz/formats/gzip.html) to the actual data:

printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - zlib.raw |gzip -dc

This page gives more information about this approach (one answer also suggests the gzip header is 10 bytes, not 8, and that there is also an 8 byte footer) : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9050260/what-does-a-zlib-header-look-like

It is also possible to decompress it using standard shell-script + gzip, if you don't have, or want to use openssl or other tools.
The trick is to prepend the gzip magic number and compress method to the actual data from zlib.compress:

printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - /tmp/data |gzip -dc >/tmp/out

Edits:
@d0sboots commented: For RAW Deflate data, you need to add 2 more null bytes:
→ "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00"

This Q on SO gives more information about this approach. An answer there suggests that there is also an 8 byte footer.

Users @Vitali-Kushner and @mark-bessey reported success even with truncated files, so a gzip footer does not seem strictly required.

@tobias-kienzler suggested this function for the bashrc: 
zlipd() (printf "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" |cat - $@ |gzip -dc)