If argument fname of savetxt(fname, X, ...) ends with ".gz" then array X is not only converted to text, but also compressed using gzip.
The format gzip [1] has a timestamp. The Python module gzip.py [2] sets the timestamp according to an optional constructor argument "mtime". By default, the current time is used. This makes the file written by savetxt(*.gz, ...) non-deterministic. This is unexpected and confusing in a numerics context. I let different versions of a program generate *.gz files, and ran the "diff" util over pairs of output files to check whether any bit had changed. To my surprise, confusion, and desperation, output always had changed, and kept changing when I ran unchanged versions of my program over and again. So I learned the hard way that the *.gz files contain a timestamp. Regarding the module gzip.py, I submitted a pull request to improve description of the optional argument mtime, and hint at the possible choice mtime = 0 that makes outputs deterministic [3]. Regarding numpy, I'd propose a bolder measure: To let savetxt(fname, X, ...) store exactly the same information in compressed and uncompressed files, always invoke gzip with mtime = 0. I would like to follow up with a pull request, but I am unable to find out how numpy.savetxt is invoking gzip. Joachim [1] https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1952.txt [2] https://docs.python.org/3/library/gzip.html [3] https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/25410
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