hello, i have a problem. i'm using boost::iostreams to compress and decompress files using lib bzip2. compressing filestreams works fine, also decompressing a filestream into a stringstream. but compressing stuff into a stringstream fails. any idea? is my code wrong? below the code: #define BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB #include <fstream> #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <sstream> #include <boost/iostreams/filtering_streambuf.hpp> #include <boost/iostreams/copy.hpp> #include <boost/iostreams/filter/bzip2.hpp> using namespace std; using namespace boost; using namespace boost::iostreams; int main() { // filestream --> compressed stringstream // FAILS !! { stringstream ss; filtering_streambuf<output> out; out.push(bzip2_compressor()); out.push(ss); ifstream file_in("sometext.txt", ios::in | ios::binary); if(file_in.is_open()) cout << "\n bytes compressed to sstream:" << copy(file_in, out); cout << "\n length of compressed stringstream:" << ss.str().length(); // <-- ss is empty! } // filestream --> compressed filestream // WORKS! { ofstream file_out("compressedstuff.bz2", ios::out | ios::binary); if(file_out.is_open()) { filtering_streambuf<output> out; out.push(bzip2_compressor()); out.push(file_out); ifstream file_in("sometext.txt", ios::in | ios::binary); if(file_in.is_open()) copy(file_in, out); } } // compressed filestream --> filestream // WORKS! { ifstream file("compressedstuff.bz2", ios::in | ios::binary); if(file.is_open()) { filtering_streambuf<input> in; in.push(bzip2_decompressor()); in.push(file); ofstream file_out("somedecompressed.txt", ios::out | ios::binary); if(file_out.is_open()) copy(in, file_out); } } // compressed filestream --> stringstream // WORKS! { ifstream file("compressedstuff.bz2", ios::in | ios::binary); if(file.is_open()) { filtering_streambuf<input> in; in.push(bzip2_decompressor()); in.push(file); stringstream ss; copy(in, ss); cout << "\n length of stringstream:" << ss.str().length(); } } }