JediWombat:

It looks like IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2 handles the $/ variable just fine, so it shouldn't have any problem reading blocks:

#!env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2 qw(bunzip2 $Bunzip2Error);

$/="\n\n";
my $z = new IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2("zzzzz.bz2")
    or die "Argh! $Bunzip2Error\n";

my $cnt=0;
while (my $buff = $z->getline()) {
    ++$cnt;
    my $len = length($buff);
    print "BLOCK: $cnt\nLEN: $len\n$buff\n\n\n\n";
    last if $cnt>10;
}
[download]

So perhaps I'm misunderstanding your problem....

Nevermind what I wrote below. When I saw you asking about reading by blocks, I thought you meant fixed-sized blocks, not delimited as your code shows. Sorry about that.

---

You should be able to read fixed-size blocks like this:

#!env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2 qw(bunzip2 $Bunzip2Error);

#my $z = new IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2("zzzzz.bz2", {BlockSize=>512})
#my $z = new IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2("zzzzz.bz2", BlockSize=>512)
my $z = new IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2("zzzzz.bz2")
    or die "Argh! $Bunzip2Error\n";

my $buff;
my $cnt=0;
while (my $status = $z->read($buff, 512)) {
    ++$cnt;
    my $len = length($buff);
    print "BLOCK: $cnt\nLEN: $len\n$buff\n\n\n\n";
    last if $cnt>10;
}
[download]

NOTE: The BlockSize argument in the constructor didn't work, I tried it both as a hashref and as just a couple extra arguments, as above. But the read method accepts a block size argument, so you can still read fixed sized blocks. If anyone sees what I did wrong on the constructor, I'd like to hear what it is.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.