Python: Compress a UTF-8 file using GZIP compression

utf-8_gzip.py

def compress_utf8_file(fullpath, delete_original = True):
    """Compress a UTF-8 encoded file using GZIP compression named *.gz. If `delete_original` is `True` [default: True],
    the original file specified by `delete_original` is removed after compression."""
    with codecs.open(fullpath, 'r', 'utf-8') as fin:
        with gzip.open(fullpath + '.gz', 'wb') as fout:
            for line in fin:
                fout.write(unicode(line).encode('utf-8'))
    if delete_original:
        os.remove(fullpath)