diff --git a/passes/cmds/stat.cc b/passes/cmds/stat.cc
index bd0130ab3..51f63bc2f 100644
--- a/passes/cmds/stat.cc
+++ b/passes/cmds/stat.cc
@@ -27,65 +27,6 @@
 #include "libs/json11/json11.hpp"
 #include "libs/nlohmann_json/json.hpp"
 
-#ifdef YOSYS_ENABLE_ZLIB
-#include <zlib.h>
-
-PRIVATE_NAMESPACE_BEGIN
-#define GZ_BUFFER_SIZE 8192
-void decompress_gzip(const std::string &filename, std::stringstream &out)
-{
-	char buffer[GZ_BUFFER_SIZE];
-	int bytes_read;
-	gzFile gzf = gzopen(filename.c_str(), "rb");
-	while(!gzeof(gzf)) {
-		bytes_read = gzread(gzf, reinterpret_cast<void *>(buffer), GZ_BUFFER_SIZE);
-		out.write(buffer, bytes_read);
-	}
-	gzclose(gzf);
-}
-
-/*
-An output stream that uses a stringbuf to buffer data internally,
-using zlib to write gzip-compressed data every time the stream is flushed.
-*/
-class gzip_ostream : public std::ostream  {
-public:
-	gzip_ostream() : std::ostream(nullptr)
-	{
-		rdbuf(&outbuf);
-	}
-	bool open(const std::string &filename)
-	{
-		return outbuf.open(filename);
-	}
-private:
-	class gzip_streambuf : public std::stringbuf {
-	public:
-		gzip_streambuf() { };
-		bool open(const std::string &filename)
-		{
-			gzf = gzopen(filename.c_str(), "wb");
-			return gzf != nullptr;
-		}
-		virtual int sync() override
-		{
-			gzwrite(gzf, reinterpret_cast<const void *>(str().c_str()), unsigned(str().size()));
-			str("");
-			return 0;
-		}
-		virtual ~gzip_streambuf()
-		{
-			sync();
-			gzclose(gzf);
-		}
-	private:
-		gzFile gzf = nullptr;
-	} outbuf;
-};
-PRIVATE_NAMESPACE_END
-
-#endif
-
 USING_YOSYS_NAMESPACE
 PRIVATE_NAMESPACE_BEGIN
 
@@ -427,49 +368,13 @@ void read_liberty_cellarea(dict<IdString, cell_area_t> &cell_area, string libert
 
 void read_libjson_cellarea(dict<IdString, cell_area_t> &cell_area, string liberty_file)
 {
-	std::istream *f;
-	std::ifstream *ff = new std::ifstream;
-	ff->open(liberty_file.c_str(), (liberty_file.substr(liberty_file.size() - 3) == ".gz") ? std::ifstream::binary : std::ifstream::in);
+	std::istream *f = uncompressed(liberty_file.c_str());
 	yosys_input_files.insert(liberty_file);
-	if (ff->fail()) {
-		delete ff;
-		ff = nullptr;
-	}
-	f = ff;
-	if (f != NULL) {
-		// Check for gzip magic
-		unsigned char magic[3];
-		int n = 0;
-		while (n < 3)
-		{
-			int c = ff->get();
-			if (c != EOF) {
-				magic[n] = (unsigned char) c;
-			}
-			n++;
-		}
-		if (n == 3 && magic[0] == 0x1f && magic[1] == 0x8b) {
-#ifdef YOSYS_ENABLE_ZLIB
-			// log("Found gzip magic in file `%s', decompressing using zlib.\n", liberty_file.c_str());
-			if (magic[2] != 8)
-				log_cmd_error("gzip file `%s' uses unsupported compression type %02x\n",
-					liberty_file.c_str(), unsigned(magic[2]));
-			delete ff;
-			std::stringstream *df = new std::stringstream();
-			decompress_gzip(liberty_file, *df);
-			f = df;
-#else
-			log_cmd_error("File `%s' is a gzip file, but Yosys is compiled without zlib.\n", liberty_file.c_str());
-#endif
-		} else {
-			ff->clear();
-			ff->seekg(0, std::ios::beg);
-		}
-	}
-	if (f == NULL)
-		log_cmd_error("Can't open input file `%s' for reading: %s\n", liberty_file.c_str(), strerror(errno));
-
+	if (f->fail())
+		log_cmd_error("Can't open liberty json file `%s': %s\n", liberty_file.c_str(), strerror(errno));
 	nlohmann::json data = nlohmann::json::parse(*f);
+	delete f;
+
 	nlohmann::json library = data["library"];
 	if (library.contains("groups")) {
 		nlohmann::json groups = library["groups"];