appfuse fatal error Error while expanding Unexpected end of ZLIB input stream

This happens usually when you run mvn install or mvn clean install on a appfuse project.

Here Maven is trying to download the tomcat distribution and store in a folder like c:\documents and settings\\local settings\temp\cargo....
If there is already a tomcat distribution in the above temp folder, it tries to use it. If this tomcat distribution is corrupt you get the above error message. It could be corrupt for many reasons, one of them being you terminated the maven command last time before tomcat was completely downloaded.

Solution:

1) Ask Maven to use a local tomcat instead of downloading it from the web:

Change the bottom of pom.xml from:

  ${cargo.container}
  
  
      ${cargo.container.url}
      ${installDir}
  

To:

  ${cargo.container}
  ${cargo.container.home}


http://appfuse.org/display/APF/FAQ#FAQ-useexistingtomcat


2) Delete the cargo folder under C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp

Run mvn after deleting it and give Maven enough time to download Tomcat.

You may also just delete the installs folder or even just the tomcat archive that is present in the installs folder. You may face the same problem even after deleting, that could be if your internet connection is not continuous. 

If anyone finds an alternative solution please do leave a comment so that people can make use of it.