ZIP command in Linux with Examples

ZIP command

Zip command is actually a tool that is commonly used to compress the files and folders. It helps in reducing the size of large files and save it in a compressed format.

Syntax

zip < options> < new-zipfile-name> < source-file>

To Compress files and folders

ZIP command is used to compress two files and one folder into a single file.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Desktop]$ zip new.zip test.txt test1.txt test 
adding: test.txt (deflated 8%)
adding: test1.txt (stored 0%)
adding: test/ (stored 0%)

Compress folders with its sub directories

To compress folders along with its sub directories using ZIP command, use the following.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Desktop]$ zip -r folder.zip  test 
adding: test/ (stored 0%)

Here, the folder test with its sub-folders is also archived but it can’ t able to view the sub-folders archived there.

Compress folders which is in different location

To compress folders which are in different location using this command.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp]$ zip -r new.zip /home/user1/Desktop/new/ /home/user1/Music/test/ 
adding: home/user1/Music/test/ (stored 0%)
adding: home/user1/Music/test/file3 (stored 0%)
adding: home/user1/Music/test/file3 (stored 0%)
adding: home/user1/Music/test/file2 (stored 0%)
adding: home/user1/Music/test/file1 (stored 0%)

The file located in another location is compressed to another location.

Separation of folders and sub folders

By default it will not zip entire folder content such as sub-folders and files.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Desktop]$ zip new.zip test/ 
adding: test/ (stored 0%)
[user1@linuxhelp Desktop]$ rm -rf new.zip 
[user1@linuxhelp Desktop]$ zip new.zip test/* 
adding: test/file1 (stored 0%)
adding: test/file2 (stored 0%)
adding: test/file3 (stored 0%)

Compress folders fast

To compress folders at faster rate we can use -1 option.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ zip new.zip -1  -r  /home/user1/Music/test/ 
adding: test/ (stored 0%)
adding: test/file3 (stored 0%)
adding: test/file2 (deflated 29%)
adding: test/file1 (stored 0%)

Here, the files are transferred a bit faster when using -1 option.

To exclude the files while compressing

To exclude a single file alone while compressing -x option is used.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ zip -r new.zip test/ -x test/file1.txt 
adding: test/ (stored 0%)
adding: test/file3 (stored 0%)
adding: test/file2 (stored 0%)

Here, it has compressed all files except file1.

Listing the contents in zip file

To view the contents present inside the zip file -l option is used with unzip command, less command or zip info command.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ ls -l 
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 user1  456 Feb 28 06:36 new.zip
[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ unzip -l new.zip 
Archive:  new.zip
Length       Date               Time    Name
---------      ----------          -----     ----
0                02-28-2016    05:51    test/
0                02-28-2016    05:51    test/file3
0                02-28-2016    05:51    test/file2
---------      -------
 0               3 files

Updating a file into the zip file

To update a single file into the existing zip file using -u option.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ zip -u new.zip test/file2 
adding: test/file2 (stored 0%) 

Here, the file2 is updated to the test directory

Deleting file without extraction

To delete single file without extracting the file.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ zip -d new.zip test/file2 
deleting: test/file2

Here, the file2 alone is deleted in the test directory.

Updating all files into the file

To update only the last modified file inside the directory to be compressed.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ vim file2
[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ zip -fr new.zip test/ 
freshening: test/ (stored 0%)
freshening: test/file2 (deflated 29%)

Here, only the file2 is compressed since I have modified only that file at last.

To extract the zip file

To extract the archived file into the current location is that just to use the unzip command followed by the zip file name.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ unzip new.zip 
Archive:  nnn.zip

Here, the zipped file is unzipped with that of the contents.

To extract a single directory

To extract a single directory from the compressed file -d option should be used.

Example

[user1@linuxhelp Music]$ unzip new.zip -d d1 
Archive:  new.zip
Creating: d1/test/

Here, the d1 directory alone is extracted out with that of contents inside.