zip a folder in Ubuntu Linux using the cli
First install the zip command using apt command or apt-get command. Open the terminal and type the following command:
$ sudo apt install zip unzip
How do I use zip command to compress a folder?
The syntax is
$ zip -r filename.zip folder $ zip -r filename.zip folder1 folder2 $ zip -r filename.zip /path/to/folder1 /path/to/file2
To create compressed archive named data.zip of data folder in the current directory, run:
$ zip -r data.zip data/
Verify file with the ls command:
$ ls -l data.zip
You can encrypt data.zip with a password by passing the -e option:
$ zip -r -e data.zip data/
Sample outputs:
Enter password: Verify password: adding: data/ (stored 0%) adding: data/music/ (stored 0%) adding: data/nightmare.jpg (deflated 2%) adding: data/resolv.conf (deflated 16%) adding: data/network.jpg (deflated 0%) adding: data/acct/ (stored 0%) adding: data/acct/MSR-201711.PDF (deflated 4%) adding: data/acct/0XL72233P04252837.pdf (deflated 32%)
Printing a specific zip archive content
Try passing the -sf as follows:
$ zip -sf </path/to/compressed.zip>
$ zip -sf /tmp/foo.zip
Unziping files in Linux
To extract all files/directories/folder from given archives into the current directory:
$ unzip file.zip $ unzip foo.zip bar.zip
You can extract files/directories/folders from archives to a specific directory path. For example, extract files into the /tmp/ directory:
$ unzip file.zip -d /tmp
Want to list the contents of a specific archive without extracting them? Try:
$ unzip -l archive.zip