In this guide, we will focus on zip and unzip commands in Linux. zip command is a utility commonly used to compress files, while unzip command is used for uncompressing or unzipping files. Let’s have a look at each of these commands in detail.
Table of Contents
Compressing files using the zip command
To create a compressed file with a .zip
file extension, use the zip syntax as shown
zip {options} zipfile file_name
How to compress files with zip command
To compress a single file to a zip file without any arguments use the syntax below
$ zip zipfile file_name
Let’s create a file file1.doc
using touch command
$ touch file1.doc
Next, we are going to zip or compress it to files.zip
$ zip files.zip file1.doc
Output
To verify the creation of the zipped file use the ls
command as shown
ls -l
Output
Similarly, you can zip multiple files into one zipped file. Suppose we have 4 files as shown
file1.doc
file2.doc
file3.doc
file4.doc
To zip the files
$ zip files.zip file1.doc file2.doc file3.doc file4.doc
Output
Once again, if you wish to verify the results, use the ls
command as shown below
Output
Adding a new file to a pre-existing compressed file
Let’s assume you have created 2 more files; file5.doc
and file6.doc
and you want to include it to the zipped file.
Use the -u
argument as shown below
$ zip files.zip file5.doc file6.doc
Output
Deleting a file from a compressed file
To delete a file from an archive or a compressed file, use the -d
flag as shown
$ zip -u compressed_file file_name
Suppose you want to delete file2.doc
and file3.doc
from the compressed file. The command will be
$ zip -d files.zip file2.doc file3.doc
Output
Deleting original files after arching or compressing
To delete files after compressing , use the -m
option as shown
$ zip -m archive file_name
In our example where we have the following files,
file1.doc
file2.doc
file3.doc
file4.doc
The command shall be
$ zip -m files.zip *.doc
OR
$ zip -m files.zip file1.doc file2.doc file3.doc file4.doc
Output
Zipping a directory recursively
If you wish to zip a directory recursively, use the -r
option. This command will zip all the files in the directory and save on space.
The syntax for this will be
$ zip –r filename.zip directory_name
suppose we have a directory called data
the following files
file1.doc
file2.doc
file3.doc
file4.doc
file5.doc
To zip it into a zip file called data_files.zip
the command will be
$ zip -r data_files.zip data
Output
Exclude a file from being zipped or compressed
To exclude a file from being compressed use the -x
option as shown
$zip –x filename.zip file_to_be_excluded
In the previous example, to exclude file2.doc
from getting compressed, run
$ zip -x data_files.zip file1.doc
Getting help with zip commands
If you are stuck and want to know more about the usage of zip command run
$ zip --help
Output
Additionally, you can visit the command’s man pages as shown
$ man zip
Output
Unzip command
Unzip command is the converse of zip command. It is used for decompressing or unzipping compressed files and comes with several options. The syntax for unzipping files is
$ unzip {option} file.zip
Checking the contents of a zipped directory before unzipping
If you wish to display the contents of an archive before unzipping, use the -l
option as shown
$ unzip -l file.zip
For instance
$ unzip -l data_files.zip
Output
Unzipping files with verbose output
To unzip a zipped file/directory with verbose output, use the -v
option as shown
$ unzip -v data_files.zip
Output
Unzipping files to a specific directory
If you want to unzip an archive to a specified directory , use the -d
option as shown
$ unzip -d data_files.zip directory_name
To unzip the zip files into a directory called james
, execute
$ unzip -d data_files.zip james
Output
Checking for errors in an archive
If you wish to check for any errors in the archive before uncompressing, use the -t
flag as shown
$ unzip -t data_files.zip
Output
Getting help with unzip commands
If you are stuck and want to know more about the usage of unzip command run
$ unzip --help
Output
Additionally, you can visit the command’s man pages as shown
$ man unzip
Output
That’s all we had for today. Your feedback is highly welcome.
RAR file is used to store other files inside, it is a compressed folder if you want to open RAR files then you have to UNRAR it you need to download it from the internet using a free tool.