How do I Zip/Unzip on the Unix Command Line

Introduction

Zipping and unzipping a file is a very common practice in Linux. We need to zip many files into one file for the following reasons.

• It saves disk space in the system.

• We can keep multiple files inside one file. This also helps to copy this zipped file to another system.

When we have one zipped file, we should also know how to unzip it to get all the required files. So, zipping and unzipping commands are very important in Linux. In this article, we are going to learn on various commands for zipping and then unzipping.

Using the Basic zip and unzip Command

First of all, “zip” and “unzip” commands should be present in Linux. If these commands are not present then install using the below command.

$ sudo apt install zip
$ sudo apt install unzip

Now, let us create 4 text files.

$ touch 1.txt 2.txt 3.txt 4.txt
$ ls
1.txt  2.txt  3.txt  4.txt

Zip all 4 files into one file “all”

$ zip all *.txt
   adding: 1.txt (stored 0%)
   adding: 2.txt (stored 0%)
   adding: 3.txt (stored 0%)
   adding: 4.txt (stored 0%)

As we can see all.zip file is created which contains 1.txt , 2.txt , 3.txt , 4.txt .

$ ls
1.txt  2.txt  3.txt  4.txt  all.zip

Let us now delete all 4 files and unzip all.zip. We can see all 4 text files.

$ rm *.txt

$ unzip all.zip
Archive:  all.zip
   extracting: 1.txt
   extracting: 2.txt
   extracting: 3.txt
   extracting: 4.txt

$ ls
1.txt  2.txt  3.txt  4.txt  all.zip

Unzip Files to a Target Directory

In the previous example, we have seen that all text files are getting extracted in the current path. It’s always recommendable to unzip files into a different directory so that extracted files are not mixed up with other files in the current path.

We can use the below command to extract “all.zip” to the directory “new-all”

$ unzip -q all.zip -d new-all
$ ls new-all/
1.txt  2.txt  3.txt  4.txt

Exclude Particular Files While Zipping

In some scenarios, if we need to exclude some files to be zipped we can use the below command.

$ zip all 1.txt 2.txt 3.txt -x 4.txt
updating: 1.txt (stored 0%)
updating: 2.txt (stored 0%)
updating: 3.txt (stored 0%)

From the output, we can see 4.txt is not included at all.zip.

Let us unzip “all.zip”.

$ unzip -q all.zip -d 4.txt-not-there

$ ls 4.txt-not-there/
1.txt  2.txt  3.txt

From the above output, we can see “4.txt” is not there.

Find all Files Inside the Zipped File Without Unzipping it

In some scenarios, if we need to see what files are there inside zipped the file, then we can use the below command.

$ unzip -l all.zip

Archive:  all.zip
  Length      Date    Time    Name
---------  ---------- -----   ----
        0  2016-02-11 22:25   1.txt
        0  2016-02-11 22:25   2.txt
        0  2016-02-11 22:25   3.txt
---------                     -------
        0                     3 files

Password Protected Your Zipped File

In some scenarios, if we need to protect the zipped file using a password, we can use the below command.

$ zip -e -r password-protected new-all/

Enter password:
Verify password:
   adding: new-all/ (stored 0%)
   adding: new-all/4.txt (stored 0%)
   adding: new-all/2.txt (stored 0%)
   adding: new-all/3.txt (stored 0%)
   adding: new-all/1.txt (stored 0%)

As we can see the password is prompted to the user and “password-protected.zip” is created.

$ ls
1.txt  2.txt  3.txt  4.txt  4.txt-not-there  all.zip  new-all  password-protected.zip

Now let us unzip “password-protected.zip” with the correct password.

$ unzip password-protected.zip

Archive:  password-protected.zip
[password-protected.zip] new-all/4.txt password:
replace new-all/4.txt? [y]es, [n]o, [A]ll, [N]one, [r]ename: y
   extracting: new-all/4.txt
replace new-all/2.txt? [y]es, [n]o, [A]ll, [N]one, [r]ename: y
   extracting: new-all/2.txt
replace new-all/3.txt? [y]es, [n]o, [A]ll, [N]one, [r]ename: y
   extracting: new-all/3.txt
replace new-all/1.txt? [y]es, [n]o, [A]ll, [N]one, [r]ename: y
   extracting: new-all/1.txt

Now try the same “unzip” command with the wrong password.

$ unzip password-protected.zip
Archive:  password-protected.zip
[password-protected.zip] new-all/4.txt password:
password incorrect--reenter:
password incorrect--reenter:
   skipping: new-all/4.txt           incorrect password
[password-protected.zip] new-all/2.txt password:
password incorrect--reenter:
password incorrect--reenter:
   skipping: new-all/2.txt           incorrect password
[password-protected.zip] new-all/3.txt password:
password incorrect--reenter:
password incorrect--reenter:
   skipping: new-all/3.txt           incorrect password
[password-protected.zip] new-all/1.txt password:
password incorrect--reenter:
password incorrect--reenter:
   skipping: new-all/1.txt           incorrect password

We can see it’s not successful.

Conclusion

From this article, we have learned how to use “zip” and “unzip” commands. Also using various arguments to perform password-protected zipped file, unzip the zipped file to a target directory and exclude some files while zipping.