{"id":125,"date":"2021-11-16T02:44:23","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T02:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/?p=125"},"modified":"2021-11-16T05:08:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:08:45","slug":"how-to-zip-and-unzip-in-linux-with-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/how-to-zip-and-unzip-in-linux-with-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"How to zip and unzip in Linux with Examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Description<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Zip archive is a compressed file format that supports lossless data compression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A zip archive might contain multiple files and directories inside it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zip is a very popular archive file format. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost every operating system supports zip including all the operating systems by Microsoft as well as all the Linux operating systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to use Zip and Unzip in Linux, we have to first install Zip and Unzip utilities on our Linux operating system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we move on to the installation part, make sure you have sudo privilege on your Linux server. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need sudo privilege to install new software packages on our server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Install Zip and Unzip on CentOS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Execute the following commands on your server to install Zip and Unzip on CentOS server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sudo yum update<\/code>\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
sudo yum install zip unzip<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Once the process is complete, execute the zip<\/code> command to verify the installation. Once the installation is done, we can move on to learn how to zip and unzip in Linux operating systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to Zip in Linux<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zip is a very simple and straightforward utility. Let us first see the syntax of zip command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
zip [OPTIONS...] ZIP_FILE_NAME [FILES ...]\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Options in zip command allows us to control the execution of the command. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then comes the ZIP_FILE_NAME, we have to replace this with the name of the zip file we want to create, for example, example.zip<\/code>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, you can list all the files that you want to include in this zip archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
COMPRESS INDIVIDUAL FILES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, Let\u2019s say we have file1.txt<\/strong> and file2.csv<\/strong> that we want to zip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To compress these files inside a zip archive, we have to run the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
zip files.zip file1.txt file2.csv<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This command will create a zip archive called files.zip<\/code> in the current directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
COMPRESS A DIRECTORY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Let\u2019s say we have a directory called wordpress<\/code> that we want to compress in a zip archive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To create a zip archive of a directory, we will use the -r<\/code> option in zip command. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The -r<\/code> option will make the process recursive, it means that the zip archive will contain every file and subdirectories contained inside the directory we want to compress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is how we can compress our wordpress<\/code> directory including all the files and directories inside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
zip -r wordpress_backup.zip wordpress<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
COMPRESS EVERYTHING IN CURRENT DIRECTORY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to compress everything in the current directory, navigate to the directory and execute the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
zip -r backup.zip *<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The *<\/code> stands for wildcard character. It means that it will match all the directories and files inside the current directory. Now, Let us see how to password protect our zip archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PASSWORD PROTECT A ZIP ARCHIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zip also allows you to password protect a zip archive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this feature is not recommended because the password we will pass while executing the command will be in a plain text format. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is good only if no one is looking over your shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To create a zip archive of our example wordpress<\/code> directory with password protection, execute the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
zip -r --password=PASSWORD wordpress<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This command will create a password protected zip archive containing our example wordpress directory with all the files inside it. It will ask for a password while using the unzip<\/code> utility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to unzip in Linux<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unzip is an utility in linux like zip. Unzip utility allows us to extract files from a zip archive. The simple syntax of unzip command is as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
unzip [OPTIONS] [ZIP_ARCHIVE] [FILES_TO_PROCESS] [-x FILES_TO_EXCLUDE]<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The options allow us to control the execution of the command. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After options, we have to specify the name of the zip archive that we want to extract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then comes the two optional sections<\/strong> in which you can specify the files that you want to process and the files that you want to exclude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TEST VALIDITY OF ZIP ARCHIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, Let\u2019s say we have a zip archive called wordpress.zip<\/code> that we want to extract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But first, we want to test the zip archive validity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To test the validity of our wordpress.zip<\/code> archive, execute the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
unzip -tq wordpress.zip<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The output of the command should look like the following if the zip archive is valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Output:\nNo errors detected in compressed data of wordpress.zip.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
LIST ALL THE FILES INSIDE ZIP ARCHIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, to take a look at all the files inside the zip archive, we can use the -l<\/code> option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, to get list of all the files and directories inside our zip archive without extracting it, we have to execute the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
unzip -l wordpress.zip<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This command will give you the list of every file and directory compressed in the archive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will also list files inside directories and sub-directories as the function is recursive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNZIP A ZIP ARCHIVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Let’s extract our example wordpress.zip<\/code> archive. To extract the full archive, execute the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
unzip wordpress.zip<\/code>\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
UNZIP A ZIP ARCHIVE EXCEPT FEW FILES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Let’s say we want to extract all the files, but we do not want our wp-config.php<\/code> file from our WordPress backup because we want to create a new file. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that case, we can use -x<\/code> option to specify the list of files we want to ignore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To do this, we have to execute the following command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
unzip wordpress.zip -x wp-config.php<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This command will extract all the files from our example wordpress zip archive, except wp-config.php<\/code> file. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, this is how we can use the unzip utility to extract zip archives in linux based operating systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just like zip and unzip, you can use tar command in linux to extract and compress files in linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We hope you\u2019ve found this useful! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Description A Zip archive is a compressed file format that supports lossless data compression. A zip archive might contain multiple files and directories inside it. Zip is a very popular archive file format. Almost every operating system supports zip including all the operating systems by Microsoft as well as all the Linux operating systems. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestdedicatedhosting.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}