Compressing and uncompressing files and directories is a common task for any system administrator. It is an essential skill when you are working on a headless remote server. Many tools are available to compress and uncompress files and directories. Zip is a popular and cross-platform command-line tool used to compress and archive data in Linux. It allows you to combine multiple files and directories into a single archive file. The Unzip command is used to decompress or extract the content from the compressed archive.

This post will show you how to use the Zip and Unzip commands in Linux.

Install Zip and Unzip

By default, the Zip and Unzip tool is available in the default repository of all major Linux distributions.

For Debian and Ubuntu operating systems, install Zip and Unzip with the following command:

apt-get install zip unzip -y

For RHEL, Rocky Linux, and Fedora operating systems, install Zip and Unzip with the following command:

dnf install zip unzip -y

Also Read

What Is File Compression?

Zip a File with zip Command

The basic syntax to zip a file is shown below:

zip [OPTION] file.zip file

For example, to zip a single file run the following command:

zip file1.zip file1.txt

To zip multiple files, run the following command:

zip files.zip file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

Output:

  adding: file1.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: file2.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: file3.txt (deflated 58%)

Add a File to an existing Zip Archive

You can use the zip command with -u option to add an additional file to an existing zip archive.

zip -u files.zip file4.txt

Output:

  adding: file4.txt (deflated 58%)

View the Content of the Zip File

You can use the zipinfo command to view the content of the zip file.

For example, to view the content of the files.zip file, run the following command:

zipinfo files.zip

Output:

Archive:  files.zip
Zip file size: 12634 bytes, number of entries: 4
-rw-r--r--  3.0 unx     7224 tx defN 22-Apr-19 17:16 file1.txt
-rw-r--r--  3.0 unx     7224 tx defN 22-Apr-19 17:16 file2.txt
-rw-r--r--  3.0 unx     7224 tx defN 22-Apr-19 17:16 file3.txt
-rw-r--r--  3.0 unx     7224 tx defN 22-Apr-19 17:20 file4.txt
4 files, 28896 bytes uncompressed, 12028 bytes compressed:  58.4%

Remove a File From an Existing Zip Archive

You can use the zip command with -d option to remove a file from the zip archive.

For example, to remove a file2.txt from the files.zip archive, run the following command:

zip -d files.zip file2.txt

Output:

deleting: file2.txt

Delete Original Files After Zipping

When you compress single or multiple files using the zip command, zip keeps the original and compressed files. After creating the zipped archive, you can use the -m option to delete the original files.

zip -m newfiles.zip file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt file4.txt

Output:

  adding: file1.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: file2.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: file3.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: file4.txt (deflated 58%)

Zip a Directory with zip Command

Zip also allows us to compress the directory using the zip command. You will need to use the -r option to zip the directory recursively.

The basic syntax to zip a directory is shown below:

zip -r directory.zip directory

For example, to zip a directory named students, run the following command:

zip -r students.zip students

Output:

  adding: students/ (stored 0%)
  adding: students/gujarati.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: students/maths.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: students/english.txt (deflated 58%)

To zip multiple directories, run the following command:

zip -r directory.zip directory1 directory2 directory3

Also Read

How to Check Size of Files and Directory on Linux

Create a Password Protected Zip File

Zip also allows us to create a password-protected zip archive. You can create a password-protected zip file using the -e option with the zip command.

zip -r -e teachers.zip teachers

Output:

Enter password: 
Verify password: 
  adding: teachers/ (stored 0%)
  adding: teachers/gujarati.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: teachers/maths.txt (deflated 58%)
  adding: teachers/english.txt (deflated 58%)

Unzip a Zipped File

The basic syntax to unzip a file is shown below:

unzip file.zip

For example, to unzip a zipped file named files.zip, run the following command:

unzip files.zip

Output:

Archive:  files.zip
  inflating: file1.txt               
  inflating: file3.txt               
  inflating: file4.txt

If you want to unzip a file to a different directory, use the -d option with the unzip command.

For example, to unzip a file named students.zip to a students directory, run the following command:

unzip students.zip -d students

Output:

Archive:  students.zip
   creating: students/students/
  inflating: students/students/gujarati.txt  
  inflating: students/students/maths.txt  
  inflating: students/students/english.txt

To extract a single file named file1.txt from the files.zip file, run the following command:

unzip files.zip file1.txt

Output:

Archive:  files.zip
  inflating: file1.txt

If you want to overwrite the existing files without being prompted, use the -o option as shown:

unzip -o files.zip

View the Content of the Zipped File

You can use the -l option with the unzip command to view the content of a zipped file.

For example, to list the content of a zipped file named students.zip, run the following command:

unzip -l students.zip

Output:

Archive:  students.zip
  Length      Date    Time    Name
---------  ---------- -----   ----
        0  2022-04-19 17:17   students/
     7224  2022-04-19 17:17   students/gujarati.txt
     7224  2022-04-19 17:17   students/maths.txt
     7224  2022-04-19 17:17   students/english.txt
---------                     -------
    21672                     4 files

To list the content of a zipped file with detailed information about the file, use the -Z option:

unzip -Z students.zip

Output:

Archive:  students.zip
Zip file size: 9691 bytes, number of entries: 4
drwxrwxr-x  3.0 unx        0 bx stor 22-Apr-19 17:17 students/
-rw-r--r--  3.0 unx     7224 tx defN 22-Apr-19 17:17 students/gujarati.txt
-rw-r--r--  3.0 unx     7224 tx defN 22-Apr-19 17:17 students/maths.txt
-rw-r--r--  3.0 unx     7224 tx defN 22-Apr-19 17:17 students/english.txt
4 files, 21672 bytes uncompressed, 9021 bytes compressed:  58.4%

Split a Zip Archives into Multiple Files

Sometimes, the size of a zipped file is very large, and you can not send it as an attachment via email. In this case, you can use the zip command to break up a zipped archive into multiple smaller files.

For example, to create a zipped archive of the directory named directory into a 3MB file, run the following command:

zip -r -s 3m file.zip directory

You can now verify all created zipped files using the following command:

ls

Output:

directory  file.z01  file.z02  file.z03  file.z04  file.z05  file.z06  file.z07  file.z08  file.z09  file.z10  file.zip

You can also check the size of each file with the following command:

du -hs *

You should see the following output:

3.0M	file.z01
3.0M	file.z02
3.0M	file.z03
3.0M	file.z04
3.0M	file.z05
3.0M	file.z06
3.0M	file.z07
3.0M	file.z08
3.0M	file.z09
3.0M	file.z10
1.7M	file.zip

Conclusion

In this guide, we explained how to use the Zip and Unzip commands to compress and uncompress files and directories in Linux. I have demonstrated both commands’ usage with real-life examples for better understanding. Hopefully, you can now easily use the Zip and Unzip commands in your day-to-day operations. Try it on dedicated server hosting from Atlantic.Net!