How to work with zip archives

This note was created on 2020-06-04
This note was last edited on 2023-01-31

zip is a popular archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ".zip" file may contain one or more files or directories. "zip" utility is used to compress file(s) and "unzip" to extract.

=== Usage ===
Create a ".zip" archive from file(s):
$ zip archive.zip file1 file2

Use "-m" to delete source file(s).
Use "-r" to compress folder(s).
Use "-e" to encrypt archive.

Create a ".zip" archive from file, while specifying the compression level (1 being worst, 9 best, and 6 default). For example, level 7:
$ zip -7 archive.zip file1

Extract file(s) from archive:
$ unzip archive.zip

Extract file(s) to specific directory:
$ unzip archive.zip -d /home/$USER/Documents

Extract file(s) from archive to stdout:
$ unzip -p archive.zip

List all files in "archive.zip":
$ unzip -l archive.zip
Use "-v" for verbose output.

Add file(s) to archive:
$ zip -u archive.zip file3 file4

Remove file(s) from archive: 
$ zip -d archive.zip file4

Test compressed archive data:
$ unzip -t archive.zip