Linux compress folder with zip

How to Zip Files and Folders in Linux

This quick tip shows you how to create a zip folder in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. Both terminal and GUI methods have been discussed.

Zip is one of the most popular archive file format out there. With zip, you can compress multiple files into one file. This not only saves disk space, it also saves network bandwidth. This is why you’ll encounter zip files almost all the time. As a normal user, mostly you’ll unzip files in Linux. But how do you zip a folder in Linux? This article helps you answer that question. Prerequisite: Verify if zip is installed Normally zip support is installed but no harm in verifying. Open a terminal and use the following command:

If you see some details on the zip version, you have zip installed already. If it displays ‘zip command not found’, you can run the below command to install zip and unzip support in Ubuntu and Debian based distributions.

sudo apt install zip unzip

Now that you know your system has zip support, you can read on to learn how to zip a directory in Linux.

Zip a folder in Linux Command Line

zip [option] output_file_name input1 input2

While there could be several options, I don’t want you to confuse with them. If your only aim is to create a zip folder from a bunch of files and directories, use the command like this:

zip -r output_file.zip file1 folder1

zip -r myzip abhi-1.txt abhi-2.txt sample_directory adding: abhi-1.txt (stored 0%) adding: abhi-2.txt (stored 0%) adding: sample_directory/ (stored 0%) adding: sample_directory/newfile.txt (stored 0%) adding: sample_directory/agatha.txt (deflated 41%)

You can use the -e option to create a password protect zip folder in Linux. You are not always restricted to the terminal for creating zip archive files. You can do that graphically as well. Here’s how!

Zip a folder in Linux Using GUI

Though I have used Ubuntu here, the method should be the same in other distributions using GNOME or other desktop environments.

If you want to compress a file or folder in desktop Linux, it’s just a matter of a few clicks. Go to the folder where you have the desired files (and folders) you want to compress into one zip folder. Here, select the files and folders. Now, right-click and select Compress. You can do the same for a single file as well. Now you can create a compressed archive file in zip , tar xz or 7z format. In case you are wondering, all three are various compression algorithms that you can use for compressing your files. Give it the name you desire and click on Create. It shouldn’t take long and you should see an archive file in the same directory. Well, that’s it. You successfully created a zip folder in Linux. The next step is to learn to unzip a zipped file in the Linux command line. I hope this quick little tip helped you with the zip files. Please feel free to share your suggestions.

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How do I compress a directory?

I’m trying to compress a directory and ftp it to a windows ftp. I have tried every tar command I can find to compress a directory. It appears to be ok. Then I transfer it and view it’s contents using Winrar. Winrar keeps telling me the file is corrupted. I have viewed other .gz or .bz2 files using winrar but for some odd reason I can’t get it to work. I would prefer just to have it zip the files so they have a .zip extension but even then when i try to browse it’s contents both windows and winrar claim it’s corrupt. Does anyone else have a suggestion as to something else to try?

3 Answers 3

Well, most probably your files are perfectly fine before FTP transmission.

Unfortunately, probably you are transferring your files using wrong FTP mode.

FTP do have two modes: binary and ASCII. By default most clients use ASCII mode, which breaks your binary files completely. I don’t know which FTP client you are using, but for example in ncftp you can use command «binary» to switch to binary mode.

If you want to create ZIP files using Ubuntu (or almost any other Linux), use zip . You can install it to Ubuntu by running

Then you can create zip file by running

zip -r compressed_filename.zip foldername 

On related note, you should know that FTP is insecure transmission protocol. Consider switching to sftp, for example. There is many free ssh servers for Windows, including minimal OpenSSH port.

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How to Zip Files and Folders in Ubuntu Command Line

The above command will create a compressed output_file.zip file with file1, file2 and contents of folder1.

I recommend using the recursive option -r as it allows you to add folders and their content. Without this option, you’ll be adding the folder to the zipped file but the directory contents won’t be included.

Let me show the zip command usage in detail with some actual examples.

Using zip command

You should first ensure that you have the zip command installed on your system.

If the above command returns ‘command ‘zip’ not found’ error, you should install it like this:

Now, I don’t intend to confuse you, but having a basic idea of syntax will always be beneficial.

zip [option] [output_file_name] [input1] [input2]

• [option] will be used to accomplish different outcomes regarding zipping files, such as setting up passwords.
• [output_file_name] is the name of your zipped file. You can add .zip extension to the output file but if you don’t, it is added automatically.
• [input1] [input2] can be various directories and files you want to compress into one zip file

Let’s see some examples now.

Zip a single file

I am starting with the simplest example; zipping a single file in the current directory.

zip output_file.zip input_file

[email protected]:~# zip log_compressed auth.log adding: auth.log (deflated 89%)

The zip command output mentions the compression ratio.

Did you notice that it automatically added the .zip extension to the output filename even though I didn’t mention it?

Zip multiple files

You can provide multiple files the same way.

zip output_file.zip input_file1 input_file2 input_file3

It will show the compression levels for all files.

[email protected]:~# zip compressed_log auth.log fontconfig.log alternatives.log adding: auth.log (deflated 89%) adding: fontconfig.log (deflated 86%) adding: alternatives.log (deflated 39%) 

You can use the zipinfo command to list the contents of a zipped file without extracting it on the disk.

Zip a folder

Like many other Linux commands, you need to use the recursive option -r while dealing with the directories.

To zip a folder, just add the -r in the command:

zip -r output_folder input_folder

[email protected]:~# zip -r logs.zip logs updating: logs/ (stored 0%) adding: logs/alternatives.log (deflated 39%) adding: logs/auth.log (deflated 89%) adding: logs/fontconfig.log (deflated 86%)

If you miss the -r option, you’ll get the zipped folder but it won’t copy any files.

[email protected]:~# zip logs.zip logs adding: logs/ (stored 0%) [email protected]:~# zipinfo logs.zip Archive: logs.zip Zip file size: 160 bytes, number of entries: 1 drwxr-xr-x 3.0 unx 0 bx stor 22-Aug-22 12:54 logs/ 1 file, 0 bytes uncompressed, 0 bytes compressed: 0.0% [email protected]:~# 

Zip files from multiple files and folders

You’ll think that you can combine files from multiple folders and directories into a single zip file like this:

zip -r output_file file1 folder1 folder2/file2

You are not wrong but there could be a potential problem with that approach that you may not like.

I’ll show an example so that you understand it better. I zip a file, a folder and a file from another folder together.

[email protected]:~# zip -r combined new_file logs/ toto/routes.yaml adding: new_file (stored 0%) adding: logs/ (stored 0%) adding: logs/alternatives.log (deflated 39%) adding: logs/auth.log (deflated 89%) adding: logs/fontconfig.log (deflated 86%) adding: toto/routes.yaml (deflated 27%) 

If you look at the contents of the output zip file, you’ll see that routes.yml from the toto directory is named toto/routes.yml. Which means

[email protected]:~# zipinfo combined.zip Archive: combined.zip Zip file size: 89379 bytes, number of entries: 6 -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 1 tx stor 22-Jul-21 14:03 new_file drwxr-xr-x 3.0 unx 0 bx stor 22-Aug-22 12:54 logs/ -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 178 tx defN 22-Aug-22 12:54 logs/alternatives.log -rw-r----- 3.0 unx 806718 tx defN 22-Aug-22 12:54 logs/auth.log -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 2791 tx defN 22-Aug-22 12:54 logs/fontconfig.log -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 143 tx defN 22-Jun-06 15:14 toto/routes.yaml 6 files, 809831 bytes uncompressed, 88425 bytes compressed: 89.1%

This means that if you extract the combined.zip folder, it will have routes.yaml file in toto subdirectory.

[email protected]:~# tree combined combined ├── logs │ ├── alternatives.log │ ├── auth.log │ └── fontconfig.log ├── new_file └── toto └── routes.yaml 

While that may be desirable in a few cases, sometimes you just want the files from different folders combined into a single folder, without their directory name and structure.

And in those cases, you combine the -r with -j . The -j option leaves out the path and directory names.

zip -rj output_file file1 folder1 folder2/file2

This way, you only get the files.

[email protected]:~# zip -rj combined_out new_file logs/ toto/routes.yaml adding: new_file (stored 0%) adding: alternatives.log (deflated 39%) adding: auth.log (deflated 89%) adding: fontconfig.log (deflated 86%) adding: routes.yaml (deflated 27%) [email protected]:~# zipinfo combined_out.zip Archive: combined_out.zip Zip file size: 89201 bytes, number of entries: 5 -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 1 tx stor 22-Jul-21 14:03 new_file -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 178 tx defN 22-Aug-22 12:54 alternatives.log -rw-r----- 3.0 unx 806718 tx defN 22-Aug-22 12:54 auth.log -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 2791 tx defN 22-Aug-22 12:54 fontconfig.log -rw-r--r-- 3.0 unx 143 tx defN 22-Jun-06 15:14 routes.yaml 5 files, 809831 bytes uncompressed, 88425 bytes compressed: 89.1% 

Remove files from existing zip file

Added something that should not have been added? You can easily remove unnecessary files from the existing zip file.

zip -d existing_zip File_to_remove_1 File_to_remove_2

Let me show with an example.

Here’s the content of the miscallaneous.zip file:

Now I want to remove files named «HelloWorld.txt» and «Ringtone.mp3»:

zip -d miscellaneous.zip HelloWorld.txt Ringtone.mp3

You can see that those files were no longer present in the zip file.

Add additional files to an existing zip file

I often find myself in situations where I forget to add files while zipping them. No worries. You can add extra files to a zipped file thanks to the update option -u .

zip -u existing_zip File_to_add_1 File_to_add_2

Let’s say I want to add two images to a zip file named «miscellaneous.zip» :

zip -u miscellaneous.zip Burj_Khalifa.jpeg Taj_Mahal.jpeg

You can see that the files have been added to the existing zip file.

Encrypt zip file with password

This is my favorite feature from the entire catalog of zip utility. It may sound complex, but trust me, it’s not!

Add -e option along with -r and it’ll ask for an encryption key phrase before proceeding to zip given files.

zip -r -e output_file input_files input_folders

Here’s an example screenshot. You can see that it asks for the password twice before initiating the zipping process.

When you use the unzip command to extract this zip file, it asks for the passcode.

⚠️ Move the files into the zip file

By default, the zip utility creates a copy of the original file to make a zip file. If you want, you can avoid this by using -m which will move files directly into the zipped file.

For example, I’ll be adding three random files to a zip file named NoCopiesLeft:

zip -m NoCopiesLeft helloworld.txt list.txt Snake_plant.jpg

As you can see, there were three files in the working directory and after making the zip file, no original copies were left.

In the end .

Zip is an excellent tool for reducing directory size. There are many more options and usage of the zip command. You can always refer to the man page for additional information.

Here. I covered the most common examples of the zip command in Ubuntu. I hope you find it helpful.

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