In this article, we will discuss how to make a zip folder by excluding specific files and how it works.

Syntax

Generally, all the Linux distributions have default zip packages installed. The syntax of the command excluding files and directories is as follows:

zip -r [filename].zip [directory_name_to_zip] -x [file_to_exclude]

In the above syntax, the “-r” flag is used to append files, and the “-x” flag is used to exclude files. Now to understand it more clearly let us consider an example.

Examples to Excludes Files in Zip Archive

I have created a sample directory structure including some files. Where a directory named “docs” contains one directory and some files as shown below screenshot:

Let’s consider the above structure, here are a few examples to learn about excluding files from the zip archive.

01. Exclude a directory

Create an archive file excluding the cache directory. Use the following command to create a new archive named “docs.zip” excluding the “cache” directory. So in command, it will be written as:

zip -r docs.zip docs -x "docs/cache/*" 

02. Exclude a single file

Define the full file path to exclude a single file from the archive file with the zip command. For example, to exclude index.html from the docs directory, type:

zip -r docs.zip docs -x "docs/index.html" 

03. Exclude files with wildcard

You can also use wild card characters to exclude multiple files from the zip archive. For example, to exclude all files with the “.log” extension, run:

zip -r docs.zip docs -x "*.log" 

04. Exclude multiple files

You can define -x multiple times in a single zip command to exclude multiple files and directories from the zip archive.

zip -r docs.zip docs -x "/docs/README.md" -x "docs/cache/*" 

05. Exclude “.git” directory

The source code managed with Git contains a “.git” directory under the root directory. Sometimes you may not be required to archive this directory. Use the following command to exclude .git directory and its contents:

zip -r filename.zip my_dir -x "*.git*" 

06. Exclude “.svn” directory

Applications source code managed through SVN contains the “.svn” directory. Use the following command to exclude the .svn directory from the zip archive.

zip -r filename.zip my_dir -x "*.svn*" 

07. Excluding “node_modules” Directory from Zip Archive

All the Node.js modules are installed under the node_modules directory. While archiving the source code, you can ignore the “node_modules” directory with the below-mentioned command:

zip -r mydir.zip myDir -x "node_modules*" 

Conclusion

With the advancement of technology, it’s not a big issue to resolve anything. Now we can easily make a single zip file of many files and can email it to anyone easily. In this article, we learned how we can make zip files excluding some files that we don’t want to be a part of the zip file

The post How to Exclude Files from a Zip Archive appeared first on TecAdmin.

Tool 1 – Zip

zip is the most popular command line archiving utility for Linux systems.

Create Archive of File

# zip output.zip /var/log/*.log

Create Archive of Directory

# zip -r output.zip /var/log

Extract Archive

# unzip output.zip

Tool 2 – Tar

Tar is the another most popular command line archiving utility for Linux systems.

Create Archive of File

# tar -cf output.tar /var/log/*.log

Create Archive of Directory

# zip -cf output.tar /var/log

Extract Archive

# tar -xf output.tar

Tool 3 – Gzip

Gzip is one more tool for command line users for making archive files. Gzip also supports to take input of data as standard input or through pipe and create zip file.

Create Archive of File

# gzip -k access.log

Create zip file of piped data

# cat /var/log/messages | gzip > messages.gz

Extract Archive

# gunzip access.log.gz

Combined – Tar + Gzip

Tar also combined gzip program to enable higher compression level of files. Uisng tar with gzip created files extension will be .tar.gz.

Create Archive of File

# tar -czf output.tar.gz /var/log/*.log

Create Archive of Directory

# zip -czf output.tar.gz /var/log

Extract Archive

# tar -xzf output.tar.gz

The post 3 Most Popular Tools to Archive Files and Directories in Linux appeared first on TecAdmin.

To unzip a zip archive, you can use the unzip command. This command will decompress the files in the zip archive, allowing you to access them.

Zip Command Examples

Go through the below real examples of Linux zip command.

Zip all files in a directory

This command will create a zip of all files in the /backup directory. I will not archive files under the sub directories recursively.

zip backup.zip /backup/* 

Output:
adding: backup/anaconda.ifcfg.log (deflated 47%)
adding: backup/anaconda.log (deflated 78%)
adding: backup/anaconda.program.log (deflated 84%)
adding: backup/anaconda.storage.log (deflated 90%)
adding: backup/boot.log (deflated 72%)
adding: backup/dracut.log (deflated 92%)
adding: backup/httpd/ (stored 0%)
adding: backup/kadmind.log (deflated 74%)
adding: backup/krb5kdc.log (deflated 71%)
adding: backup/mysqld.log (deflated 82%)

Zip files with wildcard

Use Linux wildcards to archive files of specific extensions only. Like backup only .log extension files in a directory.

zip backup.zip /backup/*.log 

Output:
adding: backup/anaconda.ifcfg.log (deflated 47%)
adding: backup/anaconda.log (deflated 78%)
adding: backup/anaconda.program.log (deflated 84%)
adding: backup/anaconda.storage.log (deflated 90%)
adding: backup/boot.log (deflated 72%)
adding: backup/dracut.log (deflated 92%)
adding: backup/kadmind.log (deflated 74%)
adding: backup/krb5kdc.log (deflated 71%)
adding: backup/mysqld.log (deflated 82%)
adding: backup/pm-powersave.log (deflated 15%)
adding: backup/wpa_supplicant.log (stored 0%)
adding: backup/Xorg.0.log (deflated 83%)
adding: backup/Xorg.9.log (deflated 83%)
adding: backup/yum.log (deflated 77%)

Zip files recursively

The below command will create an archive recursively with files, directories, and its sub-directories as well. It also maintains the directory structure as source files.

zip -r backup.zip /backup 

Create password protected zip

Sometimes we need to create a password-protected archive. The zip command provides you an option to make password-protected archive files. To create password-protected archive use -e option. This will prompt for a password and confirm the password.

zip -e backup.zip /backup/*.log 

Output:
Enter password:
Verify password:
  adding: backup/anaconda.ifcfg.log (deflated 47%)
  adding: backup/anaconda.log (deflated 78%)
  adding: backup/anaconda.program.log (deflated 84%)
  adding: backup/anaconda.storage.log (deflated 90%)

Zip with compression levels

You can also define the compression level with the zip command. There are 10 levels of compression, which range from 0 to 9.

• -6 is used as default compression level.
• -0 is used for the lowest level compression.
• -9 is used for the highest level compression

zip -9 high-compressed-file.zip /backup/* 
zip -0 lowest-compressed-file.zip /backup/* 

Check differences between a compressed file

ls -lh lowest-compressed-file.zip high-compressed-file.zip 

Output:
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 50K Apr 11 14:14 high-compressed-file.zip
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 447K Apr 11 14:14 lowest-compressed-file.zip

You can see the difference between both file sizes.

List content of zip file

Using -l switch with unzip command to list only files inside a zip archive without decompressing it.

unzip -l backup.zip 

Output:
Archive: backup.zip
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
140 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/anaconda.ifcfg.log
11153 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/anaconda.log
15446 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/anaconda.program.log
136167 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/anaconda.storage.log
2722 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/boot.log
211614 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/dracut.log
0 04-11-2013 14:08 backup/httpd/
1382 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/kadmind.log
1248 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/krb5kdc.log
6485 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/mysqld.log
87 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/pm-powersave.log
0 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/wpa_supplicant.log
30186 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/Xorg.0.log
31094 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/Xorg.9.log
6739 04-11-2013 14:07 backup/yum.log
--------- -------
454463 15 files

Extract a zip file.

The unzip command is used to extract a zip file. Use the below command to simply extract a zip file.

unzip backup.zip 

Check an archive file

Use -t to check and archive files. This option extracts each specified file in memory and compares the CRC (cyclic redundancy check, an enhanced checksum).

unzip -t backup.zip 

 
Output:
Archive: backup-11Apr2013.zip
testing: backup/anaconda.ifcfg.log OK
testing: backup/anaconda.log OK
testing: backup/anaconda.program.log OK
testing: backup/anaconda.storage.log OK
testing: backup/boot.log OK
testing: backup/dracut.log OK
testing: backup/httpd/ OK
testing: backup/kadmind.log OK
testing: backup/krb5kdc.log OK
testing: backup/mysqld.log OK
testing: backup/pm-powersave.log OK
testing: backup/wpa_supplicant.log OK
testing: backup/Xorg.0.log OK
testing: backup/Xorg.9.log OK
testing: backup/yum.log OK
No errors detected in compressed data of backup.zip.

Wrap Up

We’ve shown you how to zip files in Linux using the terminal. This is a handy skill that can come in handy when you need to send someone a compressed file or save storage space on your computer. Also, the Unzipping an archive is easy and we’ll show you how to do it quickly and easily.

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