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sandra_henrystocker
Unix Dweeb

Zipping files on Linux: the many variations and how to use them

How-To
Jan 16, 20198 mins
Linux

There are quite a few interesting things that you can do with "zip" commands other than compress and uncompress files. Here are some other zip options and how they can help.

Some of us have been zipping files on Unix and Linux systems for many decades — to save some disk space and package files together for archiving. Even so, there are some interesting variations on zipping that not all of us have tried. So, in this post, we’re going to look at standard zipping and unzipping as well as some other interesting zipping options.

The basic zip command

First, let’s look at the basic zip command. It uses what is essentially the same compression algorithm as gzip, but there are a couple important differences. For one thing, the gzip command is used only for compressing a single file where zip can both compress files and join them together into an archive. For another, the gzip command zips “in place”. In other words, it leaves a compressed file — not the original file alongside the compressed copy. Here’s an example of gzip at work:

$ gzip onefile
$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 10514 Jan 15 13:13 onefile.gz

And here’s zip. Notice how this command requires that a name be provided for the zipped archive where gzip simply uses the original file name and adds the .gz extension.

$ zip twofiles.zip file*
  adding: file1 (deflated 82%)
  adding: file2 (deflated 82%)
$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 58021 Jan 15 13:25 file1
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 58933 Jan 15 13:34 file2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 21289 Jan 15 13:35 twofiles.zip

Notice also that the original files are still sitting there.

The amount of disk space that is saved (i.e., the degree of compression obtained) will depend on the content of each file. The variation in the example below is considerable.

$ zip mybin.zip ~/bin/*
  adding: bin/1 (deflated 26%)
  adding: bin/append (deflated 64%)
  adding: bin/BoD_meeting (deflated 18%)
  adding: bin/cpuhog1 (deflated 14%)
  adding: bin/cpuhog2 (stored 0%)
  adding: bin/ff (deflated 32%)
  adding: bin/file.0 (deflated 1%)
  adding: bin/loop (deflated 14%)
  adding: bin/notes (deflated 23%)
  adding: bin/patterns (stored 0%)
  adding: bin/runme (stored 0%)
  adding: bin/tryme (deflated 13%)
  adding: bin/tt (deflated 6%)

The unzip command

The unzip command will recover the contents from a zip file and, as you’d likely suspect, leave the zip file intact, whereas a similar gunzip command would leave only the uncompressed file.

$ unzip twofiles.zip
Archive:  twofiles.zip
  inflating: file1
  inflating: file2
$ ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 58021 Jan 15 13:25 file1
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 58933 Jan 15 13:34 file2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 21289 Jan 15 13:35 twofiles.zip

The zipcloak command

The zipcloak command encrypts a zip file, prompting you to enter a password twice (to help ensure you don’t “fat finger” it) and leaves the file in place. You can expect the file size to vary a little from the original.

$ zipcloak twofiles.zip
Enter password:
Verify password:
encrypting: file1
encrypting: file2
$ ls -l
total 204
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 58021 Jan 15 13:25 file1
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 58933 Jan 15 13:34 file2
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs 21313 Jan 15 13:46 twofiles.zip   

Keep in mind that the original files are still sitting there unencrypted.

The zipdetails command

The zipdetails command is going to show you details — a lot of details about a zipped file, likely a lot more than you care to absorb. Even though we're looking at an encrypted file, zipdetails does display the file names along with file modification dates, user and group information, file length data, etc. Keep in mind that this is all "metadata." We don't see the contents of the files.

$ zipdetails twofiles.zip

0000 LOCAL HEADER #1       04034B50
0004 Extract Zip Spec      14 '2.0'
0005 Extract OS            00 'MS-DOS'
0006 General Purpose Flag  0001
     [Bit  0]              1 'Encryption'
     [Bits 1-2]            1 'Maximum Compression'
0008 Compression Method    0008 'Deflated'
000A Last Mod Time         4E2F6B24 'Tue Jan 15 13:25:08 2019'
000E CRC                   F1B115BD
0012 Compressed Length     00002904
0016 Uncompressed Length   0000E2A5
001A Filename Length       0005
001C Extra Length          001C
001E Filename              'file1'
0023 Extra ID #0001        5455 'UT: Extended Timestamp'
0025   Length              0009
0027   Flags               '03 mod access'
0028   Mod Time            5C3E2584 'Tue Jan 15 13:25:08 2019'
002C   Access Time         5C3E27BB 'Tue Jan 15 13:34:35 2019'
0030 Extra ID #0002        7875 'ux: Unix Extra Type 3'
0032   Length              000B
0034   Version             01
0035   UID Size            04
0036   UID                 000003E8
003A   GID Size            04
003B   GID                 000003E8
003F PAYLOAD

2943 LOCAL HEADER #2       04034B50
2947 Extract Zip Spec      14 '2.0'
2948 Extract OS            00 'MS-DOS'
2949 General Purpose Flag  0001
     [Bit  0]              1 'Encryption'
     [Bits 1-2]            1 'Maximum Compression'
294B Compression Method    0008 'Deflated'
294D Last Mod Time         4E2F6C56 'Tue Jan 15 13:34:44 2019'
2951 CRC                   EC214569
2955 Compressed Length     00002913
2959 Uncompressed Length   0000E635
295D Filename Length       0005
295F Extra Length          001C
2961 Filename              'file2'
2966 Extra ID #0001        5455 'UT: Extended Timestamp'
2968   Length              0009
296A   Flags               '03 mod access'
296B   Mod Time            5C3E27C4 'Tue Jan 15 13:34:44 2019'
296F   Access Time         5C3E27BD 'Tue Jan 15 13:34:37 2019'
2973 Extra ID #0002        7875 'ux: Unix Extra Type 3'
2975   Length              000B
2977   Version             01
2978   UID Size            04
2979   UID                 000003E8
297D   GID Size            04
297E   GID                 000003E8
2982 PAYLOAD

5295 CENTRAL HEADER #1     02014B50
5299 Created Zip Spec      1E '3.0'
529A Created OS            03 'Unix'
529B Extract Zip Spec      14 '2.0'
529C Extract OS            00 'MS-DOS'
529D General Purpose Flag  0001
     [Bit  0]              1 'Encryption'
     [Bits 1-2]            1 'Maximum Compression'
529F Compression Method    0008 'Deflated'
52A1 Last Mod Time         4E2F6B24 'Tue Jan 15 13:25:08 2019'
52A5 CRC                   F1B115BD
52A9 Compressed Length     00002904
52AD Uncompressed Length   0000E2A5
52B1 Filename Length       0005
52B3 Extra Length          0018
52B5 Comment Length        0000
52B7 Disk Start            0000
52B9 Int File Attributes   0001
     [Bit 0]               1 Text Data
52BB Ext File Attributes   81B40000
52BF Local Header Offset   00000000
52C3 Filename              'file1'
52C8 Extra ID #0001        5455 'UT: Extended Timestamp'
52CA   Length              0005
52CC   Flags               '03 mod access'
52CD   Mod Time            5C3E2584 'Tue Jan 15 13:25:08 2019'
52D1 Extra ID #0002        7875 'ux: Unix Extra Type 3'
52D3   Length              000B
52D5   Version             01
52D6   UID Size            04
52D7   UID                 000003E8
52DB   GID Size            04
52DC   GID                 000003E8

52E0 CENTRAL HEADER #2     02014B50
52E4 Created Zip Spec      1E '3.0'
52E5 Created OS            03 'Unix'
52E6 Extract Zip Spec      14 '2.0'
52E7 Extract OS            00 'MS-DOS'
52E8 General Purpose Flag  0001
     [Bit  0]              1 'Encryption'
     [Bits 1-2]            1 'Maximum Compression'
52EA Compression Method    0008 'Deflated'
52EC Last Mod Time         4E2F6C56 'Tue Jan 15 13:34:44 2019'
52F0 CRC                   EC214569
52F4 Compressed Length     00002913
52F8 Uncompressed Length   0000E635
52FC Filename Length       0005
52FE Extra Length          0018
5300 Comment Length        0000
5302 Disk Start            0000
5304 Int File Attributes   0001
     [Bit 0]               1 Text Data
5306 Ext File Attributes   81B40000
530A Local Header Offset   00002943
530E Filename              'file2'
5313 Extra ID #0001        5455 'UT: Extended Timestamp'
5315   Length              0005
5317   Flags               '03 mod access'
5318   Mod Time            5C3E27C4 'Tue Jan 15 13:34:44 2019'
531C Extra ID #0002        7875 'ux: Unix Extra Type 3'
531E   Length              000B
5320   Version             01
5321   UID Size            04
5322   UID                 000003E8
5326   GID Size            04
5327   GID                 000003E8

532B END CENTRAL HEADER    06054B50
532F Number of this disk   0000
5331 Central Dir Disk no   0000
5333 Entries in this disk  0002
5335 Total Entries         0002
5337 Size of Central Dir   00000096
533B Offset to Central Dir 00005295
533F Comment Length        0000
Done

The zipgrep command

The zipgrep command is going to use a grep-type feature to locate particular content in your zipped files. If the file is encrypted, you will need to enter the password provided for the encryption for each file you want to examine. If you only want to check the contents of a single file from the archive, add its name to the end of the zipgrep command as shown below.

$ zipgrep hazard twofiles.zip file1
[twofiles.zip] file1 password:
Certain pesticides should be banned since they are hazardous to the environment.

The zipinfo command

The zipinfo command provides information on the contents of a zipped file whether encrypted or not. This includes the file names, sizes, dates and permissions.

$ zipinfo twofiles.zip
Archive:  twofiles.zip
Zip file size: 21313 bytes, number of entries: 2
-rw-rw-r--  3.0 unx    58021 Tx defN 19-Jan-15 13:25 file1
-rw-rw-r--  3.0 unx    58933 Tx defN 19-Jan-15 13:34 file2
2 files, 116954 bytes uncompressed, 20991 bytes compressed:  82.1%

The zipnote command

The zipnote command can be used to extract comments from zip archives or add them. To display comments, just preface the name of the archive with the command. If no comments have been added previously, you will see something like this:

$ zipnote twofiles.zip
@ file1
@ (comment above this line)
@ file2
@ (comment above this line)
@ (zip file comment below this line)

If you want to add comments, write the output from the zipnote command to a file:

$ zipnote twofiles.zip > comments

Next, edit the file you've just created, inserting your comments above the (comment above this line) lines. Then add the comments using a zipnote command like this one:

$ zipnote -w twofiles.zip 

The zipsplit command

The zipsplit command can be used to break a zip archive into multiple zip archives when the original file is too large — maybe because you're trying to add one of the files to a small thumb drive. The easiest way to do this seems to be to specify the max size for each of the zipped file portions. This size must be large enough to accomodate the largest included file.

$ zipsplit -n 12000 twofiles.zip
2 zip files will be made (100% efficiency)
creating: twofile1.zip
creating: twofile2.zip
$ ls twofile*.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs  10697 Jan 15 14:52 twofile1.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs  10702 Jan 15 14:52 twofile2.zip
-rw-rw-r-- 1 shs shs  21377 Jan 15 14:27 twofiles.zip

Notice how the extracted files are sequentially named "twofile1" and "twofile2".

Wrap-up

The zip command, along with some of its zipping compatriots, provide a lot of control over how you generate and work with compressed file archives.

sandra_henrystocker
Unix Dweeb

Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 30 years. She describes herself as "USL" (Unix as a second language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She lives in the mountains in Virginia where, when not working with or writing about Unix, she's chasing the bears away from her bird feeders.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Sandra Henry-Stocker and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.

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