Compressing only files using 7z without preserving the path

Question

I am using 7z command line executable to zip files, but I see that while adding to an archive the path of the files is preserved in the archive.

So if I do

7z a -tzip  myzip.zip dir1\dir2\*

the archive myzip.zip will contain the path dir1\dir2. I do not want this, rather I want only the files to be added to the zip file without the paths being preserved. I searched quite a bit but do not seem to find any way of doing this, maybe I am missing something obvious?

Thanks

score 94 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 14 '13 at 11:30

94

Just add a dot before the path, i.e. 7z a -tzip -r myzip.zip .\Relative\Dir\*

edited Oct 14 '13 at 11:30

Uli Gerhardt

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answered Oct 24 '12 at 14:20

Nickolay Olshevsky

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Yeah, for *nixes slash should be like this one. – Nickolay Olshevsky Apr 03 '15 at 09:41
Thanks a lot for the hint! It even works when file paths are specified in external list. Tested with 7-Zip 16.04 on Windows. – AntonK Jan 02 '19 at 13:49
Thanks guys for feedback. I'm getting so much fun of the fact that 'put the dot before' is my top answer on StackOverflow :-) – Nickolay Olshevsky Jul 25 '19 at 21:45
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Could someone please explain why this works? – Fabio Freitas Nov 22 '21 at 00:37

score 34 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 09 '14 at 14:14

34

Give the full path. That should work. Not the relative path from the current location. For example, I give the below, where I want the files in the man5 folder to be archived.

$ 7z a -tzip myzip.zip /home/pradeeban/Desktop/man4/man5/*

The zip contained only the files, without the directories.

Then I gave only the relative path. It had the directories, inside the zip.

$ 7z a -tzip myzip.zip Desktop/man4/man5/*

Tried with Linux (Ubuntu 12.04). Not sure whether that differs from Windows.

edited Jan 09 '14 at 14:14

rkmax

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answered May 25 '12 at 12:45

Pradeeban Kathiravelu

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+1 It works in Windows. I had exactly this problem, and exactly this solution worked. – Stephen Hosking Sep 03 '12 at 22:27
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Adding the full path requires you (most likely) to look that up. The solution Nicklay O. is providing is more convenient. It only requires you to add a dot in front of the path. – Benjamin Wegman Feb 06 '13 at 20:51
NOTE: according to the same [7z manual](http://linux.die.net/man/1/7z) `dir1/dir2/*` **excludes** all hidden files (like `dir1/dir2/.htaccess`). – Kamiccolo Feb 20 '14 at 18:26
A note about note by @Kamiccolo Using shell wildcard expansion, typing `dir1/dir2/*` in the terminal emulator, indeed excludes dotfiles, however, this has nothing to do with `7z` behaviour, it's done by your shell. According to my tests, however, if you literally pass the argument `dir1/dir2/*` (like `7z a myzip.zip "dir1/dir2/*"`), it adds all files, _including_ dotfiles (hidden files). – Alex Potapenko Aug 14 '22 at 11:46
Inconsistent behaviour then *sigh* – Kamiccolo Aug 15 '22 at 15:03

NightOwl888 · Answer 3 · 2017-07-26T20:02:46.663

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I discovered a way to do this by using a relative path:

7z a -tzip  myzip.zip %CD%\dir1\dir2\*

%CD% is how you get the current path in a Windows batch file, but it also works from the command line. More info about Capturing the current directory from a batch file.

edited Jul 26 '17 at 20:02

answered Sep 17 '12 at 20:58

NightOwl888

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worked for me (on command prompt, windows 10) – ShouravBR Apr 11 '21 at 15:16

Oleg V. Volkov · Answer 4 · 2012-05-25T11:57:18.297

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As explained in related question in 7-zip user FAQ, 7z stores paths relative to working directory, so you will need to first cd to desired top-level directory for archive and run 7-zip from here.

cd dir1\dir2\
7z a -tzip  myzip.zip *

If you run it from script and don't want to affect it with changed directory, use directory push/pop facilities available in your shell of choice or run cd+7-zip in spawned process to avoid affecting your entire script with changed directory. For example, using Windows' start that would be:

start /D dir1\dir2\ /wait 7z a -tzip  myzip.zip *

edited May 25 '12 at 11:57

answered May 25 '12 at 11:44

Oleg V. Volkov

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I am running this in a script and do not want to change directory. Is there no other way of doing the same? – Raam May 25 '12 at 11:50
You will have to, because that's how 7z works. Use directory push/pop facilities available in your shell of choice or run cd+7-zip in spawned process to avoid affecting your entire script with changed directory. – Oleg V. Volkov May 25 '12 at 11:52
thanks for the creative solution, but as Kathiravelu points out giving the full path does the trick. – Raam May 27 '12 at 03:23
This seems to be the only solution if you need to preserve a part of the path – yonojoy Feb 03 '14 at 01:53

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 07 '16 at 18:13

This worked for me

Consider folder structure like C:\Parent\SubFolders..... And you want to create parent.zip which will contain all files and folders C:\Parent without parent folder [i.e it will start from SubFolders.....]

cd /D "C:\Parent"

"7z.exe" a Parent.zip "*.*" -r

This will create Parent.zip in C:\Parent

Compressing only files using 7z without preserving the path

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