How do I delete or replace a file in a zip archive?

Question

I'm creating a program in Python which downloads a set of files and puts them into an archive with the zipfile module.

I already found out how to append to the archive, but there are cases where the files in the archive already exist and should be overwritten.

Currently, if I append an already existing file to the archive I get a duplicate.

Does anyone know how to delete a file in an archive?

possible duplicate of [Delete file from zipfile with the ZipFile Module](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/513788/delete-file-from-zipfile-with-the-zipfile-module) — Rob Kennedy, Dec 18 '12 at 03:59

score 18 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

18

From http://docs.python.org/2/library/zipfile

ZipFile.namelist()
Return a list of archive members by name.

So it is trivial to get hold of the members list before appending to the file and performing a check operation against the list of existing members within the archive.

In addition: removing from a ZIP file is not supported. You need to write a new archive if needed and copy over existing files and omit the file to be removed.

See also

Delete file from zipfile with the ZipFile Module

edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

Community

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answered Dec 17 '12 at 15:55

5

I think the zipfile library is very limited if it cannot support removing and overwriting files in a ZIP file. – Shailen Jan 28 '14 at 14:06
5

This limitation of standard library is tracked here: https://bugs.python.org/issue6818. – illagrenan Apr 13 '18 at 10:32

How do I delete or replace a file in a zip archive?

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