ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory "Illegal characters in path"

Question

I want to unzip a file with ZipFile class in c# (VS2012). Even if I copy the paths directly from win explorer I get this error:

System.ArgumentException: Illegales Zeichen im Pfad. bei System.IO.Path.CheckInvalidPathChars(String path, Boolean checkAdditional) bei System.IO.Path.GetFileName(String path) bei System.IO.Compression.ZipHelper.EndsWithDirChar(String test) bei System.IO.Compression.ZipArchiveEntry.set_FullName(String value)
bei System.IO.Compression.ZipArchiveEntry..ctor(ZipArchive archive, ZipCentralDirectoryFileHeader cd) bei System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive.ReadCentralDirectory() bei System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive.get_Entries() bei System.IO.Compression.ZipFileExtensions.ExtractToDirectory(ZipArchive source, String destinationDirectoryName) bei System.IO.Compression.ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory(String sourceArchiveFileName, String destinationDirectoryName, Encoding entryNameEncoding) bei System.IO.Compression.ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory(String sourceArchiveFileName, String destinationDirectoryName) bei WindowsFormsApplication1.MainForm.buttonStartNxtOSEK_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in d:\C#\nxtOSEKInstaller\nxtOSEKSetup\WindowsFormsApplication1\Form1.cs:Zeile 192.

Code:

string zipPath = @"D:\C#\nxtOSEKInstaller\nxtOSEKSetup\WindowsFormsApplication1\bin\Debug\res\package.zip";
string extractPath = @"D:\testcyginstall\cygwin";

textBoxProgress.AppendText("Entpacke .... ");
try {
    ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory(zipPath, extractPath);
} catch (System.ArgumentException ex) {
    textBoxProgress.AppendText("\n" + "Error\n" + ex.ToString());
    return;
}

EDIT Problem solved: Some files with chinese file names in the zip file caused the problem. It's very frustrating when the exception does not output the problematic path name.

i think '#' makes the error. Try changing your folder name. If there is still errors , we will try to configure it out :) — Poomrokc The 3years, May 01 '14 at 12:34
@PoomrokcThe3years: The `#` is a valid symbol in a folder name. So it should work. — Patrick Hofman, May 01 '14 at 12:35
It'd still be worth testing without it, just to be sure that isn't the problem. — Bobson, May 01 '14 at 12:41
The '#' ist not the problem. Maybe there is a problem inside the zip file, but this should not throw an argument exception? — MAumair, May 01 '14 at 12:43
3 Files "nextool" "NXTFantomDrivers" "nxtOSEK" containing about 4000 files. — MAumair, May 01 '14 at 13:05
try running `Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars` against the 2 paths. — gashach, May 01 '14 at 13:37
The .zip archive itself contains a file that uses a reserved character. Not exactly a complete mystery when the word "cygwin" appears in the question, Unix name rules are different from Windows. We can't help you find the file of course, good luck digging through 1000s of them. Getting the reference source and using the debugger is an obvious way to get ahead. — Hans Passant, May 01 '14 at 14:34

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

As you already know some characters are not valid on windows:

\ / : * ? " < > |

This would bring a lot of situations when your application receives zip from different OS since some of those invalid characters are valid in other OS.

In order to solve this problem you can sanitize your files names before you extract them:

public void ExtractZipFileToPath(
        string zipFilePath,
        string ouputPath
        )
    {
        using (var zip = ZipFile.Read(zipFilePath))
        {
            foreach (var entry in zip.Entries.ToList())
            {
                entry.FileName = SanitizeFileName(entry.FileName);
                entry.Extract(ouputPath);
            }
        }
    }

Sanitizing examples here How to remove illegal characters from path and filenames?

ZipFile.ExtractToDirectory "Illegal characters in path"

1 Answers1

Linked