How to create a zip file without entire directory structure

Question

I am trying to create a zip file and want to preserve most of the directory structure, but not the rootdir as defined from the command line. The command I'm using is:

zip -r out.zip /foo/bar/

I'd like it to recurse through bar and add all files with preserved directory structure (which it does). However I do not want 'foo' to be the top level directory in the zip file created. I would like bar to be the top level directory.

Is there any easy way to go about this? I realize I could change directories before zipping to avoid the problem, but I'm looking for a solution that doesn't require this.

score 12 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 12 '12 at 09:26

12

This should do it:

cd /foo/bar/ 
zip -r ../out.zip *

The archive will be in /foo/out.zip

answered Apr 12 '12 at 09:26

Claude Schlesser

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The OP said he doesn't want to change directories. – Amala Mar 20 '13 at 18:08
This answer does exactly what the OP wants. Should've been the accepted answer. – Jason Sep 15 '13 at 05:23
I'm running zip in a PHP script. Now what? – Austin Burk Sep 08 '14 at 21:45
2

If you don't want to change the directory of your "real" shell, [use a sub-shell](http://superuser.com/a/271992/229054). – Lily Finley Apr 15 '15 at 15:45

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 14 '12 at 21:35

9

I don't believe zip has a way to exclude the top level directory. I think your best bet would be to do something like: pushd /foo; zip -r out.zip ./bar; popd;

But this is exactly the sort of answer you said you didn't want.

answered Mar 14 '12 at 21:35

kbyrd

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I doubt `tar -C /foo/bar -c out.tar *` makes him any happier. – jørgensen Mar 14 '12 at 21:39
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I second this. I'm on a mac and need zip and not tar.gz. pushd seems like a really good alternative. – slott Apr 14 '13 at 20:41

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 12 '13 at 14:09

6

7z a -tzip out.zip -w foo/bar/.

answered Dec 12 '13 at 14:09

reisio

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score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 04 '16 at 10:28

If someone stumbles upon this and is not satisfied with the above solution, here follows a very simple workaround to not zip long subdirectories. It involves temporarily creating a folder in C:/, and after zipping simply deleting it:

ZipFiles <- list.files(".../ZipFiles") # Insert your long subdirectory into .../

dir.create("C:/ZipFiles")
dir.create(".../FolderToBeZipped")
file.copy(from = ZipFiles,to = "C:/ZipFiles")
zip(".../FolderToBeZipped",
    files = "C:/ZipFiles")
unlink("C:/ZipFiles",recursive = TRUE)

The result then is .../FolderToBeZipped.zip/ZipFiles/

The benefit is that you need not be within the subdirectory (or project) when executing the code.

How to create a zip file without entire directory structure

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