How do I zip a folder without including all folders in the path?

Mark Lee

5/3/23, 2:31 PM

I am attempting to zip a website's home directory but the archive contains the entire path of folders before getting to the one to be zipped. The command zip -r compressed_data.zip /home/vivek/public_html results in compressed_data.zip containing home->vivek->public_html rather than simply public_html and its contents.

What switch can I add to the command to omit including all folders in the path?

119

0 + 0

command-line

zip

Score:5

Ubuntu

matigo

5/3/23, 2:49 PM

By default, the zip process will store the full path relative to the current directory, so if you want to have an archive that looks like this:

/config
/files
/lib
.htaccess
index.html

Then you will need to be in public_html to begin with. That said, you can account for this with a one-liner:

cd /home/vivek/public_html && zip -r ~/compressed_data.zip . * ; cd -

This will change directories, compress the contents, then return you to the home directory.

If you would like to do this as part of a script that is called via a cronjob or other process, create a file like this:

#!/bin/bash
dir=$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)
(cd "/home/vivek/public_html" && zip -r "${dir}/compressed_data.zip" ./*)

You can read more about the limits of zip from its manual page

0 + 0

Mark Lee

5/3/23, 6:29 PM

Thanks a lot @terdon and for the bonus of the bash script. I had gone to the manual page but come away without making any progress.

terdon

5/3/23, 6:31 PM

@MarkLee all I did was a trivial edit to this answer. The person who answered (and who deserves your thanks) is [matigo](https://askubuntu.com/users/1222991/matigo), not me!

Mark Lee

5/3/23, 10:33 PM

Thanks @matigo. The system should put your name at the head of the list. I didn't notice it. All praises wrongly given are yours.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How do I zip a folder without including all folders in the path?

TH: ฉันจะ zip โฟลเดอร์โดยไม่รวมโฟลเดอร์ทั้งหมดในเส้นทางได้อย่างไร

RO: Cum arhivez un folder fără a include toate folderele în cale?

RU: Как заархивировать папку, не включая все папки в пути?

VI: Làm cách nào để nén một thư mục mà không bao gồm tất cả các thư mục trong đường dẫn?

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