LINUX CLASSES - COMPRESSION, ENCODING AND ENCRYPTION

Can I Zip and Unzip Files With Linux?

The zip and unzip programs work almost exactly like their cousins PKZIP and PKUNZIP in the DOS environment. You can squash a bunch of files together into a zip file like this:

Then you can extract the original files like this:

unzip squash.zip

Most of the flags are the same as for PKZIP and PKUNZIP, but there are a few differences, so you might like to view the help with zip -h or unzip -h if you need anything fancier than the basic commands shown here.

If you use the -k flag when you zip a file under Linux, you can apply PKUNZIP to it under DOS. This flag tells zip to translate the Unix file and directory names into something that fits the more restrictive DOS naming conventions.

For example, if you have Linux files named another.longunix.filename and wontwork.withDOS, the -k flag will cause these files to be stored in the zip file as another.lon and wontwork.wit. If you don't use the -k flag, the PKUNZIP command under DOS will give you an error message and refuse to create the files with the invalid names.

For more information on the zip command, see the zip manual.

For more information on the unzip command, see the unzip manual.

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Copyright © by Bob Rankin
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