Zip all the files including directories - subdirectories

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi,

Is is possible to zip a folder and all its contents within the folder ( including sub-directories and files) into a zip file? and can regain the same structure if unzipped?

Thanks

2

tar it first then zip the tar file. This syntax works on any UNIX:

cd ./path
tar cvf /tmp/my_archive.tar *
# zip or gzip
gzip  /tmp/my_archive.tar

To unpack and use:

mkdir ./my_new_path
cd ./my_new_path
gunzip /tmp/my_archive.tar.gz
cd ./my_new_path
tar xf /tmp/my_archive.tar
3

Hi,

Yes this can be acheive by the tar and gzip command. Look up the man pages for more details but below is a short example.

This is the dir structure of test, it has sub dirs test1 and test2 and even files underneath. 
test/
test/test1/
test/test2/

# you will have to create the archive of the dirs you want by doing this 

tar -cvf test.tar test # test.tar is the name you are giving to ur tar file. 
                              # test is the dir. note you can specify multiple dirs by   giving a space ex: test1 test 2 ..so on

# once your tar is created, use gzip to compress the tar ball. 

gzip test.tar 

# if you want to extract the tar you can do so by following :
# gunzip and then extract. 

gunzip test.tar.gz /tmp/wherevr # this will un-compress the tar ball.

tar -xvf test.tar /tmp/wherver # this will extract the tar ball with all the sub dirs and files underneath.
4

Can a mix of tar and other options like -z or something help?

I am just curious and not sure about the options.

5

you can use the -z option to compress and uncompress directly.
this eliminates the use of an extra command gzip/gunzip

6

Thanks!

I wondered because I remembered using tar with other options.

7

Warning: the -z option does not work on all UNIX systems.