zip — Create and Extract ZIP Archives

zip and unzip are the classic tools for the ZIP format – the one archive format you can open virtually anywhere, from Windows to macOS to Linux. With zip you bundle and compress files in a single step; with unzip you get them back out. This guide walks you through the commands you reach for daily: recursive archiving, compression levels, exclude patterns, encryption and extracting individual files on demand.

Create Archives

zip <archive>.zip <files> — Create a ZIP archive from files.

zip backup.zip file1.txt file2.txt

zip -r <archive>.zip <dir> — Create a ZIP archive from a directory (recursive).

zip -r project.zip project/

zip -j <archive>.zip <files> — Create archive without directory paths (junk paths).

zip -j flat.zip path/to/file1.txt path/to/file2.txt

zip -<level> <archive>.zip <files> — Set compression level (0=store, 1=fastest, 9=best).

zip -9 best.zip largefile.dat

zip -0 <archive>.zip <files> — Store files without compression (faster for pre-compressed data).

zip -0 images.zip *.jpg

Add, Update & Delete

zip -u <archive>.zip <files> — Update: add new or changed files to an existing archive.

zip -u backup.zip newfile.txt

zip -d <archive>.zip <files> — Delete files from an existing archive.

zip -d backup.zip oldfile.txt

zip -g <archive>.zip <files> — Grow: append files to an existing archive.

zip -g backup.zip extra.txt

Exclude & Filter

zip -r <archive>.zip <dir> -x '<pattern>' — Create archive excluding files matching a pattern.

zip -r project.zip project/ -x '*.git*' '*node_modules*'

zip -r <archive>.zip <dir> -x '*.log' '*.tmp' — Exclude multiple file patterns.

zip -r deploy.zip src/ -x '*.log' '*.tmp' '*.test.js'

zip -r <archive>.zip <dir> -i '*.php' '*.html' — Include only files matching patterns.

zip -r code.zip project/ -i '*.php' '*.html' '*.css'

Encryption & Split

zip -e <archive>.zip <files> — Create a password-encrypted ZIP archive.

zip -e -r secret.zip confidential/

zip -P '<password>' <archive>.zip <files> — Create encrypted archive with inline password (insecure in history).

zip -P 'mypass' secret.zip file.txt

zip -s <size> -r <archive>.zip <dir> — Create a split archive (multi-part).

zip -s 100m -r large.zip bigfolder/

unzip — Extract

unzip <archive>.zip — Extract all files from a ZIP archive.

unzip backup.zip

unzip <archive>.zip -d <dir> — Extract to a specific directory.

unzip backup.zip -d /tmp/restore/

unzip <archive>.zip '<file>' — Extract only specific files.

unzip backup.zip 'config.yaml'

unzip -o <archive>.zip — Overwrite existing files without prompting.

unzip -o update.zip -d /var/www/

unzip -n <archive>.zip — Never overwrite existing files.

unzip -n backup.zip

unzip -l <archive>.zip — List contents of a ZIP archive without extracting.

unzip -l backup.zip

unzip -t <archive>.zip — Test archive integrity without extracting.

unzip -t backup.zip

unzip -p <archive>.zip '<file>' — Extract a file to stdout (pipe to another command).

unzip -p backup.zip config.json | jq .

Conclusion

The ZIP format wins on ubiquity above all: if you need to hand an archive to someone on another platform, zip is almost always a safe bet. Don't rely on its built-in encryption, though – the legacy ZipCrypto scheme (zip -e, zip -P) is considered weak and easy to break, and -P writes your password straight into the shell history. For genuine confidentiality, reach for AES-capable tools such as 7-Zip, or age and GPG.