Zip the contents of a folder without including the folder itself

Question

I have a directory called folder that looks like this:

folder
      -> root_folder
                    -> some files

I want to zip this directory into zipped_dir, I tried:

zip -r zipped_dir.zip folder/*

But this generates a ZIP that looks like this:

zipped_dir
          -> folder
                   -> root_folder
                                 -> some files

in other words, it's including the directory whose contents I want to zip. How can I exclude this parent directory from the ZIP, without moving anything?

IE I would like this end result:

zipped_dir
          -> root_folder
                        -> some files

score 198 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 30 '15 at 14:56

198

Try to use this command (you will get the idea)

cd folder; zip -r ../zipped_dir.zip *

Maybe there is other way, but this is fastest and simplest for me :)

answered Jan 30 '15 at 14:56

Romeo Ninov

17,484

2

this works perfectly doing that trick. note: it will do a chroot. – loretoparisi Aug 25 '16 at 14:24
equivalent: zip -r zipped_dir.zip folder/* – Tobias Kolb Sep 12 '18 at 09:35
8

@TobiasKolb, maybe you do not read the question. OP do not want to have folder in to the stored path in zip. – Romeo Ninov Sep 12 '18 at 10:55
4

Seems the only way to do – Robert Sep 13 '18 at 02:32
3

this won't add hidden files – Gus Nov 25 '18 at 00:53
1

I would use pushd instead of cd so you can come back to the same location with a popd. – Pablo D. Feb 15 '19 at 18:35
1

@PabloDiaz, in my example cd - will do the work (only one command) :) Or cd .. – Romeo Ninov Feb 15 '19 at 18:37
@RomeoNinov true, as long as you don't mind losing history of the previous folder. You can push/pop infinite number of folders. – Pablo D. Feb 21 '19 at 23:00
If you want to include hidden files zip -r ../zipped_dir.zip .* * – Taylan Jan 13 '20 at 13:37
1

It actually works. In my case was to level down cd folder/folder; zip -r ../../zipfile.zip *; cd ../../ – luis19mx Sep 08 '20 at 20:46
5

small addition: use (cd folder; zip -r ../zipped_dir.zip *) - the ()'s run the commands in a subshell so it doesn't change your directory – chrisdowney Aug 12 '21 at 23:17
@chrisdowney, right, it can be used :) – Romeo Ninov Aug 13 '21 at 03:55
For anyone looking to achieve the same for updating an existing zip file: cd folder; zip -ur ../zipped_dir.zip . – Marnix.hoh Oct 13 '21 at 08:13

score 100 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 18 '18 at 14:28

100

Use -j; for example: zip -r -j zipped_dir.zip folder/*

It won’t zip 'root_folder'.

edited Feb 18 '18 at 14:28

Jeff Schaller

67,283
35
116
255

answered Aug 01 '16 at 11:49

A.B.

1,081
1
7
2

9

I get an error with this one if I have two files of the same name. – Chris Dec 01 '16 at 22:06
54

OP probably wants only the parent directory removed, not all of them. – tokland Mar 13 '17 at 10:13
Still creates directories zip -r -j package.zip ./dist/static/* makes archive structure dist/static/myfiels – deathangel908 Jul 20 '17 at 15:25
8

it flatten's child directory files as well. – Sumit Ramteke May 10 '18 at 07:19
20

the -j option eliminate all directory info and only save files. That is, to store all files under one directory in a "flat" way. – Robert Sep 13 '18 at 02:34

score 17 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 04 '16 at 19:34

17

zip -r -D zipped.zip *

-D instructs zip to not create directories.

edited Oct 04 '16 at 19:34

don_crissti

82,805

answered Oct 04 '16 at 19:25

L. Austin

203

1

doesn't seem to be a valid option in mac os zip – dtech Jul 16 '20 at 08:30
1

Works in macos. Don't forget that using * will exclude hidden files, so I ended up using .: zip -D -r ../archive.zip . – Justinas Lelys Sep 10 '20 at 13:55
This doesn't work for the simple reason that files aren't directories. Zip stores files with full filenames like folder/root_folder/some files/filename.txt (note that the filename contains slashes). -D just prevents directory-file entries like folder/root_folder/some files to be included., but the files in that directory are still included. – Mark Jeronimus Jul 28 '21 at 09:57

Marinos An · Answer 4 · 2023-07-04T10:31:06.820

This is what works for me:

7z a zipped.zip ./rootDir/*

It will create a zip archive with root: any files/directories inside rootDir. e.g

zipped.zip:
     file1.txt
     otherdir/
        file2.txt

Hidden files:

As correctly pointed on @Shiva Wu's comment the above does not include hidden files.

This is also the case for the rest of the answers (at least the ones which preserve directory structure). One solution is to explicitly add the hidden paths wildcard.

# The command below will include (among other) all files and directories starting with a dot.
7z a zipped.zip ./rootDir/* ./rootDir/.[!.]*

OR

# Same as above in one argument
7z a zipped.zip ./rootDir/{*,.[!.]*}

result:

zipped.zip:
     file1.txt
     .hiddenfile1.txt
     .hiddendir/
        file3.txt
     otherdir/
        file2.txt

You can actually use your original solution and include hidden files, just add shopt -s dotglob before the 7z command — Łukasz Rajchel, Jan 02 '23 at 04:15

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 18 '21 at 14:36

2

Note that you may get an error (bash: /usr/bin/zip: Argument list too long) when using Romeo Ninov's answer if you are zipping many thousands of files. To avoid this, use a . instead of a *, like so:

cd folder
zip -r ../zipped_folder.zip .

answered Aug 18 '21 at 14:36

joe

172
7

Enrique René · Answer 6 · 2021-12-26T21:05:34.073

I use -r option, the "zip filename" and the list of items I want to add into it. Refering to --help option we get:

zip [-options] [-b path] [-t mmddyyyy] [-n suffixes] [zipfile list] [-xi list]

You can go into folder that contains the files and directories you want to zip in. The run the command:

zip -r filename.zip ./*

The result is a filename.zip containing everything into the directory you ran the command.

Adding a command for hidden files, we can use ls -a from shell put after zip command (already in the directory that contains your desired files):

FILES=$(ls -a)
zip -r filename.zip $FILES

For fish users, just change FILES=$(ls -a) to set FILES (ls -a).

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 20 '24 at 16:24

1

Improved answer with all comment suggestions:

# Include parenthesis so cd does not affect your current terminal
(cd folder; zip -r ../folder.zip ./)

Hidden files will be included too!

answered Feb 20 '24 at 16:24

Eboubaker

191

Zip the contents of a folder without including the folder itself

7 Answers7

Hidden files:

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