use zip command in linux bash

Question

I am currently doing an exercise on bash. Trying to use bzip2 gzip and zip to determine which way is most efficient compressing program. The question is on the zip command part. It works and echo the size of file ziped. However, the linux shows that

line 22: adding:: command not found

Please copy and paste your code into your question. Don't screenshot it. You do that and I can copy/paste it to give you a reason for the problem — Chris Davies, Sep 17 '21 at 04:22

Stephen Kitt · Answer 1 · 2021-09-17T05:23:25.857

The error comes from your use of $():

$(zip "$1.zip" $1)

This is command substitution, which replaces the command with its output. So the shell takes zip’s output and tries to interpret it as part of the shell script:

adding: ...

adding: isn’t a valid command on your system, and the shell complains about it.

You should run the command directly:

zip "$1.zip" "$1"

If you want to get rid of its output, redirect it, or use zip’s -q option (“quiet”):

zip "$1.zip" "$1" > /dev/null
zip -q "$1.zip" "$1"

This will still show any errors that occur.

pell · Answer 2 · 2021-09-17T03:57:25.533

0

Make sure you have the zip command installed. I'm on Debian Linux, and zip is not installed by default, even though unzip is installed.

Also, the syntax for the command calling zip is different than the commands calling gzip and bzip2:

"$1.zip" versus "${1}.bz2" and "${1}.gz"

edited Sep 17 '21 at 03:57

answered Sep 17 '21 at 03:40

pell

112

i did have zip command installed. – alan Sep 17 '21 at 03:48
Hmm. Then I wonder if it is because you left out the {} in "$1.zip", while you have "${1}.bz2" and "${1}.gz". – pell Sep 17 '21 at 03:54
$1 is no different to ${1} – Chris Davies Sep 17 '21 at 10:54

use zip command in linux bash

2 Answers2