Zipping and Unzipping

zip, unzip

Courtesty of geeksforgeeks.org

zip

$ man zip
NAME
       zip - package and compress (archive) files

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zipping files

To zip files into a .zip file run this command:

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
something.txt  wheel.py

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ zip example.zip wheel.py something.txt 
  adding: wheel.py (deflated 79%)
  adding: something.txt (stored 0%)

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip  something.txt  wheel.py

zipping folder contents

To zip eveything in a directory into zip file use ./*

This is useful for pointing to <some directory>/*

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
something.txt  wheel.py

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ zip example.zip ./*
  adding: something.txt (stored 0%)
  adding: wheel.py (deflated 79%)

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip  something.txt  wheel.py

Folders will be picked up but not their contents without -r:

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
directory  something.txt  wheel.py

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls directory/
test.txt

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ zip example.zip ./*
  adding: directory/ (stored 0%)
  adding: something.txt (stored 0%)
  adding: wheel.py (deflated 79%)

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ zip -r example.zip ./*
updating: directory/ (stored 0%)
updating: something.txt (stored 0%)
updating: wheel.py (deflated 79%)
  adding: directory/test.txt (stored 0%)

Notice how zipping to example.zip again updates pre-existing files and adds new ones. Also flag -j can be used to make sure a folder's contents only get zipped. By default if you include a folder name, the folder is included in the zip file. Using -j will explicitly exclude the folder.

unzip

$ man unzip
NAME
       unzip - list, test and extract compressed files in a ZIP archive

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To unzip simply use the unzip command:

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ unzip example.zip 
Archive:  example.zip
   creating: directory/
 extracting: something.txt           
  inflating: wheel.py                
 extracting: directory/test.txt      

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
directory  example.zip  something.txt  wheel.py

We can unzip to a specific directory with the -d flag:

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ unzip example.zip -d test
Archive:  example.zip
   creating: test/directory/
 extracting: test/something.txt      
  inflating: test/wheel.py           
 extracting: test/directory/test.txt

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip  test

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls test
directory  something.txt  wheel.py

If the directory already exists, we can dump the contents into it:

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ mkdir test
bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip  test

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ unzip example.zip -d test
Archive:  example.zip
   creating: test/directory/
 extracting: test/something.txt      
  inflating: test/wheel.py           
 extracting: test/directory/test.txt 

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
example.zip  test

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls test
directory  something.txt  wheel.py

Tar Files

.tar

The tar command is used to create tar archives by converting a group of files into an archive. It supports a vast range of compression programs such as gzip, bzip2, lzip, lzma, lzop, xz and compress. Tar was originally designed for creating archives to store files on magnetic tape which is why it has its name “Tape ARchive”.

Create a .tar

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
test.txt
bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ tar -cvf test.tar test.txt
test.txt
bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
test.tar  test.txt

Here -cvf means c: create; v: verbose; f: use archive file or device (we can and did specify a filename to use). Keep in mind we didn't use the -z flag which would make a gzip.

.tar.gz

.tar.gz files are just files that have been zipped with -z to make a gzip.

Let's redo the above example with -z:

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
test.txt
bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ tar -cvzf test.tar test.txt
test.txt
bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
test.tar  test.txt

Note that the archive name test.tar is a .tar.gz but you have to specify that explicitly. So a canonical way of diong this is: tar -cvzf test.tar.gz test.txt. Also the [-] is optional, so tar cvzf test.tar.gz test.txt would work too.

We can see that the .tar.gz is smaller with du

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ du -BK ./*
20K     ./test.tar
4K      ./test.tar.gz
12K     ./test.txt

Unzip a .tar

We need the -x option:

bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
test.tar
bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ tar -xvf test.tar
test.txt
bbearce@bbearce-XPS-15-9560:~/Desktop$ ls
test.tar  test.txt

When downloading 3DSlicer you get a *.tar.gz file. This command installs it.

tar zxvf Slicer-4.8.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz

FYI: (Link)

RAR Files

linuxhint

Install rar and unrar

rar

sudo apt-get install rar

rar a filename.rar filename1

This will make a filename.rar with a folder filename1 in it and files won't be at root in te directory. To do that do the following:

cd filename1
rar a ../filename.rar ./
cd ../ # to return to original directory

unrar

sudo apt-get install unrar

Extract into current directory

unrar e filename.rar

Extract into specific directory (/home):

unrar  e filename.rar /home/