How to create a zip archive with PowerShell?

Question

Is it possible to create a zip archive using PowerShell?

Solution 1

If you head on over to CodePlex and grab the PowerShell Community Extensions, you can use their write-zip cmdlet.

Since

CodePlex is in read-only mode in preparation for shutdown

you can go to PowerShell Gallery.

Solution 2

PowerShell v5.0 adds Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive cmdlets. The linked pages have full examples, but the gist of it is:

# Create a zip file with the contents of C:\Stuff\
Compress-Archive -Path C:\Stuff -DestinationPath archive.zip

# Add more files to the zip file
# (Existing files in the zip file with the same name are replaced)
Compress-Archive -Path C:\OtherStuff\*.txt -Update -DestinationPath archive.zip

# Extract the zip file to C:\Destination\
Expand-Archive -Path archive.zip -DestinationPath C:\Destination

Solution 3

A pure PowerShell alternative that works with PowerShell 3 and .NET 4.5 (if you can use it):

function ZipFiles( $zipfilename, $sourcedir )
{
   Add-Type -Assembly System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
   $compressionLevel = [System.IO.Compression.CompressionLevel]::Optimal
   [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::CreateFromDirectory($sourcedir,
        $zipfilename, $compressionLevel, $false)
}

Just pass in the full path to the zip archive you would like to create and the full path to the directory containing the files you would like to zip.

Solution 4

A native way with latest .NET 4.5 framework, but entirely feature-less:

Creation:

Add-Type -Assembly "System.IO.Compression.FileSystem" ;
[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::CreateFromDirectory("c:\your\directory\to\compress", "yourfile.zip") ;

Extraction:

Add-Type -Assembly "System.IO.Compression.FileSystem" ;
[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory("yourfile.zip", "c:\your\destination") ;

As mentioned, totally feature-less, so don't expect an overwrite flag.

UPDATE: See below for other developers that have expanded on this over the years...

Solution 5

Install 7zip (or download the command line version instead) and use this PowerShell method:

function create-7zip([String] $aDirectory, [String] $aZipfile){
    [string]$pathToZipExe = "$($Env:ProgramFiles)\7-Zip\7z.exe";
    [Array]$arguments = "a", "-tzip", "$aZipfile", "$aDirectory", "-r";
    & $pathToZipExe $arguments;
}

You can the call it like this:

create-7zip "c:\temp\myFolder" "c:\temp\myFolder.zip"

View more solutions

Comments

[x0n]

Yep, and it uses 7z as the core library for most of its compression cmdlets. I know, becaues I implemented it ;) +1

[Matt Hamilton]

lol nice work, x0n. I imlpemented the feed store provider in PSCX. Slightly less practical but tonnes of fun. :)

[Greg Bray]

Here is an example of using 7 zip with AES encryption from Powershell: codeblog.theg2.net/2010/02/…

[mack]

If it uses 7z, is it possible to zip using a password?

[aboy021]

If 7zip is in your path then all you need to write is "& 7z c:\temp\myFolder c:\temp\myFolder.zip"

[bwerks]

Does this actually need Powershell 3.0, or just .net 4.5? Looks very light on actual powershell features to me, instead just being .net programming.

[noam]

@bwerks see the 'edit' portion here

[jpmc26]

If you don't want to install it, you can download the command line version instead. (Just look on 7-zip's Download page.) It's just an executable, and the command syntax is the same. The executable is a different name, though; it's 7za.exe for some reason. I've done this on a number of projects and have never been disappointed.

[joshschreuder]

@SemiDemented write-zip [input file/folder] [output file]

[Baodad]

I was looking for a way to just compress a single large file, but apparently there isn't a method for this. I had to write code that would create a new directory, copy the single file there, compress that directory to a new zip file, then delete the directory to clean up.

[Dherik]

@Baodad, see my answer.

[abarisone]

Could you please elaborate more your answer adding a little more description about the solution you provide?

[Ohad Schneider]

PowerShell v5.0 has been officially released now. It also comes with Windows 10.

[Lou O.]

I took a previous answer and improved it by adding overwrite option, not much more to say!

[Kellen Stuart]

Should've read that I needed the full path. Boy that was confusing! BTW this should be the accepted answer

[starlocke]

Now available here: microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50395

[starlocke]

It's also easier to install via Chocolatey, though it still requires reboot - chocolatey.org/packages/PowerShell

[AMissico]

From Paragraph 2 of Compress-Archive Description: "...the maximum file size that you can compress by using Compress-Archive is currently 2 GB. This is a limiation of underlying API" However, if you use System.IO.Compression.ZipFile you can bypass this limitation.

[TravisEz13]

The 2GB limit was inherited from System.IO.Compression.ZipFile. If the .NET framework you are using does not have this limit, the CmdLet should not hit this limit. I verified in the code.

[Benoit Patra]

Powershell 5 comes with a Compress-Archive cmdlets that creates .zip blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2015/08/13/…

[Charlie Joynt]

Excellent. I was looking for a way to zip ONE file without using that shell.application business or 7-Zip / other separate utilities. I like the Using-Object function too, although I went for a shorter, quick-n-dirty approach without that.

[Pramod]

Use -OutputPath instead of -DestinationPath

[Spencer]

Simple and ease to understand, thanks! Perfect for my Jenkins deploy

[BrainSlugs83]

@Pramod there is no -OutputPath parameter.

[aaron]

the major problem of ZipPackage is it is not normal ZIP file, but contains a content xml file. see: [how to avoid [Content_Types].xml in .net's ZipPackage class - Stack Overflow](stackoverflow.com/questions/3748970/…)

[noam]

@aaron One more great reason not to use this ever again! You've got stiff competition for "the major problem" here ;)

[akim]

Compress-Archive builds a zip file with backslashes instead of forward ones. Did I miss something? The resulting zip file is a pain to use on other OSes.

[Kevin Meier]

"Compress-Archive" is not that great: it has an input file size limitation of 2 GiB.

[Pluto]

@Baodad Uh there is a method for this. I don't know why no one looks at the docs. Creating a zip: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/… Adding a single file to the zip: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/…

[Pluto]

Why would you use the featureless method?

[DtechNet]

Remember that Powershell is .NET ... .NET has had the ZipFile class since implementation 4.5. Just use Reflection and you can grab the Compression.FileSystem assembly needed. Very simple. docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/… docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/… blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2015/03/09/… I believe the accepted answer should be changed to another

[DtechNet]

This is no longer a good accepted answer. However, users will find the thread helpful with the proper answers and various alternatives being posted elsewhere.

[DtechNet]

This should be the accepted answer in order of date posted and precedent. As to your updated comment - there is truly a vast number of ways to do this now. I am faced with needing this functionality and I'm on PowerShell 4 the first thing I found is the native way. This was a good question in 2009. I still think there could have been further research presented in the question when originally asked.

[Squazz]

I tried a lot of things. Using .NET framework as one of the ways to do this. But this is by far the solution that has given me the least problems. Only drawback is the 2Gb limit

[Pluto]

This code relies on a shell application and then guesses 500ms to wait for it to finish... I'm not disagreeing that it works (in most cases). But it creates popups as you use it in every case where adding a compressed file takes some amount of time (easily reproduced with adding large files or working with large zips). Also if any zip operation is slower than whatever sleep time specified, it'll fail to add the file and leave behind a popup dialog box. This is terrible for scripting. I also downvoted the other answer that relies on a COM object because it doesn't address these pitfalls.

[SebK]

I tried with .net and Powershell tools for way too long until going the 7zip path which worked right away. Simple foreach loop on $file does the trick & "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a -tzip ($file.FullName+".zip") $file.FullName

[Roman Starkov]

Compress-Archive creates broken archives, sadly this issue hasn't been fixed in 2 years since it was reported, and a pull request has been ignored for 6 months.

[Scott Centoni]

It appears the code to fix this slash/backslash broken archive problem github.com/PowerShell/Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive/pull/62 was merged on 2019-02-19.

[Rafael Kitover]

Thank you for this, this is perfect. Especially compared to the Compress-Archive cmdlet which is badly designed and doesn't have a good way of specifying paths INSIDE the zip.

[nivs1978]

Why bloat your computer with extensions, when you can use the built in Compress-Archive

[s31064]

I thought I finally found the answer to my problem when I saw this, but no matter what I do, WinRar won't run. If I use a batch file to run it, everything's fine, but if I try to run that batch file from a PowerShell script, nothing happens, it just goes on to the next part of the script which uploads the file to an FTP server.

[s31064]

I tried using this function as is, and it does nothing. I don't get it. My $Arguments: [Array]$arguments = 'a', '-ag-YYYY-MM-DD-NN', '-dh', '-ed', '-ep3', '-ilogE:\Logs\WinRar\backup.log', '-INUL', '-r', '-y', 'E:\UsageWebLogs\Weblogs', 'W:\', 'X:\', 'Y:\', 'Z:\';

[Dominik]

Thanks for these examples. Is it also possible to e.g. get all xml files from multiple child folders, and zip them? I just created stackoverflow.com/questions/71934727/… and am failing with this. Would be great to see an example / answer :)

[Jeter-work]

There is already an accepted answer. This answer is not new, there are already multiple .NET answers based around System.IO.Compression.ZipFile.