Linux zip command: add a file with different name

Question

I´d like to add a file in a zip file, with a different name, and avoiding the creation of a new file with the desired name. For example, I´d like to add the myfile.txt file to a zip, but renaming it to myfile2.txt.

Thanks

Solution

You can use zipnote which should come with the zip package.

First build the zip archive with the myfile.txt file:

zip archive.zip myfile.txt

Then rename myfile.txt inside the zip archive with:

printf "@ myfile.txt\n@=myfile2.txt\n" | zipnote -w archive.zip

(Thanks to Jens for suggesting printf instead of echo -e.)

A short explanation of "@ myfile.txt\n@=myfile2.txt\n":

From zipnote -h: "@ name" can be followed by an "@=newname" line to change the name

And \n separates the two commands.

Comments

[Jens]

Minor nitpick: echo -e is an unportable SysVism. I'd use printf "@ myfile.txt\n@=myfile2.txt\n" | ....

[mkrnr]

Good point. Modified my answer.

[martin]

I don't know why but I can make it work. See my question - stackoverflow.com/questions/22974139/how-to-use-zipnote-comm‌​and

[qaisjp]

Note: if you want to do multiple filename changes, you need to follow each chunk by @ (comment above this line)\n

[user877329]

>The temporary file format is rather specific and zipnote is rather picky about it. It should be easier to change file names in a script. Does not yet support large (> 2 GB) or split archives.

[Freedom]

how about changing a directory name?

[logo_writer]

@Freedom Rather late, but I found that using relative paths like "@ myDir/file.txt\n@=anotherDir/file.txt\n" works. Not entirely sure if this is portable, although checking a random ZIP file I made without using the zip command revealed comments of the type "@ path/to/file.ext".

[David Given]

zip 3.1 appears to be pretty uncommon (the one in Debian/Ubuntu is 3.0, and yes, it's 11 years old)...