Remove files from .zip file with Powershell

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Solution 1

Adopting this VBScript solution:

$zipfile = 'C:\path\to\your.zip'
$files   = 'some.file', 'other.file', ...
$dst     = 'C:\some\folder'

$app = New-Object -COM 'Shell.Application'
$app.NameSpace($zipfile).Items() | ? { $files -contains $_.Name } | % {
  $app.Namespace($dst).MoveHere($_)
  Remove-Item (Join-Path $dst $_.Name)
}

If you have .net Framework 4.5 installed, something like this should work, too:

[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.IO.Compression')

$zipfile = 'C:\path\to\your.zip'
$files   = 'some.file', 'other.file', ...

$stream = New-Object IO.FileStream($zipfile, [IO.FileMode]::Open)
$mode   = [IO.Compression.ZipArchiveMode]::Update
$zip    = New-Object IO.Compression.ZipArchive($stream, $mode)

($zip.Entries | ? { $files -contains $_.Name }) | % { $_.Delete() }

$zip.Dispose()
$stream.Close()
$stream.Dispose()

The parentheses around filtering items from the Entries collection are required, because otherwise the subsequent Delete() would modify the collection. This would prevent reading (and thus deleting) other items from the collection. The resulting error message looks like this:

An error occurred while enumerating through a collection: Collection was modified;
enumeration operation may not execute..
At line:1 char:1
+ $zip.Entries | ? { $filesToRemove -contains $_.Name } | % { $_.Delete() }
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (System.Collecti...ipArchiveEntry]:Enumerator) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : BadEnumeration

Solution 2

Use 7-Zip, a free Zip tool. A Technet sample illustrates how to create a zip archive with 7-Zip in Powershell.

Learn the proper commands to get a listing of your zip's contents and use the d command to delete files from within the archive.

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Payson
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Payson

Updated on September 14, 2022

Comments

  • Payson
    Payson over 1 year

    I am going to write a Powershell script to remove files from a .zip file. In my .zip file, I have test.txt (latest) test1.txt (older) test2.txt .... testN.txt (oldest), all with different file sizes (or in powershell, it's called Length). I want to keep only 2G or smaller of them and remove the rest. It is required to remove from the oldest ones. Since the .zip file may be very large. It's better not to extract it and zip again.

    Is there any way to achieve this?

    Thank you so much.

    • vonPryz
      vonPryz over 10 years
      What are you planning to use for Zipping? 3rd party tools? .Net classes?