Zip all files in a directory, but don't include the top directory in the archive

Question

Can't quite figure out how to do this right. I have a folder with a website in /var/www

I want to create a zip file with all of it, which when I decompress it does not include the top directory. In other words, the "top" of the zip file should not be the www directory, but the files inside that directory. Hope that made sense...

Reason why I need it is because I need to upload my website as a zip file and then unzip it in place. And won't work if it then unzips to webroot/www/ instead of webroot/.

Any able to help with how to do this correctly in the terminal?

Solution 1

cd /path/to/your/folder/www
zip -r filename.zip *

Optionally

mv filename.zip /some/other/path

Solution 2

7z a -tzip filename.zip -w /var/www/.

Hidden files included.

Comments

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

Which commands and arguments are you using to make the Zip?

[Svish]

Will this include hidden files?

[Joshua Robinson]

* does include hidden files.

[Trevor Sullivan]

What if I don't want to cd to the directory first?

[kodlan]

zip -r -j filename.zip folder_name

[Jeppe]

@kodlan Thanks! You should add this as an answer. The -j argument solved it for me. From man zip: Store just the name of a saved file (junk the path), and do not store directory names. By default, zip will store the full path (relative to the current directory).

[sny]

Does not include hidden file/folders