how to add a file to a zip, without including the entire path from root

marvelade · 02-17-2009, 06:45 AM

Hi All,

the following command works:
zip /var/www/html/ftp/zipdownloads/zipfile.zip /var/www/html/path/to/file1.png

But when I open the zip file on my desktop, the entire file's path-structure is saved inside the zip file so i have to go through 5 directories (var -> www -> html -> path -> to) to get to the file I zipped.

Is there a way to avoid this and have the file in the "root" of the zipfile?

thx + best regards,
Marvelade

colucix · 02-17-2009, 06:49 AM

Use the -j option. From man zip:

Code:

-j     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 path).

marvelade · 02-17-2009, 10:09 AM

Thanks for the hint, colucix. This got me where I wanted on files, but now I need to expand this to also include entire directories in the zipfile. I need the path info from the working directory, but no further up the tree.
I'll try to "cd" my way into the directory that serves as base directory and then call the path from there without the absolute path.

If anything new comes up, you'll be hearing from me.

another annoyance is that, for security reasons, all files are set to permissions 040, so I need to set them to 440 before zip can even read them. With a single file, this wasn't a problem, but with an entire directory I think I'll be needing a recursive function...

Forgot to mention, I'm using PHP to execute these commands with exec(), but I guess that's not a real problem.

grtz,
Marvelade

colucix · 02-17-2009, 10:17 AM

To zip an entire directory preserving its relative structure, just use the -r (recursion) option:

Code:

zip -r name_of_archive.zip path/to/dir/to/archive

To change permission recursively, use the -R option of chmod:

Code:

chmod -R 440 path/to/dir/to/archive

Regarding the PHP part of your question, unfortunately I have not experienced with this language, so I cannot be of much help. But I guess you have a kind of system function to execute commands on the native OS.

marvelade · 02-18-2009, 09:53 AM

Hey colucix,

Thanks for the hints on zip and chmod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

Regarding the PHP part of your question, unfortunately I have not experienced with this language, so I cannot be of much help. But I guess you have a kind of system function to execute commands on the native OS.

Indeed; you can call a native linux command using the php function exec() like this:

Code:

<?php

$file_to_zip = "/var/www/htdocs/pics/picture.jpg";
$zip_archive = "/var/www/htdocs/zipfiles/zip_" . mktime() . ".zip";

exec("zip -j " . $zip_archive . " " . $file_to_zip);

?>

the great advantage is that you can use PHP to manipulate your file-system through a web-page. I'm now writing a web-based FTP program in PHP, so since a lot of file handling is done, I use the exec() function regularly.

If you like to write code, PHP's a great language to learn.

Best regards,
Marvelade

colucix · 02-18-2009, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvelade

If you like to write code, PHP's a great language to learn.

Thanks for the advice. I will dive into PHP just after I'll have learned all the python's secrets!

marvelade · 02-19-2009, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

Thanks for the advice. I will dive into PHP just after I'll have learned all the python's secrets!

Maybe this can be of interest to you:
http://pecl.php.net/package/python

you can run Python code in PHP with this extension.

best regards,
Marvelade