Hello,

I have a folder with a few zip files whose contents I want to refresh with a new version of a certain file. The new version of the file for the update is already present in the same folder as the zips, all that's left is to find how to perform a "zip -fv" to all of the zip files.

And.... Aaaaaargh, i'm embarrassed, I don't manage to make it T_T

May I humbly ask for your help, please ?

Here are my attempts :

zip -fv *
zip diagnostic: new.txt up to date
(oops, no zip file has been processed, only the file for the update has been update-checked ?!?)

zip -fv *.zip
(and here, nothing happened, at all, despite the -v )

find . -type f -exec zip -fv
find: missing argument to `-exec'
(I was even going over the top with a "search for all files whatever" to make SURE the Zip files would be taken in the lot, and to hell with "only taking the Zip format files", that was OK since it was a folder only populated of zips and of one file to update with... But no, apparently, not good. And no more success with "zip -fv" between double quotes)

zip -fv '*.zip'
zip warning: *.zip not found or empty
(no harm in trying, right -_-)

zip * -fv
(no surprise : zip diagnostic: new.txt up to date, I'd have almost been offended if it had worked)

find . -type f -exec zip -fv \;
zip error: Invalid command arguments (cannot write zip file to terminal)
zip error: Invalid command arguments (cannot write zip file to terminal)
zip error: Invalid command arguments (cannot write zip file to terminal)
zip error: Invalid command arguments (cannot write zip file to terminal)
zip error: Invalid command arguments (cannot write zip file to terminal)
zip error: Invalid command arguments (cannot write zip file to terminal)
(I took inspiration from that page for the final \;, to almost promising results, it seems each file was attempted to, and failed for some reason)

And here I am, helpless, and slightly humiliated too

Man pages for Zip here, and a simpler version there.


Please, would you know how to do ? Thank you VERY MUCH if you can help !

Well your second option worked fine for me:
As long as all zip files (path to them of course) and the newly updated file are all in the same location as where they were when the zip was created.

It worked for you ?!?

$ls
1.zip 2.zip 3.zip 4.zip 5.zip new.txt

And all the zips contain new.txt in their root.

$ zip -fv *.zip
$

Aaaand... Nothing happened. No output.

That shouldn't be possible, the simple -f trigger means "parse all the files of the archive in search of one that can be updated", while the -v trigger means "print a result for each file in the archive for which Zip searches for an update".

Did something different happen to you, please ? O_o


UPDATE : for instance (there will be an "up to date" message, it's not my first test sorry, haha),

/test$ zip -fv 1.zip
zip diagnostic: new.txt up to date
zip diagnostic: notes and info.txt missing or early
zip diagnostic: stuff.doc missing or early
zip diagnostic: foldertest/ missing or early
zip diagnostic: foldertest/file1.pdf missing or early
zip diagnostic: foldertest/file2.jpg missing or early

Well here is what I did:
So is the issue maybe that the files and folders used to create the zip files are no longer available (in your example)??

hmmm, could it be that it worked just because there was only ONE zip in your directory ?

(and did the "touch f1" change that file so that the archive had to be refreshed with it ?!?)

Yes it does appear it does not like to perform the task on multiple globbed files. I would suggest using a simple for loop or find:

@Grail, thanks !

I had tried that, but without the {}, please, what does this {} actually mean ? Sorry to ask something obviously obvious

I'll test it in a pair of hours, I don't have my work PC right now.

The {} is the variable that find uses to store what it has found and allows you to iterate over them one at a time.

1 members found this post helpful.

I'm back with a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiny delay : thank you very much Grail, it worked, and now I learned something more