Zip a Folder in Ubuntu Command Line

When you try to zip a folder in Ubuntu, you'll notice that it creates an empty zip file.

root@learnubuntu:~# zip toto.zip toto
  adding: toto/ (stored 0%)

The reason here is that by default, zip expects a file, not a folder. And like many other Linux commands, you'll have to use the recursive option to deal with the directories.

To zip a folder, use it like this:

zip -r output.zip input_folder

Let's see it in a bit more detail and with proper examples.

Zip a directory

Many Linux commands like rm, cp, scp etc use the recursive option -r while dealing with the folders. The zip command is no different.

As you have already seen above, the way to create a zip archive from a folder is to use it in the following fashion:

zip -r output.zip input_folder

Let me show it with an example. I try to zip a folder named toto in the usual (but incorrect) way:

root@learnubuntu:~# zip toto.zip toto
  adding: toto/ (stored 0%)
root@learnubuntu:~#

And as you can see, the zipped folder doesn't store the contents of the folder.

root@learnubuntu:~# ls -lh toto.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 160 Oct 27 05:12 toto.zip
root@learnubuntu:~#

Now, I use the same command but with the recursive option -r:

root@learnubuntu:~# zip -r toto.zip toto
updating: toto/ (stored 0%)
  adding: toto/ads.txt (deflated 80%)
  adding: toto/gnome-console-voiceover (deflated 57%)
  adding: toto/members.2022-05-29.csv (deflated 59%)
  adding: toto/cronjob-cheatsheet.png (deflated 8%)
  adding: toto/routes.yaml (deflated 27%)
  adding: toto/bash.pdf (deflated 22%)
  adding: toto/apt-get.pdf (deflated 8%)
  adding: toto/.member.csv (deflated 59%)

You can clearly see that the files are being added to the zipped folder now.

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Zip several folders and files in one zip file

You are not limited to zipping a single folder. You can zip multiple folders into one.

In fact, you can combine folders and files.

zip -r output.zip file1 folder1 file2 file3 folder2

Here's an example:

root@learnubuntu:~# zip -r single.zip auth.log toto logs alternatives.log 
  adding: auth.log (deflated 89%)
  adding: toto/ (stored 0%)
  adding: toto/ads.txt (deflated 80%)
  adding: toto/gnome-console-voiceover (deflated 57%)
  adding: toto/members.2022-05-29.csv (deflated 59%)
  adding: toto/cronjob-cheatsheet.png (deflated 8%)
  adding: toto/routes.yaml (deflated 27%)
  adding: toto/bash.pdf (deflated 22%)
  adding: toto/apt-get.pdf (deflated 8%)
  adding: toto/.member.csv (deflated 59%)
  adding: logs/ (stored 0%)
  adding: logs/toto/ (stored 0%)
  adding: logs/toto/ads.txt (deflated 80%)
  adding: logs/toto/gnome-console-voiceover (deflated 57%)
  adding: logs/toto/members.2022-05-29.csv (deflated 59%)
  adding: logs/toto/cronjob-cheatsheet.png (deflated 8%)
  adding: logs/toto/routes.yaml (deflated 27%)
  adding: logs/toto/bash.pdf (deflated 22%)
  adding: logs/toto/apt-get.pdf (deflated 8%)
  adding: logs/toto/.member.csv (deflated 59%)
  adding: logs/alternatives.log (deflated 39%)
  adding: logs/auth.log (deflated 89%)
  adding: logs/fontconfig.log (deflated 86%)
  adding: alternatives.log (deflated 39%)

Zip folder but exclude some files and subdirectories

You may not need all the files of a folder while creating the zip archive file. The good news is that you can exclude files and sub-directories while zipping them.

You can provide the files and subdirectories to exclude with option -x.

zip -r output.zip my_file my_folder -x my_folder/my_sub_folder

Do note that the option -x comes after the output and input files.

In the example below, you can see the file bash.pdf and subdirectory new is not

root@learnubuntu:~# zip -r output.zip auth.log toto -x toto/new toto/bash.pdf 
  adding: auth.log (deflated 89%)
  adding: toto/ (stored 0%)
  adding: toto/ads.txt (deflated 80%)
  adding: toto/gnome-console-voiceover (deflated 57%)
  adding: toto/members.2022-05-29.csv (deflated 59%)
  adding: toto/new/ (stored 0%)
  adding: toto/cronjob-cheatsheet.png (deflated 8%)
  adding: toto/routes.yaml (deflated 27%)
  adding: toto/.member.csv (deflated 59%)

As you can see, it still adds the sub-directory but not its contents. If you don't want the subdirectory at all, use it like this:

zip -r output.zip my_file my_folder -x "my_folder/my_sub_folder/*"

You can see that subdirectory new is not included at all this time.

root@learnubuntu:~# zip -r simple.zip auth.log toto -x "toto/new/*" toto/bash.pdf 
  adding: auth.log (deflated 89%)
  adding: toto/ (stored 0%)
  adding: toto/ads.txt (deflated 80%)
  adding: toto/gnome-console-voiceover (deflated 57%)
  adding: toto/members.2022-05-29.csv (deflated 59%)
  adding: toto/cronjob-cheatsheet.png (deflated 8%)
  adding: toto/routes.yaml (deflated 27%)
  adding: toto/.member.csv (deflated 59%)

Conclusion

Well, there is a lot more to the zip command in Linux. The focus here was on zipping a folder in Ubuntu and this article covers it well.

Let me know if you still have some doubts.