--ascii

[Systems using EBCDIC] Translate file to ASCII format.

--adjust-sfx

Adjust self-extracting executable archive. A self-extracting executable archive is created by prepend‐ing the SFX stub to an existing archive. The -A option tells zip to adjust the entry offsets stored inthe archive to take into account this "preamble" data.Note: self-extracting archives for the Amiga are a special case. At present, only the Amiga port of zip iscapable of adjusting or updating these without corrupting them. -J can be used to remove the SFX stub if otherupdates need to be made.

--archive-clear

[WIN32] Once archive is created (and tested if -T is used, which is recommended), clear the archivebits of files processed. WARNING: Once the bits are cleared they are cleared. You may want to use the

--archive-set

[WIN32] Only include files that have the archive bit set. Directories are not stored when -AS isused, though by default the paths of entries, including directories, are stored as usual and can beused by most unzips to recreate directories.The archive bit is set by the operating system when a file is modified and, if used with -AC, -AS canprovide an incremental backup capability. However, other applications can modify the archive bit andit may not be a reliable indicator of which files have changed since the last archive operation.Alternative ways to create incremental backups are using -t to use file dates, though this won't catchold files copied to directories being archived, and -DF to create a differential archive.

--binary

[VM/CMS and MVS] force file to be read binary (default is text).

-Bn

bit 0: Don't add delimiter (Edit/Enscribe)bit 1: Use LF rather than CR/LF as delimiter (Edit/Enscribe)bit 2: Space fill record to maximum record length (Enscribe)bit 3: Trim trailing space (Enscribe)bit 8: Force 30K (Expand) large read for unstructured files

--temp-path

Use the specified path for the temporary zip archive. For example:zip -b /tmp stuff *will put the temporary zip archive in the directory /tmp, copying over stuff.zip to the current direc‐tory when done. This option is useful when updating an existing archive and the file system containingthis old archive does not have enough space to hold both old and new archives at the same time. It mayalso be useful when streaming in some cases to avoid the need for data descriptors. Note that usingthis option may require zip take additional time to copy the archive file when done to the destinationfile system.

--entry-comments

Add one-line comments for each file. File operations (adding, updating) are done first, and the useris then prompted for a one-line comment for each file. Enter the comment followed by return, or justreturn for no comment.

--preserve-case

[VMS] Preserve case all on VMS. Negating this option (-C-) downcases.

--preserve-case-2

[VMS] Preserve case ODS2 on VMS. Negating this option (-C2-) downcases.

--preserve-case-5

[VMS] Preserve case ODS5 on VMS. Negating this option (-C5-) downcases.

--delete

Remove (delete) entries from a zip archive. For example:zip -d foo foo/tom/junk foo/harry/\* \*.owill remove the entry foo/tom/junk, all of the files that start with foo/harry/, and all of the filesthat end with .o (in any path). Note that shell pathname expansion has been inhibited with back‐slashes, so that zip can see the asterisks, enabling zip to match on the contents of the zip archiveinstead of the contents of the current directory. (The backslashes are not used on MSDOS-based plat‐forms.) Can also use quotes to escape the asterisks as inzip -d foo foo/tom/junk "foo/harry/*" "*.o"Not escaping the asterisks on a system where the shell expands wildcards could result in the asterisksbeing converted to a list of files in the current directory and that list used to delete entries fromthe archive.Under MSDOS, -d is case sensitive when it matches names in the zip archive. This requires that filenames be entered in upper case if they were zipped by PKZIP on an MSDOS system. (We considered makingthis case insensitive on systems where paths were case insensitive, but it is possible the archive camefrom a system where case does matter and the archive could include both Bar and bar as separate filesin the archive.) But see the new option -ic to ignore case in the archive.

--display-bytes

Display running byte counts showing the bytes zipped and the bytes to go.

--display-counts

Display running count of entries zipped and entries to go.

--display-dots

Display dots while each entry is zipped (except on ports that have their own progress indicator). See

--datafork

[MacOS] Include only data-fork of files zipped into the archive. Good for exporting files to foreignoperating-systems. Resource-forks will be ignored at all.

--display-globaldots

Display progress dots for the archive instead of for each file. The commandzip -qdgds 10mwill turn off most output except dots every 10 MB.

--dot-size

Set amount of input file processed for each dot displayed. See -dd to enable displaying dots. Settingthis option implies -dd. Size is in the format nm where n is a number and m is a multiplier. Cur‐rently m can be k (KB), m (MB), g (GB), or t (TB), so if n is 100 and m is k, size would be 100k whichis 100 KB. The default is 10 MB.The -v option also displays dots and now defaults to 10 MB also. This rate is also controlled by thisoption. A size of 0 turns dots off.This option does not control the dots from the "Scanning files" message as zip scans for input files.The dot size for that is fixed at 2 seconds or a fixed number of entries, whichever is longer.

--display-usize

Display the uncompressed size of each entry.

--display-volume

Display the volume (disk) number each entry is being read from, if reading an existing archive, andbeing written to.

--no-dir-entries

Do not create entries in the zip archive for directories. Directory entries are created by default sothat their attributes can be saved in the zip archive. The environment variable ZIPOPT can be used tochange the default options. For example under Unix with sh:ZIPOPT="-D"; export ZIPOPT(The variable ZIPOPT can be used for any option, including -i and -x using a new option format detailedbelow, and can include several options.) The option -D is a shorthand for -x "*/" but the latter previ‐ously could not be set as default in the ZIPOPT environment variable as the contents of ZIPOPT getsinserted near the beginning of the command line and the file list had to end at the end of the line.This version of zip does allow -x and -i options in ZIPOPT if the form

-x

is used, where the @ (an argument that is just @) terminates the list.

--difference-archive

Create an archive that contains all new and changed files since the original archive was created. Forthis to work, the input file list and current directory must be the same as during the original zipoperation.For example, if the existing archive was created usingzip -r foofull .from the bar directory, then the commandzip -r foofull . -DF --out foonewalso from the bar directory creates the archive foonew with just the files not in foofull and the fileswhere the size or file time of the files do not match those in foofull.Note that the timezone environment variable TZ should be set according to the local timezone in orderfor this option to work correctly. A change in timezone since the original archive was created couldresult in no times matching and all files being included.A possible approach to backing up a directory might be to create a normal archive of the contents ofthe directory as a full backup, then use this option to create incremental backups.

--encrypt

Encrypt the contents of the zip archive using a password which is entered on the terminal in responseto a prompt (this will not be echoed; if standard error is not a tty, zip will exit with an error).The password prompt is repeated to save the user from typing errors.

--longnames

[OS/2] Use the .LONGNAME Extended Attribute (if found) as filename.

--freshen

Replace (freshen) an existing entry in the zip archive only if it has been modified more recently thanthe version already in the zip archive; unlike the update option (-u) this will not add files that arenot already in the zip archive. For example:zip -f fooThis command should be run from the same directory from which the original zip command was run, sincepaths stored in zip archives are always relative.Note that the timezone environment variable TZ should be set according to the local timezone in orderfor the -f, -u and -o options to work correctly.The reasons behind this are somewhat subtle but have to do with the differences between the Unix-formatfile times (always in GMT) and most of the other operating systems (always local time) and the neces‐sity to compare the two. A typical TZ value is ``MET-1MEST'' (Middle European time with automaticadjustment for ``summertime'' or Daylight Savings Time).The format is TTThhDDD, where TTT is the time zone such as MET, hh is the difference between GMT andlocal time such as -1 above, and DDD is the time zone when daylight savings time is in effect. Leaveoff the DDD if there is no daylight savings time. For the US Eastern time zone EST5EDT.

--fixfix

Fix the zip archive. The -F option can be used if some portions of the archive are missing, butrequires a reasonably intact central directory. The input archive is scanned as usual, but zip willignore some problems. The resulting archive should be valid, but any inconsistent entries will be leftout.When doubled as in -FF, the archive is scanned from the beginning and zip scans for special signaturesto identify the limits between the archive members. The single -F is more reliable if the archive isnot too much damaged, so try this option first.If the archive is too damaged or the end has been truncated, you must use -FF. This is a change fromzip 2.32, where the -F option is able to read a truncated archive. The -F option now more reliablyfixes archives with minor damage and the -FF option is needed to fix archives where -F might have beensufficient before.Neither option will recover archives that have been incorrectly transferred in ascii mode instead ofbinary. After the repair, the -t option of unzip may show that some files have a bad CRC. Such filescannot be recovered; you can remove them from the archive using the -d option of zip.Note that -FF may have trouble fixing archives that include an embedded zip archive that was stored(without compression) in the archive and, depending on the damage, it may find the entries in theembedded archive rather than the archive itself. Try -F first as it does not have this problem.The format of the fix commands have changed. For example, to fix the damaged archive foo.zip,zip -F foo --out foofixtries to read the entries normally, copying good entries to the new archive foofix.zip. If thisdoesn't work, as when the archive is truncated, or if some entries you know are in the archive aremissed, then tryzip -FF foo --out foofixfixand compare the resulting archive to the archive created by -F. The -FF option may create an inconsis‐tent archive. Depending on what is damaged, you can then use the -F option to fix that archive.A split archive with missing split files can be fixed using -F if you have the last split of the ar‐chive (the .zip file). If this file is missing, you must use -FF to fix the archive, which will promptyou for the splits you have.Currently the fix options can't recover entries that have a bad checksum or are otherwise damaged.

--filesync

Synchronize the contents of an archive with the files on the OS. Normally when an archive is updated,new files are added and changed files are updated but files that no longer exist on the OS are notdeleted from the archive. This option enables a new mode that checks entries in the archive againstthe file system. If the file time and file size of the entry matches that of the OS file, the entry iscopied from the old archive instead of being read from the file system and compressed. If the OS filehas changed, the entry is read and compressed as usual. If the entry in the archive does not match afile on the OS, the entry is deleted. Enabling this option should create archives that are the same asnew archives, but since existing entries are copied instead of compressed, updating an existing archivewith -FS can be much faster than creating a new archive. Also consider using -u for updating an ar‐chive.For this option to work, the archive should be updated from the same directory it was created in so therelative paths match. If few files are being copied from the old archive, it may be faster to create anew archive instead.Note that the timezone environment variable TZ should be set according to the local timezone in orderfor this option to work correctly. A change in timezone since the original archive was created couldresult in no times matching and recompression of all files.This option deletes files from the archive. If you need to preserve the original archive, make a copyof the archive first or use the --out option to output the updated archive to a new file. Even thoughit may be slower, creating a new archive with a new archive name is safer, avoids mismatches betweenarchive and OS paths, and is preferred.

--grow

Grow (append to) the specified zip archive, instead of creating a new one. If this operation fails, zipattempts to restore the archive to its original state. If the restoration fails, the archive mightbecome corrupted. This option is ignored when there's no existing archive or when at least one archivemember must be updated or deleted.

--help

Display the zip help information (this also appears if zip is run with no arguments).

--more-help

Display extended help including more on command line format, pattern matching, and more obscureoptions.

--include

Include only the specified files, as in:zip -r foo . -i \*.cwhich will include only the files that end in .c in the current directory and its subdirectories. (Notefor PKZIP users: the equivalent command ispkzip -rP foo *.cPKZIP does not allow recursion in directories other than the current one.) The backslash avoids theshell filename substitution, so that the name matching is performed by zip at all directory levels.[This is for Unix and other systems where \ escapes the next character. For other systems where theshell does not process * do not use \ and the above iszip -r foo . -i *.cExamples are for Unix unless otherwise specified.] So to include dir, a directory directly under thecurrent directory, usezip -r foo . -i dir/\*orzip -r foo . -i "dir/*"to match paths such as dir/a and dir/b/file.c [on ports without wildcard expansion in the shell such asMSDOS and Windowszip -r foo . -i dir/*is used.] Note that currently the trailing / is needed for directories (as inzip -r foo . -i dir/to include directory dir).The long option form of the first example iszip -r foo . --include \*.cand does the same thing as the short option form.Though the command syntax used to require -i at the end of the command line, this version actuallyallows -i (or --include) anywhere. The list of files terminates at the next argument starting with -,the end of the command line, or the list terminator @ (an argument that is just @). So the above canbe given aszip -i \*.c @ -r foo .for example. There must be a space between the option and the first file of a list. For just one fileyou can use the single value formzip -i\*.c -r foo .(no space between option and value) orzip --include=\*.c -r foo .as additional examples. The single value forms are not recommended because they can be confusing and,in particular, the -ifile format can cause problems if the first letter of file combines with i to forma two-letter option starting with i. Use -sc to see how your command line will be parsed.Also possible:zip -r foo . -i@include.lstwhich will only include the files in the current directory and its subdirectories that match the pat‐terns in the file include.lst.Files to -i and -x are patterns matching internal archive paths. See -R for more on patterns.

--no-image

[Acorn RISC OS] Don't scan through Image files. When used, zip will not consider Image files (eg. DOSpartitions or Spark archives when SparkFS is loaded) as directories but will store them as singlefiles.For example, if you have SparkFS loaded, zipping a Spark archive will result in a zipfile containing adirectory (and its content) while using the 'I' option will result in a zipfile containing a Spark ar‐chive. Obviously this second case will also be obtained (without the 'I' option) if SparkFS isn'tloaded.

--ignore-case

[VMS, WIN32] Ignore case when matching archive entries. This option is only available on systems wherethe case of files is ignored. On systems with case-insensitive file systems, case is normally ignoredwhen matching files on the file system but is not ignored for -f (freshen), -d (delete), -U (copy), andsimilar modes when matching against archive entries (currently -f ignores case on VMS) because archiveentries can be from systems where case does matter and names that are the same except for case canexist in an archive. The -ic option makes all matching case insensitive. This can result in multiplearchive entries matching a command line pattern.

--junk-paths

Store just the name of a saved file (junk the path), and do not store directory names. By default, zipwill store the full path (relative to the current directory).

--absolute-path

[MacOS] record Fullpath (+ Volname). The complete path including volume will be stored. By default therelative path will be stored.

--junk-sfx

Strip any prepended data (e.g. a SFX stub) from the archive.

--DOS-names

Attempt to convert the names and paths to conform to MSDOS, store only the MSDOS attribute (just theuser write attribute from Unix), and mark the entry as made under MSDOS (even though it was not); forcompatibility with PKUNZIP under MSDOS which cannot handle certain names such as those with two dots.

--to-crlf

Translate the Unix end-of-line character LF into the MSDOS convention CR LF. This option should not beused on binary files. This option can be used on Unix if the zip file is intended for PKUNZIP underMSDOS. If the input files already contain CR LF, this option adds an extra CR. This is to ensure thatunzip -a on Unix will get back an exact copy of the original file, to undo the effect of zip -l. See

-ll

for how binary files are handled.

--log-append

Append to existing logfile. Default is to overwrite.

--logfile-path

Open a logfile at the given path. By default any existing file at that location is overwritten, butthe -la option will result in an existing file being opened and the new log information appended to anyexisting information. Only warnings and errors are written to the log unless the -li option is alsogiven, then all information messages are also written to the log.

--log-info

Include information messages, such as file names being zipped, in the log. The default is to onlyinclude the command line, any warnings and errors, and the final status.

--from-crlf

Translate the MSDOS end-of-line CR LF into Unix LF. This option should not be used on binary files.This option can be used on MSDOS if the zip file is intended for unzip under Unix. If the file is con‐verted and the file is later determined to be binary a warning is issued and the file is probably cor‐rupted. In this release if -ll detects binary in the first buffer read from a file, zip now issues awarning and skips line end conversion on the file. This check seems to catch all binary files tested,but the original check remains and if a converted file is later determined to be binary that warning isstill issued. A new algorithm is now being used for binary detection that should allow line end con‐version of text files in UTF-8 and similar encodings.

--license

Display the zip license.

--move

Move the specified files into the zip archive; actually, this deletes the target directories/filesafter making the specified zip archive. If a directory becomes empty after removal of the files, thedirectory is also removed. No deletions are done until zip has created the archive without error. Thisis useful for conserving disk space, but is potentially dangerous so it is recommended to use it incombination with -T to test the archive before removing all input files.

--must-match

All input patterns must match at least one file and all input files found must be readable. Normallywhen an input pattern does not match a file the "name not matched" warning is issued and when an inputfile has been found but later is missing or not readable a missing or not readable warning is issued.In either case zip continues creating the archive, with missing or unreadable new files being skippedand files already in the archive remaining unchanged. After the archive is created, if any files werenot readable zip returns the OPEN error code (18 on most systems) instead of the normal success return(0 on most systems). With -MM set, zip exits as soon as an input pattern is not matched (whenever the"name not matched" warning would be issued) or when an input file is not readable. In either case zipexits with an OPEN error and no archive is created.This option is useful when a known list of files is to be zipped so any missing or unreadable fileswill result in an error. It is less useful when used with wildcards, but zip will still exit with anerror if any input pattern doesn't match at least one file and if any matched files are unreadable. Ifyou want to create the archive anyway and only need to know if files were skipped, don't use -MM andjust check the return code. Also -lf could be useful.

--suffixes

Do not attempt to compress files named with the given suffixes. Such files are simply stored (0% com‐pression) in the output zip file, so that zip doesn't waste its time trying to compress them. The suf‐fixes are separated by either colons or semicolons. For example:zip -rn .Z:.zip:.tiff:.gif:.snd foo foowill copy everything from foo into foo.zip, but will store any files that end in .Z, .zip, .tiff, .gif,or .snd without trying to compress them (image and sound files often have their own specialized com‐pression methods). By default, zip does not compress files with extensions in the list.Z:.zip:.zoo:.arc:.lzh:.arj. Such files are stored directly in the output archive. The environmentvariable ZIPOPT can be used to change the default options. For example under Unix with csh:setenv ZIPOPT "-n .gif:.zip"To attempt compression on all files, use:zip -n : fooThe maximum compression option -9 also attempts compression on all files regardless of extension.On Acorn RISC OS systems the suffixes are actually filetypes (3 hex digit format). By default, zip doesnot compress files with filetypes in the list DDC:D96:68E (i.e. Archives, CFS files and PackDir files).

--no-wild

Do not perform internal wildcard processing (shell processing of wildcards is still done by the shellunless the arguments are escaped). Useful if a list of paths is being read and no wildcard substitu‐tion is desired.

--notes

[Amiga, MacOS] Save Amiga or MacOS filenotes as zipfile comments. They can be restored by using the -Noption of unzip. If -c is used also, you are prompted for comments only for those files that do nothave filenotes.

--latest-time

Set the "last modified" time of the zip archive to the latest (oldest) "last modified" time found amongthe entries in the zip archive. This can be used without any other operations, if desired. For exam‐ple:zip -o foowill change the last modified time of foo.zip to the latest time of the entries in foo.zip.

--output-file

Process the archive changes as usual, but instead of updating the existing archive, output the new ar‐chive to output-file. Useful for updating an archive without changing the existing archive and theinput archive must be a different file than the output archive.This option can be used to create updated split archives. It can also be used with -U to copy entriesfrom an existing archive to a new archive. See the EXAMPLES section below.Another use is converting zip files from one split size to another. For instance, to convert an ar‐chive with 700 MB CD splits to one with 2 GB DVD splits, can use:zip -s 2g cd-split.zip --out dvd-split.zipwhich uses copy mode. See -U below. Also:zip -s 0 split.zip --out unsplit.zipwill convert a split archive to a single-file archive.Copy mode will convert stream entries (using data descriptors and which should be compatible with mostunzips) to normal entries (which should be compatible with all unzips), except if standard encryptionwas used. For archives with encrypted entries, zipcloak will decrypt the entries and convert them tonormal entries.

--paths

Include relative file paths as part of the names of files stored in the archive. This is the default.The -j option junks the paths and just stores the names of the files.

--password

Use password to encrypt zipfile entries (if any). THIS IS INSECURE! Many multi-user operating systemsprovide ways for any user to see the current command line of any other user; even on stand-alone sys‐tems there is always the threat of over-the-shoulder peeking. Storing the plaintext password as partof a command line in an automated script is even worse. Whenever possible, use the non-echoing, inter‐active prompt to enter passwords. (And where security is truly important, use strong encryption suchas Pretty Good Privacy instead of the relatively weak standard encryption provided by zipfile utili‐ties.)

--quiet

Quiet mode; eliminate informational messages and comment prompts. (Useful, for example, in shellscripts and background tasks).

--Q-flag

[QDOS] store information about the file in the file header with n defined asbit 0: Don't add headers for any filebit 1: Add headers for all filesbit 2: Don't wait for interactive key press on exit

--recurse-paths

Travel the directory structure recursively; for example:zip -r foo.zip fooor more conciselyzip -r foo fooIn this case, all the files and directories in foo are saved in a zip archive named foo.zip, includingfiles with names starting with ".", since the recursion does not use the shell's file-name substitutionmechanism. If you wish to include only a specific subset of the files in directory foo and its subdi‐rectories, use the -i option to specify the pattern of files to be included. You should not use -rwith the name ".*", since that matches ".." which will attempt to zip up the parent directory (proba‐bly not what was intended).Multiple source directories are allowed as inzip -r foo foo1 foo2which first zips up foo1 and then foo2, going down each directory.Note that while wildcards to -r are typically resolved while recursing down directories in the filesystem, any -R, -x, and -i wildcards are applied to internal archive pathnames once the directories arescanned. To have wildcards apply to files in subdirectories when recursing on Unix and similar systemswhere the shell does wildcard substitution, either escape all wildcards or put all arguments with wild‐cards in quotes. This lets zip see the wildcards and match files in subdirectories using them as itrecurses.

--recurse-patterns

Travel the directory structure recursively starting at the current directory; for example:zip -R foo "*.c"In this case, all the files matching *.c in the tree starting at the current directory are stored intoa zip archive named foo.zip. Note that *.c will match file.c, a/file.c and a/b/.c. More than one pat‐tern can be listed as separate arguments. Note for PKZIP users: the equivalent command ispkzip -rP foo *.cPatterns are relative file paths as they appear in the archive, or will after zipping, and can haveoptional wildcards in them. For example, given the current directory is foo and under it are directo‐ries foo1 and foo2 and in foo1 is the file bar.c,zip -R foo/*will zip up foo, foo/foo1, foo/foo1/bar.c, and foo/foo2.zip -R */bar.cwill zip up foo/foo1/bar.c. See the note for -r on escaping wildcards.

--regex

[WIN32] Before zip 3.0, regular expression list matching was enabled by default on Windows platforms.Because of confusion resulting from the need to escape "[" and "]" in names, it is now off by defaultfor Windows so "[" and "]" are just normal characters in names. This option enables [] matching again.

--split-size

Enable creating a split archive and set the split size. A split archive is an archive that could besplit over many files. As the archive is created, if the size of the archive reaches the specifiedsplit size, that split is closed and the next split opened. In general all splits but the last will bethe split size and the last will be whatever is left. If the entire archive is smaller than the splitsize a single-file archive is created.Split archives are stored in numbered files. For example, if the output archive is named archive andthree splits are required, the resulting archive will be in the three files archive.z01, archive.z02,and archive.zip. Do not change the numbering of these files or the archive will not be readable asthese are used to determine the order the splits are read.Split size is a number optionally followed by a multiplier. Currently the number must be an integer.The multiplier can currently be one of k (kilobytes), m (megabytes), g (gigabytes), or t (terabytes).As 64k is the minimum split size, numbers without multipliers default to megabytes. For example, tocreate a split archive called foo with the contents of the bar directory with splits of 670 MB thatmight be useful for burning on CDs, the command:zip -s 670m -r foo barcould be used.Currently the old splits of a split archive are not excluded from a new archive, but they can bespecifically excluded. If possible, keep the input and output archives out of the path being zippedwhen creating split archives.Using -s without -sp as above creates all the splits where foo is being written, in this case the cur‐rent directory. This split mode updates the splits as the archive is being created, requiring allsplits to remain writable, but creates split archives that are readable by any unzip that supportssplit archives. See -sp below for enabling split pause mode which allows splits to be written directlyto removable media.The option -sv can be used to enable verbose splitting and provide details of how the splitting isbeing done. The -sb option can be used to ring the bell when zip pauses for the next split destina‐tion.Split archives cannot be updated, but see the -O (--out) option for how a split archive can be updatedas it is copied to a new archive. A split archive can also be converted into a single-file archiveusing a split size of 0 or negating the -s option:zip -s 0 split.zip --out single.zipAlso see -U (--copy) for more on using copy mode.

--split-bell

If splitting and using split pause mode, ring the bell when zip pauses for each split destination.

--show-command

Show the command line starting zip as processed and exit. The new command parser permutes the argu‐ments, putting all options and any values associated with them before any non-option arguments. Thisallows an option to appear anywhere in the command line as long as any values that go with the optiongo with it. This option displays the command line as zip sees it, including any arguments from theenvironment such as from the ZIPOPT variable. Where allowed, options later in the command line canoverride options earlier in the command line.

--show-files

Show the files that would be operated on, then exit. For instance, if creating a new archive, thiswill list the files that would be added. If the option is negated, -sf-, output only to an open logfile. Screen display is not recommended for large lists.

--show-options

Show all available options supported by zip as compiled on the current system. As this command readsthe option table, it should include all options. Each line includes the short option (if defined), thelong option (if defined), the format of any value that goes with the option, if the option can benegated, and a small description. The value format can be no value, required value, optional value,single character value, number value, or a list of values. The output of this option is not intendedto show how to use any option but only show what options are available.

--split-pause

If splitting is enabled with -s, enable split pause mode. This creates split archives as -s does, butstream writing is used so each split can be closed as soon as it is written and zip will pause betweeneach split to allow changing split destination or media.Though this split mode allows writing splits directly to removable media, it uses stream archive formatthat may not be readable by some unzips. Before relying on splits created with -sp, test a split ar‐chive with the unzip you will be using.To convert a stream split archive (created with -sp) to a standard archive see the --out option.

--show-unicode

As -sf, but also show Unicode version of the path if exists.

--show-just-unicode

As -sf, but only show Unicode version of the path if exists, otherwise show the standard version of thepath.

--split-verbose

Enable various verbose messages while splitting, showing how the splitting is being done.

--system-hidden

[MSDOS, OS/2, WIN32 and ATARI] Include system and hidden files.[MacOS] Includes finder invisible files, which are ignored otherwise.

--from-date

Do not operate on files modified prior to the specified date, where mm is the month (00-12), dd is theday of the month (01-31), and yyyy is the year. The ISO 8601 date format yyyy-mm-dd is also accepted.For example:zip -rt 12071991 infamy foozip -rt 1991-12-07 infamy foowill add all the files in foo and its subdirectories that were last modified on or after 7 December1991, to the zip archive infamy.zip.

--before-date

Do not operate on files modified after or at the specified date, where mm is the month (00-12), dd isthe day of the month (01-31), and yyyy is the year. The ISO 8601 date format yyyy-mm-dd is alsoaccepted. For example:zip -rtt 11301995 infamy foozip -rtt 1995-11-30 infamy foowill add all the files in foo and its subdirectories that were last modified before 30 November 1995,to the zip archive infamy.zip.

--test

Test the integrity of the new zip file. If the check fails, the old zip file is unchanged and (with the

-m

option) no input files are removed.

--unzip-command

Use command cmd instead of 'unzip -tqq' to test an archive when the -T option is used. On Unix, to usea copy of unzip in the current directory instead of the standard system unzip, could use:zip archive file1 file2 -T -TT "./unzip -tqq"In cmd, {} is replaced by the name of the temporary archive, otherwise the name of the archive isappended to the end of the command. The return code is checked for success (0 on Unix).

--update

Replace (update) an existing entry in the zip archive only if it has been modified more recently thanthe version already in the zip archive. For example:zip -u stuff *will add any new files in the current directory, and update any files which have been modified sincethe zip archive stuff.zip was last created/modified (note that zip will not try to pack stuff.zip intoitself when you do this).Note that the -u option with no input file arguments acts like the -f (freshen) option.

--copy-entries

Copy entries from one archive to another. Requires the --out option to specify a different output filethan the input archive. Copy mode is the reverse of -d delete. When delete is being used with --out,the selected entries are deleted from the archive and all other entries are copied to the new archive,while copy mode selects the files to include in the new archive. Unlike -u update, input patterns onthe command line are matched against archive entries only and not the file system files. For instance,zip inarchive "*.c" --copy --out outarchivecopies entries with names ending in .c from inarchive to outarchive. The wildcard must be escaped onsome systems to prevent the shell from substituting names of files from the file system which may haveno relevance to the entries in the archive.If no input files appear on the command line and --out is used, copy mode is assumed:zip inarchive --out outarchiveThis is useful for changing split size for instance. Encrypting and decrypting entries is not yet sup‐ported using copy mode. Use zipcloak for that.

--unicode

Determine what zip should do with Unicode file names. zip 3.0, in addition to the standard file path,now includes the UTF-8 translation of the path if the entry path is not entirely 7-bit ASCII. When anentry is missing the Unicode path, zip reverts back to the standard file path. The problem with usingthe standard path is this path is in the local character set of the zip that created the entry, whichmay contain characters that are not valid in the character set being used by the unzip. When zip isreading an archive, if an entry also has a Unicode path, zip now defaults to using the Unicode path torecreate the standard path using the current local character set.This option can be used to determine what zip should do with this path if there is a mismatch betweenthe stored standard path and the stored UTF-8 path (which can happen if the standard path was updated).In all cases, if there is a mismatch it is assumed that the standard path is more current and zip usesthat. Values for v are

-

quit if paths do not match

--verbose

Verbose mode or print diagnostic version info.Normally, when applied to real operations, this option enables the display of a progress indicator dur‐ing compression (see -dd for more on dots) and requests verbose diagnostic info about zipfile structureoddities.However, when -v is the only command line argument a diagnostic screen is printed instead. This shouldnow work even if stdout is redirected to a file, allowing easy saving of the information for sendingwith bug reports to Info-ZIP. The version screen provides the help screen header with program name,version, and release date, some pointers to the Info-ZIP home and distribution sites, and shows infor‐mation about the target environment (compiler type and version, OS version, compilation date and theenabled optional features used to create the zip executable).

--VMS-portable

[VMS] Save VMS file attributes. (Files are truncated at EOF.) When a -V archive is unpacked on anon-VMS system, some file types (notably Stream_LF text files and pure binary files like fixed-512)should be extracted intact. Indexed files and file types with embedded record sizes (notably variable-length record types) will probably be seen as corrupt elsewhere.

--VMS-specific

[VMS] Save VMS file attributes, and all allocated blocks in a file, including any data beyond EOF.Useful for moving ill-formed files among VMS systems. When a -VV archive is unpacked on a non-VMSsystem, almost all files will appear corrupt.

--VMS-versions

[VMS] Append the version number of the files to the name, including multiple versions of files.Default is to use only the most recent version of a specified file.

--VMS-dot-versions

[VMS] Append the version number of the files to the name, including multiple versions of files, usingthe .nnn format. Default is to use only the most recent version of a specified file.

--wild-stop-dirs

Wildcards match only at a directory level. Normally zip handles paths as strings and given the paths/foo/bar/dir/file1.c/foo/bar/file2.can input pattern such as/foo/bar/*normally would match both paths, the * matching dir/file1.c and file2.c. Note that in the first case adirectory boundary (/) was crossed in the match. With -ws no directory bounds will be included in thematch, making wildcards local to a specific directory level. So, with -ws enabled, only the secondpath would be matched.When using -ws, use ** to match across directory boundaries as * does normally.

--exclude

Explicitly exclude the specified files, as in:zip -r foo foo -x \*.owhich will include the contents of foo in foo.zip while excluding all the files that end in .o. Thebackslash avoids the shell filename substitution, so that the name matching is performed by zip at alldirectory levels.Also possible:zip -r foo foo -x@exclude.lstwhich will include the contents of foo in foo.zip while excluding all the files that match the patternsin the file exclude.lst.The long option forms of the above arezip -r foo foo --exclude \*.oandzip -r foo foo --exclude @exclude.lstMultiple patterns can be specified, as in:zip -r foo foo -x \*.o \*.cIf there is no space between -x and the pattern, just one value is assumed (no list):zip -r foo foo -x\*.oSee -i for more on include and exclude.

--no-extra

Do not save extra file attributes (Extended Attributes on OS/2, uid/gid and file times on Unix). Thezip format uses extra fields to include additional information for each entry. Some extra fields arespecific to particular systems while others are applicable to all systems. Normally when zip readsentries from an existing archive, it reads the extra fields it knows, strips the rest, and adds theextra fields applicable to that system. With -X, zip strips all old fields and only includes the Uni‐code and Zip64 extra fields (currently these two extra fields cannot be disabled).Negating this option, -X-, includes all the default extra fields, but also copies over any unrecognizedextra fields.

--symlinks

For UNIX and VMS (V8.3 and later), store symbolic links as such in the zip archive, instead of com‐pressing and storing the file referred to by the link. This can avoid multiple copies of files beingincluded in the archive as zip recurses the directory trees and accesses files directly and by links.

--archive-comment

Prompt for a multi-line comment for the entire zip archive. The comment is ended by a line containingjust a period, or an end of file condition (^D on Unix, ^Z on MSDOS, OS/2, and VMS). The comment canbe taken from a file:zip -z foo < foowhat

--compression-method

Set the default compression method. Currently the main methods supported by zip are store and deflate.Compression method can be set to:store - Setting the compression method to store forces zip to store entries with no compression. Thisis generally faster than compressing entries, but results in no space savings. This is the same asusing -0 (compression level zero).deflate - This is the default method for zip. If zip determines that storing is better than deflation,the entry will be stored instead.bzip2 - If bzip2 support is compiled in, this compression method also becomes available. Only somemodern unzips currently support the bzip2 compression method, so test the unzip you will be usingbefore relying on archives using this method (compression method 12).For example, to add bar.c to archive foo using bzip2 compression:zip -Z bzip2 foo bar.cThe compression method can be abbreviated:zip -Zb foo bar.c

-0

Regulate the speed of compression using the specified digit #, where -0 indicates no compression (storeall files), -1 indicates the fastest compression speed (less compression) and -9 indicates the slowestcompression speed (optimal compression, ignores the suffix list). The default compression level is -6.Though still being worked, the intention is this setting will control compression speed for all com‐pression methods. Currently only deflation is controlled.

--use-privileges

[WIN32] Use privileges (if granted) to obtain all aspects of WinNT security.

--names-stdin

Take the list of input files from standard input. Only one filename per line.

--volume-label

[MSDOS, OS/2, WIN32] Include the volume label for the drive holding the first file to be compressed.If you want to include only the volume label or to force a specific drive, use the drive name as firstfile name, as in:zip -$ foo a: c:barEXAMPLESThe simplest example:zip stuff *creates the archive stuff.zip (assuming it does not exist) and puts all the files in the current directory init, in compressed form (the .zip suffix is added automatically, unless the archive name contains a dotalready; this allows the explicit specification of other suffixes).Because of the way the shell on Unix does filename substitution, files starting with "." are not included; toinclude these as well:zip stuff .* *Even this will not include any subdirectories from the current directory.To zip up an entire directory, the command:zip -r foo foocreates the archive foo.zip, containing all the files and directories in the directory foo that is containedwithin the current directory.You may want to make a zip archive that contains the files in foo, without recording the directory name, foo.You can use the -j option to leave off the paths, as in:zip -j foo foo/*If you are short on disk space, you might not have enough room to hold both the original directory and thecorresponding compressed zip archive. In this case, you can create the archive in steps using the -m option.If foo contains the subdirectories tom, dick, and harry, you can:zip -rm foo foo/tomzip -rm foo foo/dickzip -rm foo foo/harrywhere the first command creates foo.zip, and the next two add to it. At the completion of each zip command,the last created archive is deleted, making room for the next zip command to function.Use -s to set the split size and create a split archive. The size is given as a number followed optionally byone of k (kB), m (MB), g (GB), or t (TB). The commandzip -s 2g -r split.zip foocreates a split archive of the directory foo with splits no bigger than 2 GB each. If foo contained 5 GB ofcontents and the contents were stored in the split archive without compression (to make this example simple),this would create three splits, split.z01 at 2 GB, split.z02 at 2 GB, and split.zip at a little over 1 GB.The -sp option can be used to pause zip between splits to allow changing removable media, for example, butread the descriptions and warnings for both -s and -sp below.Though zip does not update split archives, zip provides the new option -O (--output-file) to allow split ar‐chives to be updated and saved in a new archive. For example,zip inarchive.zip foo.c bar.c --out outarchive.zipreads archive inarchive.zip, even if split, adds the files foo.c and bar.c, and writes the resulting archiveto outarchive.zip. If inarchive.zip is split then outarchive.zip defaults to the same split size. Be awarethat outarchive.zip and any split files that are created with it are always overwritten without warning. Thismay be changed in the future.PATTERN MATCHINGThis section applies only to Unix. Watch this space for details on MSDOS and VMS operation. However, thespecial wildcard characters * and [] below apply to at least MSDOS also.The Unix shells (sh, csh, bash, and others) normally do filename substitution (also called "globbing") on com‐mand arguments. Generally the special characters are:? match any single character* match any number of characters (including none)[] match any character in the range indicated within the brackets (example: [a-f], [0-9]). This form ofwildcard matching allows a user to specify a list of characters between square brackets and if any ofthe characters match the expression matches. For example:zip archive "*.[hc]"would archive all files in the current directory that end in .h or .c.Ranges of characters are supported:zip archive "[a-f]*"would add to the archive all files starting with "a" through "f".Negation is also supported, where any character in that position not in the list matches. Negation issupported by adding ! or ^ to the beginning of the list:zip archive "*.[!o]"matches files that don't end in ".o".On WIN32, [] matching needs to be turned on with the -RE option to avoid the confusion that names with[ or ] have caused.When these characters are encountered (without being escaped with a backslash or quotes), the shell will lookfor files relative to the current path that match the pattern, and replace the argument with a list of thenames that matched.The zip program can do the same matching on names that are in the zip archive being modified or, in the caseof the -x (exclude) or -i (include) options, on the list of files to be operated on, by using backslashes orquotes to tell the shell not to do the name expansion. In general, when zip encounters a name in the list offiles to do, it first looks for the name in the file system. If it finds it, it then adds it to the list offiles to do. If it does not find it, it looks for the name in the zip archive being modified (if it exists),using the pattern matching characters described above, if present. For each match, it will add that name tothe list of files to be processed, unless this name matches one given with the -x option, or does not matchany name given with the -i option.The pattern matching includes the path, and so patterns like \*.o match names that end in ".o", no matter whatthe path prefix is. Note that the backslash must precede every special character (i.e. ?*[]), or the entireargument must be enclosed in double quotes ("").In general, use backslashes or double quotes for paths that have wildcards to make zip do the pattern matchingfor file paths, and always for paths and strings that have spaces or wildcards for -i, -x, -R, -d, and -U andanywhere zip needs to process the wildcards.ENVIRONMENTThe following environment variables are read and used by zip as described.ZIPOPTcontains default options that will be used when running zip. The contents of this environment variablewill get added to the command line just after the zip command.ZIP[Not on RISC OS and VMS] see ZIPOPTZip$Options[RISC OS] see ZIPOPTZip$Exts[RISC OS] contains extensions separated by a : that will cause native filenames with one of the speci‐fied extensions to be added to the zip file with basename and extension swapped.ZIP_OPTS[VMS] see ZIPOPT