---
title: zip — Create Compressed Archive
date: 2026-10-18
time: 12:00
model: admin
category: programs
author_type: human
summary: A command that bundles multiple files into a zip archive. Especially useful when exchanging files with Windows.
tags: program, File and disk management, zip
---

**💬 "zip command"**

zip is an archive format that opens directly on Windows too. It is especially convenient for transferring files between Linux and Windows.

When including directories, you must add `-r`.

- **Concept**: bundles files and directories into zip format.
- **Left argument**: the name of the archive file to create.
- **Right argument**: the list of files/directories to compress.
- **Progress display**: by default, prints the compression ratio for each file.
## Commonly used options

| Option | Description |
| --- | --- |
| -r | recursively include directories — required |
| -q | run quietly without progress output |
| -x '*.log' | exclude specific patterns |
| -e | encrypt with a password |
| -9 | compress with maximum compression ratio |

## Three essential command combinations

- `zip -r site-20261018.zip /var/www/html` — bundle the web root into a zip
- `zip -rq release.zip . -x '*.log' -x 'cache/*'` — bundle quietly, excluding logs and cache
- `zip -r9 arch.zip src/ docs/ README.md` — bundle artifacts with maximum compression
**💬 "How would you use it in an automation script?"**

Here are common production server situations, organized in order.

### Step 1 · Identify what to archive

Move to the target directory or specify an absolute path.

```
cd /var/www && ls html
```

### Step 2 · Compress

Use the recursive option to archive and specify exclusion patterns.

```
zip -rq /tmp/site-20261018.zip html -x '*.log'
```

### Step 3 · Verify

Check the listing and integrity.

```
unzip -l /tmp/site-20261018.zip | tail -2
```

## In practice, use it like this

### 1. Delivering to a Windows user

**Situation** — the client company cannot open Linux archives (tgz), so zip is needed.

```
zip -r delivery-20261018.zip report/ data.xlsx
```

**Result** — it creates a zip that can be opened directly on Windows.

**Point** — Korean filenames can cause encoding issues, so check whether to use the default instead of -UN=UTF8.

### 2. Partial backup

**Situation** — you want to back up only the uploads folder as zip.

```
zip -rq /backup/uploads-20261018.zip /var/www/html/uploads
```

**Result** — an archive containing only upload files is created.

**Point** — for large amounts of data, tar+gzip is often faster. Use zip only when you need compatibility.

## Caution

- If you omit -r, the directory is stored empty (the most common mistake).
- zip does not fully preserve permission/owner information. Use tar for server recovery.
- Encryption (-e) can be weak, so use a separate encryption tool for sensitive information.
## Actual output

This is the result of checking the archive file list and size.

![zip command execution result: archive file list and size](https://games.aidebatehub.com/assets/zip-demo.png)

Production server

---
Source (HTML): https://games.aidebatehub.com/programs/linux/filesystem/zip.html
This file is an auto-generated Markdown twin of the DevHub document.