How can I create a zip archive of a whole directory via terminal without hidden files?

Question

I have a project with lots of hidden folders / files in it. I want to create a zip-archive of it, but in the archive shouldn't be any hidden folders / files. If files in a hidden folder are not hidden, they should also not be included.

I know that I can create a zip archive of a directory like this:

zip -r zipfile.zip directory

I also know that I can exclude files with the -x option, so I thought this might work:

zip -r zipfile.zip directory -x .*

It didn't work. All hidden directories were still in the zip-file.

score 209 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 17 '19 at 12:06

First of all if you don't have installed zip install it first as follows:

sudo apt-get install zip

Then for simply creating a zip file:

zip -r compressed_filename.zip foldername

If you want to exclude hidden files:

find /folder_path -path '*/.*' -prune -o -type f -print | zip ~/compressed_filename.zip -@

Excluding Files from a Zip Archive (taken from http://osxdaily.com/2013/04/30/how-to-exclude-files-from-a-zip-archive/)

The basics of file exclusion when creating a zip archive are centered around the -x flag, which is used to exclude files from the archive that match a specific name or pattern. At it’s most basic, it will look like this:
zip archive.zip files -x "ExcludeMe"
Meaning you could exclude a single file, say it’s named “Nothanks.jpg”
zip archive.zip images/ -x "Nothanks.jpg"
Let’s cover a few specific examples where this is useful.

Exclude .DS_Store Files from Zip Archives

This will prevent the typically invisible Mac metadata .DS_Store files from being included in a zip archive, which are bundled in by default:
zip -r archivename.zip archivedirectory -x "*.DS_Store"
If the directory includes subdirectories however, you’ll want to use another variation of that command to exclude the the ds_store files from subdirectories as well:
zip -r archive.zip directory -x "*/\.DS_Store"
Note: not all shells require the quotations for this command to work properly, but in the bash shell (the default for OS X) you will need to use the quotes for excluding with wildcards and patterns.

Exclude Specific File Types from a Zip Archive

With wildcards, you can also exclude all files of a certain type by focusing on the extension. For example, this command will zip an entire directory, minus any .jpg files:
zip -r archive.zip directory -x "*.jpg"
That could be modified for any specific file extension or pattern matched in a file name.

Exclude the .git or .svn Directory from a Zip Archive

Zip a directory, minus .git and it’s contents:
zip -r zipdir.zip directorytozip -x "*.git*"
Zip a folder, without including the .svn directory:
zip -r zipped.zip directory -x "*.svn*"
Exclude All Hidden Files from a Zip Archive

Since patterns and wildcards can be used, you could also exclude any or all invisible files and folders that are made so by being prefixed with a period, whether it’s a directory like .svn or an individual file like .bash_profile or .htaccess.
zip -r archivename.zip directorytozip -x "*.*"
Or to exclude all invisible files from all subdirectories:
zip -r archive.zip directory -x "*/\.*"

Thank you for your effort to help a fellow Ubuntu user. Please keep in mind that re-stating the accepted answer in a new answer just adds to the clutter and has a high probability of being flagged for removal. — hmayag, Aug 11 '15 at 07:04
I don't understand why the question has more upvotes than this very thorough answer — Nathan majicvr.com, Sep 15 '21 at 20:54

score 127 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '11 at 19:27

127

This also excludes hidden files in unhidden directories:

find /full_path -path '*/.*' -prune -o -type f -print | zip ~/file.zip -@

answered Aug 27 '11 at 19:27

arrange

14,959

5

Thanks for your answer. The command (find community-chess/ -path '*/.*' -prune -o -type f -print | zip ~/community-chess.zip -@) is longer than expected, but it works fine. Subdirectories are also included, so +1 and an accepted answer :-) – Martin Thoma Aug 28 '11 at 09:17

score 62 · Answer 3 · edited May 08 '14 at 17:22

62

Add " to the .* (otherwise, your shell expands .* to the dot files in the current directory), and also exclude hidden files in subdirectories:

zip -r zipfile.zip . -x ".*" -x "*/.*"

This will result in files starting with a . not to be added into your zip file.

rinzwind@discworld:~/tmp$ ls -la
drwxr-xr-x  2 rinzwind rinzwind 4096 2011-08-28 00:15 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  2 rinzwind rinzwind 4096 2011-08-28 00:15 .tmp
rinzwind@discworld:~/tmp$ zip -r zipfile.zip . -x .*
adding: .tmp/ (stored 0%)
adding: tmp/ (stored 0%)
rinzwind@discworld:~/tmp$ zip -r zipfile.zip . -x ".*" -x "*/.*"
updating: tmp/ (stored 0%)

edited May 08 '14 at 17:22

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'

60,593

answered Aug 27 '11 at 19:17

Rinzwind

299,756

1

I don't think your last statement is correct. .* would get expanded by the shell. – hammar Aug 27 '11 at 22:11
1

I think it is likely to be correct but I removed it (not sure about it) :) – Rinzwind Aug 27 '11 at 22:22
this didn't work. The .svn-directories were added – Martin Thoma Aug 28 '11 at 09:13
1

@moose The exclude pattern matches the full path, not just the file base name, so you need to exclude */.* as well as .* (*/ matches any non-empty sequence of directories). – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' May 08 '14 at 17:21
This runs without changing anything! Best answer. – Whitecat Oct 07 '17 at 04:12

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited May 21 '14 at 17:34

12

Example for excluding all folders begining with . :

tar cvpzf folder.tgz folder/ --exclude '.*'

Better compress but slower :

tar cvpjf folder.tar.bz2 folder/ --exclude '.*'

edited May 21 '14 at 17:34

AzkerM

10,270
6
32
51

answered May 21 '14 at 16:51

Tigrouzen

119
1
4

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 01 '12 at 03:19

11

This one includes all "." directories, subdirectories, and "." files or directories within directories... Essentially the first answer but includes top level "." files.

find /full_path -path '*.*/.*' -prune -o -type f -print | zip ~/file.zip -@

answered Nov 01 '12 at 03:19

cosimnot

111

score 9 · Answer 6 · edited May 08 '14 at 16:54

9

The correct method would be:

zip -r zipfile.zip directory -x directory/.*

edited May 08 '14 at 16:54

jobin

27,708

answered May 08 '14 at 16:49

Rômulo Neves

97

@downvoter: What's wrong, this seems to be working for me. – jobin May 08 '14 at 16:55
Same problem as with Rinzwind's original answer (now corrected): you aren't excluding subdirectories. And as Rinzwind noted, you need to quote the wildcards, otherwise the shell will expand them. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' May 08 '14 at 17:25

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 08 '14 at 17:49

7

While zipping dirs excluding some file extension:

$ cd /path/to/dir
$ zip -r dir.zip . -x "*.log" -x "*.cache"

answered Dec 08 '14 at 17:49

Kerem

686
9
13

score 7 · Answer 8 · edited Aug 06 '20 at 09:54

7

Without hidden folders and files in directory:

zip -r zipfile.zip directory/*

directory:

|── .git
│   
├── src
│   └── Work.file
├── .test
│   └── .file
└── test.file

$ zip -r zipfile.zip directory/*
adding: directory/src/ (stored 0%)
adding: directory/src/Work.file (stored 0%)
adding: directory/test.file (stored 0%)

edited Aug 06 '20 at 09:54

Zanna

70,465

answered Feb 15 '17 at 08:45

User5678015

171

How can I create a zip archive of a whole directory via terminal without hidden files?

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