How to create a zip archive with PowerShell?

Is it possible to create a zip archive using PowerShell?

This is really obscure but works. **7za.exe** is standalone version of 7zip and is available with install package.

# get files to be send
$logFiles = Get-ChildItem C:\Logging\*.* -Include *.log | where {$_.Name -match $yesterday}

foreach ($logFile in $logFiles)
{
Write-Host ("Processing " + $logFile.FullName)

# compress file
& ./7za.exe a -mmt=off ($logFile.FullName + ".7z") $logFile.FullName

}

<!-- language-all: lang-csharp -->
I use this snippet to check my database backups folder for backup files not compressed yet, compress them using 7-Zip, and finally deleting the `*.bak` files to save some disk space.
Notice files are ordered by length (smallest to biggest) before compression to avoid some files not being compressed.

$bkdir = "E:\BackupsPWS"
$7Zip = 'C:\"Program Files"\7-Zip\7z.exe'

get-childitem -path $bkdir | Sort-Object length |
where
{
$_.extension -match ".(bak)" -and
-not (test-path ($_.fullname -replace "(bak)", "7z"))
} |
foreach
{
$zipfilename = ($_.fullname -replace "bak", "7z")
Invoke-Expression "$7Zip a $zipfilename $($_.FullName)"
}
get-childitem -path $bkdir |
where {
$_.extension -match ".(bak)" -and
(test-path ($_.fullname -replace "(bak)", "7z"))
} |
foreach { del $_.fullname }

Here you can check a [PowerShell script to backup, compress and transfer those files over FTP][1].


[1]:

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For compression, I would use a library (7-Zip is good like [Michal suggests](

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)).

If you install [7-Zip][1], the installed directory will contain `7z.exe` which is a console application.
You can invoke it directly and use any compression option you want.

If you wish to engage with the DLL, that should also be possible.
7-Zip is freeware and open source.


[1]:

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In case you have WinRAR installed:

function ZipUsingRar([String] $directory, [String] $zipFileName)
{
Write-Output "Performing operation ""Zip File"" on Target ""Item: $directory Destination:"
Write-Output ($zipFileName + """")
$pathToWinRar = "c:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRar.exe";
[Array]$arguments = "a", "-afzip", "-df", "-ep1", "$zipFileName", "$directory";
& $pathToWinRar $arguments;
}


The meaning of the arguments: afzip creates zip archive, df deletes files, ep1 does not create full directory path within archive

**Edit two** - This code is an ugly, ugly kluge from olden days. You do not want it.

<!-- language-all: lang-csharp -->
This compresses the contents of `.\in` to `.\out.zip` with System.IO.Packaging.ZipPackage following the example [here][1]

$zipArchive = $pwd.path + "\out.zip"
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("WindowsBase,Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35")
$ZipPackage=[System.IO.Packaging.ZipPackage]::Open($zipArchive,
[System.IO.FileMode]"OpenOrCreate", [System.IO.FileAccess]"ReadWrite")
$in = gci .\in | select -expand fullName
[array]$files = $in -replace "C:","" -replace "\\","/"
ForEach ($file In $files)
{
$partName=New-Object System.Uri($file, [System.UriKind]"Relative")
$part=$ZipPackage.CreatePart($partName, "application/zip",
[System.IO.Packaging.CompressionOption]"Maximum")
$bytes=[System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($file)
$stream=$part.GetStream()
$stream.Write($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)
$stream.Close()
}
$ZipPackage.Close()

**Edit:** [Unreliable][2] for larger files, maybe >10mb, YMMV. [Something][3] [to do][4] with appdomain evidence and isolated storage. The friendlier .NET 4.5 [approach][5] works nicely from PS v3, but wanted more memory in my case. To use .NET 4 from PS v2, config files need an [unsupported][6] [tweak][7].


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[2]:

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[3]:

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[5]:

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[6]:

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[7]:

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Install 7zip (or download the command line version instead) and use this PowerShell method:

<!-- language-all: lang-csharp -->

function create-7zip([String] $aDirectory, [String] $aZipfile){
[string]$pathToZipExe = "$($Env:ProgramFiles)\7-Zip\7z.exe";
[Array]$arguments = "a", "-tzip", "$aZipfile", "$aDirectory", "-r";
& $pathToZipExe $arguments;
}

You can the call it like this:

create-7zip "c:\temp\myFolder" "c:\temp\myFolder.zip"

<!-- language-all: lang-csharp -->

PowerShell v5.0 adds [`Compress-Archive`][1] and [`Expand-Archive`][2] cmdlets. The linked pages have full examples, but the gist of it is:

# Create a zip file with the contents of C:\Stuff\
Compress-Archive -Path C:\Stuff -DestinationPath archive.zip

# Add more files to the zip file
# (Existing files in the zip file with the same name are replaced)
Compress-Archive -Path C:\OtherStuff\*.txt -Update -DestinationPath archive.zip

# Extract the zip file to C:\Destination\
Expand-Archive -Path archive.zip -DestinationPath C:\Destination

[1]:

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[2]:

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If someone needs to zip a single file (and not a folder):

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[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
[ValidateScript({Test-Path -Path $_ -PathType Leaf})]
[string]$sourceFile,

[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
[ValidateScript({-not(Test-Path -Path $_ -PathType Leaf)})]
[string]$destinationFile
)

<#
.SYNOPSIS
Creates a ZIP file that contains the specified innput file.

.EXAMPLE
FileZipper -sourceFile c:\test\inputfile.txt
-destinationFile c:\test\outputFile.zip
#>

function New-Zip
{
param([string]$zipfilename)
set-content $zipfilename
("PK" + [char]5 + [char]6 + ("$([char]0)" * 18))
(dir $zipfilename).IsReadOnly = $false
}

function Add-Zip
{
param([string]$zipfilename)

if(-not (test-path($zipfilename)))
{
set-content $zipfilename
("PK" + [char]5 + [char]6 + ("$([char]0)" * 18))
(dir $zipfilename).IsReadOnly = $false

}

$shellApplication = new-object -com shell.application
$zipPackage = $shellApplication.NameSpace($zipfilename)


foreach($file in $input)
{
$zipPackage.CopyHere($file.FullName)
Start-sleep -milliseconds 500
}
}

dir $sourceFile | Add-Zip $destinationFile

Here is a slightly improved version of sonjz's answer,it adds an overwrite option.


function Zip-Files(
[Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipeline=$false)]
[string] $zipfilename,
[Parameter(Position=1, Mandatory=$true, ValueFromPipeline=$false)]
[string] $sourcedir,
[Parameter(Position=2, Mandatory=$false, ValueFromPipeline=$false)]
[bool] $overwrite)

{
Add-Type -Assembly System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
$compressionLevel = [System.IO.Compression.CompressionLevel]::Optimal

if ($overwrite -eq $true )
{
if (Test-Path $zipfilename)
{
Remove-Item $zipfilename
}
}

[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::CreateFromDirectory($sourcedir, $zipfilename, $compressionLevel, $false)
}