Python: How to create a zip archive from multiple files or Directory

In this article we will discuss how to create a zip archive from selected files or files from a directory based on filters.

Python’s zipfile module provides a ZipFile class for zip file related stuff. Let’s use this to create a zip archive file.

First import the class from module i.e.

from zipfile import ZipFile

Create a zip archive from multiple files in Python

Steps  are,

• Create a ZipFile  object by passing the new file name and mode as ‘w’ (write mode). It will create a new zip file and open it within ZipFile object.
• Call write() function on ZipFile object to add the files in it.
• call close() on ZipFile object to Close the zip file.

# create a ZipFile object
zipObj = ZipFile('sample.zip', 'w')

# Add multiple files to the zip
zipObj.write('sample_file.csv')
zipObj.write('test_1.log')
zipObj.write('test_2.log')

# close the Zip File
zipObj.close()

It will create a zip file ‘sample.zip’  with given files inside it.
We can do the same thing with “with open” . It will automatically close the zip file when ZipFile object goes out of scope i.e.

# Create a ZipFile Object
with ZipFile('sample2.zip', 'w') as zipObj2:
   # Add multiple files to the zip
   zipObj2.write('sample_file.csv')
   zipObj2.write('test_1.log')
   zipObj2.write('test_2.log')

Create a zip archive of a directory

To zip all the contents of a directory in a zip archive, we need to iterate over all the files in directory and it’s sub directories, then add each entry to the zip file using ZipFile.write()

from zipfile import ZipFile
import os
from os.path import basename

# create a ZipFile object
with ZipFile('sampleDir.zip', 'w') as zipObj:
   # Iterate over all the files in directory
   for folderName, subfolders, filenames in os.walk(dirName):
       for filename in filenames:
           #create complete filepath of file in directory
           filePath = os.path.join(folderName, filename)
           # Add file to zip
           zipObj.write(filePath, basename(filePath))

It will zip all the contents of a directory in to a single zip file i..e ‘sampleDir.zip’. It’s contents will be,

sampleDir/sample_file.csv                      2018-11-30 21:44:46         2829
sampleDir/logs/test_1.log                      2018-11-30 21:44:36         3386
sampleDir/logs/test_2.log                      2018-11-30 21:44:56         3552

Zip selected files from a directory based on filter or wildcards

To zip selected files from a directory we need to check the condition on each file path while iteration before adding it to zip file.

Let’s create function that Iterates over a directory and filter the contents with given callback. Files which pass the filter will only be added in zip i.e.

from zipfile import ZipFile
import os
from os.path import basename

# Zip the files from given directory that matches the filter
def zipFilesInDir(dirName, zipFileName, filter):
   # create a ZipFile object
   with ZipFile(zipFileName, 'w') as zipObj:
       # Iterate over all the files in directory
       for folderName, subfolders, filenames in os.walk(dirName):
           for filename in filenames:
               if filter(filename):
                   # create complete filepath of file in directory
                   filePath = os.path.join(folderName, filename)
                   # Add file to zip
                   zipObj.write(filePath, basename(filePath))

Let’s zip only csv files from a directory i.e. pass a lambda function as argument in it.

zipFilesInDir('sampleDir', 'sampleDir2.zip', lambda name : 'csv' in name)

It will create a zip archive ‘sampleDir2.zip’ with all csv files from given directory.

Complete example is as follows:

from zipfile import ZipFile
import os
from os.path import basename

# Zip the files from given directory that matches the filter
def zipFilesInDir(dirName, zipFileName, filter):
   # create a ZipFile object
   with ZipFile(zipFileName, 'w') as zipObj:
       # Iterate over all the files in directory
       for folderName, subfolders, filenames in os.walk(dirName):
           for filename in filenames:
               if filter(filename):
                   # create complete filepath of file in directory
                   filePath = os.path.join(folderName, filename)
                   # Add file to zip
                   zipObj.write(filePath, basename(filePath))

def main():

    print('*** Create a zip file from multiple files  ')

    #create a ZipFile object
    zipObj = ZipFile('sample.zip', 'w')

    # Add multiple files to the zip
    zipObj.write('sample_file.csv')
    zipObj.write('test_1.log')
    zipObj.write('test_2.log')

    # close the Zip File
    zipObj.close()

    print('*** Create a zip file from multiple files using with ')

    # Create a ZipFile Object
    with ZipFile('sample2.zip', 'w') as zipObj2:
       # Add multiple files to the zip
       zipObj2.write('sample_file.csv')
       zipObj2.write('test_1.log')
       zipObj2.write('test_2.log')

    # Name of the Directory to be zipped
    dirName = 'sampleDir'

    # create a ZipFile object
    with ZipFile('sampleDir.zip', 'w') as zipObj:
       # Iterate over all the files in directory
       for folderName, subfolders, filenames in os.walk(dirName):
           for filename in filenames:
               #create complete filepath of file in directory
               filePath = os.path.join(folderName, filename)
               # Add file to zip
               zipObj.write(filePath)

    print('*** Create a zip archive of only csv files form a directory ***')

    zipFilesInDir('sampleDir', 'sampleDir2.zip', lambda name : 'csv' in name)


if __name__ == '__main__':
   main()