zip and unzip in Linux CLI - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Zip and Unzip Files Using Linux CLI

📖 Scenario: You have a folder with several text files. You want to compress these files into a single zip archive to save space and share easily. Later, you want to extract the files from the zip archive to access them again.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use the zip command to compress files into a zip archive and the unzip command to extract files from the archive using Linux command line.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the zip command to create a zip archive

Use the unzip command to extract files from the archive

Work with exact file names and archive names as specified

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Compressing files saves disk space and makes it easier to share multiple files as one package.

💼 Career

Many IT and scripting jobs require managing file archives efficiently using command line tools.

1

Create sample text files

Create three text files named file1.txt, file2.txt, and file3.txt with any content using the echo command.

Linux CLI

# Create three text files named file1.txt, file2.txt, and file3.txt
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "text" > filename to create a file with text content.

2

Set the zip archive name

Create a variable called archive_name and set it to my_files.zip.

Linux CLI

echo "Hello from file1" > file1.txt
echo "Hello from file2" > file2.txt
echo "Hello from file3" > file3.txt

# Create a variable archive_name and set it to my_files.zip
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the string my_files.zip to the variable archive_name without spaces around the equals sign.

3

Create a zip archive with the files

Use the zip command with the variable archive_name to compress file1.txt, file2.txt, and file3.txt into the zip archive.

Linux CLI

echo "Hello from file1" > file1.txt
echo "Hello from file2" > file2.txt
echo "Hello from file3" > file3.txt
archive_name=my_files.zip

# Use zip command with archive_name to compress the three files
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use zip "$archive_name" file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt to create the archive.

4

Extract files from the zip archive

Use the unzip command with the variable archive_name to extract the files from the zip archive.

Linux CLI

echo "Hello from file1" > file1.txt
echo "Hello from file2" > file2.txt
echo "Hello from file3" > file3.txt
archive_name=my_files.zip
zip "$archive_name" file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

# Use unzip command with archive_name to extract the files
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use unzip "$archive_name" to extract the files.