How can I create a zip archive of a directory structure in Python?

As others have pointed out, you should use zipfile. The documentation tells you what functions are available, but doesn’t really explain how you can use them to zip an entire directory. I think it’s easiest to explain with some example code:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import zipfile

def zipdir(path, ziph):
    # ziph is zipfile handle
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
        for file in files:
            ziph.write(os.path.join(root, file))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    zipf = zipfile.ZipFile('Python.zip', 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
    zipdir('tmp/', zipf)
    zipf.close()

Adapted from: http://www.devshed.com/c/a/Python/Python-UnZipped/

The easiest way is to use shutil.make_archive. It supports both zip and tar formats.

import shutil
shutil.make_archive(output_filename, 'zip', dir_name)

If you need to do something more complicated than zipping the whole directory (such as skipping certain files), then you’ll need to dig into the zipfile module as others have suggested.

To add the contents of mydirectory to a new zip file, including all files and subdirectories:

import os
import zipfile

zf = zipfile.ZipFile("myzipfile.zip", "w")
for dirname, subdirs, files in os.walk("mydirectory"):
    zf.write(dirname)
    for filename in files:
        zf.write(os.path.join(dirname, filename))
zf.close()

How can I create a zip archive of a directory structure in Python?

In a Python script

In Python 2.7+, shutil has a make_archive function.

from shutil import make_archive
make_archive(
  'zipfile_name', 
  'zip',           # the archive format - or tar, bztar, gztar 
  root_dir=None,   # root for archive - current working dir if None
  base_dir=None)   # start archiving from here - cwd if None too

Here the zipped archive will be named zipfile_name.zip. If base_dir is farther down from root_dir it will exclude files not in the base_dir, but still archive the files in the parent dirs up to the root_dir.

I did have an issue testing this on Cygwin with 2.7 – it wants a root_dir argument, for cwd:

make_archive('zipfile_name', 'zip', root_dir='.')

Using Python from the shell

You can do this with Python from the shell also using the zipfile module:

$ python -m zipfile -c zipname sourcedir

Where zipname is the name of the destination file you want (add .zip if you want it, it won’t do it automatically) and sourcedir is the path to the directory.

Zipping up Python (or just don’t want parent dir):

If you’re trying to zip up a python package with a __init__.py and __main__.py, and you don’t want the parent dir, it’s

$ python -m zipfile -c zipname sourcedir/*

And

$ python zipname

would run the package. (Note that you can’t run subpackages as the entry point from a zipped archive.)

Zipping a Python app:

If you have python3.5+, and specifically want to zip up a Python package, use zipapp:

$ python -m zipapp myapp
$ python myapp.pyz

This function will recursively zip up a directory tree, compressing the files, and recording the correct relative filenames in the archive. The archive entries are the same as those generated by zip -r output.zip source_dir.

import os
import zipfile
def make_zipfile(output_filename, source_dir):
    relroot = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(source_dir, os.pardir))
    with zipfile.ZipFile(output_filename, "w", zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zip:
        for root, dirs, files in os.walk(source_dir):
            # add directory (needed for empty dirs)
            zip.write(root, os.path.relpath(root, relroot))
            for file in files:
                filename = os.path.join(root, file)
                if os.path.isfile(filename): # regular files only
                    arcname = os.path.join(os.path.relpath(root, relroot), file)
                    zip.write(filename, arcname)

Use shutil, which is part of python standard library set. Using shutil is so simple(see code below):

• 1st arg: Filename of resultant zip/tar file,
• 2nd arg: zip/tar,
• 3rd arg: dir_name

Code:

import shutil
shutil.make_archive('/home/user/Desktop/Filename','zip','/home/username/Desktop/Directory')

For adding compression to the resulting zip file, check out this link.

You need to change:

zip = zipfile.ZipFile('Python.zip', 'w')

to

zip = zipfile.ZipFile('Python.zip', 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)

I’ve made some changes to code given by Mark Byers. Below function will also adds empty directories if you have them. Examples should make it more clear what is the path added to the zip.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import zipfile

def addDirToZip(zipHandle, path, basePath=""):
    """
    Adding directory given by \a path to opened zip file \a zipHandle

    @param basePath path that will be removed from \a path when adding to archive

    Examples:
        # add whole "dir" to "test.zip" (when you open "test.zip" you will see only "dir")
        zipHandle = zipfile.ZipFile('test.zip', 'w')
        addDirToZip(zipHandle, 'dir')
        zipHandle.close()

        # add contents of "dir" to "test.zip" (when you open "test.zip" you will see only it's contents)
        zipHandle = zipfile.ZipFile('test.zip', 'w')
        addDirToZip(zipHandle, 'dir', 'dir')
        zipHandle.close()

        # add contents of "dir/subdir" to "test.zip" (when you open "test.zip" you will see only contents of "subdir")
        zipHandle = zipfile.ZipFile('test.zip', 'w')
        addDirToZip(zipHandle, 'dir/subdir', 'dir/subdir')
        zipHandle.close()

        # add whole "dir/subdir" to "test.zip" (when you open "test.zip" you will see only "subdir")
        zipHandle = zipfile.ZipFile('test.zip', 'w')
        addDirToZip(zipHandle, 'dir/subdir', 'dir')
        zipHandle.close()

        # add whole "dir/subdir" with full path to "test.zip" (when you open "test.zip" you will see only "dir" and inside it only "subdir")
        zipHandle = zipfile.ZipFile('test.zip', 'w')
        addDirToZip(zipHandle, 'dir/subdir')
        zipHandle.close()

        # add whole "dir" and "otherDir" (with full path) to "test.zip" (when you open "test.zip" you will see only "dir" and "otherDir")
        zipHandle = zipfile.ZipFile('test.zip', 'w')
        addDirToZip(zipHandle, 'dir')
        addDirToZip(zipHandle, 'otherDir')
        zipHandle.close()
    """
    basePath = basePath.rstrip("\\/") + ""
    basePath = basePath.rstrip("\\/")
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
        # add dir itself (needed for empty dirs
        zipHandle.write(os.path.join(root, "."))
        # add files
        for file in files:
            filePath = os.path.join(root, file)
            inZipPath = filePath.replace(basePath, "", 1).lstrip("\\/")
            #print filePath + " , " + inZipPath
            zipHandle.write(filePath, inZipPath)

Above is a simple function that should work for simple cases. You can find more elegant class in my Gist: https://gist.github.com/Eccenux/17526123107ca0ac28e6

Modern Python (3.6+) using the pathlib module for concise OOP-like handling of paths, and pathlib.Path.rglob() for recursive globbing. As far as I can tell, this is equivalent to George V. Reilly’s answer: zips with compression, the topmost element is a directory, keeps empty dirs, uses relative paths.

from pathlib import Path
from zipfile import ZIP_DEFLATED, ZipFile

from os import PathLike
from typing import Union


def zip_dir(zip_name: str, source_dir: Union[str, PathLike]):
    src_path = Path(source_dir).expanduser().resolve(strict=True)
    with ZipFile(zip_name, 'w', ZIP_DEFLATED) as zf:
        for file in src_path.rglob('*'):
            zf.write(file, file.relative_to(src_path.parent))

Note: as optional type hints indicate, zip_name can’t be a Path object (would be fixed in 3.6.2+).

I have another code example that may help, using python3, pathlib and zipfile. It should work in any OS.

from pathlib import Path
import zipfile
from datetime import datetime

DATE_FORMAT = '%y%m%d'


def date_str():
    """returns the today string year, month, day"""
    return '{}'.format(datetime.now().strftime(DATE_FORMAT))


def zip_name(path):
    """returns the zip filename as string"""
    cur_dir = Path(path).resolve()
    parent_dir = cur_dir.parents[0]
    zip_filename = '{}/{}_{}.zip'.format(parent_dir, cur_dir.name, date_str())
    p_zip = Path(zip_filename)
    n = 1
    while p_zip.exists():
        zip_filename = ('{}/{}_{}_{}.zip'.format(parent_dir, cur_dir.name,
                                             date_str(), n))
        p_zip = Path(zip_filename)
        n += 1
    return zip_filename


def all_files(path):
    """iterator returns all files and folders from path as absolute path string
    """
    for child in Path(path).iterdir():
        yield str(child)
        if child.is_dir():
            for grand_child in all_files(str(child)):
                yield str(Path(grand_child))


def zip_dir(path):
    """generate a zip"""
    zip_filename = zip_name(path)
    zip_file = zipfile.ZipFile(zip_filename, 'w')
    print('create:', zip_filename)
    for file in all_files(path):
        print('adding... ', file)
        zip_file.write(file)
    zip_file.close()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    zip_dir('.')
    print('end!')

You probably want to look at the zipfile module; there’s documentation at http://docs.python.org/library/zipfile.html.

You may also want os.walk() to index the directory structure.

Here is a variation on the answer given by Nux that works for me:

def WriteDirectoryToZipFile( zipHandle, srcPath, zipLocalPath = "", zipOperation = zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED ):
    basePath = os.path.split( srcPath )[ 0 ]
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk( srcPath ):
        p = os.path.join( zipLocalPath, root [ ( len( basePath ) + 1 ) : ] )
        # add dir
        zipHandle.write( root, p, zipOperation )
        # add files
        for f in files:
            filePath = os.path.join( root, f )
            fileInZipPath = os.path.join( p, f )
            zipHandle.write( filePath, fileInZipPath, zipOperation )

Try the below one .it worked for me.

import zipfile, os
zipf = "compress.zip"  
def main():
    directory = r"Filepath"
    toZip(directory)
def toZip(directory):
    zippedHelp = zipfile.ZipFile(zipf, "w", compression=zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED )

    list = os.listdir(directory)
    for file_list in list:
        file_name = os.path.join(directory,file_list)

        if os.path.isfile(file_name):
            print file_name
            zippedHelp.write(file_name)
        else:
            addFolderToZip(zippedHelp,file_list,directory)
            print "---------------Directory Found-----------------------"
    zippedHelp.close()

def addFolderToZip(zippedHelp,folder,directory):
    path=os.path.join(directory,folder)
    print path
    file_list=os.listdir(path)
    for file_name in file_list:
        file_path=os.path.join(path,file_name)
        if os.path.isfile(file_path):
            zippedHelp.write(file_path)
        elif os.path.isdir(file_name):
            print "------------------sub directory found--------------------"
            addFolderToZip(zippedHelp,file_name,path)


if __name__=="__main__":
    main()

If you want a functionality like the compress folder of any common graphical file manager you can use the following code, it uses the zipfile module. Using this code you will have the zip file with the path as its root folder.

import os
import zipfile

def zipdir(path, ziph):
    # Iterate all the directories and files
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
        # Create a prefix variable with the folder structure inside the path folder. 
        # So if a file is at the path directory will be at the root directory of the zip file
        # so the prefix will be empty. If the file belongs to a containing folder of path folder 
        # then the prefix will be that folder.
        if root.replace(path,'') == '':
                prefix = ''
        else:
                # Keep the folder structure after the path folder, append a '/' at the end 
                # and remome the first character, if it is a '/' in order to have a path like 
                # folder1/folder2/file.txt
                prefix = root.replace(path, '') + '/'
                if (prefix[0] == '/'):
                        prefix = prefix[1:]
        for filename in files:
                actual_file_path = root + '/' + filename
                zipped_file_path = prefix + filename
                zipf.write( actual_file_path, zipped_file_path)


zipf = zipfile.ZipFile('Python.zip', 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
zipdir('/tmp/justtest/', zipf)
zipf.close()