How to zip files without including the folder they are in?

Question

I am trying to use zipfile to zip several files together into a single .zip file. The files I need to zip are not in the root folder from which the python script runs, so i have to specify the path when adding a file to the zip. The problem is that I end up with a folder structure in the zip file, i really only want each file and not the folders. so..

zip = zipfile.ZipFile('./tmp/afile.zip', 'w')
zip.write('./tmp/file1.txt')
zip.write('./tmp/items/file2.txt')

results in a zip files that extracts to:

.
|
|-tmp
|  |file.txt
|  |-items
|  |  file2.txt

Is there any way to just add the files to the "root" of the zip file and not creature the folders?

I think this problem was already on Stackoverflow. If I'm not wrong then you can use `zip.write(filename_to_compress, expected_name_in_zip)` — furas, May 05 '21 at 21:49
@furas if the problem is already on stack, flag this as a duplicate in reference to that question. — Libra, May 05 '21 at 21:50
@Laif first I would have to find previous question - I only remeber that I answered it long, long time ago — furas, May 05 '21 at 21:52
Does this answer your question? [ZIp only contents of directory, exclude parent - Python](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42055873/zip-only-contents-of-directory-exclude-parent-python) — Libra, May 05 '21 at 21:53
@Laif it was long, long time ago - I don't find it on first page but rather on 20, 30 or maybe 50 — furas, May 05 '21 at 21:53
@furas good decision to close, mind if I add my answer to yours to show the usage with pathlib? — Umar.H, May 05 '21 at 21:56
@Laif I expected it was much older question :) If you have intersting answer then add it. — furas, May 05 '21 at 21:57
@furas You had the answer, this question is a duplicate so nobody should answer it — Libra, May 05 '21 at 21:58
@furas this works, thanks. - zip.write(filename_to_compress, expected_name_in_zip) — Seth.Beauchamp, May 05 '21 at 22:06

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 05 '21 at 21:53

try with Pathlib which returns a posix object with various attributes.

Also I would caution you about using zip as a variable as that's a key function in python

from pathlib import Path
from zipfile import ZipFile

zipper = ZipFile('afile.zip', 'w')

files = Path(root).rglob('*.txt') #get all files.
for file in files:
    zipper.write(file,file.name)

How to zip files without including the folder they are in?

1 Answers1