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unzip – Used to Decompress Archives Compressed by the Zip Command

The unzip command is used to decompress archives that have been compressed using the zip command. The unzip command extracts the files and directories from the compressed archive and stores them in the current directory or in a specified directory.

Overview

The basic syntax for the unzip command is as follows:

unzip [options] zipfile

Here, zipfile is the name of the archive to be extracted. If the archive is not in the current directory, the full path to the archive must be specified.

To extract all files from the archive, simply run the command with the archive name:

unzip archive.zip

To extract specific files or directories from the archive, specify their names after the archive name:

unzip archive.zip file1 file2 dir1

By default, unzip extracts the files and directories into the current directory. To extract them into a specific directory, use the -d option followed by the target directory:

unzip archive.zip -d /path/to/target/directory

If the archive contains files with the same name as existing files in the target directory, unzip will prompt for confirmation before overwriting them. To automatically overwrite existing files without prompting, use the -o option:

unzip -o archive.zip

Options

The following table lists all available options for the unzip command:

Option Description
-c Extract files to standard output
-d directory Extract files into the specified directory
-f Freshen existing files, i.e. extract only files that are newer than existing ones
-j Junk paths, i.e. extract files without creating directories
-l List contents of archive
-n Never overwrite existing files
-o Overwrite existing files without prompting
-q Quiet mode, i.e. suppress all messages
-t Test archive for integrity
-u Update existing files, i.e. extract only files that are newer than existing ones
-v Verbose mode, i.e. display detailed information about extracted files
-x Exclude files that match the specified patterns

Troubleshooting Tips

  • If you receive an error message stating that the archive is not a valid zip archive, ensure that the archive was compressed using the zip command and that it is not corrupted.
  • If you receive an error message stating that the archive is password-protected, use the -P option followed by the password to extract the archive.
  • If you receive an error message stating that there is not enough disk space to extract the archive, free up disk space or extract the archive to a different location with more available space.

Notes

  • The unzip command can extract archives in various formats, including ZIP, GZIP, and TAR. However, it cannot extract archives that have been compressed using other compression algorithms, such as RAR or 7-Zip.
  • The unzip command is included in most Linux distributions by default. If it is not installed on your system, you can install it using your distribution’s package manager.

Related commands