archiver

What is archiver?

The archiver npm package is a streaming interface for archive generation, allowing users to create and manage different types of compressed files programmatically. It supports formats like ZIP and TAR and can be used for tasks such as creating backups, delivering files in a compressed format, or bundling project assets.

What are archiver's main functionalities?

Creating ZIP archives

This code demonstrates how to create a ZIP file named 'example.zip' with a single file 'file.txt' included. It sets the compression level to 9 using zlib.

const fs = require('fs');
const archiver = require('archiver');

const output = fs.createWriteStream('example.zip');
const archive = archiver('zip', { zlib: { level: 9 } });

output.on('close', function() {
  console.log(`Archive size: ${archive.pointer()} bytes`);
});

archive.pipe(output);
archive.append(fs.createReadStream('file.txt'), { name: 'file.txt' });
archive.finalize();

Creating TAR archives

This code snippet shows how to create a TAR file named 'example.tar' with gzip compression, including the file 'file.txt'.

const fs = require('fs');
const archiver = require('archiver');

const output = fs.createWriteStream('example.tar');
const archive = archiver('tar', { gzip: true });

output.on('close', function() {
  console.log(`Archive size: ${archive.pointer()} bytes`);
});

archive.pipe(output);
archive.append(fs.createReadStream('file.txt'), { name: 'file.txt' });
archive.finalize();

Appending multiple files and directories

This example demonstrates how to append multiple files and directories to a ZIP archive. It includes a single file, a directory, and all JavaScript files in the current directory using a glob pattern.

const fs = require('fs');
const archiver = require('archiver');

const output = fs.createWriteStream('example.zip');
const archive = archiver('zip');

archive.pipe(output);
archive.file('file1.txt', { name: 'file1.txt' });
archive.directory('subdir/', 'new-subdir');
archive.glob('*.js');
archive.finalize();

Other packages similar to archiver

jszip

JSZip is a JavaScript library for creating, reading, and editing .zip files. It works in many environments including the browser and Node.js. Compared to archiver, JSZip provides a more comprehensive API for manipulating ZIP files, including reading and editing existing archives, but it may not be as streamlined for simply generating archives.

tar

The tar npm package provides the ability to create and extract .tar files. It is similar to archiver's TAR functionality but is more focused and does not support ZIP files. It is a good choice if you only need to work with TAR files.

compressing

Compressing is a node module that supports both tar and zip formats for compression and decompression. It offers a similar feature set to archiver but with a different API design. It might be used as an alternative if the API design aligns better with a developer's needs.

README

Archiver

Creates Archives (ZIP) via Node Streams. Depends on Node's build-in zlib module for compression available since version 0.6.3.

Install

npm install archiver

You can also use npm install archiver@devel to test upcoming versions.

API

createZip(options)

Creates an Archiver ZIP object. Options are passed to zlib.

archive.addFile(inputStream, options, callback)

Adds a file to the Archiver stream. At this moment, options must contain name. If the store option is set to true, the file will be added uncompressed.

archive.finalize(callback(written))

Finalizes the Archiver stream. When everything is done, callback is called with the total number of bytes in the archive.

Example

var fs = require('fs');

var archiver = require('archiver');

var out = fs.createWriteStream('out.zip');
var zip = archiver.createZip({ level: 1 });

zip.pipe(out);

zip.addFile(fs.createReadStream('file1.js'), { name: 'file1.js' }, function() {
  zip.addFile(fs.createReadStream('file2.js'), { name: 'file2.js' }, function() {
    zip.finalize(function(written) { console.log(written + ' total bytes written'); });
  });
});

Contributing

see CONTRIBUTING

Changelog

see CHANGELOG

Credits

Originally inspired by Antoine van Wel's node-zipstream.