bestzip

What is bestzip?

The bestzip npm package is a simple utility for creating zip files. It allows you to zip files and directories with ease, making it useful for packaging and distributing files.

What are bestzip's main functionalities?

Zip a single file

This feature allows you to zip a single file into an archive. The code sample demonstrates how to zip 'file.txt' into 'archive.zip'.

const bestzip = require('bestzip');
bestzip({ source: 'file.txt', destination: 'archive.zip' })
  .then(() => {
    console.log('File zipped successfully!');
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error(err.stack);
  });

Zip multiple files

This feature allows you to zip multiple files into a single archive. The code sample demonstrates how to zip 'file1.txt' and 'file2.txt' into 'archive.zip'.

const bestzip = require('bestzip');
bestzip({ source: ['file1.txt', 'file2.txt'], destination: 'archive.zip' })
  .then(() => {
    console.log('Files zipped successfully!');
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error(err.stack);
  });

Zip a directory

This feature allows you to zip an entire directory. The code sample demonstrates how to zip the contents of 'myDirectory' into 'archive.zip'.

const bestzip = require('bestzip');
bestzip({ source: 'myDirectory', destination: 'archive.zip' })
  .then(() => {
    console.log('Directory zipped successfully!');
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error(err.stack);
  });

Other packages similar to bestzip

archiver

The archiver package is a versatile library for creating zip and tar archives. It offers more advanced features compared to bestzip, such as support for multiple archive formats and streaming capabilities.

adm-zip

The adm-zip package is another popular library for handling zip files. It provides a wide range of functionalities, including reading and extracting zip files, which bestzip does not support.

node-zip

The node-zip package is a simple library for creating zip files. It is similar to bestzip in terms of simplicity but offers fewer features and less flexibility.

README

bestzip

This module provides a bestzip command that calls the native zip command if available and otherwise falls back to a Node.js implementation.

The --recurse-directories (-r) option is automatically enabled.

Why?

The native zip command on GNU/Linux and macOS is significantly faster and creates moderately smaller .zip files than the Node.js version included here, but Windows has no built-in zip command. This module provides the best of both worlds, and allows for easier cross-platform scripting.

Global command line usage

npm install -g bestzip
bestzip destination.zip source/ [other sources...]

Command line usage within package.json scripts

npm install --save-dev bestzip

package.json:

{
    //...
    "scripts": {
        "build" "...",
        "zip": "bestzip bundle.zip build/*",
        "upload": "....",
        "deploy": "npm run build && npm run zip && npm run upload"
    }
}

Programmatic usage from within Node.js

var zip = require('bestzip');

zip({
  source: 'build/*',
  destination: './destination.zip'
}).then(function() {
  console.log('all done!');
}).catch(function(err) {
  console.error(err.stack);
  process.exit(1);
});

// v1.x API also works for backwards compatibility: zip(destination, sources, callback)

Options

• source: Path or paths to files and folders to include in the zip file. String or Array of Strings.
• destination: Path to generated .zip file.
• cwd: Set the Current Working Directory that source and destination paths are relative to. Defaults to process.cwd()

How to control the directory structure

The directory structure in the .zip is going to match your input files, but the exact details depend on how the command is called. For example:

bestzip build.zip build/*

This includes the build/ folder inside of the .zip

Alternatively:

cd build/ && bestzip ../build.zip *

This will not include the build/ folder, it's contents will be top-level.

Note: some tools, including the Archive Utility built into macOS, will automatically create a top-level folder to group everything together when extracting a .zip archive that contains multiple top-level files.

When using the programmatic API, the same effect may be achieved by passing in the cwd option.

.dotfiles

Wildcards (*) ignore dotfiles.

• To include a dotfile, either include the directory it's in (folder/) or include it by name (folder/.dotfile)
• To omit dotfiles, either use a wildcard (folder/*) or explicitly list the desired files (folder/file1.txt folder/file2.txt)

Breaking changes for v2

• bestzip output.zip foo/bar/file.txt now includes the foo/bar/ folders, previously it would place file.txt at the top-level
  • This was done to more closely align with the native zip command