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johnmsch's avatar
johnmsch
Copper Contributor
Nov 17, 2023

Compress-Archive Not Working?

I'm running Powershell version 5.1.17763.4974 on a server with Windows Server 2019 Datacenter v10. Been using PS for years but trying Compress-Archive for the first time. Tried building a script wh...
Compress-Archive
LainRobertson's avatar
LainRobertson
Silver Contributor
Nov 17, 2023

johnmsch 

 

Hi, John.

 

Have a look at examples four and five, as you've specified the format (i.e. *.*) that explicitly only adds files from d:\abc. Subfolders and files from those subfolders will not be added.

 

If there's files in d:\abc then something would appear to be wrong. If there's no files but there are subfolders then what you're observing is expected behaviour, and you should change *.* simply to *, as per example four.

 

 

Also note that Compress-Archive has limitations - when compared to the underlying .NET class upon which it's based, which I spoke to in another thread:

 

 

Cheers,

Lain

  • johnmsch's avatar
    johnmsch
    Copper Contributor
    Nov 17, 2023

    Thank you LainRobertson 

    I had read through that article and completely missed the obvious answer:
    This: Compress-Archive -Path 'D:\abc\' -DestinationPath 'D:\xyz\abc.zip'
    Instead of this: Compress-Archive -Path 'D:\abc\*.*' -DestinationPath 'D:\xyz\abc.zip'

    Is working perfectly.
    In fact, the folder D:\abc is indeed empty, but there are multiple folders on the next level.

     

    If I may, I have two more questions.
    I believe I read somewhere that using this compression method is limited to 2gb file sizes?
    Is there a way to remove files from a compressed file leaving everything else in tact?

    Thanks again for your quick answer and that excellent article!

     

    • LainRobertson's avatar
      LainRobertson
      Silver Contributor
      Nov 17, 2023

      johnmsch 

       

      Hey, John.

       

      Yes, you certainly can manipulate an archive, however, you have to do so from .NET. Here's a very basic example, which you can easily extend as it's a pretty simple set of classes to work with.

       

      Example

      # Add the required .NET library reference.
Add-Type -AssemblyName "System.IO.Compression.FileSystem";

# Open the Zip file.
$Archive = [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::Open("<full path to your Zip file>", [System.IO.Compression.ZipArchiveMode]::Update);

# Delete the first entry.
$Archive.Entries[0].Delete();

# Finish up properly by disposing the $Archive object.
$Archive.Dispose();

       

      In a real-world context, you'd most likely enumerate the Entries collection and make smarter decisions based on file size, type, etc.

       

      References

       

      Cheers,

      Lain

      • johnmsch's avatar
        johnmsch
        Copper Contributor
        Nov 18, 2023

        Thanks again for all you help LainRobertson 

        Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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