MAC OS ZIP FILE ZIP FILE

At it’s most basic usage, it requires no flags or anything fancy, just point it at a zip file and you’ll see a full list of the archives contents, the file size of each item within the archive, file count, total size of the zip, the read/write. The most informative for zips and perhaps the easiest to remember is the ‘zipinfo’ command.

MAC OS ZIP FILE ARCHIVE

How do I reduce file size on a Mac You dont have to pay for a file compressor to create a zip file or zip folder. Viewing Zip Archive Contents with zip info. This will compress the file or folders data and make it easier to share via email or other methods.

MAC OS ZIP FILE HOW TO

The backslash avoids the shell filename substitution, so that the name matching Heres how to create a zip file or zip folder on a Mac. Somewhere within the selected files, right-click, and then choose Compress. Highlight the selection to be compressed.

MAC OS ZIP FILE MAC OS

If youre using Mac OS X, the operating system compresses and decompresses zip files for you. Which will include the contents of foo in foo.zip while excluding all the files that end in. Zip is a standard compression and archival format. From the man-page: -x filesĮxplicitly exclude the specified files, as in: Let us know what other ways you use compression and password protection of your files on macOS in the comments.You can use the flags -0 (none) to -9 (best) to change compressionrateĮxcluding files can be done via the -x flag. This compression and password protection is agnostic to the desktop operating system so you can send it to Window users, Linux users and of course Mac users.

The file will be uncompressed into the same directory.

You can test the protection by double clicking the file.

You should now see your compressed and password protected zip file in Finder.

With no UI to speak of, the app works in the background and is fairly basic. Type in the password you want to use to protect the files. OS X comes with the aptly named Archive Utility that can be used to extract contents of compressed zip files, or create zipped archives of your own from your files and folders via the options provided in the right-click context menu. Next, you'll be prompted with a password prompt.

In my example that would be zip -er Mytaxes.zip ForTaxes/.

Now type in the command that will simultaneously compress and password protect the files in the form of zip -er FILENAME.zip FILESorFOLDERStoCOMPRESS.

Type in ls to make certain you see your folder.

For example, in my instance that would be to type cd /Volumes/dataMAC and hit enter.

Change your directory to the location of your folder.

Since Finder doesn't have a native password protection option, we'll have to go deeper under the skin of macOS and straight up a terminal window. You'll need another method to transfer your files such as via Dropbox.

Secondly, some companies disallow the reception of compressed files via e-mail due to people unknowingly opening malware and as such, your attachment may get stripped and the e-mail server. Note that if you are e-mailing files, most e-mail providers have a limit on attachment sizes.

Once you have your files in the generated folder, you can now go on to the business of compressing and password protecting the files.

Drag and drop your sensitive files into the new folder.

Rename the folder, preferably something without spaces as this will make terminal commands simpler for you.

Option-click the Finder window and create a New Folder. So if you have multiple files for compressing and protecting, you can organize them into a single folder using Finder. Since we'll be using the terminal application that is native on macOS, you'll want to make the compression of your files as simple as possible to avoid long strings of commands. If there was ever a time to vigilant with securing your private data, this would the moment! Here's how you can create a compressed zip file with your sensitive data and password protect it on natively macOS. Tax time is here and many of us will be sharing sensitive information from our financial institutions with our accountants.

Mac os zip file