zipfile & tarfile in Python
The standard libraries zipfile & tarfile facilitate creating and manipulating zip & Unix tar archive files. The tarfile is not limited to Unix, it can be used in Windows also, and is capable of working with bzip2 & gzip files as well. In this article, we will see how to create archives, append to them, extract them with primitive examples. The idea is to get you started, and then you can search further on how to satisfy your requirements.
zipfile & tarfile
Creating new archives: zipfile.ZipFile().write() & tarfile.open().add()
The ZipFile class of zipfile module creates a ZipFile object, which provides us with write() method to create new archive files. The open() function of the tarfile module returns a TarFile object, which provides us with add() method to create archive files.
>>> import zipfile
>>> with zipfile.ZipFile('zipFileOne.zip', mode = 'w') as zF:
zF.write('fileOne.txt')
zF.write('fileTwo.txt')
>>> import tarfile
>>> with tarfile.open('tarFileOne.tar', mode = 'w') as tF:
tF.add('fileOne.txt')
tF.add('fileTwo.txt')
Appending to an archive
In order to append to existing archive files, change the mode in which you are opening archive files to 'a', signalling append mode, rather than 'w'.
>>> with zipfile.ZipFile('zipFileOne.zip', mode = 'a') as zF:
zF.write('fileThree.txt')
>>> with tarfile.open('tarFileOne.tar', mode = 'a') as tF:
tF.add('fileThree.txt')
Extracting archives: zipfile.ZipFile().extract(), zipfile.ZipFile().extractall() & tarfile.open().extract(), tarfile.open().extractall()
The ZipFile & TarFile objects provide two methods extract() and extractall() to extract contents from archive files. The extract() extracts the mentioned file from the archive whereas extractall() extracts all contents of the archive.
>>> with zipfile.ZipFile('zipFileOne.zip') as zF:
zF.extract('fileThree.txt') # returns 'complete_path_to_extracted_file'
>>> with zipfile.ZipFile('zipFileOne.zip') as zF:
zF.extractall()
>>> with tarfile.open('tarFileOne.tar') as tF:
tF.extract('fileThree.txt')
>>> with tarfile.open('tarFileOne.tar') as tF:
tF.extractall()
This article is hardly the complete guide to using zipfile & tarfile standard libraries. It is supposed to give you working snippets to manipulate archive files. For comprehensive examples, follow the links below.
Further Reading
- Python Documentation on zipfile
- Python Documentation on tarfile
- Comprehensive examples on zipfile
- Comprehensive examples on tarfile
See also:
- Python 101
- Object Oriented Python
- Design Patterns in Python
- 50+ Handy Standard Library Modules
- 60+ Handy Third Library Modules
- 50+ Tips & Tricks for Python Developers
- 50+ Know-How(s) Every Pythonista Must Know