zip – Python: How to use shutil.make_archive?

zip – Python: How to use shutil.make_archive?

I ran into this same issue and found the docs for shutil.make_archive very dense and counter intuitive.

I eventually got it and wrote a function to help me out because I could never get it right the first time.

import os, shutil
def make_archive(source, destination):
        base = os.path.basename(destination)
        name = base.split(.)[0]
        format = base.split(.)[1]
        archive_from = os.path.dirname(source)
        archive_to = os.path.basename(source.strip(os.sep))
        shutil.make_archive(name, format, archive_from, archive_to)
        shutil.move(%s.%s%(name,format), destination)

make_archive(/path/to/folder, /path/to/folder.zip)

Hope it helps.. I also have a blog post about it here

http://www.seanbehan.com/how-to-use-python-shutil-make_archive-to-zip-up-a-directory-recursively-including-the-root-folder/

The docs are not worded helpfully. If we go from the usage shutil.make_archive(base_name, format[, root_dir[, base_dir[, verbose[, dry_run[, owner[, group[, logger]]]]]]])

• base_name is the path where you want to archive to be created, including the filename, but not including the extension
• format, as you figured out, is the type of archive you want to create

You might have noticed that everything else is optional. With just those two parameters, the function will create an archive of your current working directory. Thats not what you want, so lets check out the next two parameters:

• root_dir is the directory from which you want to create an archive
• base_dir is a way to filter the contents of root_dir. if you set base_dir, your archive will contain the parent directories of base_dir going up to root_dir, but all other contents of those parent directories will not be present. Only base_dir and its children will contain all their contents.

Since youre just trying to archive your directory as is, you dont need base_dir. So I would just amend your original call to:

import os
#...
make_archive(os.path.join(folderpath_archive, filename), zip, folderpath_to_zip_up)

zip – Python: How to use shutil.make_archive?