# Reading and writing Zip files

The ZipFile class lives in the System.IO.Compression namespace. It can be used to read from, and write to Zip files.

# Listing ZIP contents

This snippet will list all the filenames of a zip archive. The filenames are relative to the zip root.

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("archive.zip", FileMode.Open))
using (ZipArchive archive = new ZipArchive(fs, ZipArchiveMode.Read))
{
    for (int i = 0; i < archive.Entries.Count; i++)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"{i}: {archive.Entries[i]}");
    }
}

# Extracting files from ZIP files

Extracting all the files into a directory is very easy:

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("archive.zip", FileMode.Open))
using (ZipArchive archive = new ZipArchive(fs, ZipArchiveMode.Read))
{
    archive.ExtractToDirectory(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory);
}

When the file already exists, a System.IO.IOException will be thrown.

Extracting specific files:

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("archive.zip", FileMode.Open))
using (ZipArchive archive = new ZipArchive(fs, ZipArchiveMode.Read))
{
    // Get a root entry file
    archive.GetEntry("test.txt").ExtractToFile("test_extracted_getentries.txt", true);

    // Enter a path if you want to extract files from a subdirectory
    archive.GetEntry("sub/subtest.txt").ExtractToFile("test_sub.txt", true);

    // You can also use the Entries property to find files
    archive.Entries.FirstOrDefault(f => f.Name == "test.txt")?.ExtractToFile("test_extracted_linq.txt", true);

    // This will throw a System.ArgumentNullException because the file cannot be found
    archive.GetEntry("nonexistingfile.txt").ExtractToFile("fail.txt", true);
}

Any of these methods will produce the same result.

# Updating a ZIP file

To update a ZIP file, the file has to be opened with ZipArchiveMode.Update instead.

using (FileStream fs = new FileStream("archive.zip", FileMode.Open))
using (ZipArchive archive = new ZipArchive(fs, ZipArchiveMode.Update))
{
    // Add file to root
    archive.CreateEntryFromFile("test.txt", "test.txt");

    // Add file to subfolder
    archive.CreateEntryFromFile("test.txt", "symbols/test.txt");
}

There is also the option to write directly to a file within the archive:

var entry = archive.CreateEntry("createentry.txt");
using(var writer = new StreamWriter(entry.Open()))
{
    writer.WriteLine("Test line");
}

# Remarks

  • You can also use a MemoryStream instead of a FileStream.
  • Exceptions
  • Exception Condition
    ArgumentException The stream has already been closed, or the capabilities of the stream does not match the mode (eg: trying to write to a read only stream)
    ArgumentNullException input stream is null
    ArgumentOutOfRangeException mode has an invalid value
    InvalidDataException See list below

    When a InvalidDataException is thrown, it can have 3 causes:

    • The contents of the stream could not be interpreted as a zip archive
    • mode is Update and an entry is missing from the archive or is corrupt and cannot be read
    • mode is Update and an entry is too large to fit into memory

    All information has been taken from this MSDN page (opens new window)