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Archive Module

The Archive module Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive provides functions for storing files in ZIP archives (Compress-Archive) and extracting them (Expand-Archive). This module is available in PowerShell 5.0 and above.

In earlier versions of PowerShell the Community Extensions or .NET System.IO.Compression.FileSystem could be used.

Compress-Archive with wildcard

Section titled “Compress-Archive with wildcard”
Terminal window
Compress-Archive -Path C:\Documents\* -CompressionLevel Optimal -DestinationPath C:\Archives\Documents.zip

This command:

  • Compresses all files in C:\Documents
  • Uses Optimal compression
  • Save the resulting archive in `C:\Archives\Documents.zip`
      - `-DestinationPath` will add `.zip`if not present. - `-LiteralPath` can be used if you require naming it without `.zip`.

      Update existing ZIP with Compress-Archive

      Section titled “Update existing ZIP with Compress-Archive”
      Terminal window
      Compress-Archive -Path C:\Documents\* -Update -DestinationPath C:\Archives\Documents.zip
      • this will add or replace all files Documents.zip with the new ones from C:\Documents

      Extract a Zip with Expand-Archive

      Section titled “Extract a Zip with Expand-Archive”
      Terminal window
      Expand-Archive -Path C:\Archives\Documents.zip -DestinationPath C:\Documents
      • this will extract all files from Documents.zip into the folder C:\Documents

      Syntax

      Section titled “Syntax”
      • Expand-Archive / Compress-Archive
    • **-Path**
    • the path of the file(s) to compress (Compress-Archive) or the path of the archive to extract the file(s) form (Expand-Archive)
      • - there are several other Path related options, please see below.
      • if you do not supply this path, the archive will be created in the current working directory (Compress-Archive) or the contents of the archive will be extracted into the current working directory (Expand-Archive)

      Parameters

      Section titled “Parameters”

      |Parameter|Details |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|--- |CompressionLevel|(Compress-Archive only) Set compression level to either Fastest, Optimal or NoCompression |Confirm|Prompts for confirmation before running |Force|Forces the command to run without confirmation |LiteralPath|Path that is used literaly, no wildcards supported, use , to specify multiple paths |Path|Path that can contain wildcards, use , to specify multiple paths |Update|(Compress-Archive only) Update existing archive |WhatIf|Simulate the command

      Remarks

      Section titled “Remarks”

      See MSDN Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive (5.1) for further reference