How To Unzip A Zip File On Linux

Zip is one of the most popular ways to create compressed files. It is also one of the oldest compressed file formats. Since it is widely used, you will come across zip files often.

In a previous tutorial, I showed how to compress a file in Linux. In this article, we will learn how to unzip a zip file on Linux.

How to unzip a Zip File on Linux using Command line

Unzip is the command used to decompress zip files. Unzip is not installed by default in most Linux distributions, but you can easily install it through the package manager.

Install unzip on Ubuntu and Debian

sudo apt install unzip

Install unzip on CentOS and Fedora

sudo yum install unzip

How to extract files with unzip

Using the unzip command in Linux is very simple. In the directory where you contain the zip file, use the following command:

unzip file.zip

Unzip the zip file to another folder

To extract the ZIP file to a directory other than the current directory, use the -d option:

unzip filename.zip -d /path/to/directory

For example, to extract the WordPress latest.zip file to the /var/www/ directory, you would use the following command:

sudo unzip latest.zip -d /var/www

View the contents of the zip file instead of extracting it

You can check the contents of a zip file without extracting it with the -l option.

unzip -l file.zip

The displayed results have the form:

Archive:  file.zip

  Length      Date    Time    Name

---------  ---------- -----   ----

   154913  2020-04-13 11:55   house.jpg

      623  2020-04-23 14:56   java.log

---------                     -------

   155536                     2 files

Extract the zip file containing the password

To extract a password protected file, enter the zip command with the -P option followed by the password:

unzip -P PasswOrd filename.zip

Entering a password on the command line is not secure. So the safer way is that you will unzip the file normally without providing the password. If the ZIP file is encrypted, unzip will prompt you for a password:

unzip filename.zip

Output:

archive:  filename.zip

[filename.zip] file.txt password:

Extract multiple zip files simultaneously

You can use regular expressions to match multiple files at once.

For example, if you have a lot of ZIP files in the current working directory, you can extract all the files with just one command:

unzip '*.zip'

Note that you need parentheses around *.zip. Otherwise, you will get an error.

See more: How To Zip Files On Linux

How to decompress Zip File on Linux

You don’t need to use a terminal to extract files if you are using Linux Desktop. Here I am using Ubuntu 20.04 version, but this decompression process is similar to other Linux distributions.

Open the folder containing your zip file. Right-click on the file and select Extract Here.

Unlike the unzip command, the Extract Here option will create a folder with the same name as the archive and all the contents of the archives are contained within this newly created folder.

If you want to extract to a directory other than the current directory, select Extract to navigate to the directory you want.

If you want to preview the contents of the zip file, select Open With Archive Manager

In case the zip file has a password protected setting, you will need to open the zip file with Archive Manager as above then select Extract in the upper left corner, a window will appear asking you to enter the password:

It is done. You have successfully extracted the zip file in Linux. Hope this little tip will help you quickly extract zip files in Linux operating systems.