August 10, 2020
2min Read
Domantas G.
In this article, we are going to show you how to zip and unzip via SSH. You will learn about the compression and extraction methods on your server for better archive management.
Compressing and extracting files is not only common on desktop computers. You may need to do the same things on your VPS. Zipping and unzipping files make it easy for you to download and move data around.
To perform these actions, you need to run a specific command through the SSH (Secure Shell) protocol on your server.
This process requires you to use an SSH client — like PuTTY (Windows) or terminal shell (macOS & Linux) — to access your server. If you’re a VPS owner at Hostinger, you can get the login credential in the Servers tab of the hPanel. You don’t know how to establish the connection? Our SSH tutorial can help you.
Without further delay, let’s learn how to zip and unzip via SSH.
We will cover the compression and extraction method of popular archive formats, including .tar.gz, .tar, .zip, and .rar.
tar -czvf archive-name.tar.gz your-file.text your-file.php your-file.html
If you intend to compress an entire directory, use the following method.
Don’t forget to replace “archive-name” and “your-file” with your actual file names and directories. Also, you are not limited to file formats that are used in this example.
tar -czvf archive-name.tar.gz /Directory-Name
tar -zxvf archive-name.tar.gz
tar -zcf archive-name.tar your-file.php your-file.php your-file.html
Enter the following line to move the whole directory to a .tar file:
tar -zcf archive-name.tar.gz /directory-name
tar -xvf archive-name.tar
zip archive-name.zip your-file.php your-file.php your-file.php
In order to compress a directory, use this syntax:
zip -r archive-name.zip /directory-name
unzip archive-name.zip
rar a archive-name.rar your-file.txt your-file.php your-file.html
To put an entire folder into one .rar archive, you should use this syntax.
rar a archive-name.rar /directory-name
unrar x archive-name.rar
After you decompress any archive format, the script will output a list of all the extracted files, like this:
Congratulations! Now you know how to zip and unzip through SSH for easier file management.
There are many archive formats available, and you can choose the ones that suit you best. Keep in mind that .tar and .tar.gz formats use a similar command (tar) while .zip and .rar archives have their own (zip and rar respectively).
Therefore, make sure that you enter the appropriate line for the desired file format.
Let us know in the comments if you have any questions!
September 12 2020
How can I compress over 40 GB data on server?
Tomislav T.
Replied on November 11 2020
Hey there! The methods listed in the guides will work if your data is over 40GB too.