Getting Started with 7-Zip

Examples

Create a new zip (or add to an existing zip) called example1.zip, and add all local txt and csv files, and password protect with the password PASSWORD:

7za -pPASSWORD a example1.zip *.txt *.csv

• If you add a file that is already in the zip, it will replace the old one with the new one.
• Passwords are applied on a "per file" basis. So people without the password can inspect the files in the zip, but not the contents. I guess double-zipping would get around this.

Add all files to a new zip

(or add to an existing zip) including subfolders:

7za a example1.zip -r *

Nasty gotcha

• the wildcard * will match all files
• whereas *.* will only match files with an extension (i.e. it will not match files with no extension)

Unzip a .zip file to a folder

(they call it eXtract)

7z x "MyZip.zip" -oMyFolder

Help output

7-Zip (a) 19.00 (x86) : Copyright (c) 1999-2018 Igor Pavlov : 2019-02-21

Usage: 7za <command> [<switches>...] <archive_name> [<file_names>...] [@listfile]

<Commands>
  a : Add files to archive
  b : Benchmark
  d : Delete files from archive
  e : Extract files from archive (without using directory names)
  h : Calculate hash values for files
  i : Show information about supported formats
  l : List contents of archive
  rn : Rename files in archive
  t : Test integrity of archive
  u : Update files to archive
  x : eXtract files with full paths

<Switches>
  -- : Stop switches and @listfile parsing
  -ai[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : Include archives
  -ax[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : eXclude archives
  -ao{a|s|t|u} : set Overwrite mode
  -an : disable archive_name field
  -bb[0-3] : set output log level
  -bd : disable progress indicator
  -bs{o|e|p}{0|1|2} : set output stream for output/error/progress line
  -bt : show execution time statistics
  -i[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : Include filenames
  -m{Parameters} : set compression Method
	-mmt[N] : set number of CPU threads
	-mx[N] : set compression level: -mx1 (fastest) ... -mx9 (ultra)
  -o{Directory} : set Output directory
  -p{Password} : set Password
  -r[-|0] : Recurse subdirectories
  -sa{a|e|s} : set Archive name mode
  -scc{UTF-8|WIN|DOS} : set charset for console input/output
  -scs{UTF-8|UTF-16LE|UTF-16BE|WIN|DOS|{id}} : set charset for list files
  -scrc[CRC32|CRC64|SHA1|SHA256|*] : set hash function for x, e, h commands
  -sdel : delete files after compression
  -seml[.] : send archive by email
  -sfx[{name}] : Create SFX archive
  -si[{name}] : read data from stdin
  -slp : set Large Pages mode
  -slt : show technical information for l (List) command
  -snh : store hard links as links
  -snl : store symbolic links as links
  -sni : store NT security information
  -sns[-] : store NTFS alternate streams
  -so : write data to stdout
  -spd : disable wildcard matching for file names
  -spe : eliminate duplication of root folder for extract command
  -spf : use fully qualified file paths
  -ssc[-] : set sensitive case mode
  -sse : stop archive creating, if it can't open some input file
  -ssw : compress shared files
  -stl : set archive timestamp from the most recently modified file
  -stm{HexMask} : set CPU thread affinity mask (hexadecimal number)
  -stx{Type} : exclude archive type
  -t{Type} : Set type of archive
  -u[-][p#][q#][r#][x#][y#][z#][!newArchiveName] : Update options
  -v{Size}[b|k|m|g] : Create volumes
  -w[{path}] : assign Work directory. Empty path means a temporary directory
  -x[r[-|0]]{@listfile|!wildcard} : eXclude filenames
  -y : assume Yes on all queries