Mac zip compress without MACOSX folder

Question

When I compress files with the built in zip compressor in Mac OSX  it results in an extra folder titled    MACOSX  created in the extracted zip   Can I adjust my settings to keep this folder from being created or do I need to purchase a third party compression tool   UPDATE  I just found a freeware app for OSX that solves my problem   YemuZip   UPDATE 2  YemuZip is no longer freeware

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Can be fixed after the fact by zip -d filename zip   MACOSX

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The zip command line utility never creates a   MACOSX directory  so you can just run a command like this   zip directory zip -x    DS Store -r directory   In the output below  a zip which I created with the zip command line utility does not contain a   MACOSX directory  but a 2 zip which I created from Finder does     touch a   xattr -w somekey somevalue a   zip a zip a   adding  a  stored 0     unzip -l a zip Archive   a zip   Length     Date   Time    Name  --------    ----   ----    ----         0  01-02-16 20 29   a  --------                   -------         0                   1 file   unzip -l a  2 zip   I created  a 2 zip  from Finder before this Archive   a 2 zip   Length     Date   Time    Name  --------    ----   ----    ----         0  01-02-16 20 29   a         0  01-02-16 20 31     MACOSX        149  01-02-16 20 29     MACOSX   a  --------                   -------       149                   3 files   -x  DS Store does not exclude  DS Store files inside directories but -x    DS Store does   The top level file of a zip archive with multiple files should usually be a single directory  because if it is not  some unarchiving utilites  like unzip and 7z  but not Archive Utility  The Unarchiver  unar  or dtrx  do not create a containing directory for the files when the archive is extracted  which often makes the files difficult to find  and if multiple archives like that are extracted at the same time  it can be difficult to tell which files belong to which archive   Archive Utility only creates a   MACOSX directory when you create an archive where at least one file contains metadata such as extended attributes  file flags  or a resource fork  The   MACOSX directory contains AppleDouble files whose filename starts with    that are used to store OS X-specific metadata  The zip command line utility discards metadata such as extended attributes  file flags  and resource forks  which also means that metadata such as tags is lost  and that aliases stop working  because the information in an alias file is stored in a resource fork   Normally you can just discard the OS X-specific metadata  but to see what metadata files contain  you can use xattr -l  xattr also includes resource forks and file flags  because even though they are not actually stored as extended attributes  they can be accessed through the extended attributes interface  Both Archive Utility and the zip command line utility discard ACLs

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This command did it for me   zip -r Target zip Source -x    DS Store    Target zip is the zip file to create  Source is the source file folder to zip up  And the  x parameter specifies the file folder to not include  If the above doesn t work for whatever reason  try this instead   zip -r Target zip Source -x    DS Store  -x    MACOSX

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Do you mean the zip command-line tool or the Finder s Compress command   For zip  you can try the --data-fork option  If that doesn t do it  you might try --no-extra  although that seems to ignore other file metadata that might be valuable  like uid gid and file times   For the Finder s Compress command  I don t believe there are any options to control its behavior  It s for the simple case   The other tool  and maybe the one that the Finder actually uses under the hood  is ditto  With the -c -k options  it creates zip archives   With this tool  you can experiment with --norsrc  --noextattr  --noqtn  --noacl and or simply leave off the --sequesterRsrc option  which  according to the man page  may be responsible for the   MACOSX subdirectory    Although  perhaps the absence of --sequesterRsrc simply means to use AppleDouble format  which would create    files all over the place instead of one   MACOSX directory

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You can t    But what you can do is delete those unwanted folders after zipping  Command line zip takes different arguments where one  the -d  is for deleting contents based on a regex  So you can use it like this   zip -d filename zip   MACOSX

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This is how i avoid the   MACOSX directory when compress files with tar command      cd dir-you-want-to-archive   find     xargs xattr -l         lt - list all files with special xattr attributes       conf clamav  com apple quarantine  0083 5a9018b1 Safari 9DCAFF33-C7F5-4848-9A87-5E061E5E2D55   conf global  com apple quarantine  0083 5a9018b1 Safari 9DCAFF33-C7F5-4848-9A87-5E061E5E2D55   conf web server  com apple quarantine  0083 5a9018b1 Safari 9DCAFF33-C7F5-4848-9A87-5E061E5E2D55   Delete the attribute first    find     xargs xattr -d com apple quarantine   Run find     xargs xattr -l again  make sure no any file has the xattr attribute  then you re good to go    tar cjvf file tar bz2 dir

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zip -r   destFileName zip    srcFileName  -x       MACOSX  -x            -x       MACOSX   ignore   MACOSX as you mention  -x          ignore any hidden file  such as  DS Store   Quote the variable to avoid file if it s named with SPACE    Also  you can build Automator Service to make it easily to use in Finder  Check link below to see detail if you need   Github

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Inside the folder you want to be compressed  in terminal   zip -r -X Archive zip     Where -X means  Exclude those invisible Mac resource files such as     MACOSX    or      Filename    and  ds store files  source  Note  Will only work for the folder and subsequent folder tree you are in and has to have the   wildcard

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I have a better solution after read all of the existed answers  Everything could done by a workflow in a single right click   NO additional software  NO complicated command line stuffs and NO shell tricks   The automator workflow    Input  files or folders from any application  Step 1  Create Archive  the system builtin with default parameters  Step 2  Run Shell command  with input as parameters  Copy command below   zip -d         MACOSX       true  zip -d          DS Store     true   Save it and we are done  Just right click folder or bulk of files and choose workflow from services menu  Archive with no metadata will be created alongside

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I m using this Automator Shell Script to fix it after  It s showing up as contextual menu item  right clicking on any file showing up in Finder    while read -r p  do   zip -d   p    MACOSX       true   zip -d   p      DS Store    true done    Create a new Service with Automator Select  Files and Folders  in  Finder  Add a  Shell Script Action

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do not zip any hidden file   zip newzipname filename any  -x         with this question  it should be like   zip newzipname filename any  -x     MACOSX    It must be said  though  zip command runs in terminal just compressing the file  it does not compress any others  So do this the result is the same   zip newzipname filename any

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When I had this problem I ve done it from command line   zip file zip uncompressed  EDIT  after many downvotes  I was using this option for some time ago and I don t know where I learnt it  so I can t give you a better explanation  Chris Johnson s answer is correct  but I won t delete mine  As one comment says  it s more accurate to what OP is asking  as it compress without those files  instead of removing them from a compressed file  I find it easier to remember  too

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The unwanted folders can be also be deleted by the following way   zip -d filename zip    MACOSX     Works best for me

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Another shell script that could be used with the Automator tool  see also benedikt s answer on how to create the script  is  while read -r f  do     d  quot   dirname  quot  f quot   quot      n  quot   basename  quot  f quot   quot      cd  quot  d quot      zip  quot  n zip quot  -x    DS Store -r  quot  n quot  done  The difference here is that this code directly compresses selected folders without macOS specific files  and not first compressing and afterwards deleting

[macos] Mac zip compress without __MACOSX folder?

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