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How to use the SSH zip command

The SSH zip command creates and the unzip command extracts .zip archives on Linux. In particular, zip is widely used because .zip files work on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Furthermore, zip lets you archive single files, multiple files, or entire directories, and you can exclude certain files from the archive. Use zip via SSH for backups, downloads, or transferring website files on your hosting account.

Archive single or multiple files

To create a zip archive of specific files:

zip archive.zip file1.txt

For multiple files:

zip archive.zip file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

The archive name comes first, then the files to include. You can use wildcards: zip backup.zip *.php to zip all PHP files in the current directory.

Archive an entire directory

To include a directory and all its contents recursively, use -r:

zip -r archive.zip /path/to/directory

Example: zip -r wordpress-backup.zip public_html/ creates a zip of your website files. Run from your home directory so the path is correct.

Exclude files when archiving

Use -x to exclude files from the archive. To exclude a single file:

zip -r archive.zip /path/to/directory -x fileToExclude

To exclude all files of a given type (e.g. all .log files):

zip -r archive.zip /path/to/directory -x "*.log"

You can add multiple exclusions: -x "*.log" -x "*.tmp" -x "cache/*". Useful when backing up WordPress but excluding cache or log folders.

Extract a zip file

To unzip an archive into the current directory:

unzip archive.zip

Extract to a specific directory:

unzip archive.zip -d /path/to/destination

To list contents without extracting: unzip -l archive.zip.

Zip vs tar

Zip archives are common for downloads and cross-platform use. For Linux-only backups, tar.gz often gives better compression. See our guide on the SSH tar command for gzip archives.