zip error - Nothing to do

I try to zip all folders in given directory. So I wrote this

find /home/user/rep/tests/data/archive/* -maxdepth 0 -type d -exec zip -r "{}" \; 

but got

zip error: Nothing to do! (/home/user/rep/tests/data/archive/tmp.zip) zip error: Nothing to do! (/home/user/rep/tests/data/archive/tmp_dkjg.zip) 

here is what this contains

user@machine:~$ ls /home/aliashenko/rep/tests/data/archive/ tmp tmp_dkjg tmp_dsf 

5 Answers

The issue is that you have not provided a name for the zip-files it will create.

find /home/user/rep/tests/data/archive/* -maxdepth 0 -type d -exec zip -r "{}" "{}" \; 

This will create separate zipped directories for each of the subfolders tmp tmp_dkjg and tmp_dsf

To create a zipfile:

• From a list of files, zip myZippedImages.zip alice.png bob.jpg carl.svg. You need to specify both

  • the zipfile (output), and
  • the files you will zip (input).

• From a folder, zip -r myZippedImages.zip images_folder

To make it clearer than Alex's answer, to create a zip file, zip takes in a minimum of 2 arguments. How do I know, because when you use man zip, you get its man page, part of which is:

zip [-aABcdDeEfFghjklLmoqrRSTuvVwXyz!@$] [--longoption ...] [-b path] [-n suffixes] [-t date] [-tt date] [zipfile [file ...]] [-xi list] 

and when you typed zip in the command line, you get:

zip [-options] [-b path] [-t mmddyyyy] [-n suffixes] [zipfile list] [-xi list] 

In both cases, notice [zipfile list] or [zipfile [file ...]]. The square brackets indicate something being optional. If you're not saving to a zipfile, then the list argument is not required.

If you want to save into a zipfile (choosing the [zipfile list] option, you need to also provide list, because it is within the square brackets. For this reason, I prefer the output of zip instead of man zip. (The man page might be confusing)

If you used zip command on a zip file you will see that error. make sure you are using zip on none zip version file, otherwise use unzip

I tried below command

find /home/user/rep/tests/data/archive/* -maxdepth 0 -type d -exec zip -r "{}" "{}" \; 

but got this,

find: ‘/home/Mitul/rep/tests/data/archive/*’: No such file or directory 

Then i provided the name of zip file and it created the zip file,

zip -r <NAME FOR THE ZIP FILE WHICH WILL BE CREATED> <NAME OF THE FOLDER OR FOLDERS OR FILE OF WHICH YOU WANT TO MAKE A ZIP FILE> 

Follow the steps :

1. Use root user to confirm permissions
2. cd to the folder location
3. Use command zip -r [zip_file_name] [folder_name]/

Note: Do not use .zip with your zip file name. Also make sure you have zip and unzip installed by using apt or yum install zip and unzip