How to create a zip archive of a directory in Python?

Question

How can I create a zip archive of a directory structure in Python?

Answer 1

To give more flexibility, e.g. select directory/file by name use:

import os
import zipfile

def zipall(ob, path, rel=""):
    basename = os.path.basename(path)
    if os.path.isdir(path):
        if rel == "":
            rel = basename
        ob.write(path, os.path.join(rel))
        for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
            for d in dirs:
                zipall(ob, os.path.join(root, d), os.path.join(rel, d))
            for f in files:
                ob.write(os.path.join(root, f), os.path.join(rel, f))
            break
    elif os.path.isfile(path):
        ob.write(path, os.path.join(rel, basename))
    else:
        pass

For a file tree:

.
├── dir
│   ├── dir2
│   │   └── file2.txt
│   ├── dir3
│   │   └── file3.txt
│   └── file.txt
├── dir4
│   ├── dir5
│   └── file4.txt
├── listdir.zip
├── main.py
├── root.txt
└── selective.zip

You can e.g. select only dir4 and root.txt:

cwd = os.getcwd()
files = [os.path.join(cwd, f) for f in ['dir4', 'root.txt']]

with zipfile.ZipFile("selective.zip", "w" ) as myzip:
    for f in files:
        zipall(myzip, f)

Or just listdir in script invocation directory and add everything from there:

with zipfile.ZipFile("listdir.zip", "w" ) as myzip:
    for f in os.listdir():
        if f == "listdir.zip":
            # Creating a listdir.zip in the same directory
            # will include listdir.zip inside itself, beware of this
            continue
        zipall(myzip, f)