Simplest way to download and unzip files in Node.js cross-platform?

Question

Just looking for a simple solution to downloading and unzipping .zip or .tar.gz files in Node.js on any operating system.

Not sure if this

Answer 1

I tried a few of the nodejs unzip libraries including adm-zip and unzip, then settled on extract-zip which is a wrapper around yauzl. Seemed the simplest to implement.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/extract-zip

var extract = require('extract-zip')
extract(zipfile, { dir: outputPath }, function (err) {
   // handle err
})

Answer 2

I found success with the following, works with .zip
(Simplified here for posting: no error checking & just unzips all files to current folder)

function DownloadAndUnzip(URL){
    var unzip = require('unzip');
    var http = require('http');
    var request = http.get(URL, function(response) {
        response.pipe(unzip.Extract({path:'./'}))
    });
}

Answer 3

Node has builtin support for gzip and deflate via the zlib module:

var zlib = require('zlib');

zlib.gunzip(gzipBuffer, function(err, result) {
    if(err) return console.error(err);

    console.log(result);
});

Edit: You can even pipe the data directly through e.g. Gunzip (using request):

var request = require('request'),
    zlib = require('zlib'),
    fs = require('fs'),
    out = fs.createWriteStream('out');

// Fetch http://example.com/foo.gz, gunzip it and store the results in 'out'
request('http://example.com/foo.gz').pipe(zlib.createGunzip()).pipe(out);

For tar archives, there is Isaacs' tar module, which is used by npm.

Edit 2: Updated answer as zlib doesn't support the zip format. This will only work for gzip.

Answer 4

yauzl is a robust library for unzipping. Design principles:

• Follow the spec. Don't scan for local file headers. Read the central directory for file metadata.
• Don't block the JavaScript thread. Use and provide async APIs.
• Keep memory usage under control. Don't attempt to buffer entire files in RAM at once.
• Never crash (if used properly). Don't let malformed zip files bring down client applications who are trying to catch errors.
• Catch unsafe filenames entries. A zip file entry throws an error if its file name starts with "/" or /[A-Za-z]:// or if it contains ".." path segments or "\" (per the spec).

Currently has 97% test coverage.

Answer 5

Checkout gunzip-file

import gunzip from 'gunzip-file';

const unzipAll = async () => {
  try {
    const compFiles = fs.readdirSync('tmp')
    await Promise.all(compFiles.map( async file => {
      if(file.endsWith(".gz")){
        gunzip(`tmp/${file}`, `tmp/${file.slice(0, -3)}`)
      }
    }));
  }
  catch(err) {
    console.log(err)
  }
}

Answer 6

You can simply extract the existing zip files also by using "unzip". It will work for any size files and you need to add it as a dependency from npm.

fs.createReadStream(filePath).pipe(unzip.Extract({path:moveIntoFolder})).on('close', function(){
        //To do after unzip
				callback();
		});