7.15.1 ZipFile Objects

class ZipFile(file[, mode[, compression]])

Open a ZIP file, where file can be either a path to a file (a string) or a file-like object. The mode parameter should be 'r' to read an existing file, 'w' to truncate and write a new file, or 'a' to append to an existing file. For mode is 'a' and file refers to an existing ZIP file, then additional files are added to it. If file does not refer to a ZIP file, then a new ZIP archive is appended to the file. This is meant for adding a ZIP archive to another file, such as python.exe. Using

cat myzip.zip >> python.exe

also works, and at least WinZip can read such files. compression is the ZIP compression method to use when writing the archive, and should be ZIP_STORED or ZIP_DEFLATED; unrecognized values will cause RuntimeError to be raised. If ZIP_DEFLATED is specified but the zlib module is not avaialble, RuntimeError is also raised. The default is ZIP_STORED.

close(): Close the archive file. You must call close() before exiting your program or essential records will not be written.

getinfo(name): Return a ZipInfo object with information about the archive member name.

infolist(): Return a list containing a ZipInfo object for each member of the archive. The objects are in the same order as their entries in the actual ZIP file on disk if an existing archive was opened.

namelist(): Return a list of archive members by name.

printdir(): Print a table of contents for the archive to sys.stdout.

read(name): Return the bytes of the file in the archive. The archive must be open for read or append.

testzip(): Read all the files in the archive and check their CRC's. Return the name of the first bad file, or else return None.

write(filename[, arcname[, compress_type]]): Write the file named filename to the archive, giving it the archive name arcname (by default, this will be the same as filename). If given, compress_type overrides the value given for the compression parameter to the constructor for the new entry. The archive must be open with mode 'w' or 'a'.

writestr(zinfo, bytes): Write the string bytes to the archive; meta-information is given as the ZipInfo instance zinfo. At least the filename, date, and time must be given by zinfo. The archive must be opened with mode 'w' or 'a'.

The following data attribute is also available:

debug: The level of debug output to use. This may be set from 0 (the default, no output) to 3 (the most output). Debugging information is written to sys.stdout.

See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.