Zip is one of the most common and most popular ways to create compressed archive files. It is also one of the older archive file formats that were created in 1989. Since it is widely used, you’ll regularly come across a zip file.
In an earlier tutorial, I showed how to zip a folder in Linux. In this quick tutorial for beginners, I’ll show you how to unzip files in Linux.
Prerequisite: Verify if you have unzip installed
In order to unzip a zip archive file, you must have the unzip package installed in your system. Most modern Linux distributions come with unzip support but there is no harm in verifying it to avoid bad surprises later.
In a terminal, use the following command:
unzip --versionIf it gives you some details, you have unzip installed already. If you see an ‘unzip command not found’ error, you have to install.
In Ubuntu and Debian based distributions, you can use the command below to install unzip.
sudo apt install unzipOnce you have made sure that your system has unzip support, it’s time to unzip a zip file in Linux.
You can use both the command line and GUI for this purpose and I’ll show you both methods.
- Unzip files in Linux terminal
- Unzip files in Ubuntu via GUI
Unzip files in Linux command line
Using unzip command in Linux is absolutely simple. In the directory, where you have the zip file, use this command:
unzip zipped_file.zipYou can also provide the path to the zip file instead of going to the directory. You’ll see extracted files in the output:
unzip metallic-container.zip -d my_zip
Archive: metallic-container.zip
inflating: my_zip/625993-PNZP34-678.jpg
inflating: my_zip/License free.txt
inflating: my_zip/License premium.txtThere is a slight problem with the above command. It will extract all the contents of the zip file in the current directory. That’s not a pretty thing to do because you’ll have a handful of files leaving the current directory unorganized.
Unzip to a specific directory
A good practice is to unzip to directory in Linux command line. This way, all the extracted files are stored in the directory you specified. If the directory doesn’t exist, it will create one.
unzip zipped_file.zip -d unzipped_directoryNow all the contents of the zipped_file.zip will be extracted to unzipped_directory.
Since we are discussing good practices, another tip you can use is to have a look at the content of the zip file without actually extracting it.
See the content of the zip file without unzipping it
You can check the content of the zip file without even extracting it with the option -l.
unzip -l zipped_file.zipHere’s a sample output:
unzip -l metallic-container.zip
Archive: metallic-container.zip
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
6576010 2019-03-07 10:30 625993-PNZP34-678.jpg
1462 2019-03-07 13:39 License free.txt
1116 2019-03-07 13:39 License premium.txt
--------- -------
6578588 3 filesThere are many other usage of the unzip command in Linux but I guess now you have enough knowledge to unzip files in Linux.
Unzip files in Linux using GUI
You don’t always have to go to the terminal if you are using desktop Linux. Let’s see how to unzip in Ubuntu Linux graphically. I am using GNOME desktop here with Ubuntu 18.04 but the process is pretty much the same in other desktop Linux distributions.
Open the file manager and go to the folder where your zip file is stored. Right click the file and you’ll see the option “extract here”. Select this one.
Unlike the unzip command, the extract here options create a folder of the same name as the zipped file and all the content of the zipped files are extracted to this newly created folder. I am glad that this is the default behavior instead of extracting everything in the current directory.
There is also the option of ‘extract to’ and with that you can specify the folder where you want to extract the files.
That’s it. Now you know how to unzip a file in Linux. Perhaps you might also be interested in learning about using 7zip in Linux.
If you have questions or suggestions, do let me know in the comment section.
