Compress-Item

Compresses a file/directory using the DotNetZip library.

Syntax

Compress-Item [-Path] <String[]> [[-OutFile] <String>] [-UseShell] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Description

You can supply a destination file path, via the OutFile parameter. If the file doesn't exist, it is created. If it exists, use the -Force parameter to overwrite it.

Each item added to the ZIP file will be added to the root of the file, with a name matching the original file's/directory's name. For example, if adding the file C:\Projects\Carbon\RELEASE NOTE.txt, it would get added to the ZIP file as RELEASE NOTES.txt.

If you don't supply an output file path, one will be created in the current user's TEMP directory.

A System.IO.FileInfo object is returned representing the ZIP file. If you're using the WhatIf switch, nothing is returned.

Microsoft's DSC Local Configuration Manager is unable to unzip files compressed with the DotNetZip library (or the ZipFile class in .NET 4.5), so as an alternative, if you specify the UseShell switch, the file will be compressed with the Windows COM shell API.

Related Commands

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Required?	Pipeline Input	Default Value
Path	String[]	The path to the files/directories to compress.	true	true (ByPropertyName)
OutFile	String	Path to destination ZIP file. If not provided, a ZIP file will be created in the current user's TEMP directory.	false	false
UseShell	SwitchParameter	Uses the Windows COM shell API to create the zip file instead of the `DotNetZip` library. Microsoft's DSC Local Configuration Manager can't unzip files zipped with `DotNetZip` (or even the .NET 4.5 `ZipFile` class).	false	false	False
Force	SwitchParameter	Overwrites an existing ZIP file.	false	false	False
WhatIf	SwitchParameter		false	false
Confirm	SwitchParameter		false	false
CommonParameters		This cmdlet supports common parameters. For more information type `Get-Help about_CommonParameters`.

Return Values

System.IO.FileInfo.

EXAMPLE 1

Compress-Item -Path 'C:\Projects\Carbon' -OutFile 'C:\Carbon.zip'

Demonstrates how to create a ZIP file of the C:\Projects\Carbon directory.

EXAMPLE 2

Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Projects\Carbon' | Where-Object { $_.PsIsContainer} | Compress-Item -OutFile 'C:\Projects\Carbon.zip'

Demonstrates how you can pipe items to Compress-Item for compressing.

EXAMPLE 3

Compress-Item -Path 'C:\Projects\Carbon' -OutFile 'C:\Carbon.zip' -UseShell

Demonstrates how to create a ZIP file with the Windows shell COM APIs instead of the DotNetZip library.