How to compress a directory in Elixir?

Question

I know how to open up a zip file in write mode in Elixir:

file = File.open("myzip.zip", [:write, :compressed])

but after this, say if I have a directory /home/lowks/big_files, how do I write this into file ?

Answer 1

If you are operating on zip files, you'll need to use :zip.extract('foo.zip'), and :zip.create(name, [{'foo', file1data}, file2path, ...]).

:zip.create takes a name, and a list which can contain either of two options:

1. A tuple containing a file name, and binary data to zip.
2. A path to a file to zip.

:zip.extract can either take a path to a file, or binary data representing the zip archive (perhaps from doing File.open on a zip).

You can do something like the following to take a list of files in a path and zip them up:

files = File.ls!(path)
        |> Enum.map(fn filename -> Path.join(path, filename) end)
        |> Enum.map(&String.to_char_list!/1)

:zip.create('foo.zip', files)