How to create a Linux compatible zip archive of a directory on a Mac

Question

I've tried multiple ways of creating a zip or a tar.gz on the mac using GUI or command lines, and I have tried decompressing on the Linux side and gotten various errors, from things like "File.XML" and "File.xml" both appearing in a directory, to all sorts of others about something being truncated, etc.

Without listing all my experiments on the command line on the Mac and Linux (using tcsh), what should 2 bullet proof commands be to:

1) make a zip file of a directory (with no __MACOSX folders)

2) unzip / untar (whatever) the Mac zip on Linux with no errors (and no __MACOSX folders)

IT staff on the Linux side said they "usually use .gz and use gzip and gunzip commands".

Thanks!

Answer 1

After much research and experimentation, I found this works every time:

1) Create a zipped tar file with this command on the Mac in Terminal:

tar -cvzf your_archive_name.tar.gz your_folder_name/

2) When you FTP the file from one server to another, make sure you do so with binary mode turned on

3) Unzip and untar in two steps in your shell on the Linux box (in this case, tcsh):

gunzip your_archive_name.tar.gz

tar -xvf your_archive_name.tar

Answer 2

On my Mac and in ssh bash I use the following simple commands:

Create Zip File (-czf)
tar -czf NAME.tgz FOLDER
Extract Zip File (-xzf)
tar -xzf NAME.tgz

Best, Mike