Zipping A Directory In Linux Terminal

How do I zip files in Linux so that I cam email them to my friend? How do I zip files on server using the shell prompt?

zip is a compression and file packaging utility for Unix, Linux, VMS, MSDOS, OS/2, Windows NT, Minix, Atari and Macintosh, Amiga and Acorn RISC and many other operating systems.

This utility is installed by default on most Linux computers and servers. The program is useful for packaging a set of files for distribution; for archiving files; and for saving disk space by temporarily compressing unused files or directories.

Syntax

zip's syntax is:

 
zip file.zip file1 file2
zip file.zip dir1
zip -option file.zip dir1
 

To zip directory called pics in your home directory (/home/you/pics), type the following command:
$ zip -r myvacationpics.zip /home/you/pics/
or
$ zip -r myvacationpics /home/you/pics/
The -r option recurse into directories (all files and directories inside pics) to produced zip file called myvacationpics.zip. You can travel the directory structure recursively starting at the current directory. In this example, all the files matching *.c in the tree starting at the current directory are stored into a zip archive named mycode.zip.

 
zip -R mycode.zip "*.c"
 

Please note that *.c will match file.c, dir1/file.c and dir1/dir2/.c and so on.

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