ExtractArchive

ExtractArchive[file]

expands an archive file, saving its content into the current directory.

ExtractArchive[file,dir]

saves the content of an archive file into directory dir.

ExtractArchive[file,dir,pattern]

extracts only files whose names match pattern.

Details and Options

ExtractArchive can be used to extract files from an archive file, and returns the names of the files and directories it created.
ExtractArchive supports a variety of file formats, including ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, 7z, RAR and ISO.
By default, ExtractArchive saves the extracted content in the current working directory given by Directory[].
The archive to be extracted can be specified using a relative or absolute file specification.
The destination directory can be given as a relative or absolute directory path.
By default, if any file in the archive to be extracted already exists, ExtractArchive returns $Failed without creating any directories or files.
Directories extracted by ExtractArchive may already exist.
The following options can be given:

CreateIntermediateDirectories	True	whether to create intermediate directories
IgnoreCase	False	whether pattern should be case sensitive
OverwriteTarget	False	whether to overwrite existing files

Possible settings for OverwriteTarget include:

	False	if any file from the archive already exists, do nothing and fail
	True	overwrite any existing files
	Automatic	only extract files that do not exist
	"KeepBoth"	keep the existing file, automatically choosing a name for the new file

ExtractArchive[file] does not delete file.
ExtractArchive[File["file"],…] and ExtractArchive[file,File["dir"],…] are also supported.

Examples

open allclose all

Basic Examples (2)

Uncompress a GZIP file, storing the result in the current directory:

Delete the resulting files:

Specify the destination directory:

Delete the resulting files:

Scope (1)

Create an archive from the ExampleData directory:

Extract only JPEG files from the resulting archive:

Delete the resulting files and archive:

Options (3)

CreateIntermediateDirectories (2)

By default, intermediate directories are automatically created:

Delete the created directory:

Prevent creation of intermediate directories to the destination path:

IgnoreCase (0)

By default, ExtractArchive uses case sensitive patterns:

Use IgnoreCase -> True to treat lowercase and uppercase letters as equivalents:

Delete the resulting files and archive:

OverwriteTarget (1)

Create a ZIP archive:

Extract only the JPEG files from the archive:

Delete the first two extracted files:

By default, ExtractArchive will not extract any contents if any destination files already exist:

Use OverwriteTarget->Automatic to only extract files that do not already exist:

Use OverwriteTarget->True to overwrite any existing files:

Properties & Relations (1)

CreateArchive creates a zip archive on the file system:

ExtractArchive creates new files with the extracted contents, without reading the file into memory:

Import can be used to import a specific file from an archive directly into Wolfram Language:

Introduced in 2010

(8.0)

Updated in 2017

(11.1)

2020

(12.1)

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