Python in a Nutshell

Name

ZipFile

Synopsis

class ZipFile(filename,mode='r',compression=zipfile.ZIP_STORED)

Opens a ZIP file named by string filename. mode can be 'r', to read an existing ZIP file; 'w', to write a new ZIP file or truncate and rewrite an existing one; or 'a', to append to an existing file.

When mode is 'a', filename can name either an existing ZIP file (in which case new members are added to the existing archive) or an existing non-ZIP file. In the latter case, a new ZIP file-like archive is created and appended to the existing file. The main purpose of this latter case is to let you build a self-unpacking .exe file (i.e., a Windows executable file that unpacks itself when run). The existing file must then be a fresh copy of an unpacking .exe prefix, as supplied by http://www.info-zip.org or by other purveyors of ZIP file compression tools.

compression is an integer code that can be either of two attributes of module zipfile. zipfile.ZIP_STORED requests that the archive use no compression, and zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED requests that the archive use the deflation mode of compression (i.e., the most usual and effective compression approach used in .zip files).

A ZipFile instance z supplies the following methods.