This article contains a list of useful commandline examples for the 7z utility, most of which are focussed on grabing your configs in a handy archive file. Although backup is the headline focus, it also considers a variety of use cases and suggests relevant 7z commands for them.
7-Zip was initially developed by Igor Pavlov at the turn of the millenium as open-source file compression software that also introduced the new '7z' format for cabinets or containers (single destination filesystem objects that contain multiple source files from multiple folders). It brought in a general purpose data compression algorhythm known as LZMA that was free, open and sufficiently efficient that it still remains a popular choice for assorted data-types. Orignally aimed at Windows, with the 7za command, 7-zip was ported for POSIX systems as p7zip, so these examples show the 7z command.
Note that on Linux filesystems, 7z will not store filesystem owner or group information, so you should not rely on it for a full backup and restore mechanism.
The Japanese mirror has a good depth of documentation on switches and options.
# NB this has been tested by pasting into a terminal NOT by executing as a shell script
# escaping the ! works in bash, so from zsh run bash first
# create an archive, 7z format, with date in the filename, excluding various paths
7z a -t7z "My Backup.`date +%y%m%d`.7z" "$HOME/Folder/Path" \
-xr\!'*/Exclude/This/Folder' \
-xr\!'*/Exclude/This one too' \
-xr\!'*/And this' \
justfolder/ -x\!justfolder/*/ \
# -x recursive, escape the ! for bash, single quotes for spaces in names
# not sure if we need the * at front if recursive ??
#
# -r- might not work as you expect for not recursing
# see syntax for copying justfolder contents with no subfolders
#
# There is no obvious test only / dry-run mode available
#
# help, maybe - http://sourceforge.net/p/p7zip/discussion/Although it doesn't use 7z the command show in https://github.com/artmg/lubuild/blob/master/help/configure/Secure-SHell-SSH.md#pipe-files-back-from-ssh will make a gzip from a tar file piped over an ssh secure shell. A simple yet powerful way to grab configs from a remote server. And it's particularly effective if your authentication and authorisation is already sorted.
To save you having to remember specfic syntax you could make a zipShow.sh script somewhere in your path
if [ $# -eq 1 ]
then
7za l "$*"
else
echo $0
echo
echo \ - Show all contents of the cabinet without extracting them
echo \ - should would for .zip tar.gz .7z etc
echo \ - allows for spaced file names to be passed unquoted \(as copied from finder\)
echo \ - assumes 7z installed \(brew install p7zip\)
echo
echo usage:
echo zipShow.sh pathtocabinet.xxx
fiThe zipShow.sh script could be in your path if
you use SymLinked configs and Shell scripts on path sections from Private Config Note for apps (needs bringing OUT here)
#### list specific folder only
7za l myarchive.7z -ir'!Exact folder name'
# bash expansion requires ! to be wrapped in quotes
# have not yet worked out how to do partial names or wildcards
To view contents of cabinet:
7z l myarchive.7z
If you want to list just specific files
then add -i with options such as
7z l myarchive.7z '-ir!*.sh*'
where:
rrecurses internal subfolder paths,!indicates a wildcard is coming and' 'quotes are to prevent bash or zsh interpreting the!bang character for command hißstory expansion
To add a pattern of named files to an existing cabinet...
7z a myarchive.7z pattern*
or instead you can specify a folder to add, and if you include a trailing slash it will add the folder name to the path
mv pattern* archived/
once they are zipped you can archive them,
or move them to the bin, or even use the
-sdel switch to automatically delete compressed files.
Notes:
- unless overridden, type comes from extension, defaulting to .7z
- for rules on whether folder is included
For extract, use e for filenames only or x to extract with full paths