dest is ignored when archive type is zip

[nerdgore]

In the examples you provide, a dest option is set for each file:

// make a zipfile
compress: {
  main: {
    options: {
      archive: 'archive.zip'
    },
    files: [
      {src: ['path/*'], dest: 'internal_folder/', filter: 'isFile'}, // includes files in path
      {src: ['path/**'], dest: 'internal_folder2/'}, // includes files in path and its subdirs
      {expand: true, cwd: 'path/', src: ['**'], dest: 'internal_folder3/'}, // makes all src relative to cwd
      {flatten: true, src: ['path/**'], dest: 'internal_folder4/', filter: 'isFile'} // flattens results to a single level
    ]
  }
}

However, setting dest has absolutely no effect.
If one wants to compress the contents of target/ to target/<%= pkg. name %> the path has to be defined in archive rather than dest.

Working configuration:

config.compress = {
    dist: {
        options: {
            archive: "target/<%= pkg.name %>.zip"
        },
        files: [
            {
                src: ["target/<%= pkg.name %>/**"]
            }
        ]
    }
};

[ctalkington]

the example is correct, in that it says "internal_folder", ie relative to inside of archive. it works this way as archives are only meant to be singular per each grunt multi-task target. thus all your file dests are going to be relative to inside of the resulting archive. it would be a nightmare to support multiple archives in a single target and the way it works flows with grunts concept of multi-task targets.

EDIT sorry for the misunderstanding and multiple semi-unrelated posts.

[cniaulin]

It did not seems obvious to me in fact, I fall exactly in the same trap and loose a lot of time on this trying to understand what was wrong or what property to modify in order to get the job done.
Finally after many many tries, I had to read this thread to find out what was wrong.
Examples are not really explicit and it is no error message.
I guess that an improved documentation would avoid those misunderstandings.