topic Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command in Operating System - HP-UX

How to handle metacharacters through zip command

allanm77 — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:10:53 GMT

Hi--

While zipping a directory, which has few subdirectories having the dollar sign in their names, the zip command fails.

How do I fix this issue?

Thanks,

Allan

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Dennis Handly — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:24:42 GMT

(Why would you want files with "$" in them? These aren't Unix friendly.)

What error do you get?

I'm not sure why zip should care? The shell only sees the upper directory.

I don't know if the "-UN w" option will help?

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

allanm77 — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:47:21 GMT

Here is the error that I get :-

Error: zip I/O error: No such file or directory. . zip error: Input file read failure

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Steven Schweda — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 03:56:15 GMT

> While zipping a directory, which has few subdirectories having the
> dollar sign in their names, the zip command fails.

   A useful problem report would offer some basic info, like, for
example:

      uname -a

      zip -v

      Actual command used.

      Actual output from the command.

      ls -l[R] <stuff which you were trying to archive>

> Error: zip I/O error: No such file or directory. . zip error: Input
> file read failure

   Many things are possible, but, if this Zip program is even remotely
current, then I would not expect a name with a dollar sign to cause any
particular trouble. For example, using what I have lying around on a
convenient Mac OS X system:

bash-3.2$ zip3 dollar.zip -r .
adding: $dir$/ (stored 0%)
adding: $dir$/$name$ (stored 0%)
adding: fred$fred (stored 0%)

bash-3.2$ unzip61 -d fred dollar.zip
Archive: dollar.zip
   creating: fred/$dir$/
extracting: fred/$dir$/$name$
extracting: fred/fred$fred

bash-3.2$ ls -lR fred
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 sms admin 102 Feb 5 21:39 $dir$
-rw-r--r-- 1 sms admin    5 Feb 5 21:33 fred$fred

fred/$dir$:
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 sms admin 5 Feb 5 21:38 $name$

   Zip doesn't care about dollar signs. Like many programs, it does
care about permissions, so if _you_ can't read a file, then Zip probably
can't read it for you. But, with approximately no useful information,
and my weak psychic powers, I probably can't guess what the problem is
here.

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Laurent Menase — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:20:38 GMT

are you sure the $ is not interpreted by the shell..

try with \$dir\$

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Dennis Handly — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:52:50 GMT

>are you sure the $ is not interpreted by the shell.

Allan did say subdirectories. And I assumed he was using zip -r on the parent directory.

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Steven Schweda — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:36:32 GMT

> [...] I assumed he was using zip -r on the parent directory.

_I_ assume that if he really wants an answer, then he'll supply
enough useful information to obviate such assuming and guessing, but so
far I see no evidence of that.

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

allanm77 — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:49:10 GMT

Yes, am using zip r *

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

allanm77 — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:49:43 GMT

Will try upgrading the version of zip tomm.

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Steven Schweda — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:47:12 GMT

> Yes, am using zip r *

Still not much useful information. This new copy+paste technology is
amazing. You should try it.

> Will try upgrading the version of zip tomm.

Would it hurt you to provide some useful information, as requested?
Around here, the oldest version I have, "Zip 2.32 (June 19th 2006)"
appears to have no more trouble with my test than the latest released
version, "Zip 3.0 (July 5th 2008)" (or the latest development code,
either).

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Dennis Handly — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:13:21 GMT

>the oldest version I have,

This also works: Zip 2.31 (March 8th 2005)

Even if the "*" expands to directories with "$".

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

allanm77 — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:38:09 GMT

Thanks upgrading zip worked.

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Steven Schweda — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 18:48:19 GMT

> Thanks upgrading zip worked.

Would it be a complete waste of time to ask (again) which version had
the problem, and which didn't, and what you did, and what the actual
message was, and so on?

Re: How to handle metacharacters through zip command

Steven Schweda — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:44:16 GMT

> This also works: Zip 2.31 (March 8th 2005)

Around here, after a little dredging and fiddling, so do "Zip 2.3
(November 29th 1999)" and "Zip 2.0 (Sept 7th 1993)", so I still suspect
user error over a program defect.

> Would it be a complete waste of time [...]

Apparently so, but I'm always open to evidence.