Question

How can I use powershell and 7zip ( 7za.exe ) to ZIP a folder while excluding certain file types?

I tried this:

cd "C:\path\to\folder to zip"
7za.exe a "C:\path\to\newZip.zip" -mx3 -x!*.txt -x!*.pdf

But that returns:

.txt:  WARNING: The system cannot find the file specified.

.pdf:  WARNING: The system cannot find the file specified.

and doesn’t ZIP anything- just creates an empty ZIP file.

I have also tried this:

cd "C:\path\to\folder to zip"
Get-ChildItem "C:\path\to\folder to zip" -Recurse -Exclude *.txt, *.pdf | 7za.exe a -mx3 "C:\path\to\newZip.zip" $_.FullName

But that ZIPs everything in the “C:\path\to\folder to zip” folder instead of excluding anything..

Thank you for any help you can provide.

-Jim

Answer 1

Your second attempt is almost correct.

Your command to call 7-zip need to be wrapped in a for-each block, otherwise the $_.FullName is resolved to an empty string and 7-zip (in the absence of the input parameters) automatically zips everything in the directory. So change it to this:

Get-ChildItem "C:\path\to\folder to zip" -Recurse -Exclude *.txt, *.pdf | %{7za.exe a -mx3 "C:\path\to\newZip.zip" $_.FullName}

Note that % is an alias to foreach-object.