Question

I am currently using subprocess to unpack a selection or zip files using 7zip. I have to use this unpacking method instead of the zipfile module because on occasion the zipfile corrupts shapefiles. My current method is:

try:

    for file in os.listdir(downloads):
        print file
        expression2 = sevenzip + " e " +downloads + '\\' + file + " -oC:\Users\Oulton"
        print expression2

    #os.system(r"C:\Users\Oulton\7z e C:\Users\Oulton\install.zip -oC:\Users\Oulton")
        subprocess.call(expression2)



except:
        time.sleep(3)
        traceback.print_exc()

But this is not convenient because:

1. I only want to unpack certain .shp files and not all of the other junk in each zip
2. A shell is opened and closed for each iteration, I would prefer the shell to stay open throughout
3. I have to use manual input to overwrite duplicately named files using this method

Answer 1

1. 7z e C:\Users\Oulton\install.zip -oC:\Users\Oulton" *.shp -r
2. Use Windows’s for loops to reuse the same shell: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/for.php

3.

-ao (Overwrite mode) switch
Specifies the overwrite mode during extraction, to overwrite files already present on disk.

-i and -x can be used to respectively include or exclude specific files for extraction.

7z e C:\Users\Oulton\install.zip -oC:\Users\Oulton -ir!*.shp -ir!*.mxd -ir!*.shx -ir!*.sbn -ir!*.dbf -ir!*.xml