Question

I’m trying to write a python script that will create a ZIP inside a “backups” directory that includes all the contents of the directory.

My file structure:

C:/
    Users/
        myuser/
            backups/
                blah.gif
                config.xml
                etc.

So I want the script to create a C:/Users/myuser/backups/mybackup.zip that contains all the contents of the backups/ directory (blah.gif, config.xml, etc.).

Here is the code I’m using:

backupDir = "C:/Users/myuser/backups/"
backupFile = "mybackup.zip"
file = zipfile.ZipFile(backupDir + backupFile, "w")
for name in glob.glob(backupDir):
    print "Found " + name
    file.write(name, os.path.basename(name), zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
file.close()

When I run this it produces a C:/Users/myuser/backups/mybackup.zip file but when I unzip it, it’s empty. Where am I going astray? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

glob expect a pattern match. I prefer to use os.listdir() because it is easier to use.

backupDir = "C:/Users/myuser/backups/"
backupFile = "mybackup.zip"
file = zipfile.ZipFile(backupDir + backupFile, "w")
for name in os.listdir(backupDir):
    if name == backupFile:
        continue
    fullname = backupDir + name
    print "Found " + name
    file.write(fullname, os.path.basename(name), zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
file.close()