UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

hello everyone,

i have a dumb question...how do i unzip a zip file??
it has an .zip extension...

thanks
xNYx

unzip

(I bet you never would have guessed that one).

Better check that you have it in your path (type "which unzip"). If you are told where it is - you can use it (refer to man page for syntax).

If not you'll have to search for it (will be in /usr/bin probably) - and then either add it to your PATH - or execute with the full filepath....... "/usr/bin/unzip ......"

I've found some systems don't have the "unzip" command, although many do.

If not, you could see if gzip/gunzip is installed... It should be able to unzip a PKZIP or WinZip file...

zip and unzip are old MS-DOS commands, with lots of Windows programs using the same format. gzip and gunzip are GPL [GNU (GNU's Not Unix) Public License) programs which use the same, open-source compression algorithm (LZW, I belive, but I can't remember whose names those letters stand for) to compress files. gzip and gunzip should be installed on your system.

When ever I have come across the .zip extention I use gzip. If you don't have gzip. Get a copy of it from another machine, copy it to /usr/sbin and then 'chmod +x gzip'. If none of your machines have gzip download it. Not sure where to download it I always got it on atleast one machine at work!