Objective-C

ZIP a Visual Studio Project and Exclude Build Artifacts

See more Zip Examples

This example demonstrates how to create a ZIP archive of a Visual Studio project directory while excluding files and directories commonly created during builds.

This is useful when archiving or sharing source code without including compiled binaries, intermediate build output, debug symbols, cache files, or generated package folders.

The example excludes common Visual Studio build artifacts such as:

• bin directories
• obj directories
• .vs directories
• *.exe, *.dll, *.pdb, and related output files
• Temporary and cache files

Objective-C

#import <CkoZip.h>
#import <CkoStringArray.h>

BOOL success = NO;

CkoZip *zip = [[CkoZip alloc] init];

//  Create a new, empty Zip object.
//  The .zip file is not created until WriteZip or WriteZipAndClose is called.
success = [zip NewZip: @"VisualStudioProject.zip"];
if (success == NO) {
    NSLog(@"%@",zip.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

//  When the ZIP is extracted, all files will be placed beneath
//  the "MyProject/" directory.
//  
//  For example:
//  
//      src/main.cpp
//  
//  Will be stored in the ZIP as:
//  
//      MyProject/src/main.cpp
//  
zip.PathPrefix = @"MyProject/";

//  We will add files from this Visual Studio project directory:
//  
//      c:/projects/MyProject
//  
//  The goal is to ZIP the source project without the files generated
//  by Visual Studio builds.

//  ------------------------------------------------------------
//  Exclude directories commonly created by Visual Studio builds.
//  
//  Any directory having one of these names will be skipped entirely,
//  including all files and subdirectories beneath it.
[zip ExcludeDir: @"bin"];
[zip ExcludeDir: @"obj"];
[zip ExcludeDir: @".vs"];
[zip ExcludeDir: @"packages"];

//  ------------------------------------------------------------
//  Create a StringArray containing wildcard exclusion patterns
//  for generated files and temporary artifacts.
CkoStringArray *saExcludes = [[CkoStringArray alloc] init];

//  Exclude common compiled output files.
[saExcludes Append: @"*.exe"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.dll"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.pdb"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.ilk"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.lib"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.obj"];

//  Exclude NuGet package files.
[saExcludes Append: @"*.nupkg"];

//  Exclude temporary, cache, and user-specific files.
[saExcludes Append: @"*.cache"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.tmp"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.user"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.suo"];
[saExcludes Append: @"*.log"];

//  Apply the wildcard exclusion patterns to the Zip object.
[zip SetExclusions: saExcludes];

//  ------------------------------------------------------------
//  Recursively add references to the project files.
//  
//  AppendFiles does not immediately read or compress the files.
//  It adds file references to the Zip object. The referenced files
//  are read and compressed later when WriteZipAndClose is called.
BOOL recurse = YES;

success = [zip AppendFiles: @"c:/projects/MyProject/*" recurse: recurse];
if (success == NO) {
    NSLog(@"%@",zip.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

//  ------------------------------------------------------------
//  Write the ZIP archive and close it.
//  
//  This is where the referenced source files are actually read,
//  compressed as needed, and written to the final .zip archive.
success = [zip WriteZipAndClose];
if (success == NO) {
    NSLog(@"%@",zip.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

NSLog(@"%@",@"Visual Studio project ZIP created successfully.");