Lazarus Pascal

Extract ZIP Files Without Preserving Directory Paths Using DiscardPaths

See more Zip Examples

This example demonstrates how to use the DiscardPaths property to extract files from a ZIP archive without recreating the stored directory structure.

When DiscardPaths is set to _TRUE_, all extracted files are written directly into the target extraction directory, and any stored ZIP path information is ignored.

This is useful when:

• Flattening ZIP contents into a single directory
• Ignoring stored subdirectory structures during extraction
• Extracting only the files themselves without recreating folders

Suppose the ZIP archive contains:

docs/readme.txt
docs/manual.pdf
images/logo.png

Normally, extracting the ZIP would create:

output/docs/readme.txt
output/docs/manual.pdf
output/images/logo.png

But when DiscardPaths is set to _TRUE_, the extracted files become:

output/readme.txt
output/manual.pdf
output/logo.png

The stored ZIP directory paths are discarded during extraction.

Lazarus Pascal

program ChilkatDemo;

// Demonstrates using the Chilkat Pascal wrapper via the C bridge DLL.
// Builds as a console application under Lazarus (FPC) or Delphi.

{$IFDEF FPC}
  {$MODE DELPHI}
{$ENDIF}
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

uses
  {$IFDEF UNIX}
  cthreads,
  {$ENDIF}
  SysUtils,
  CkDllLoader,
  Chilkat.Zip;

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

procedure RunDemo;
var
  success: Boolean;
  zip: TZip;
  numFilesUnzipped: Integer;

begin
  success := False;

  zip := TZip.Create;

  //  Open an existing ZIP archive.
  success := zip.OpenZip('example.zip');
  if (success = False) then
    begin
      WriteLn(zip.LastErrorText);
      Exit;
    end;

  //  Discard stored ZIP paths during extraction.
  //  
  //  When DiscardPaths = True, all files are extracted
  //  directly into the target directory without recreating
  //  the ZIP directory structure.
  zip.DiscardPaths := True;

  //  Extract all files to the output directory.
  //  
  //  Even if the ZIP contains:
  //  
  //      docs/readme.txt
  //      docs/manual.pdf
  //      images/logo.png
  //  
  //  The extracted files become:
  //  
  //      c:/output/readme.txt
  //      c:/output/manual.pdf
  //      c:/output/logo.png
  //  
  numFilesUnzipped := zip.Unzip('c:/output');

  if (numFilesUnzipped < 0) then
    begin
      WriteLn(zip.LastErrorText);
      Exit;
    end;

  WriteLn('Number of files extracted = ' + numFilesUnzipped);

  zip.CloseZip();

  WriteLn('Files extracted successfully.');


  zip.Free;

end;

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

begin

  try
    RunDemo;
  except
    on E: Exception do
      WriteLn('Unhandled exception: ', E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
  end;

  WriteLn;
  {$IFDEF MSWINDOWS}
  WriteLn('Press Enter to exit...');
  ReadLn;
  {$ENDIF}
end.