(PowerShell) Add a Common Root Directory to ZIP Entries Using PathPrefix

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This example demonstrates how to use the PathPrefix property to prepend a common directory path to all entries added to a ZIP archive.

The PathPrefix value is prepended to the stored ZIP paths for subsequently added entries.

This is useful when:

• Creating ZIP archives that extract beneath a single root directory
• Packaging applications or projects into a named top-level folder
• Avoiding extraction directly into the current directory
• Organizing ZIP contents beneath a common parent directory

Suppose the local filesystem contains:

c:/MyProject/src/main.cpp
c:/MyProject/src/util.cpp
c:/MyProject/docs/readme.txt

And suppose the following code is executed:

zip.PathPrefix = "MyProject/";

Then the ZIP archive will contain:

MyProject/src/main.cpp
MyProject/src/util.cpp
MyProject/docs/readme.txt

Without a PathPrefix, the ZIP archive would instead contain:

src/main.cpp
src/util.cpp
docs/readme.txt

The PathPrefix is applied only to entries added after the property is set.

Chilkat .NET Downloads Chilkat .NET Assemblies

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$success = $false

$zip = New-Object Chilkat.Zip

# Create a new ZIP archive.
$success = $zip.NewZip("MyProject.zip")
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($zip.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

# Prepend "MyProject/" to all subsequently added ZIP entries.
# 
# This causes all files to extract beneath a top-level
# directory named "MyProject".
$zip.PathPrefix = "MyProject/"

# Recursively add project files.
# 
# Because saveExtraPath = $false, the stored ZIP paths
# will normally begin with:
# 
#     src/
#     docs/
# 
# But because PathPrefix = "MyProject/",
# the final ZIP paths become:
# 
#     MyProject/src/
#     MyProject/docs/
# 
$recurse = $true
$success = $zip.AppendFiles("c:/MyProject/*",$recurse)

if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($zip.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

# Write the ZIP archive and close it.
$success = $zip.WriteZipAndClose()
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($zip.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$("ZIP archive created successfully.")