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Unzipping & Zipping ePub from Command Line
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| // To unzip the epub, move the ePub to a folder, cd to it then simply: | |
| unzip MyEbook.epub | |
| // To zip up an epub: | |
| 1. zip -X MyNewEbook.epub mimetype | |
| 2. zip -rg MyNewEbook.epub META-INF -x \*.DS_Store | |
| 3. zip -rg MyNewEbook.epub OEBPS -x \*.DS_Store | |
| Some explanations necessary here. We start each line with two flags: | |
| -r (recursive) | |
| This means move down through any directories/folders recursively, ensuring that everything in the folders specified gets included | |
| -g (grow file) | |
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mariocha and phoenixeliot - Though I forget exactly where I found these commands, they work well for me.
zip -0Xq archive_name mimetype
-0 sets compression speed to zero, meaning no compression
-X exclude extra file attributes
This command puts the mimetype file into the zip archive first with no extraneous info.
zip -Xr9Dq archive_name *
-X exclude extra file attributes
-r recurse into directories
-9 compress better
-D do not add directory entries
Compresses all the other contents of the current folder into the archive. This works for EPUBs built with and without the OEBPS folder.
Because zip -h2 (long help) did not explain -D adequately, I found the Linux man page useful. If I read it correctly, -D doesn't create directories inside the zip archive for the purpose of saving directory attributes. This does not conflict with the recursion option, which I thought it did before I read the man page.
I found by experiment, that zip ignores dot files like (.) (..) and .DS_Store, so the -x *.DS_Store is not needed on MacOS.