IT Jungle: How to Create IBM i Zip Files if You’re Not on i 7.1

In a recent column, Ted Holt of IT Jungle talked about the state of creating zip files on an IBM i machine.

First, Ted mentioned IBM’s new zip file APIs–QZipZip and QZipUnzip–that IBM added to i 7.1. While this is exciting news, many (most?) IBM i shops won’t be able to used these APIs because they aren’t on i 7.1.

So Ted did what any self-respecting IBM i programmer would do: he demonstrated a secondary way to work with zip files on IBM i 6.1 and i5/OS V5R4 systems…the Java Archive utility.

The Java Archive utility is easy to use and it runs under the Qshell environment. In this article on IBM i and Zip Files, Ted shows some easy to follow examples of using the utility to:

• View the contents of a zip file in your IBM i environment
• Create a zip file from files in an AS/400 Integrated File Systems (AS/400 IFS) folder
• Add a file(s) to an already existing zip file in the AS/400 IFS
• Extract zip files from an already existing zip file on the AS/400 IFS

Ted does a nice job here showing the nuts and bolts of working with IBM i zip files in a relatively short article. Check Ted’s article on the Java Archive Utility, if you need to create, view, add to, or extract zip files on your IBM i machine.

Disclaimer: I am a Contributing Editor for IT Jungle.

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