31

I need to split a .zip file in Ubuntu as .z01, .z02 etc... so that I would join them back in Windows.

I don't have access to command prompt in Windows. How would I unzip files now?

6 Answers 6

34

On Ubuntu you can use the split command to split your zip file. Something like this should work:

split your-zip.zip -b 32M ZIPCHUNKS

This will create a bunch of ZIPCHUNKS* files, in order, and all 32 MB or less in size. Change the 32M parameter to vary the chunk size.

Traditionally you'd use cat to glue them back together:

cat ZIPCHUNKS* > reassembled-zip.zip

Since you want to do the reassembling on Windows, you need a substitute for cat. Is there replacement for cat on Windows may help, but note that the Windows type command will not work as it adds the files names between them when processing more than one file. One working approach is copy /b ZIPCHUNKS* > reassembled-zip.zip.

You can also use rar which natively supports creating "split" archives which can then be decompressed by a GUI tool on Windows such as WinZip or WinRar. On Ubuntu, install the rar package, then:

rar a -v32M destination.rar files/to/compress

This will create files called destination.partXX.rar. Transfer these to Windows, then unrar the first one (destination.rar), which will link to the others automatically.

One trick you can potentially use is to "rar" the original zip file, that way you can reassemble it on Windows. If you have the original files, it may be easier to just rar them and work with that.

5
  • Thanks for the help on split command as well as the stackoverflow link. Really helpful. I'm wondering now that I don't even have access to command line. How do I unzip the splitted files now? Dec 12, 2012 at 16:30
  • Your command ZIPCHUNKS creates ZIPCHUNKSaa, etc.. They are of unknown file type. I wonder whether they'll be detected in windows Dec 12, 2012 at 16:42
  • The "chunks" are not stand-alone zip files, they need to be put back together in order for the zip file to be valid. I'll update my answer to show a way of doing this with rar, which can produce "chunked" archives (called "volumes) and be decompressed with WinZip (which I hope you have installed) or WinRAR. If not, you'd have to tell me which archive management tools are installed on your Windows system.
    – roadmr
    Dec 12, 2012 at 16:43
  • yes, the chunks themselves are unrecognizable, I wouldn't trust Windows to detect them as anything, that's why I mentioned you have to reassemble them somehow, then rename the resulting file to .zip. But the pieces themselves will be useless until reassembled.
    – roadmr
    Dec 12, 2012 at 16:47
  • Thanks roadmr. I used zip command with --out option and they're recognizable in windows Dec 13, 2012 at 3:34
17

Use zip command with -s split_size to compress files. The example command is following.

zip -r -s 100m filename.zip  compress_folder
4

Very easy: you first do split your-zip.zip -b 32M ZIPCHUNKS in Linux/Unix and then type * > myZipFile.zip in Windows.

3
  • Your answer seems to be a copy of @roadmr accepted answer
    – Yaron
    Sep 5, 2017 at 6:45
  • 1
    @Yaron No it's not. It's a very straight-forward version of his answer. His answer did not contain the part relevant to gluing the split zip files back in Windows.
    – Amir
    Sep 6, 2017 at 0:11
  • 2
    type will add the file names and formatting when given multiple files. use copy /b *.in file.out instead. Jun 13, 2019 at 18:36
0

I had to do this a year or more ago. It is inconvenient, because Windows just doesn't have the same tools.

I ended up using GSplit, which does work under WINE (or PlayOnLinux). It creates a .exe file and a bunch of .gsd files. If you are zipping a PDF file, you need to pre-zip it because Windows gets confused!

2
  • Thanks, but I don't have permissions to install any tools where I need to join the files Dec 12, 2012 at 16:30
  • In that case, you'll have to use the solution that roadmr gave, using copy /b on Windows. Dec 12, 2012 at 17:16
0

If you have zip installed on your Ubuntu machine, you should also have zipsplit. This takes a large zip file and splits it into a number of smaller, stand-alone zip files. It doesn't rely on any particular version of WinZip or Rar to work, as the files it makes are plain Zip files.

One caveat: zipsplit still lives in the world of CP/M / MS-DOS 8.3 file names, so if you use it on biglongfilename.zip, you'll end up with biglon_1.zip, biglon_2.zip, biglon_3.zip, etc.

0

I would use 7Zip. It is available for Ubuntu and Windows (download link here). A GUI is available for either operating system, but you can just as easily use a CLI. There is a textbox (in the GUI) where you put the size of each split zip file. You can use K (kilobyte), M (megabyte), or G (gigabyte) for sizes that are not included in the dropdown menus.

7Zip split volumes:

7Zip Split Volumes

Through the CLI, you can use the -v switch to determine the volume size.

In order to reassemble the files, decompress the first file (i.e. *.zip.001). 1

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .