Where do I get Zip.exe?
 

Hello everyone,

I'm going straight to the Wizards for help. I'm building my first EPUB and I'm having problems putting files in the container.

I've just finished building a kindle mobi version from scratch, and I've edited all my files (opf, ncx etc) according to the EPUB spec's.

My problem seems to be that I'm using 7Zip to create the EPUB container and it doesn't do the job.

I've searched all over the internet, but I can't find an executable copy of Zip.exe. Can you point me to a download site (I've already scoured everything I can find)?

I'm using a Windows XP system.

Thanks,
Tony

CNET is usually a useful source:
http://download.cnet.com/zip-exe/300..._4-158091.html

Wrong Zip.exe

I've just attached the command line ZIP & Unzip that I use with Windows 7. I've used them with Windows 98, XP, Vista, & now 7.

Thanks for the Info!
 

Thanks for your prompt reply and support for an epub newbie. Having successfully completed the hand-built process for the Kindle format, I'm surprised at the problems I'm having with epub.
The Kindle generator, "Kindlegen" builds the document from the construction files (opf, ncx etc) and provides very good error messages for all problems, and builds a single o/p file.

The epub process doesn't allow any error checking of the construction files until everything is successfully packaged in a Zip container, making the process more difficult I think, especially with the restrictions on archive position of mimetype, and file attributes.

I'll give the zipunzip download a try and see if I can get another step along the process.

Thanks again,

Tony

The Zip.exe homepage can be found at http://www.info-zip.org/

Thanks for the Zip.exe as I never used/collected it. I had always preferred using PKzip.exe v2.50, but liked unzip.exe by Info-ZIP better. The verison of unzip.exe I use is newer though For current version downloads check ftp://ftp.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/ for your operating system. This location is mentioned in the FAQ available here http://www.info-zip.org/FAQ.html#download

I just updated to Zip 3.0 and UnZip 6.00, just in case I need these useful utilities again. :rolleyes:

I don't understand...

I have winzip, doesn't that work or this is requirement something else ?

I use WinRAR to do my unzipping and zipping of ePub.

I tried the Zip.exe posted by Jon, and it works perfectly. I can now use epubcheck to find the remaining problems with the construction files.
I was also pointed to Zip 3.0 by Harrison Ainsworth, which I downloaded although I have not tried it yet, but it comes with complete Zip documentation.
I will also download Unzip 6.0 and try it and Zip 3.0 when I'm over the present problem of building an epub.

Thanks again.

Tony

I found the only easiest way to build a Epub style zip was to start with a generic zip that is already known to be good and then add the files for your epub.
If adding an attachment worked, I have uploaded my starter file, temp.zip. It has the mimetype file at the correct offset and no compression. You can use pretty well any zip program to add your book's files to the base file and get the proper epub structure.

I've used 7Zip for epubs and it works fine.

In Windows Explorer, right click the epub, goto to the 7Zip pop-up menu and there is an option to unzip the file to a sub-directory with the same name as the file.

To go the other way, in Windows Explorer go into the directory that contains the epub content files, select all the files and sub-directories, right click and from the 7Zip pop-up menu select the option to create a new zip archive. This will create a .zip file with the same name as the parent directory. Rename to .epub and that's it.

7Zip doesn't work because there is no way (switches etc) to strip file attributes, and prevent entries in the archive directory.

The Zip.exe version posted above by Jon Wolf works perfectly. I arranged my META-INF, OPS, mimetype, and zip.exe in a folder, and used the command:

zip -Xr9D FileName.epub mimetype * -x zip.exe

where:
-X = strip file attributes
r = travels file structure recursively
9 = compression level (does not compress mimetype because of 20 byte file length).
D = no directory entries created in epub file.
* = wildcard to include all files and directories
-x = exclude zip.exe

Getting zip.exe from Jon was the solution to MY problem, the rest was overcoming my stupidity and ignorance, which I was able to do.

Tony

But that is not a requisite for ePUB. The only requisite is that "mimetype" is stored first, and not compressed.

Thanks for posting the 'zip.exe' file. I downloaded it, and unzipped it, but every time I click on 'zip.exe' to open it, it flashed open for less than a second, and closes. Tried it on XP and Windows 7. Any ideas why or suggestions how to make it stay open? Thanks...

I'm 100% sure 7-Zip comes with zipping capabilities by default. We're talking about 7-Zip 9.20 here, right ? The latest 7-Zip. Just right click the files, "7-Zip", "Add to archive..." and choose Zip instead of LZMA, or something like that.

And oh, have you tried right clicking the files "Send To" and then "Compressed (zipped) Folder" ? It's built into the explorer.

Edit:

Um, that's because it's a command line tool. Create a .bat or .cmd file (rename the ".txt" extension of a text file) and add to it:

Very important that it has a "pause" command at the end. Else it's going to finish very fast, unless you have an 80 MHz processor or something. Haha. Read the help menu on how to use it.