7z command line to compress folders

Question

I am trying to zip/7z folders using the command line of 7zG.exe. The code I have works for files but not folders. Could someone please show me the correct way using 7z command line to compress folders? Here is the sample code that works for files only. Whenever I try running this code 7zip shows a messagebox saying "Invalid Parameter"

string sourceName = "Folder\Folder1";
string targetName = "Example.gz";

// 1
// Initialize process information.
//
ProcessStartInfo p = new ProcessStartInfo();
p.FileName = "7zG.exe";

// 2
// Use 7-zip
// specify a=archive and -tgzip=gzip
// and then target file in quotes followed by source file in quotes
//
p.Arguments = "a -tgzip \"" + targetName + "\" \"" + sourceName + "\" -mx=9";
p.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

// 3.
// Start process and wait for it to exit
//
Process x = Process.Start(p);
x.WaitForExit();

Answer 1

as stated in to comment section, you are supposed to use 7za.exe

This link gives you a complete example line

Your code will look like this:

string sourceName = "Folder\Folder1";
string targetName = "Example.gz";

ProcessStartInfo p = new ProcessStartInfo();
//first change
p.FileName = "7za.exe"; 
//second change
p.Arguments = "a -tzip \"" + targetName + "\" \"" + sourceName + "\" -mx=9"; 
p.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process x = Process.Start(p);
x.WaitForExit();

Answer 2

gzip as well as bzip2 are only compression algorithms and cannot be used to compress a file-system structure (e.g. folders, folders with files etc.).

In fact, they are usually preceded by tar compression (that support folders), to get the famous (in particular in unix-based systems) tar.gz and tar.bz2 archives.

In your case you can use -tzip or -t7zip to directly compress a folder:

p.Arguments = "a -t7z \"" + targetName + "\" \"" + sourceName + "\" -mx=9";

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By the way, you should use 7za.exe instead of 7zG.exe since the latter is the GUI module, while the former is the command-line standalone version of 7zip (i.e. it does not depend on any other dll), as stated in 7zip manual:

7z.exe is the command line version of 7-Zip. 7z.exe uses 7z.dll from the 7-Zip package. 7z.dll is used by the 7-Zip File Manager also.

7za.exe (a = alone) is a standalone version of 7-Zip. 7za.exe supports only 7z, lzma, cab, zip, gzip, bzip2, Z and tar formats. 7za.exe doesn't use external modules.

You can find 7za.exe in the extra package, for example for version 9.22 you can find it in the archive called 7z922_extra.7z (link).

Answer 3

try with this command:

7za  -tzip <archive-name> <folder-name>