How to create a zip archive of a directory in Python?

Question

How can I create a zip archive of a directory structure in Python?

Answer 1

This function will recursively zip up a directory tree, compressing the files, and recording the correct relative filenames in the archive. The archive entries are the same as those generated by zip -r output.zip source_dir.

import os
import zipfile
def make_zipfile(output_filename, source_dir):
    relroot = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(source_dir, os.pardir))
    with zipfile.ZipFile(output_filename, "w", zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zip:
        for root, dirs, files in os.walk(source_dir):
            # add directory (needed for empty dirs)
            zip.write(root, os.path.relpath(root, relroot))
            for file in files:
                filename = os.path.join(root, file)
                if os.path.isfile(filename): # regular files only
                    arcname = os.path.join(os.path.relpath(root, relroot), file)
                    zip.write(filename, arcname)