Create zip file and ignore directory structure

Question

I need to create a zip file using this command:

zip /dir/to/file/newZip /data/to/zip/data.txt

This works, but the created zip file creates

Answer 1

Retain the parent directory so unzip doesn't spew files everywhere

When zipping directories, keeping the parent directory in the archive will help to avoid littering your current directory when you later unzip the archive file

So to avoid retaining all paths, and since you can't use -j and -r together ( you'll get an error ), you can do this instead:

cd path/to/parent/dir/;
zip -r ../my.zip ../$(basename $PWD)
cd -;

The ../$(basename $PWD) is the magic that retains the parent directory.

So now unzip my.zip will give a folder containing all your files:

parent-directory
├── file1
├── file2
├── dir1
│   ├── file3
│   ├── file4

Instead of littering the current directory with the unzipped files:

file1
file2
dir1
├── file3
├── file4