python zipfile module doesn't seem to be compressing my files

Question

I made a little helper function:

import zipfile

def main(archive_list=[],zfilename=\'default.zip\'):
    print zfilename
    zout = zipfile.ZipFile(zfilenam         


        

Answer 1

This is because ZipFile requires you to specify the compression method. If you don't specify it, it assumes the compression method to be zipfile.ZIP_STORED, which only stores the files without compressing them. You need to specify the method to be zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED. You will need to have the zlib module installed for this (it is usually installed by default).

import zipfile

def main(archive_list=[],zfilename='default.zip'):
    print zfilename
    zout = zipfile.ZipFile(zfilename, "w", zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) # <--- this is the change you need to make
    for fname in archive_list:
        print "writing: ", fname
        zout.write(fname)
    zout.close()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()  

Answer 2

There is a really easy way to compress zip format,

Use in shutil.make_archive library.

For example:

import shutil

shutil.make_archive(file_name, 'zip', file location after compression)

Can see more extensive documentation at: Here