Remove files from .zip file with Powershell

Question

I am going to write a Powershell script to remove files from a .zip file. In my .zip file, I have test.txt (latest) test1.txt (older) test2.txt .... testN.txt (oldest)

Answer 1

Adopting this VBScript solution:

$zipfile = 'C:\path\to\your.zip'
$files   = 'some.file', 'other.file', ...
$dst     = 'C:\some\folder'

$app = New-Object -COM 'Shell.Application'
$app.NameSpace($zipfile).Items() | ? { $files -contains $_.Name } | % {
  $app.Namespace($dst).MoveHere($_)
  Remove-Item (Join-Path $dst $_.Name)
}

---

If you have .net Framework 4.5 installed, something like this should work, too:

[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.IO.Compression')

$zipfile = 'C:\path\to\your.zip'
$files   = 'some.file', 'other.file', ...

$stream = New-Object IO.FileStream($zipfile, [IO.FileMode]::Open)
$mode   = [IO.Compression.ZipArchiveMode]::Update
$zip    = New-Object IO.Compression.ZipArchive($stream, $mode)

($zip.Entries | ? { $files -contains $_.Name }) | % { $_.Delete() }

$zip.Dispose()
$stream.Close()
$stream.Dispose()

The parentheses around filtering items from the Entries collection are required, because otherwise the subsequent Delete() would modify the collection. This would prevent reading (and thus deleting) other items from the collection. The resulting error message looks like this:

An error occurred while enumerating through a collection: Collection was modified;
enumeration operation may not execute..
At line:1 char:1
+ $zip.Entries | ? { $filesToRemove -contains $_.Name } | % { $_.Delete() }
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (System.Collecti...ipArchiveEntry]:Enumerator) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : BadEnumeration

Answer 2

Use 7-Zip, a free Zip tool. A Technet sample illustrates how to create a zip archive with 7-Zip in Powershell.

Learn the proper commands to get a listing of your zip's contents and use the d command to delete files from within the archive.