How to Extract Multiple Zip Files and Show Progress in Linux

Streamlining the Extraction Process and Enhancing User Experience with Linux Commands

Extracting multiple zip files can be a time-consuming and tedious task, especially if you have a large number of files to extract. Fortunately, Linux provides several tools that can make this task much easier. In this tutorial, we will show you how to extract multiple zip files and show progress using the pv command.

Prerequisites

Before we get started, you will need to make sure that your system has the unzip and pv commands installed. If you're using a Debian-based system like Ubuntu, you can install these commands using the following command:

sudo apt-get install unzip pv

Extracting Multiple Zip Files

To extract multiple zip files, we can use a shell script that loops through all the zip files in a directory and extracts them to a directory with the same name without the .zip extension. Here's an example script:

#!/bin/bash

# loop through all zip files in the current directory
for file in *.zip
do
  # extract the zip file to a directory with the same name without .zip extension
  unzip -q "$file" -d "${file%.*}"

  # remove the original zip file to save space
  rm "$file"
done

This script uses the for loop to iterate over all zip files in the current directory. The ${file%.*} syntax expands to the value of $file with the last period (.) and everything after it removed, effectively removing the .zip extension. The unzip command extracts the contents of the zip file to a directory with the same name as the zip file without the .zip extension. Finally, the rm command removes the original zip file to save disk space.

Photo by Ethan Hasenfratz on Unsplash

Showing Progress

To show progress while extracting zip files, we can use the pv command in combination with unzip. The pv command takes input on stdin (in this case, the output of unzip) and shows progress to the user. Here's an updated version of the previous script that shows progress:

#!/bin/bash

# loop through all zip files in the current directory
for file in *.zip
do
  # extract the zip file to a directory with the same name without .zip extension,
  # and show progress using pv
  unzip -q "$file" -d "${file%.*}" | pv -bep -s $(unzip -l "$file" | awk 'END {print $1}' | tr -d ',') > /dev/null

  # remove the original zip file to save space
  rm "$file"
done

This script uses the pv command to show progress while extracting the zip files. The -bep flags tell pv to show the ETA (estimated time of arrival), the progress bar, and the transfer rate. The -s flag specifies the total size of the input in bytes, which is obtained by running unzip -l "$file" | awk 'END {print $1}' | tr -d ','. This command extracts the file list from the zip file using unzip -l, selects the first field of the last line using awk, and removes any commas using tr.

Conclusion

In conclusion, extracting multiple zip files can be a daunting task, especially if you have a large number of files to extract. However, with the help of the unzip and pv commands in Linux, the process can be made much easier and even show progress. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can save time and disk space while extracting large numbers of files. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment.