1-About it

This small utility installs commands ZIP and UNZIP on your System i.
Once installed, commands zip and unzip can be run:

• in an i5/OS PASE interactive terminal session (started by command CALL QP2TERM)
• in a QSHELL interactive session (started by command STRQSH)
• from a program issuing command
  STRQSH CMD(command_to_be_executed)

Note 1 - The original information about installing these commands can be found in the IBM System i Redbook IBM HTTP Server (powered by Apache), APPENDIX C: Bringing Zip and Unzip to i5/OS PASE and QShell Environments by Brian Smith.
This utility, however, makes the installation much easier.

Note 2 - Check out the updates to this tool by pressing this link.
To know the release date of this tool on your Systemi, enter command zip/released.

2-Prerequisites

• OS/400 release V5R2 or subsequent

3-Installation

• Download file zip.zip from the Easy400 download page and unzip it.
• Follow the Readme.txt instructions to upload and to restore library ZIP.
• On the iSeries run the following procedure:
  STRREXPRC SRCMBR(INSTALL) SRCFILE(ZIP/QREXSRC)
  It does the following:
  • Restores directory /home/zip
  • copies commands ZIP and UNZIP to directory /QOpenSys/usr/bin for use of i5/OS PASE
  • copies commands ZIP and UNZIP to directory /usr/bin for use of QSHELL

4-Examples of commands

1. Command ZIP
   • zip /zip/test/x.zip /zip/test/a.txt /zip/test/b.txt
     this command compresses files /zip/test/a.txt and /zip/test/b.txt into file /zip/test/x.zip
2. Command UNZIP
   • unzip /zip/test/x.zip
     this command extracts files /zip/test/a.txt and /zip/test/b.txt,
     but would prompt if a file already exists.
     Notes:
     1. The target directory for the extracted files is the current directory, usually /home/user_profile_name
     2. One may change the current directory (BEFORE STRQSH) with command chgcurdir.
     3. The original file directories are maintained.
   • unzip -o /zip/test/x.zip
     this command extracts files /zip/test/a.txt and /zip/test/b.txt
     Note:
     1. Modifier -o allows to overwrite existing files without prompting for an user decision
   • unzip -n /zip/test/x.zip
     this command extracts files /zip/test/a.txt and /zip/test/b.txt
     Note:
     1. Modifier -n does not overwrite existing files and does not prompt for an user decision
   • unzip -j /zip/test/x.zip
     this command extracts files a.txt and b.txt
     Note:
     1. Modifier -j ignores the directories of the original files
   • unzip /zip/test/x.zip -d /tmp
     this command extracts files /tmp/test/a.txt and /tmp/test/b.txt.
     Note:
     1. Option -d target_directory allows to specify a target directory
   • unzip -P bigblock /zip/test/crypted.zip -d /tmp
     this command unzips crypted file /zip/test/crypted.zip by providing the password "bigblock".
     
     
   • My favorite UNZIP format:
     unzip -oj /zip/test/x.zip -d /tmp

5-Running commands from a program

1. CLLE program

   PGM /*Perform the unzip of file /zip/test/x.zip */ /* - /zip/test/x.zip */ /* containing the deflated files: */ /* - /test/a.txt */ /* - /test/b.txt */ /*The following files will be inflated: */ /* - /tmp/a.txt */ /* - /tmp/b.txt */ STRQSH CMD('unzip -oj /zip/test/x.zip -d /tmp') /*Back to caller */ RETURN ENDPGM

2. RPGLE program

   D DoCmd pr 10i 0 D cmd 2000 const varying options(*varsize) D rc s 10i 0 *=================================== /free //Perform the unzip of file /zip/test/x.zip // - /zip/test/x.zip // containing the deflated files: // - /test/a.txt // - /test/b.txt //The following files will be inflated: // - /tmp/a.txt // - /tmp/b.txt rc=docmd('STRQSH CMD(''unzip -oj /zip/test/x.zip -d /tmp'')'); //back to caller return; /end-free *=================================== * docmd local subprocedure * Executes a CL command * Returns 0 if executed without error; otherwise 1. Pdocmd b D docmd pi 10i 0 D cmd 2000 const varying options(*varsize) D qcmdexc pr extpgm('QCMDEXC') D theCmd 2000 const D theCmdLen 15p 5 const /free monitor; qcmdexc(%subst(cmd:1:%len(cmd)):%len(cmd)); on-error; return 1; endmon; return 0; /end-free Pdocmd e

6-Execution environment

When a ZIP or UNZIP command is executed from a program running in interactive mode, the actions taken are displayed in the QSHELL terminal session:

Figure 1- Interactive mode

When a ZIP or UNZIP command is executed from a program running batch mode, the actions taken are printed in a job spool file named QPRINT:

Figure 2- Batch mode

If a program must run an UNZIP command and find out the names of the inflated files, it should operate as follow:

1. submit a batch job that runs command
   STRQSH CMD('unzip ...')
2. convert the spool file QPRINT from that job (see Figure 2) to a database file
3. read this database file to retrieve the names of the inflated files.

7-Simple commands

In order to make developers life easier, two simple standard commands are available: ZIP/ZIP and ZIP/UNZIP.
These commands submit a batch job which runs the appropriate
STRQSH CMD('...')
command.
The result from a command can be displayed by specifying parameter DSP(*YES).

Figure 3- Command ZIP/ZIP

Up to 50 stream files can be zipped.

Figure 4- Command ZIP/UNZIP