Ubuntu - A compression utility that supports password feature

Published on: 22nd Apr 2014

Updated on: 8th Jul 2025

Why do we need a compression tool

There are many compression utilities in Ubuntu and tar is the most commonly used utility. But, we want a utility program to password protect the compressed file before sending it to another server or let the user download the file.

Here's the component that you need

• To install the program, execute the following command:

  sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
  

• To the compress the files

  7z a myZipFile.7z @file-list.txt -xr!temp -pmyPassword
  

  Where

  • myZipFile.7z is the output name.
  • file-list.txt is a text file that contains the files and directories to be backed up. One file/directory per line.
  • -xr!temp is to exclude the 'temp' directory.
  • -p argument means password and 'myPassword' is the password to encrypt the file.

• To test the archive (i.e., the compressed file), execute the following command:

  7z t -pmyPassword myZipFile.7z
  

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Author

Lau Hon Wan, software developer.