How to bundle (zip/tar/?) sets of files so that an iPhone app can expand them?

Question

How can I bundle up an arbitrary directory of files, preserving their hierarchical paths so that they can be expanded by an iPhone app?

More background on what I am trying to do:

I would like to add dynamic content updates for my iPhone app. I'll make a bundle of html files available on a server, and I'd like the app to check periodically for a new .tar/.zip file, download it, expand it, and then access the new content.

Answer 1

Zlib and minizip (part of zlib's contribs) can handle decompressing .zip files. zlib is included in the iPhone and its headers are part of the public API. You will need to download the zlib distro and pull minizip from the contribs folder to integrate it into your app.