How can I create a Zip archive in Perl?

Question

I need to create a Zip archive after filtering the list of files I want to include. Preferably I'd like the module to work in both Windows and Linux.

Since I need to filter the list of files, I don't really want to to use an external program. I'd rather not introduce external dependencies either so I can compile the script into a single executable on Windows (using ActiveState PDK).

What I already tried

Until now I've used Archive::Zip found on CPAN but it has a major bug on Windows machine that use non-ASCII filenames: the filenames get corrupted in the archive as they don't get translated into unicode.

There is a bug report filed for that but it hasn't been updated in over 10 months and in the module documentation the developer is rather unhelpful (of the "fix your computer or get rid of Windows" kind).

Update:
Thanks to the clarifications from brian and Alan Haggai Alavi it seems that enough love is being put in Archive::Zip to get these bugs out soon and finally have a fully functioning zip module in Windows.

Answer 1

You could try the standard-distribution Archive::Extract. It may not be any better than Archive::Zip, but the documentation says that, if there are problems, it goes under the hood to try to use command-line tools on your system to unzip the file. This is probably most robust on Unix, but Windows has a zip archive utility, and it should be accessible via the command line. Plus, Archive::Extract can handle many other types of compression (theoretically).

Of course, it may turn out that Archive::Extract simply figures out what kind of compression the file uses and then passes it to the appropriate other library, which might be Archive::Zip.

You might also try IO::Uncompress::Unzip and it's counterpart, IO::Compress::Zip, for just unzipping, reading, and rezipping. If absolutely necessary. Again, I don't know how much better these will work, but they are all part of the standard library.

Answer 2

Although the module documentation says some stupid things about Windows, the current maintainer is Adam Kennedy, the same guy who brought you Strawberry Perl. He's definitely not anti-Windows. He released a version October, so they are working on it. There's also an open grant from The Perl Foundation to fix Archive::Extract bugs.The bug you mention, RT 35334: Filename Encoding by Archive::Zip, maybe just needs someone to show it some love. That could be you. People solve the problems that bother them, so maybe nobody interested in the module needs this just yet.

The module has had problems, and I've been following its progress since I use it in a couple projects. It has gotten a lot better recently and can certainly use some love. Sometimes open source means helping to fix the problems that you encounter. I know this doesn't help you solve your problem immediately, but that's how I think you're going to get this done aside from system() calls.

Answer 3

The above said bug has been solved very lately by the addition of Unicode filename support under Windows. A release featuring the fix will be available in CPAN within a week.