Apple - Compress without .DS_Store and __MACOSX
You can use zip command in Terminal to zip the files without the .DS_Store
, __MACOSX
and other .*
files.
- Open Terminal (search for terminal in spotlight)
- Navigate to the folder you want to zip using the
cd
command - Paste this:
zip -r dir.zip . -x ".*" -x "__MACOSX"
Example
Let's say you have a folder on your desktop called Folder
with stuff to zip.
Open terminal and write following commands:
-
cd Desktop/Folder
-
zip -r dir.zip . -x ".*" -x "__MACOSX"
Now you have a file called dir.zip
without __MACOSX
and .*
files in the folder Folder
on your desktop.
Just some extra information ...
My understanding is that __MACOSX is a subdirectory artificially created by the Mac GUI tools to hold meta data such as extended attributes that can't be normally saved in a zip file.
If you use the Mac GUI tools to unpack the zip file, then the tools will know what to do with __MACOSX and the directory won't actually get unpacked.
The problems happen when you send your .zip file to Windows or Linux users, or just use the general-purpose unzip
program to unpack them. Those tools won't know that __MACOSX is special, and will just unpack it.
The simplest option is to use zip
to pack up your zip file instead of the Mac built-in tool. zip
won't create __MACOSX and your problem is solved. (You will lose the meta data in the process, but you probably didn't want it anyway.)
zip -r dir.zip .
If it's too late, and you already have a zip file with __MACOSX, you can still remove it with:
zip -d foo.zip __MACOSX .DS_Store
Finally, the accepted answer is the best because if for some reason __MACOSX actually does exist in your directory (e.g. because you previously used unzip
to create it), the -x option will keep it from being packed up.
Try Keka. It comes with an option to exclude .DS_Store