zip usage question

[5pyd3r]

Hello
I want to know how can I use the zip or tar command to compress a directory (recursively) and limit the filesize of the archive. Also, I want to write the contents of the zip or tar file (dirs and files) to a .txt file so that I know what's where according to the tar filename and txt file name.

[clickalot]

i use the archiver and compression tool 7-zip.

in the command line you can "zip" a directory with:

$ 7z a directory

and it integrates well in the file manager nautilus, if you use it, that is.

and you can know the contents of the directory.7z archive with:

$ 7z l directory.7z > contents.txt

[5pyd3r]

Ok I only have ssh access to this server. I installed the 7zip rpm package..how do i call it ?

root@spyder ~]# 7z l directory > contents.txt
-bash: 7z: command not found

[clickalot]

i don't know any details of your operating system or what you want to do...
you said 7-zip is installed. can you run this:

$ whereis 7z

[5pyd3r]

-bash: 7z: command not found
[root@spyder ~]# whereis 7z
7z:
[root@spyder ~]# whereis p7zip
p7zip: /usr/bin/p7zip /usr/libexec/p7zip /usr/share/p7zip
[root@spyder ~]#

[clickalot]

it looks like you have a different port of 7-zip ...

anyway what i told you for 7z should work the same with p7zip (with the same options except you substitute 7z with p7zip...)
Don't be shy and try:

$ man p7zip

You should also try a more conventional approach in the *nix world:
(actually maybe this is what you were looking for in the first place

tar and gzip a directory :

$ tar -cvzf directory.tar.gz directory/

list contents of a tarball (gzip'ed tar archive) :

$ tar -tzf archive.tar.gz

extract the tarball :

$ tar -xvzf archive.tar.gz

[5pyd3r]

[root@spyder ss]# man p7zip
No manual entry for p7zip

But its ok your help solved the problem, thanks
tar command got the job done.