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How to create a zip file compatible with Windows under Linux

Fresh7 days ago
Mar 15, 2026107439 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

I need to make a zip file available to all my Windows users visitors, so I naively produced a zip file with the Unix zip command (let's call it madeinlinux.zip). It opens successfully with WinRar or Winzip, but those of my users who are using the standard Windows zip file handling experience failure when trying to unzip it. (Windows XP) I compressed the same data using Windows built-in zip mecanism, and from a Linux point of view, I cannot see any difference in the file type: They're must be something specific to a Windows compatible zip file. Does anyone knows what?

Error Output

$ file madeinlinux.zip :  Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract
$ file madeinwindows.zip : Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract

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Fix for: How to create a zip file compatible with Windows under Linux

Low Risk

Try with: Indicates the slowest compression speed (optimal compression, ignores the suffix list) Store symbolic links as such in the zip archive, instead of compressing and storing the file referred to by the link Travel the directory structure recursively Quiet mode

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