Compressing a directory of files with PHP

Question

I am creating a php backup script that will dump everything from a database and save it to a file. I have been successful in doing that but now I need to take hundreds of images in a directory and compress them into one simple .tar.gz file.

What is the best way to do this and how is it done? I have no idea where to start.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

$archive_name = 'path\to\archive\arch1.tar';
$dir_path = 'path\to\dir';

$archive = new PharData($archive_name);
$archive->buildFromDirectory($dir_path); // make path\to\archive\arch1.tar
$archive->compress(Phar::GZ); // make path\to\archive\arch1.tar.gz
unlink($archive_name); // deleting path\to\archive\arch1.tar

Answer 2

If you are using PHP 5.2 or later, you could use the Zip Library

and then do something along the lines of:

$images_dir = '/path/to/images';
//this folder must be writeable by the server
$backup = '/path/to/backup';
$zip_file = $backup.'/backup.zip';

if ($handle = opendir($images_dir))  
{
    $zip = new ZipArchive();

    if ($zip->open($zip_file, ZipArchive::CREATE)!==TRUE) 
    {
        exit("cannot open <$zip_file>\n");
    }

    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) 
    {
        $zip->addFile($images_dir.'/'.$file);
        echo "$file\n";
    }
    closedir($handle);
    echo "numfiles: " . $zip->numFiles . "\n";
    echo "status:" . $zip->status . "\n";
    $zip->close();
    echo 'Zip File:'.$zip_file . "\n";
}

Answer 3

You can easily gzip a folder using this command:

tar -cvzpf backup.tar.gz /path/to/folder

This command can be ran through phps system()-function.

Don't forget to escapeshellarg() all commands.

Answer 4

Chosen answer doesn't support recursion (subdirectories), so here you go:

<?
ignore_user_abort(true);
set_time_limit(3600);


$main_path = 'folder2zip';
$zip_file = 'zipped.zip';

if (file_exists($main_path) && is_dir($main_path))  
{
    $zip = new ZipArchive();

    if (file_exists($zip_file)) {
        unlink($zip_file); // truncate ZIP
    }
    if ($zip->open($zip_file, ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE)!==TRUE) {
        die("cannot open <$zip_file>\n");
    }

    $files = 0;
    $paths = array($main_path);
    while (list(, $path) = each($paths))
    {
        foreach (glob($path.'/*') as $p)
        {
            if (is_dir($p)) {
                $paths[] = $p;
            } else {
                $zip->addFile($p);
                $files++;

                echo $p."<br>\n";
            }
        }
    }

    echo 'Total files: '.$files;

    $zip->close();
}

Answer 5

My simple 2 lines PHP file by which I can create a backup ZIP file within a few seconds:

Just browse: http://mysiteurl.com/create-my-zip.php

<?php
/* PHP FILE NAME: create-my-zip.php */

echo exec('tar zcf my-backup.tar.gz mydirectory/*');

echo '...Done...';

?>

Simply upload this file into the server and browse directly.

Notes:

• 'mydirectory' ==> target directory relative to this PHP script;
• 'my-backup.tar.gz' ==> will be created at the same directory where this PHP file is uploaded;

Answer 6

You can also use something like this:

exec('tar -czf backup.tar.gz /path/to/dir-to-be-backed-up/');

Be sure to heed the warnings about using PHP's exec() function.