How do I compress files within Mac OSX without creating a Mac OS folder??

[maczod]

It's come to my attention from friends that whenever I send them compressed (zipped) files from my Mac, it auto adds a folder called Mac OSX that makes it confusing for them. How can I get rid of it when my Mac compresses files?

 

[WildCowboy]

Hmm...I've never experienced this.

How are you compressing the files? Are you just right clicking on the file and choosing "Create Archive of <filename>"? Or are you using something else?

What OS version are you running?

 

[Chappers]

Can't say my PC friends have mentioned this to me.

I right click "compress ......." and it makes a zip file.

I will ask them and get come back.

 

[maczod]

You can just open Bootcamp and it'll show up.

Basically send yourself a zip file zipped from Mac then email it to yourself. Then open Bootcamp and open the zip file. You'll see what I'm saying.

 

[bootedbear]

Yeah, I see them.

I don't see anyway to prevent them from being added to the archive when creating the zip file from the Finder. You may want to explore other utilities such as BetterZip (or if you're a Java geek, by using the "jar" command in Terminal).

 

[ab2650]

It's come to my attention from friends that whenever I send them compressed (zipped) files from my Mac, it auto adds a folder called Mac OSX that makes it confusing for them. How can I get rid of it when my Mac compresses files?

I get this all the time too, plus OS X likes to drop little hidden files everywhere when copying to a network share.

It sounds like a PITA, but have you tried using "zip" from terminal?

$ zip -r archive.zip filename1 filename2 ... filenameN

 

[maczod]

I get this all the time too, plus OS X likes to drop little hidden files everywhere when copying to a network share.

It sounds like a PITA, but have you tried using "zip" from terminal?

$ zip -r archive.zip filename1 filename2 ... filenameN

the reason why I got a mac was to escape all the "dos command" programming stuff..

 

[Aranince]

the reason why I got a mac was to escape all the "dos command" programming stuff..

OS X is based off of Unix..so it uses the terminal even more so than Windows. But its possible to get by without it, you just have more power with it.

 

[ab2650]

the reason why I got a mac was to escape all the "dos command" programming stuff..

I'm sure there are archiving apps with a pretty GUI out there. Probably even some that are free/opensource/shareware... Check this thread.

You could also put together some applescript to call up the command line that would be just about as clever as any app you could download and install.

 

[gusious]

OS X is based off of Unix..so it uses the terminal even more so than Windows. But its possible to get by without it, you just have more power with it.

Correct but check my signature...!

 

[jc1350]

I use CleanArchiver when I need to zip something for a Windows user. Works very well. I keep the icon in the dock and when I need to zip something (file or dir) I just drag it to the dock icon.

http://www.sopht.jp/cleanarchiver/

I originally found it at macupdate, but I prefer to use the actual author's site to get the newest info/version.

 

[maczod]

I use CleanArchiver when I need to zip something for a Windows user. Works very well. I keep the icon in the dock and when I need to zip something (file or dir) I just drag it to the dock icon.

http://www.sopht.jp/cleanarchiver/

I originally found it at macupdate, but I prefer to use the actual author's site to get the newest info/version.

Documentation (in Japanese) scares me...

 

[tomasremi]

Use Compress then:

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Compression-Tools/Compress.shtml

You can check if this works by using BetterZip, that let's you preview your compressed archives with Quick Look. Don't have the link, though

 

[jc1350]

Documentation (in Japanese) scares me...

It has english documentation built-in under the HELP menu. Default settings work fine, though.

 

[Consultant]

You can create a folder with the name you want, put files into it, and compress the folder. The zip will then expand to the name of the folder that you named instead of Mac OSX.

 

[jc1350]

You can create a folder with the name you want, put files into it, and compress the folder. The zip will then expand to the name of the folder that you named instead of Mac OSX.

The problem is that the built-in "compress" in Finder adds Mac-specific files such as files that have . and a directory called _MACOSX\zipfilename

You can't see these on a Mac, but you can on a Windows system and it rightfully confuses Windows users. I found out the hard way when I would send 2 webtrends javascript files zipped to people and I would tell them "place the 2 files in the attached zip archive in your /blah directory." They would write back "which 2 files, there are 4 and a sub directory with yet more files."

 

[ab2650]

The problem is that the built-in "compress" in Finder adds Mac-specific files such as files that have . and a directory called _MACOSX\zipfilename

You can't see these on a Mac, but you can on a Windows system and it rightfully confuses Windows users. I found out the hard way when I would send 2 webtrends javascript files zipped to people and I would tell them "place the 2 files in the attached zip archive in your /blah directory." They would write back "which 2 files, there are 4 and a sub directory with yet more files."

You're right that "Compress" adds in the __MACOSX structure, but you can see the results on OS X by using the terminal to "unzip filename".