This library is a refactoring of the minizip contribution found in the zlib distribution and is supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The motivation for this work has been the inclusion of advanced features, improvements in code maintainability and readability, and the reduction of duplicate code. It is based on the original work of Gilles Vollant that has been contributed to by many people over the years.

Dev: Master:

For my older fork of this library checkout the 1.2 branch. For the original work maintained by Mark Adler checkout the zlib minizip contrib.

To generate project files for your platform:

1. Download and install cmake.
2. Download and install zlib if it is not installed on your system.
3. Run cmake in the minizip directory.

cmake . -DBUILD_TEST=ON
cmake --build .

Option 1. Install the zlib package to the Program Files directory with an Administrator command prompt.

cmake . -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%PROGRAMFILES%\zlib
cmake --build . --config Release --target INSTALL

Option 2. Compile zlib in minizip's lib directory.

cmake .
cmake --build . --config Release

Navigate back to the minizip directory and before building run:

cmake . -DZLIB_LIBRARY=lib\zlib\release\zlibstatic.lib -DZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR=lib\zlib\

• Requires cmake . -DUSE_BZIP2=ON or #define HAVE_BZIP2
• Requires BZIP2 library

• Requires cmake . -DUSE_LZMA=ON or #define HAVE_LZMA
• Requires liblzma library

• Requires cmake . -DUSE_AES=ON or #define HAVE_AES
• Requires Brian Gladman's AES and SHA libraries

When zipping with a password it will always use AES 256-bit encryption. When unzipping it will use AES decryption only if necessary.

To disable encryption use the following cmake commands:

cmake . -DUSE_AES=OFF
cmake . -DUSE_PKCRYPT=OFF

Support has been added for UTC last modified, last accessed, and creation dates.

This library has been refactored around streams.

To unzip from a zip file in memory pass the memory stream to the open function.

uint8_t *zip_buffer = NULL;
int32_t zip_buffer_size = 0;
void *mem_stream = NULL;

// fill zip_buffer with zip contents
mz_stream_mem_create(&mem_stream);
mz_stream_mem_set_buffer(mem_stream, zip_buffer, zip_buffer_size);
mz_stream_open(mem_stream, NULL, MZ_OPEN_MODE_READ);

void *zip_handle = mz_zip_open(mem_stream, MZ_OPEN_MODE_READ);
// do unzip operations

mz_stream_mem_delete(&mem_stream);

To create a zip file in memory first create a growable memory stream and pass it to the open function.

void *mem_stream = NULL;

mz_stream_mem_create(&mem_stream);
mz_stream_mem_set_grow_size(mem_stream, (128 * 1024));
mz_stream_open(mem_stream, NULL, MZ_OPEN_MODE_CREATE);

void *zip_handle = mz_zip_open(mem_stream, MZ_OPEN_MODE_WRITE);
// do unzip operations

mz_stream_mem_delete(&mem_stream);

For a complete example, see test_zip_mem() in test.c.

By default the library will read bytes typically one at a time. The buffered stream allows for buffered read and write operations to improve I/O performance.

void *stream = NULL;
void *buf_stream = NULL;

mz_stream_os_create(&stream)
// do open os stream

mz_stream_buffered_create(&buf_stream);
mz_stream_buffered_open(buf_stream, NULL, MZ_OPEN_MODE_READ);
mz_stream_buffered_set_base(buf_stream, stream);

void *zip_handle = mz_zip_open(buf_stream, MZ_OPEN_MODE_READ);

To create an archive with multiple disks use the disk splitting stream and supply a disk size value in bytes.

void *stream = NULL;
void *split_stream = NULL;

mz_stream_os_create(&stream);

mz_stream_split_create(&split_stream);
mz_stream_split_set_prop_int64(split_stream, MZ_STREAM_PROP_DISK_SIZE, 64 * 1024);

mz_stream_set_base(split_stream, stream);

mz_stream_open(split_stream, path..

void *zip_handle = mz_zip_open(split_stream, MZ_OPEN_MODE_WRITE);

• Requires #define MZ_WINRT_API

• Archives are required to have a central directory.
• Central directory header values should be correct and it is necessary for the compressed size to be accurate for AES encryption.
• Central directory encryption is not supported due to licensing restrictions mentioned by PKWARE in their zip appnote.
• Central directory is the only data stored on the last disk of a split-disk archive and doesn't follow disk size restrictions.