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I'm using RHEL 5.6 and unzip-5.52-3.el5. I'm trying to unzip a big file, but I get the error:

unzip -o test.zip -d unzip/
error:  Zip file too big (greater than 4294959102 bytes)
Archive:  test.zip
warning [test.zip]:  4294967296 extra bytes at beginning or within zipfile

Is there another program that can work with large zip files or do I have to wait until unzip 6 comes to RHEL? (might be years!)

Thanks

5 Answers 5

50

If you've got Java on the box, you can use

jar xf test.zip
3
  • 1
    saved me from having to bug the SAs to install unzip6. Thanks!
    – plor
    May 15, 2013 at 20:19
  • 1
    life saved. [ beer token ]
    – Ade
    Oct 14, 2013 at 22:17
  • I had a 16+GB zip file downloaded from my wife's phone using AirDroid, and this trick saved me a lot of trouble!
    – Bob Bell
    Oct 10, 2014 at 18:52
6

You can either use javas jar, or (in my opinion) even better: 7-zip. Most distros allow for it to be installed from repos, so you can use for example (on ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
7z x huge.zip

Note how the command is not p7z or p7zip, but only 7z. Also the x option has no preceding -. Best of luck!

3
  • This answer has already been given 6 years ago. Jul 24, 2017 at 11:43
  • This method worked for me with a 16GB zip — I trust the jar method also works but did not try that. Thanks.
    – userabuser
    May 12, 2018 at 2:38
  • 1
    @GeraldSchneider This answer helped me regardless of when it was answered.
    – Mercurial
    Oct 11, 2019 at 7:08
5

I've found good success with 7-zip, it appears they have a fedora core build as well that might work for you, the downloads can be found at http://www.7-zip.org/download.html. Failing the fedora one, you can download the source and/or binary and try that.

4
  • I played around with 7-zip (7z), but when extracting files from my zip it kept saying unrecognised format.
    – Noodles
    Feb 15, 2011 at 1:54
  • 1
    Check if 7z isn't an alias for 7zr. Try running 7za. Feb 15, 2011 at 3:36
  • 1
    The package p7zip-full ships a command 7z, which accepts the x (extract) option. So in my case, using '7z x huge.zip' worked without issue.
    – RemusKaos
    Jul 24, 2017 at 11:22
  • 7z fails for me, says the file is corrupt. The most upvoted jar answer did work though Oct 24, 2019 at 2:14
4

I finally ended up rolling my own rpm's for unzip 6, they can be found here: http://www.noodles.net.nz/2011/02/15/unzip-6-for-rhel-5-6/

3
-2

I tried all the steps mentioned above to unzip the file, but failed miserably.

My last resort was to copy my zip file (11.1GB) into a hard drive and unzip it using 7 zip on Windows 8 OS.

Worked like a charm :D

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  • 1
    That is not an answer to this question. Jun 14, 2017 at 19:18
  • I tried in more ways than one to get it running on Linux... None of the solutions worked... So I'm giving a better alternative... Much more easier and hassle-free alternative.. Jun 19, 2017 at 7:21
  • Beyond 4 GB, linux is unable to unzip files... Windows I'm afraid has a much better mechanism to unzip huge zip files... So just giving out that info... Jun 19, 2017 at 7:23
  • No it's not, silly. Read above. Just don't use /bin/unzip
    – Warren P
    Jan 31, 2018 at 23:56
  • 1
    jar xf file.zip or 7z x file.zip and others are fine
    – Warren P
    Jan 31, 2018 at 23:57

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