In Databricks, you can interact with zip files in DBFS (Databricks File System) in a few ways:

Creating Zip Files:

• Using Python Libraries: You can use standard Python libraries like zipfile and os to create zip files directly in DBFS. This approach works well for smaller files.

import zipfile
import os

with zipfile.ZipFile("/dbfs/path/to/my_archive.zip", "w") as zipf:
    for file in files_to_zip:
        zipf.write(file, os.path.basename(file))

• Using Command Line (Shell): If you’re dealing with larger files or directories, the zip command-line utility provides more efficient compression. You can use the %sh magic command to execute shell commands within a Databricks notebook cell.

%sh
zip -r /dbfs/path/to/my_archive.zip /dbfs/path/to/directory

Extracting Zip Files:

• Using the unzip Command: The most straightforward way to extract a zip file is using the unzip command in a shell cell.

%sh
unzip /dbfs/path/to/my_archive.zip -d /dbfs/path/to/extract

• Using Python Libraries: If you need more programmatic control, the zipfile library in Python allows you to extract files selectively.

import zipfile

with zipfile.ZipFile("/dbfs/path/to/my_archive.zip", "r") as zipf:
    for file in zipf.namelist():
        if file.endswith(".csv"):  # Extract only CSV files
            zipf.extract(file, "/dbfs/path/to/extract")

Important Considerations:

• DBFS Limitations: DBFS is primarily designed for object storage, not random writes. This means directly creating or modifying zip files in DBFS might be less efficient than working with local files first and then copying them to DBFS.

• Unity Catalog Volumes: If you are using Unity Catalog volumes, be aware that you cannot directly unzip files within a volume. You’ll need to copy the zip file to the driver node’s local storage, unzip it there, and then move the extracted files back to the volume.