makecab - create a cab file from all the files in a folder

Question

I have bunch of files in a directory. I tried following makecab but it does not include all the files in a folder into the cab file.

makecab /d "C:\Users\crtorres\Documents\- SouthPacific Project 2014\- Projects\Sales Doc Center\New Region" test.cab

The following works but the cab file only has the manifest file. makecab manifest.xml test.cab

Psychiatry

Answer 1

I've finally created a script that can actually do this properly (with powershell)

It doesn't use WSPBuilder as I'm often contracted out and it's inconvenient to download new software/extra files. This works OOTB.

function compress-directory([string]$dir, [string]$output)
{
    $ddf = ".OPTION EXPLICIT
.Set CabinetNameTemplate=$output
.Set DiskDirectory1=.
.Set CompressionType=MSZIP
.Set Cabinet=on
.Set Compress=on
.Set CabinetFileCountThreshold=0
.Set FolderFileCountThreshold=0
.Set FolderSizeThreshold=0
.Set MaxCabinetSize=0
.Set MaxDiskFileCount=0
.Set MaxDiskSize=0
"
    $dirfullname = (get-item $dir).fullname
    $ddfpath = ($env:TEMP+"\temp.ddf")
    $ddf += (ls -recurse $dir | where { !$_.PSIsContainer } | select -ExpandProperty FullName | foreach { '"' + $_ + '" "' + ($_ | Split-Path -Leaf) + '"' }) -join "`r`n"
    $ddf
    $ddf | Out-File -Encoding UTF8 $ddfpath
    makecab.exe /F $ddfpath
    rm $ddfpath
    rm setup.inf
    rm setup.rpt
}

please let me know if i'm doing something wrong and/or could be better.

for reference:

http://www.pseale.com/blog/StrongOpinionSayNoToMAKECABEXE.aspx

NOTE: Change made by Jerry Cote, see edit notes

Schoolmistress

This is beautiful, but, usage: Open PowerShell; Paste this function into PowerShell; Hit Enter; compress-directory .\some-dir-to-compress .\filename.cab – Elgin

Just some usage issues to be aware of if anyone runs across this older post. Destination will not take a literal path. You can push / pop a location as a workaround. command would look something like "compress-directory c:\temp .\temp.cab" <br> Additionally cab files have issues when going above 2 gigabytes - 512bytes. As an additional option, Compression type LZX can be set as an alternative. – Carver

Does this script compresses the directory itself or everything under the directory? In other words, does it compress dir/ or dir/*? – Vasilikivasilis

@Vasilikivasilis try it and see. It appears to do dir/*. Also why has no one told me that i have a bug which removes the first character of every filename! fixed now. – Schoolmistress

@Elgin Also, you seem to need to press Enter twice after pasting the function – Vasilikivasilis

i think the script adds a prefix '/' to the files' name.. is it only whos getting it? – Queensland

This didn't work for me if files in different folders have the same name, so I ended up changing it to '"' + $_ + '" "' + $_.Substring($dir.Length + 1) + '"' } instead. (So path is contained in name) – Microcircuit

If you get (FCIFlushCabinet)Failure creating or writing cabinet file: <unknown C run-time error>, this is because the target is in the wrong syntax (drive:\folder\file.cab) instead of the correct syntax (.\file.cab). – Coup

Answer 2

/d switch cannot be used for files:

@echo off
dir /s /b /a-d >files.txt
makecab /d "CabinetName1=test.cab" /f files.txt
del /q /f files.txt

More info

EDIT here can be found a script that preserves the whole directory structure

Labuan

In some cases file path and name of "files.txt" is added to "files.txt" as well. Then files.txt will be in the test.cab, too. – Termless

/d "MaxDiskSize=0" can be added to makecab if you only want to create a single .cab file – Commode