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2026-09-13 19:48:16 +01:00

compress_folder.py

2026-09-13 19:48:16 +01:00

README.md

2026-09-13 19:48:16 +01:00

README.md

📦 Folder Compressor

A command-line Python script that lets you pick any sub-folder and compress it into a .7z archive using 7-Zip with no compression (store mode) — maximum speed, zero CPU overhead.

Features

Browse and select from all sub-folders in any directory
Displays folder sizes before you choose
Real-time progress bar with:
- Percentage complete
- Elapsed time
- Live transfer speed (MB/s)
- File count
- Currently processing file name
Summary report on completion (source size, archive size, time, avg speed)
Color-coded terminal output (auto-disabled if not supported)
Cross-platform: Windows, macOS, Linux

Requirements

Python

Version 3.10 or higher is required (uses str | None union type syntax).

Check your version:

python --version
# or
python3 --version

No third-party packages are needed — only Python's standard library is used.

7-Zip

7-Zip must be installed and accessible on your system PATH.

Platform	Install command
Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)	`sudo apt install p7zip-full`
Linux (Fedora/RHEL)	`sudo dnf install p7zip p7zip-plugins`
macOS (Homebrew)	`brew install p7zip`
macOS (MacPorts)	`sudo port install p7zip`
Windows	Download installer from https://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Windows note: After installing, make sure C:\Program Files\7-Zip\ is added to your system PATH, or the script will auto-detect it from the default install location automatically.

Minimum version: 7-Zip 15.06 or newer is required for the -bsp1 progress flag used for real-time output. Most current installs will meet this requirement.

Verify 7-Zip is available:

7z i

Installation

No installation needed. Just download the script:

# Download compress_folder.py to any directory, then run it directly with Python

Optionally make it executable on Linux/macOS:

chmod +x compress_folder.py

Usage

Basic — scan the current directory

python compress_folder.py

Specify a directory to scan

python compress_folder.py /path/to/directory

On Linux/macOS (if made executable)

./compress_folder.py
./compress_folder.py /path/to/directory

On Windows

python compress_folder.py
python compress_folder.py C:\Users\YourName\Documents

Step-by-step walkthrough

1. Launch the script

📦  Folder Compressor
    Scanning: /home/user/projects

2. Browse the folder list

All sub-folders are listed with their sizes:

Available folders:

  [  1]  archive  (240.0 MB)
  [  2]  builds   (1.4 GB)
  [  3]  logs     (88.3 MB)
  [  4]  source   (320.5 MB)

Enter the number of the folder to compress:

3. Select a folder

Type the number and press Enter:

Enter the number of the folder to compress: 2

  ✔  Selected: builds
  Calculating source size… 1.4 GB

4. Watch real-time progress

The progress display updates live in your terminal:

  ████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   62%  elapsed 0m 08s  178.4 MB/s  files: 312
  ↳ builds/release/v2.1.0/installer.exe

Element	Description
`████░░░`	Progress bar filling left to right
`62%`	Percentage of files processed
`elapsed 0m 08s`	Time since compression started
`178.4 MB/s`	Rolling average throughput speed
`files: 312`	Number of files added so far
`↳ filename`	The file currently being processed

5. Completion summary

  ✅  Archive created successfully!
     Path     : /home/user/projects/builds.7z
     Source   : 1.4 GB
     Archive  : 1.4 GB
     Time     : 0m 09s
     Avg speed: 159.2 MB/s

The .7z archive is saved in the same parent directory as the folder you selected.

Compression settings

The script uses the following 7-Zip flags:

Flag	Value	Meaning
`-t7z`	—	Output format: 7z
`-mx=0`	0	Compression level 0 = store (no compression)
`-ms=off`	off	Solid archive disabled (faster for many files)
`-bsp1`	—	Stream progress output to stdout (enables live display)

Why no compression?
Store mode (-mx=0) copies files into the archive as-is without compressing them. This is ideal when:

Speed matters more than file size reduction
The contents are already compressed (videos, images, zip files, etc.)
You want to bundle files for transfer without the CPU cost of compression

How the real-time progress works

7-Zip does not write progress on separate lines — instead it continuously overwrites the same terminal line using special control characters. The exact character it uses depends on the platform:

Platform	Character used	Code
Linux / macOS	Backspace	`\x08`
Windows	Carriage return	`\r`

The script reads 7-Zip's output as a raw binary stream and splits on both characters, so progress is captured correctly on every platform. The percentage, file count, and current filename are extracted from each segment using a regex and rendered live into two reserved terminal lines that update in place.

Output location

The archive is always created in the same directory that contains the selected folder.

Example:

/home/user/projects/          ← scanned directory
    builds/                   ← selected folder
    builds.7z                 ← archive created here

If an archive with the same name already exists, 7-Zip will update it (adding/replacing files). Delete the existing .7z first if you want a clean archive.

Troubleshooting

7-Zip not found error

Ensure 7-Zip is installed (see Requirements above)
Confirm 7z is on your PATH: run which 7z (Linux/macOS) or where 7z (Windows)
On Windows, try re-installing 7-Zip and ticking the "Add to PATH" option, or place 7z.exe in C:\Program Files\7-Zip\ which the script checks automatically

Progress bar stays at 0% / no stats shown

This was a known bug that has been fixed. Make sure you are using the latest version of the script.
The root cause was that Windows 7-Zip uses \r to update progress lines while Linux/macOS uses \x08 (backspace). The old version only handled backspaces, so on Windows the progress stream was never parsed. The current version handles both.
If you still see 0% after updating, confirm your 7-Zip version is 15.06 or newer: run 7z i and check the version line at the top.

No progress bar / garbled output

The live progress display requires a terminal that supports ANSI escape codes
On older Windows CMD, switch to Windows Terminal or PowerShell
Progress and stats are still printed even if color/ANSI is not supported

SyntaxError on startup

Your Python version is below 3.10 — upgrade to Python 3.10+

Permission denied on folder

Run the script with elevated permissions (sudo on Linux/macOS, Run as Administrator on Windows)
Or select a folder you have read access to

Examples

# Compress a folder in the current directory (interactive)
python compress_folder.py

# Compress a folder inside a specific path
python compress_folder.py /mnt/data/backups

# Windows example
python compress_folder.py "C:\Users\Alice\Desktop"

License

This script is provided as-is for personal and commercial use. No warranty is expressed or implied.