Zip is a compressed archive file containing one or more files, as well as the act of creating it and its filename extension. Originally, such a "zip file" was created using PKWare's PKZIP utility program for MS-DOS.

History

The first two bytes of a zip file are the ASCII characters "PK" from Phil Katz, who developed the original PKZIP utility; "unzip" was the original corresponding de-archiver or the act of extracting files from a zip archive.

Due to the wide usage of the original program, the format has spread to Windows and Unix-based operating systems (such as Mac OS X and macOS), where the function is often built into file managers.^[1] Zip compression and decompression support is built into the Finder of macOS, and the Files app of iOS and iPadOS.^[2]

References

See also

• Archive Utility, a file compression utility included with macOS that can read zip files.

External links

• Zip and unzip files and folders on Mac at Apple Support
  • How to open ZIP files on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch (2021-01-25)
• ZIP (file format) at Wikipedia

This article is a stub. You can help the Apple Wiki by expanding it.

This page uses GFDL licensed content from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.