Encryption ZIP – Create Encrypted (Password Protected) ZIP File

encryptionzip

How do I create an encrypted (password protected) zip file?

This will prompt for a password:

zip --encrypt file.zip files

This is more insecure, as the password is entered/shown as plain text:

zip --password (password) file.zip files

Warning, the standard zip encryption is very weak and is easily cracked.
Note, Use -r to zip directory and subdirectory recursively.

According to this thread you can use 7z for this. First install p7zip-full package with:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

Then either use the GUI or extract the archive with this command:

7z e /path/to/file

7z x /path/to/file

(second one preserves directory structure).

To encrypt a zip file after it has been created, you can use zipcloak

The syntax is:

zipcloak foo.zip

You will be prompted to give the password for the zip file called foo.zip

You can zip a file(s) in creating a zip file using the -e parameter i.e.

zip -e foo.zip file1