find . -name "*.zip" -type f | while read -r zipfile; do target_dir=$(dirname "$zipfile") unzip -o "$zipfile" -d "$target_dir" done This simple loop breaks if filenames contain newlines. For production scripts, use the -print0 and while IFS= read -r -d '' pattern:
find . -name "*.zip" -type f -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' zipfile; do unzip -o "$zipfile" -d "$(dirname "$zipfile")" done Sometimes you don’t want to preserve the subfolder structure—you want all extracted files dumped into one folder (e.g., ~/extracted ): unzip all files in subfolders linux
If you’ve ever downloaded a large dataset, a batch of game mods, or a collection of ebooks on Linux, you’ve likely encountered the same frustrating scenario: a parent folder filled with dozens (or hundreds) of subfolders, each containing one or more .zip archives. Opening each subfolder, right-clicking, and extracting manually is tedious, error-prone, and completely against the Linux philosophy of automation. -name "*
find "$SEARCH_DIR" -name "*.zip" -type f -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' zip; do target=$(dirname "$zip") echo "Extracting: $zip -> $target" unzip $OVERWRITE -q "$zip" -d "$target" if [ $? -eq 0 ] && [ "$DELETE_AFTER" = true ]; then rm "$zip" echo "Deleted: $zip" fi done -eq 0 ] && [ "$DELETE_AFTER" = true
find . -name "*.zip" -type f -exec unzip -o {} -d /path/to/target \; This extracts every ZIP directly into /path/to/target . If two ZIPs contain a file with the same name, the last one extracted overwrites the previous. Method 5: Recursive Unzipping (ZIPs inside ZIPs) What if some of those ZIP files themselves contain other ZIP files? The command above only extracts one level. To recursively extract until no ZIPs remain, use a loop:
#!/bin/bash # Usage: ./unzip-all.sh [directory] [--overwrite] [--delete] SEARCH_DIR="$1:-." OVERWRITE="" DELETE_AFTER=false
if [[ "$*" == "--delete" ]]; then DELETE_AFTER=true fi