If you prefer standard shell looping mechanics, you can combine a for loop with Bash’s globstar shell option. The globstar option allows the ** wildcard to match files across recursive subdirectories. Run the following commands in your terminal:
Unzip all .zip files under /data/incoming into folders named after each ZIP (e.g., file.zip → file/ ).
shopt -s globstar unzip **/*.zip
find . -name "*.zip" -exec unzip -o {} -d $(dirname {}) \; . : Starts the search in the current directory. -name "*.zip" : Targets all files ending in .zip . -exec ... \; : Runs a specific command for every file found. -o : Overwrites existing files without prompting.
-j jams paths (no directory structure inside ZIP), "*.txt" selects only text files. unzip all files in subfolders linux
If you are dealing with large datasets and want to utilize all CPU cores to speed up extraction, use GNU Parallel . You may need to install it first via your package manager (e.g., sudo apt install parallel or sudo dnf install parallel ).
find . -type f -name "*.zip" -print0 | xargs -0 -I {} -P 4 sh -c 'unzip -d "$(dirname "{}")" "{}"' (No prompts) find . -type f -name "*.zip" -execdir unzip -o {} \; Extract & Delete (Clean up space)
// is a specific GNU Parallel syntax that automatically extracts the directory name of the input file, serving the same purpose as dirname . Handling Advanced Scenarios 1. Extracting to a Unified Destination Folder
find . -type f -name "*.zip" -print | xargs -I {} unzip {} If you prefer standard shell looping mechanics, you
find . -type f -iname "*.zip" -exec sh -c 'unzip -d "$(dirname "{}")" "{}"' \; Use code with caution. 3. Deleting Zip Files After Successful Extraction
: (Optional) Overwrites existing files without prompting. Remove this if you want to be asked before overwriting. {} : A placeholder for the current file found by find .
To find all ZIP files and extract their contents inside the specific subfolder where each ZIP resides, run: find . -type f -name "*.zip" -execdir unzip {} \; Use code with caution.
find . -type f -name "*.zip" -exec unzip {} -d /path/to/destination \; Use code with caution. 🔄 Method 2: Using a Bash Loop shopt -s globstar unzip **/*
find . -type f -name "*.zip" -exec unzip -o {} -d /path/to/destination/ \; Use code with caution. Method 2: Using a Bash for Loop with globstar
file in the current directory and all subfolders and extracts them in their respective locations: find . -name -execdir unzip -o Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard : Starts the search in the current directory. -name "*.zip" : Filters for ZIP files only. : Executes the following command from the subdirectory containing the matched file. unzip -o "{}" to overwrite existing files without prompting. Ask Ubuntu 2. Specialized Scenarios
find . -name "*.zip" -type f -exec unzip -j {} "*.txt" -d {}.text_files \;
Linux offers several powerful command-line methods to automate this process. This comprehensive guide covers the best techniques to find and unzip all files in subfolders simultaneously, ranging from standard find commands to advanced shell scripts and parallel processing. 1. The Standard Approach: Using the find Command
for file in **/*.zip : Iterates through every zip archive found down the entire folder structure.