zip.js

Notable features

• Support of the Zip64 format
• Support of WinZIP AES and PKWare ZipCrypto encryption
• Support of PKWare DEFLATE64 decompression
• Support of simultaneous reads and writes to one or more zip files
• Integrated worker pool manager
• Customizable web workers and compression engines
• No third-party dependencies

This library depends on the Promise, the TypedArray, the Streams APIs and these ones optionally:

• Web Workers
• WebAssembly
• Compression Streams
• Web Crypto

Compatibility

This library works fully with the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Node.js, Deno, and Bun. The minimum supported versions depend on the imported build, cf. the Library variants and Bundle size sections:

Build	Chrome, Edge	Firefox	Safari	Node.js	Deno	Bun
WebAssembly builds: index.js (default), lib/zip-core-wasm.js, dist/zip.min.js, dist/zip-fs.min.js	76	102	15.1	18	1.0	0.7
"native" JavaScript builds: index-native.js, lib/zip-core-native.js, dist/zip-native.min.js, dist/zip-fs-native.min.js	76	102	14.1	18	1.0	0.7
"core" builds: lib/zip-core.js, lib/zip-core-reader.js, lib/zip-core-writer.js, lib/zip-core-custom.js, dist/zip-core.min.js, dist/zip-fs-core.min.js	80	113	16.4	18	1.19	1.3.3

• The requirements depend on how data is compressed and decompressed: the "core" builds rely on the Compression Streams API, while the other builds fall back on their embedded deflate implementation when the "deflate-raw" format is unavailable. When neither is usable, e.g. with the "core" builds on Chrome 80 to 102, zip.js wraps raw deflate data in the "gzip" format as a last resort, and stores entries uncompressed when writing data without any usable implementation. The embedded WebAssembly module uses bulk memory operations, hence the higher Safari requirement of the WebAssembly builds compared to the "native" JavaScript builds.
• Uncompressed entries only require the Streams API and the Blob reading methods, i.e. Chrome 76, Firefox 102, Safari 14.1, and Node.js 18, with any build. A worker script embedding the codecs, passed via workerURI or created via createWorker, also lifts the requirements of the "core" builds.
• When web-streams-polyfill is loaded on browsers without TransformStream, the WebAssembly builds work down to Firefox 79, and the "native" JavaScript builds down to Firefox 72. It only patches the scope where it is loaded, so running the codecs in the web workers requires a worker script importing the polyfill before the worker script of zip.js, cf. createWorker. Otherwise the worker script throws when it is evaluated and the codecs run in the main scope.
• Chrome 76 to 79 ignore the signal option of pipeTo(): aborting operations in progress has no effect on these versions, the data read or written remains correct.
• Deflate64 decompression and custom compression level values require an embedded deflate implementation, they are not available with the "core" builds.
• Reading and writing Zip64 files requires Safari 15 or higher.
• AES encryption and decryption run on an embedded JavaScript implementation, the Web Crypto API only accelerates the key derivation when available. Writing encrypted entries requires crypto.getRandomValues, exposed globally since version 19 in Node.js. Reading encrypted entries does not require the Web Crypto API.
• Entries encrypted with AES are written in the AE-2 format: the CRC-32 checksum of the content is not stored, so the zip file does not reveal anything about the encrypted content that could be used to verify guessed data without the password. The integrity of the data is guaranteed by the authentication code instead.
• The WebAssembly builds require, on pages with a Content Security Policy, the 'wasm-unsafe-eval' source ('wasm-eval' in extensions on Chromium 102 and older). Without it, zip.js falls back on the Compression Streams API. Use the "native" builds otherwise.

Reading untrusted zip files

zip.js validates untrusted input by default. The filenames returned by getEntries() are checked against path traversal: names containing .. segments, absolute paths, drive letters or UNC prefixes are rejected with an ERR_UNSAFE_FILENAME error. The data of an entry cannot be read outside the bounds of the zip file. Optional checks harden reading further: the checkOverlappingEntry option detects entries sharing bytes with other entries, the checkCrc32 option verifies the CRC-32 checksum of the extracted data, and strictness: "strict" detects duplicate filenames, ambiguous end of central directory records, and local file headers contradicting the central directory. The filename validation can be relaxed or disabled with the filenameValidation option; an application resolving paths from entry.filename, e.g. to write extracted files to disk, relies on it staying enabled.

Some checks remain the responsibility of the application:

• The total uncompressed size is not capped. Sum the uncompressedSize property of the entries and enforce a budget before getting the data.
• The number of entries is not capped. Use getEntriesGenerator() to enumerate the entries with an upper bound.
• Filenames are validated, never rewritten. Characters that are illegal on the target filesystem, e.g. reserved device names on Windows, must be handled before writing files to disk, for example with the normalizeFilename option.
• Only the decoded filename is validated. The rawFilename and rawComment properties expose the stored bytes as-is, and the global comment of the zip file is raw bytes too.
• The target of a symbolic link entry, exposed by the symlink property, is never validated: it can be absolute or escape the extraction directory with .. segments. It must be checked before being used to resolve a file.
• Entries which are themselves zip files are not extracted recursively.

Demos

• Create a zip file (source)
• Read a zip file (source)
• Zip Manager based on React (source)

Documentation

• API
• Tests

Installation

Warning: Make sure that the code is parsed in UTF-8, e.g. served with the HTTP header "Content-Type: application/javascript; charset=utf-8", otherwise filenames might be corrupted when reading zip files.

You can get the code via:

• JSR by importing zip.js as an ECMAScript module:

  import * as zip from "jsr:@zip-js/zip-js";

• or NPM by running:

  $ npm install @zip.js/zip.js

  • and importing the libary as an ECMAScript module:

    import * as zip from "@zip.js/zip.js";

  • or as a CommonJS module:

    const zip = require("@zip.js/zip.js");

Note: import * as zip imports the whole library. See the Bundle size section below to reduce the footprint of zip.js in your application.

You can also install manually the library by adding zip.min.js from the /dist directory in your project. Then, include zip.min.jsin your HTML page:

• as an AMD module:

  require(["/library_path/zip.min.js"], zip => {
    // ...
  });

• or as a regular script:

  <meta charset="utf-8"> <!-- make sure the script is parsed in UTF-8 -->
  ...
  <script type="text/javascript" src="/library_path/zip.min.js"></script>
  <script>
    // the zip API is in the `zip` global variable
    // ...
  </script>

Bundle size

zip.js is tree-shakeable: import named identifiers, e.g. import { ZipReader, BlobReader, TextWriter } from "@zip.js/zip.js";, and your bundler removes what you do not use, e.g. the whole write path if you only read zip files.

Smaller entry points are also available, e.g. @zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-core.js embeds neither the Web Worker code nor the WebAssembly module, pass workerURI and wasmURI to configure() instead. @zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-core-custom.js goes further and embeds no deflate implementation at all, cf. Custom web workers and compression engines. The prebuilt bundles in /dist are standalone files for script tags and AMD loaders, they are not tree-shaken.

The @zip.js/zip.js/external entry point offers the full API but references the Web Worker code and the WebAssembly module as external files instead of embedding them. Bundlers like webpack and Vite detect these references, emit zip-web-worker.js and zip-module.wasm as separate assets, and remove approximately 45KB of embedded payloads from the main bundle. The worker also runs from a real file URL. This avoids blob: restrictions on pages and browser extensions with a strict Content Security Policy. With Vite, add @zip.js/zip.js to optimizeDeps.exclude to resolve the assets during development. With bundlers which do not rewrite new URL(..., import.meta.url) expressions, copy the two files next to the output bundle. The prebuilt bundle zip-fs-external.min.js offers the same behavior without a bundler, it resolves the two files from its own directory: deploy the three files together.

Smaller compositions of this entry point are also available: @zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-fs-core-external.js excludes the MIME type table (approximately 23KB), getMimeType() then returns "application/octet-stream", and @zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-core-external.js also excludes the filesystem API. Both come with prebuilt ES module bundles in /dist. The full MIME type table remains available from any entry point via @zip.js/zip.js/mime-types.

Library variants

The library comes in two variants. The default variant embeds a WebAssembly build of zlib, while the "native" variant embeds a JavaScript port of zlib instead. This embedded code is used when compressing data with a non-default level, when decompressing Deflate64 entries, when the useCompressionStream option is set to false, or when the Compression Streams API is unavailable. Otherwise, both variants rely on the Compression Streams API and behave identically.

zip.js uses WebAssembly by default for more flexibility: the embedded zlib module works inside a web worker or in the main thread, and the same binary is shared between both contexts without duplicating any code. This also makes the default variant smaller. The "native" variant does not depend on WebAssembly, e.g. for React Native or pages with a Content Security Policy which does not allow wasm-unsafe-eval. React Native resolves the main entry point of the package to the "native" variant automatically.

You can import the "native" variant:

• as an ECMAScript module:

  import * as zip from "@zip.js/zip.js/index-native.js";

• or as a CommonJS module:

  const zip = require("@zip.js/zip.js/index-native.js");

• or manually by adding zip-native.min.js from the /dist directory in your project, as an AMD module or a regular script exposing the zip global variable.

The smaller entry points also have a "native" twin, e.g. @zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-core-native.js instead of @zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-core.js. The "native" variant is not available on JSR.

Custom web workers and compression engines

The createWorker option of configure() lets you create the web workers yourself, with the standard pattern below that bundlers like webpack and Vite detect statically to compile the worker script and its imports into a separate asset. It takes precedence over workerURI.

import { configure } from "@zip.js/zip.js";

configure({
  createWorker: () => new Worker(new URL("./zip-worker.js", import.meta.url), { type: "module" })
});

A custom worker script calls initWorker(), exposed by the @zip.js/zip.js/worker entry point. It can register an alternative deflate implementation: classes implementing the CompressionStream and DecompressionStream interfaces with the "deflate-raw" format, e.g. based on fflate. See the complete example in the API documentation of initWorker().

import { initWorker } from "@zip.js/zip.js/worker";
import { CompressionStreamFallback, DecompressionStreamFallback } from "./fflate-streams.js";

initWorker({ CompressionStreamFallback, DecompressionStreamFallback });

The @zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-core-custom.js entry point is designed for this use case: it offers the full API but embeds neither the web worker code nor any deflate implementation. Combined with createWorker, the compression engine of your choice then ships only once, in the worker script. In a test with fflate, the application bundle and the worker script weighed approximately 115KB in total, 43KB gzipped, versus approximately 158KB, 72KB gzipped, for the default entry point.

import { configure } from "@zip.js/zip.js/lib/zip-core-custom.js";

configure({
  createWorker: () => new Worker(new URL("./zip-worker.js", import.meta.url), { type: "module" })
});

The same classes can also be registered in the main thread via the CompressionStreamFallback and DecompressionStreamFallback options of configure(), e.g. when useWebWorkers is set to false. Like the embedded implementation they replace, they are used when useCompressionStream is set to false or when the Compression Streams API is unavailable. These options were previously named CompressionStreamZlib and DecompressionStreamZlib, the old names are deprecated but remain supported. The registered implementation also determines the support of custom compression level values and, via the "deflate64-raw" format, of Deflate64 decompression.

Build

The online builder generates a customized standalone build of zip.js directly in the browser, from the latest version published on npm. You can restrict the API to reading or writing zip files, include the web workers, choose the embedded compression implementation (WebAssembly, JavaScript, or none to rely on the Compression Streams API only), include the filesystem API, and download the result as a minified UMD or ES module file.

You can also build the library from the source code:

$ git clone https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/zip.js.git
$ cd zip.js
$ npm ci
$ npm run build

The bundles are generated in the /dist directory. npm test runs the test suite with Node.js, Deno and Bun, and npm run test-browsers runs it in Chrome, Firefox and Safari. See the /tests directory for more details.