I noticed that the command line 'zip' tool and Mac OS X's 'Compress XXX' option (available via right click in finder) are giving different output files. Not only is the size of the file a few hundred bytes bigger but the content is significantly different as well.
How can I find out what command the Finder is using for compression?
Take a look at An AppleScript to compress a Finder selection article.
try
tell application "Finder"
set theSelection to the selection
set selectionCount to count of theSelection
if selectionCount is greater than 1 then
error "Please select only one Finder item before running this script."
else if selectionCount is less than 1 then
error "Please select one Finder item before running this script."
else
set theItem to (item 1 of theSelection) as alias
set destFolder to (container of theItem) as alias
set itemName to name of theItem
end if
end tell
do shell script ("ditto -c -k --sequesterRsrc --keepParent " & quoted form of POSIX path of theItem & space & quoted form of (POSIX path of destFolder & itemName & ".zip"))
on error theError
tell me
activate
display dialog "Error: " & theError buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon stop
end tell
end try