Python; how to extract files without including parent directory

Question

I'm an noob when it comes to Python and I need help! I am trying to use the zipfile module for the latest version of Python 3 and I'm having trouble attempting to exclude the parent directory (folder) while preparing to extract the zip file.

An example of zip file directory looks like this:

Content/
Content/Runtime/
Content/Runtime/test.txt
Content/Runtime/test.png
Content/Documentation/
Content/Documentation/license.txt

I don't know how to exclude the parent directory (first folder) from extraction. I only want the Runtime & Documentation directory and its contents extracted.

Please help, thanks, and much appreciated!

Answer 1

In this case, the built-in methods for extraction won't work (as they extract the full path), but you can easily do it yourself:

import os
import shutil

destination_dir = './destination'

with zipfile.ZipFile('./tmp.zip', 'r') as z:
    # See https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipfile.html#zipfile.ZipFile.infolist
    for file_info in z.infolist():
        # Only extract regular files
        if file_info.is_dir():
            continue

        file_path = file_info.filename
        # Only extract things under 'Content/'
        if not file_path.startswith('Content/'):
            continue

        # Split at slashes, at most one time, and take the second part
        # so that we skip the 'Content/' part
        extracted_path = file_path.split('/', 1)[1]

        # Combine with the destination directory
        extracted_path = os.path.join(destination_dir, extracted_path)
        print(extracted_path)

        # Make sure the directory for the file exists
        os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(extracted_path), exist_ok=True)

        # Extract the file. Don't use `z.extract` as it will concatenate
        # the full path from inside the zip.
        # WARNING: This code does not check for path traversal vulnerabilities
        # Refer to the big warning inside the ZipFile module for more details
        with open(extracted_path, 'wb') as dst:
          with z.open(file_info, 'r') as src:
            shutil.copyfileobj(src, dst)