How to unzip archive directly into target folder without creating a subfolder with the archive name (7zip, command line)?

Question

I'm using the 7zip command line interface to extract archives, like so:

7za.exe x -y {path_to_zipfile} -o{path_to_target_folder}

If my zipfile is named my_archive.7z, then I get the following filestructure in the target folder:

🗁 target_folder
 └─ 🗁 my_archive
     ├─ 🗋 foo.png
     ├─ 🗁 bar
     │   ├─ 🗋 baz.txt
     │   └─ 🗋 qux.txt
    ...

However, I don't want the subfolder 🗁 my_archive. I'm looking for flags to apply on the 7zip command such that everything extracts directly in the target folder, without creating the 🗁 my_archive subfolder.

---

NOTES

• I can't replace x with e because the filestructure shouldn't be lost (the e flag pushes all files to the toplevel).

• I'm working on a Windows 10 computer, but the solution must also work on Linux.

• I'm using the following version: 7-Zip (a) 19.00 (x64)

• Some background info: I'm calling 7zip from a Python program, like so:

  # Variables:
  # 'sevenzip_abspath': absolute path to 7za executable
  # 'zipfile_abspath': absolute path to zipped file (`.7z` format)
  # 'targetdir_abspath': absolute path to target directory
  commandlist = [
      sevenzip_abspath,
      'x',
      '-y',
      zipfile_abspath,
      f'-o{targetdir_abspath}',
  ]
  output = subprocess.Popen(
      commandlist,
      stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
      shell=False,
  ).communicate()[0]
  if output is not None:
      print(output.decode('utf-8'))
  

  I know I could do all kinds of things in Python after the unzipping has finished (move/rename directories, etc etc), but that's for plan B. First I want to check if there is an elegant solution.

• I'd like to stick to 7zip for reasons that would lead us too far here.

Answer 1

You can rename the top level folder to match the target folder before extracting the archive.

7za rn {path_to_zipfile} my_archive target_folder

This will permanently change the archive. If you don't want that, take a copy first.