Add to a 7-Zip archive: How to exclude certain file types/extensions?

Question

I want to archive a folder, but I want to exlude all media files.

How do I leave out *.avi and *.flac when archiving?

Asked and Answered here also....superuser.com/questions/28162/… — Moab, Sep 7, 2010 at 22:24
this page has lots of example and explanation of every param in each example. here: dotnetperls.com/7-zip-examples . for people who wanna deep dive — bh_earth0, Aug 28, 2018 at 11:37

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-20 23:05:00Z

69

Only possible solution is to use the command-line version (it doesn't work in the GUI [Add to Archive] dialog):

7z.exe a Archive.7z C:\Folder\* -r -x!*.avi -x!*.flac

The "Parameters" input box in the GUI can only be used for compression parameters and cannot be used with standard command line parameters.

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 6, 2010 at 3:47

Level1Coder

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6

Note that you might need to add r for recursive so it will be -xr!*.avi
– fedmich
Apr 21, 2014 at 0:00
11

If you use powershell make sure to wrap it quotes: "-x!*.config" I just lost half an hour over that!
– Clement
Aug 6, 2014 at 23:43
Just as reference, this is my batch file to backup my C# projects in folder "C:\prj": "C:Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a prj.7z "C:\prj*" -r -x!*.tmp -x!*.pdb -x!*.exe -x!*.dll pause
– Eric Ouellet
Jun 14, 2016 at 2:01
1

Interestingly enough, -r in my case was needed so that the extensions were actually excluded, but did recurse subdirectories with or without -r
– golimar
Feb 8, 2017 at 18:01
3

@Clement in case of powerShell single quotes should be used. PS has ignored -x switch in double quotes like you said. & $a7z a $archName $binpath $addfiles -m0=LZMA '-xr!*.config' '-xr!*.log' works like a charm for me
– oleksa
Jun 2, 2017 at 8:30

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Colin Maharaj · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-27 05:07:13Z

1

Also

7za -bt -mx9 a archive.7z d:\backups\*  -x!*.7z

and

7za -bt -mx9 a archive.7z d:\backups\*.*  -x!*.7z

Created different result. The one with *.* seem to work.

answered Dec 27, 2020 at 4:45

Colin Maharaj

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*.* will exclude filenames with no extension though...?
– micsthepick
May 24, 2022 at 22:32
@micsthepick is correct. *.* means "must have extension, but the extension can be anything". See sevenzip.osdn.jp/chm/cmdline/syntax.htm
– matt wilkie
Dec 1, 2022 at 22:09

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