Using Tar and Zip to Upload or Download Large Websites

From OCS Support Wiki

Introduction

FTP is a great tool for downloading and uploading files, but when it comes to many small files (in the hundreds or thousands), it can be come slow, as information about each file has to be transmitted.

Using Zip to Upload Files to Your Website

If you have many files to upload to your website (for example, over 200), we recommend zipping them up into one for a much faster transfer. You can do this by using a zip file creation utility on your computer. Most operating systems come with native support to zip files into a folder.

Once you've zipped the files you need to transfer up, upload the zip file via FTP to your public_html folder. To extract the files out of the zip file, use this command via SSH (if you don't know how to connect to your account via SSH, please see Connecting_via_SSH):

cd ~/public_html
unzip yourfile.zip
rm -f yourfile.zip

Replace yourfile.zip with the filename you created. The above command extracts the files and removes the zip file you uploaded. Your files are now uploaded to your website.

Using Tar to Download Files to Your Website

A tar file is the UNIX/Linux equivalent of Zip for Windows. If you're running on Windows, you will need a program to open them (you can use WinZip or 7-Zip, as well as many other programs). To create a tarball archive of your website, connect via SSH and run:

cd ~/public_html
tar cz * > mysite.tar.gz

This will create a file called mysite.tar.gz, which you can download via FTP and extract on your system.