Zip individual files in powershell version 3 - windows

Question

we have windows 2012 servers and we have powershell version 3. I'm trying to zip log files individually in a folder based on date condition.
Compress-Archive is not available in version 3.
we do not have any 3rd party zip utilities like WinZip, 7z..etc
I tried using [System.IO.Compression.ZipFile] class but it has no flexibility to zip individual files.
My requirement is, to capture the log files based on date and send them through loop to zip each file and delete original file. Your help in this regard is much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

This answer works fine - it's using COM rather than pure .NET methods:
https://serverfault.com/a/456496/204875
Although, to be honest, I highly recommend downloading the portable version of 7zip and using that. No installation required, a lot more efficient and faster. If you can distribute a script, you can usually distribute an exe with it (although, yes, some environments are highly regulated).
Example:
$srcdir = "C:\tmp\in"
$zipFilepath = "C:\tmp\out"
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path $srcdir | where{! $_.PSIsContainer}
foreach($file in $files) {
$zipFilename = $file.name -replace '\.\w+$','.zip'
$zipFile = "$zipFilepath\$zipFilename"
#Prepare zip file
if(-not (test-path($zipFile))) {
set-content $zipFile ("PK" + [char]5 + [char]6 + ("$([char]0)" * 18))
(dir $zipFile).IsReadOnly = $false
}
else {
# exit loop if zipfile with same name exists
write-warning "$zipfile exists"
Continue
}
# create new COM object
$shellApplication = new-object -com shell.application
$zipPackage = $shellApplication.NameSpace($zipFile)
$zipPackage.CopyHere($file.FullName)
#using this method, sometimes files can be 'skipped'
#this 'while' loop checks each file is added before moving to the next
while($zipPackage.Items().Item($file.name) -eq $null){
Start-sleep -milliseconds 250
}
}
write-host "zipfiles created"
Result:
> dir -Recurse
Directory: C:\tmp\in
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:12 pm 5157 txt1.txt
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:12 pm 5157 txt2.txt
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:12 pm 5157 txt3.txt
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:12 pm 5157 txt4.txt
Directory: C:\tmp\out
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:13 pm 1997 txt1.zip
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:14 pm 1997 txt2.zip
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:14 pm 1997 txt3.zip
-a---- 30/12/2021 4:14 pm 1997 txt4.zip

Answer 2

This solution has been thoroughly tested on Windows Server 2012 and doesn't require the shell COM object. Consequently it can run unattended. I have scheduled it to run daily via Windows Task Scheduler.