---
name: "sozip"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "gdal"
version: "3.13.3-6"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sozip"
---

# sozip(1)

Generate a seek-optimized (SOZip) file. Added in version 3.7.

## NAME

sozip - Generate a seek-optimized (SOZip) file.

Added in version 3.7.

## SYNOPSIS

```
sozip [--help] [--help-general]
      [--quiet|--verbose]
      [[-g|--grow] | [--overwrite]]
      [-r|--recurse-paths]
      [-j|--junk-paths]
      [-l|--list]
      [--optimize-from=<input.zip>]
      [--validate]
      [--enable-sozip={auto|yes|no}]
      [--sozip-chunk-size=<value>]
      [--sozip-min-file-size=<value>]
      [--content-type=<value>]
      <zip_filename> [<filename>]...
```

## DESCRIPTION

The **sozip** utility can be used to:

- •

  create a *SOZip (Seek-Optimized ZIP)* file

- •

  append files to an existing ZIP/SOZip file

- •

  list the contents of a ZIP/SOZip file

- •

  validate a SOZip file

- •

  convert an existing Zip file in a SOZip optimized one

**TIP:**

Equivalent in new "gdal" command line interface:

See *gdal vsi sozip*.

- **--help**

  Show this help message and exit

- **--help-general**

  Gives a brief usage message for the generic GDAL commandline options and exit.

- **--quiet**

  Quiet mode. No progress message is emitted on the standard output.

- **--verbose**

  Verbose mode.

- **-g**

  - **--grow**

  Grow an existing zip file with the content of the specified filename(s). This is the default mode of the utility. This switch is here for compatibility with Info-ZIP **zip** utility

- **--overwrite**

  Overwrite the target zip file if it already exists.

- **-l**

  - **--list**

  List the files contained in the zip file in an output similar to Info-ZIP **unzip** utility, but with the addition of a column indicating whether each file is seek-optimized.

- **--validate**

  Validates a SOZip file. Baseline ZIP validation is done in a light way, limited to being able to browse through ZIP records with the InfoZIP-based ZIP reader used by GDAL. But validation of the SOZip-specific aspects is done more thoroughly.

- **-r**

  - **--recurse-paths**

  Travels the directory structure of the specified directory/directories recursively.

- **-j**

  - **--junk-paths**

  Store just the name of a saved file (junk the path), and do not store directory names. By default, sozip will store the full path (relative to the current directory).

- **--optimize-from=\<input.zip\>**

  Re-process {input.zip} to generate a SOZip-optimized .zip. Options *--enable-sozip*, *--sozip-chunk-size* and *--sozip-min-file-size* may be used in that mode.

- **--enable-sozip={auto\|yes\|no}**

  In **auto** mode, a file is seek-optimized only if its size is above the value of *--sozip-min-file-size*. In **yes** mode, all input files will be seek-optimized. In **no** mode, no input files will be seek-optimized.

- **--sozip-chunk-size=\<value\>**

  Chunk size for a seek-optimized file. Defaults to 32768 bytes. The value is specified in bytes, or K and M suffix can be respectively used to specify a value in kilo-bytes or mega-bytes.

- **--sozip-min-file-size=\<value\>**

  Minimum file size to decide if a file should be seek-optimized, in --enable-sozip=auto mode. Defaults to 1 MB byte. The value is specified in bytes, or K, M or G suffix can be respectively used to specify a value in kilo-bytes, mega-bytes or giga-bytes.

- **--content-type=\<value\>**

  Store the Content-Type for the file being added as a key-value pair in the extra field extension 'KV' (0x564b) dedicated to storing key-value pair metadata

- **\<zip\_filename\>**

  Filename of the zip file to create/append to/list.

- **\<filename\>**

  Filename of the file to add.

## MULTITHREADING

The *GDAL\_NUM\_THREADS* configuration option can be set to **ALL\_CPUS** or a integer value to specify the number of threads to use for SOZip-compressed files. Defaults to **ALL\_CPUS**.

## RETURN STATUS CODE

The program returns status code 0 in case of success, and non-zero in case of error (non-blocking errors emitted as warnings are considered as a successful execution).

## C API

Functionality of this utility can be done from C with *CPLAddFileInZip()* or *VSICopyFile()*.

## EXAMPLES

Create a, potentially seek-optimized, ZIP file with the content of my.gpkg:

```
sozip my.gpkg.zip my.gpkg
```

Create a, potentially seek-optimized, ZIP file from the content of a source directory:

```
sozip -r my.gpkg.zip source_dir/
```

Create a, potentially seek-optimized, ZIP file from an existing ZIP file.

```
sozip --convert-from=in.zip out.zip
```

List the contents of a ZIP file and display which files are seek-optimized:

```
sozip -l my.gpkg.zip
```

Validates a SOZip file:

```
sozip --validate my.gpkg.zip
```

## AUTHOR

Even Rouault \<even.rouault@spatialys.com\>

## COPYRIGHT

1998-2026