C# Unable to unzip files zipped with CreateEntryFromFile

Question

As per this post I'm zipping SQL backup files with the code below:

using (ZipArchive zip = ZipFile.Open("test.bak", ZipArchiveMode.Create))
{
    zip.CreateEntryFromFile(@"c:\something.txt", "data/path/something.txt");
}

The zip file are created successfully with the correct file size. But I can't unzip the file. I get the the error:

The compressed (zip) folder is invalid or corrupted

I've tried using 7-zip and the build-in Windows 'Extract All' options. I also tried reinstalling the software with no luck.

My version of the code:

var fileName = Path.GetFileName(e.FullPath);
var newFile = dir + "\\" + fileName + ".zip";
var backupFile = txtBackupFolder.Text == "" ? "" : txtBackupFolder.Text + "\\" + fileName + ".zip";

using (ZipArchive zip = ZipFile.Open(newFile, ZipArchiveMode.Create))
{
    zip.CreateEntryFromFile(@e.FullPath, newFile);
}

Answer 1

Nkosi's post above did help, but I think what added to the problem was the escape characters in the newfile variable.

This does work:

using (ZipArchive zip = ZipFile.Open(newFile, ZipArchiveMode.Create))
{
    zip.CreateEntryFromFile(@e.FullPath, "mybackup.bak");
}

Answer 2

I faced this very issue, and mine was related to special characters in the file names I was generating (specifically, a : character). So my code looked like

using (ZipArchive zip = ZipFile.Open(newFile, ZipArchiveMode.Create))
{
    var title = GetTitleOfHtmlFile(); //code to get the file name to use
    zip.CreateEntryFromFile(@e.FullPath, title); // title = "Chapter 1: My Chapter.html"
}

As the title being generated contained path-unfriendly characters, while I could add the entry to a zip file, when I tried to unzip the file, the OS would freak out because it couldn't deal with the path-unfriendly characters in the entry's name.

I simply changed the title to include an extension method to strip out such things, as so

title.ReplaceScreenUnfriendlyChars("-");

With an extension method like this:

public static string ReplaceScreenUnfriendlyChars(
this string curString, 
string replacementString = "")
{
   return string.Join(replacementString, curString.Split(Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars()));
}