I wrote a blog about [generating Mac-compatible zip files with SharpZipLib][1], the conclusion of which was to disable Zip64 compatibility. It was wrong, *wrong* I tell you.

The better solution is to just set the size of each file you add to the archive. That way you can keep Zip64 compatibility and Mac compatibility.

I owe this solution to the excellent SharpZipLib forum, [which covered this problem a while ago][2], but which I missed when I wrote the earlier blog.

Here’s an updated version of the zip tool in C# that makes Macs happy without annoying anyone else:

using System;
using System.IO;
using ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.Core;
using ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.Zip;

public class ZipTool
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
if (args.Length != 2) {
Console.WriteLine(“Usage: ziptool

“);
return;
}

using (ZipOutputStream zipout = new ZipOutputStream(File.Create(args[1]))) {
byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
string filename = args[0];

zipout.SetLevel(9);

// Set the size before adding it to the archive, to make your
// Mac-loving hippy friends happy.
ZipEntry entry = new ZipEntry(Path.GetFileName(filename));
FileInfo info = new FileInfo(filename);
entry.DateTime = info.LastWriteTime;
entry.Size = info.Length;
zipout.PutNextEntry(entry);

using (FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(filename)) {
int sourceBytes;
do {
sourceBytes = fs.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
zipout.Write(buffer, 0, sourceBytes);
} while (sourceBytes > 0);
}

zipout.Finish();
zipout.Close();
}
}
}

[1]: http://reliablybroken.com/b/2011/11/sharpziplib-and-mac-os-x/
[2]: http://community.sharpdevelop.net/forums/p/4982/18649.aspx#18649