how to open nested zip file from another zip in ubuntu

To open a nested zip file from within another zip file in Ubuntu, you generally need to 

extract the inner zip file first. The standard unzip command does not have a built-in feature to directly access arbitrarily nested archives without an intermediate extraction step. 

However, you can use a few methods to streamline the process:

Method 1: Sequential Extraction (Command Line)

This is the most straightforward method using the standard unzip utility.

List the contents of the outer zip file to find the exact path/name of the inner zip file:

bash
unzip -l outer.zip 

Extract the specific inner zip file to a temporary directory. The -d option specifies the destination directory:

bash
unzip outer.zip "path/to/inner.zip" -d /tmp/unzip_temp 

Navigate to the temporary directory:

bash
cd /tmp/unzip_temp 

Extract the contents of the inner zip file (and any further nested zips if you wish) using standard unzip commands or a loop for recursive extraction:

bash
unzip inner.zip 

Access your desired files from there. 

Method 2: Using 7zip (Recommended for deep nesting)

The 7zip utility (command 7z) is generally better at handling various archive formats, including potentially nested ones, though direct "open from within" is still limited. It is not installed by default on Ubuntu, so you may need to install it: 

bash
sudo apt update sudo apt install p7zip-full 

You can then use it to extract the files. 7z might automatically handle some complex structures better than unzip. 

Method 3: Using archivemount (Mounting the archive as a filesystem)

For exploring deeply nested structures or specific files without extracting everything, you can use archivemount to mount the archive as a virtual filesystem. This allows you to browse it like a normal directory. 

Install archivemount:

bash
sudo apt install archivemount 

Create a mount point directory:

bash
mkdir /tmp/zip_mount 

Mount the outer zip file:

bash
archivemount outer.zip /tmp/zip_mount 

Browse the contents using standard Linux commands (ls, cd, cp, etc.).
The inner zip will appear as a file within this mounted directory, which you may also be able to mount using the same process.
Unmount the archive when finished:

bash
fusermount -u /tmp/zip_mount rmdir /tmp/zip_mount
