Zip files and empty folders
Found a truly bizarre problem with WinZip over the weekend. I zipped up the whole of a project I am working on, adding just the files that changed since a certain date. Then I sorted by folders and types and deleted a few thousand files that I didnt want in there, such as the Subversion .svn folders and files.
I ended up with a Zip file containing just 77 files. Cool.
Except, when I uploaded it to my server to unzip and update the application, the extraction produced hundreds of extra folders - and 4239 files, all in .svn folders.
Even now, my zip file *looks* like it contains 77 files.
But there are really over 4000 files in it. You just can't see them.
I've never seen or heard about this kind of thing before and of course Winzip.com is no help at all. Their whole website is now dedicated to extracting (no pun intended) every last dollar out of anyone who's running winzip. THIS SOFTWARE IS NOT FREE, and even better, YOU MUST PAY AGAIN TO UPGRADE. etc
Even so, I submitted a question for them about this zip file, and asked them how to fix it just in case it can help someone else...
UPDATE: It appears that i have 4000+ empty folders in my zip file - and they are "not listed in the main WinZip window for cosmetic reasons". It's not immediately clear how you are supposed to delete them if you can't see them. 
UPDATE 2: Call me dumb if you have to, but the only way to fix this that I've found is to select everything that you see in the zip file and extract it to a new folder. Then zip up those files again. Of course, it will look the same, but it isn't the same.
How can you tell? Hover over the zip file in Explorer and look at the status bar. The "corrupt" zip file will show many more items that the normal one.
ANSWER FROM WINZIP: "The empty folder name entries are normally not displayed in the WinZip window for cosmetic reasons, but Using Microsoft's 'regedit' utility from the 'run' option of the start menu will allow you to add a key to the registry to display the foldernames in the WinZip window. Locate the Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Nico Mak Computing\WinZip\WinZip
The 'string value' key 'ShowDirEntries' can be added, and then set to '1'; This will display the empty folder entries in the WinZip window."