-p (set Password) switch

Specifies password.

Syntax

-p{password}

{password}: Specifies password.

If a password is specified, and if the command creates or updates some archive (zip or 7z archive), 7-Zip will encrypt the data of the files in archive. But metadata (file names, file sizes, timestamps and other headers) will be stored without encryption, unless the additional switch -mhe is specified. If you want to encrypt both the data and the file names in a 7z archive, you must specify two switches: -p{password} and -mhe.

Note: 7-Zip doesn't support encryption of metadata (file names) for zip archives.

If -p switch is used without a password, 7-zip will prompt for a password during execution.

Examples

7z a -psecret archive.7z *.txt

compresses *.txt files to archive.7z using password "secret". File data will be encrypted, but file names will be stored without encryption.

7z a -psecret -mhe archive.7z *.txt

compresses *.txt files to archive.7z using password "secret". File data and file names will be encrypted.

7z x -psecret archive.zip

extracts all files from archive.zip using password "secret".

Commands that can be used with this switch

a (Add), d (Delete), e (Extract), rn (Rename), t (Test), u (Update), x (Extract with full paths)

Notes from this site

Not part of the 7-Zip manual. Written by this site; examples checked with 7-Zip 26.04.

How do I create a password-protected archive?

On Linux and macOS the official console binary is 7zz; on Windows it is 7z. File-name encryption (-mhe=on) needs the 7z format; zip has only -mem=AES256 for strong encryption.

7zz a -psecret secret.7z docs/
7zz a -psecret -mhe=on secret.7z docs/
7zz a -tzip -mem=AES256 -psecret a.zip docs/
7zz x -psecret secret.7z
7zz l -psecret secret.7z
7zz t -psecret secret.7z || echo failed

The password is secret, written right after -p. The second command also encrypts file names (7z only). The third makes an AES-256 zip; the default zip encryption (ZipCrypto) is weaker. Without -mhe, anyone can list the file names without the password. See -m for -mem and -mhe. To type the password instead of putting it in the command, use a bare -p and answer the prompt:

7zz a -p secret.7z docs/    # prompts; secret.7z is the archive name, not the password

Passwords in scripts

There is no environment-variable or password-file option. "-p$PW" works, with the whole switch quoted (this also protects spaces and $ in the password), but the password is visible in the process list and shell history. Piping is safer, because the prompt reads one line from a pipe. For piping, keep the bare -p, because without it nothing is encrypted:

printf '%s\n' "$PW" | 7zz a -p secret.7z docs/
printf '%s\n' "$PW" | 7zz x secret.7z

A wrong password makes t or x fail with exit code 2, so scripts can check $?. An existing -mhe archive keeps its encrypted names when you update it with u -psecret.

Common mistakes

Adding a space: -p secret prompts for a password and treats secret as a file name. Write -psecret.
Typing the password with the wrong case: passwords are case-sensitive, and t or x then fails.
Combining -mhe with zip: 7zz a z.zip 1.txt -psecret -mhe fails with "E_INVALIDARG : One or more arguments are invalid".
Listing or testing a -mhe archive without -p: 7-Zip prompts "Enter password:", which blocks a script (or ends with "Break signaled" if input is closed).

-p (set Password) switch

Syntax

Examples

Commands that can be used with this switch

See also