When I need a container of files, or of a directory that is already compressed (i.e. jpg images), there is no need to 'compress' into a zip file, so the following OS X Service will replicate the Compress 'right-click' with tar:
Tarfile="$1.tar"
count=1
cd "${@%/*}"
if [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
while [ -e "$Tarfile" ]
do
let count++
Tarfile="$1 $count.tar"
done
else
Tarfile="Archive.tar"
while [ -e "$Tarfile" ]
do
let count++
Tarfile="Archive $count.tar"
done
fi
/usr/bin/tar -chf "$Tarfile" "${@##*/}"Mac OS X Hints
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