The best way to do is like this:
``` import os import zipfile def zipdir(path, ziph): # ziph is zipfile handle for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path): for file in files: ziph.write(os.path.join(root, file), os.path.relpath(os.path.join(root, file), os.path.join(path, '..')))
with zipfile.ZipFile('Python.zip', 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zipf: zipdir('tmp/', zipf)
```

As others have pointed out, you should use [zipfile](http://docs.python.org/library/zipfile.html). The documentation tells you what functions are available, but doesn't really explain how you can use them to zip an entire directory. I think it's easiest to explain with some example code:
```python import os import zipfile def zipdir(path, ziph): # ziph is zipfile handle for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path): for file in files: ziph.write(os.path.join(root, file), os.path.relpath(os.path.join(root, file), os.path.join(path, '..')))
with zipfile.ZipFile('Python.zip', 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zipf: zipdir('tmp/', zipf) ```