Look into zlib.  I think it can do that, although I'm not 100% certain.  What I can tell you is that I'm virtually certain there are some libraries that allow you to do it.

I don't think C or C++ native libraries have zip support.

Probably zlib is the way to go: http://www.zlib.net/

It really depends on how you define "zip file". There are two different things:

1. Archives: a file that contains several files, and possibly directories.
2. Compressed files: a single file that is compressed using some algorithm.

zlib, and many other libraries (libbz2, minilzo, fastlzo, ...) only do the latter: compress a single file.

I guess by "zip file" you are talking about the compressed archive files that the "winzip" and co. produces, that has the .zip extension? If that is a case, zlib is not what you want. But you have several other choices of libraries:

• zziplib
• minizip
• 7zip SDK (a beast but has probably the best compression ratios)
• XZip (windows only)

Hope this helps :)

Had a quick look at "minizip" (the link labeled "1.1" on their website), file miniunz.c, the function "do_extract_onefile" does what you want. You might just copy-paste that function (and the ones it uses) and use it. (But don't forget the copyright)

I would suggest, Physicsfs, since it is a ready-to-go solution: http://icculus.org/physfs/