Resilient DOCX Text Extraction

Extract text from Microsoft Word (.docx) files using a robust two-tier approach: shell-based extraction as the primary method, with Python zipfile fallback when shell commands fail or return no output.

When to Use

• Python environment may lack python-docx but zipfile module is available (standard library)
• Working in constrained or inconsistent environments (containers, minimal images, CI/CD)
• Shell unzip command returns errors or no output
• Need reliable extraction with automatic fallback

Core Technique

DOCX files are ZIP archives containing XML files. This skill provides two extraction methods:

1. Primary (Shell): unzip -p + sed for fast extraction
2. Fallback (Python): zipfile module for reliable extraction when shell fails

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Verify the DOCX file exists

ls -la document.docx

2. Test shell extraction first (recommended)

Try the shell-based approach:

unzip -p document.docx word/document.xml 2>/dev/null | sed -e 's/<[^>]*>//g'

3. Check if shell extraction produced output

Verify the shell method returned content:

content=$(unzip -p document.docx word/document.xml 2>/dev/null | sed -e 's/<[^>]*>//g')
if [ -z "$content" ]; then
    echo "Shell extraction returned no output, trying Python fallback..."
fi

4. Use Python zipfile fallback if needed

When shell commands fail or return empty output, use Python's standard zipfile module:

python3 -c "
import zipfile
import sys
import re

try:
    with zipfile.ZipFile('document.docx', 'r') as z:
        content = z.read('word/document.xml').decode('utf-8')
        # Strip XML tags
        text = re.sub(r'<[^>]*>', '', content)
        # Clean whitespace
        lines = [line.strip() for line in text.split('\n') if line.strip()]
        print('\n'.join(lines))
except Exception as e:
    print(f'Error: {e}', file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)
"