ops, wrong patch file,sorry. Attaching new one (ArtifactArchiverZip_II.patch)

Wrong component.

I have a concern about this feature. In my mind, as this doesn't pass the "is this feature worth another configuration?" test.

That is, you can just as well do this by adding a separate shell script step that creates a zip file, and archive it. The patch chooses somewhat arbitrary zip file name, too. If the goal is to save the storage space on the server, we should be able to handle this transparently from the users.

So I have to ask, what is the motivation for this feature?

It's for user convenience. One click is more simple can adding another step and writing one line script for compression. As for request the users to do the compression themselves - our experience is that most of the users just ignore it if they have to do it themselves.

If this is for convenience, I think it could be written as a plugin, instead of a modification of core, and then no extra UI elements would be created unless the Hudson admin wants this feature.

Strongly agreed - I don't think we should be doing this in core.