How to work with rar archives This note was created on 6/4/2020 This note was last edited on 1/31/2023 rar is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error recovery and file spanning. A ".rar" file may contain one or more files or directories. "rar" utility is used to compress file(s) and "unrar" to extract. === Usage === - Create a ".rar" archive from file(s): > rar a archive.rar file1 file2 Note: the same command is used to add new files to existing archive. Add "-r" to include all dirs/files under the parent directory. Add "-p" to encrypt file data. Add "-hp" to encrypt both file data and headers. Add "-rr10" to add recovery records to the archive. This way up to 10% of the compressed archive can become corrupt or unusable, and it will be able to recover the data through parity. - Create a ".rar" archive from file, while specifying the compression level (0 being worst, 5 best, and 3 default). For example, level 4: > rar a -m4 archive.rar file1 - Extract file(s) from archive: > unrar x archive.rar - Extract file(s) to specific directory: > unrar x archive.rar /home/$USER/Documents - Extract file(s) from archive to stdout: > unrar -p archive.rar - List all files in "archive.rar": > unrar l archive.rar Use "v" instead for verbose output. - Remove file(s) from archive: > rar d archive.rar file2 - Test compressed archive data ("unrar" also can be used): > rar t archive.rar