RAR and UNRAR example on Linux

Here is how to use rar/unrar commands to created zipped archived and then unzip or uncompress those archives.

# ls -la
total 2588
drwxrwxrwt    2 root     root         4096 Sep 23 17:19 .
drwxr-xr-x    8 root     root         4096 Sep 23 16:51 ..
-rw-------    1 root     root       347559 Sep 23 17:15 messages
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep 19 04:00 messages.1
-rw-------    1 root     root       534363 Sep 12 04:00 messages.2
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep  5 04:00 messages.3
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Aug 29 04:00 messages.4

# rar a test.rar *

RAR 3.60   Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Alexander Roshal   5 Aug 2006
Shareware version         Type RAR -? for help

Creating archive test.rar

Adding    messages                                                    OK
Adding    messages.1                                                  OK
Adding    messages.2                                                  OK
Adding    messages.3                                                  OK
Adding    messages.4                                                  OK
Done
#
# ls -la
total 2588
drwxrwxrwt    2 root     root         4096 Sep 23 17:19 .
drwxr-xr-x    8 root     root         4096 Sep 23 16:51 ..
-rw-------    1 root     root       347559 Sep 23 17:15 messages
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep 19 04:00 messages.1
-rw-------    1 root     root       534363 Sep 12 04:00 messages.2
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep  5 04:00 messages.3
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Aug 29 04:00 messages.4
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       117231 Sep 23 17:19 test.rar





#
# ls -la
total 2588
drwxrwxrwt    2 root     root         4096 Sep 23 17:19 .
drwxr-xr-x    8 root     root         4096 Sep 23 16:51 ..
-rw-------    1 root     root       347559 Sep 23 17:15 messages
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep 19 04:00 messages.1
-rw-------    1 root     root       534363 Sep 12 04:00 messages.2
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep  5 04:00 messages.3
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Aug 29 04:00 messages.4
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       117231 Sep 23 17:19 test.rar

# rm messages*
rm: remove `messages'? y
rm: remove `messages.1'? y
rm: remove `messages.2'? y
rm: remove `messages.3'? y
rm: remove `messages.4'? y

# ls -la
total 132
drwxrwxrwt    2 root     root         4096 Sep 23 17:20 .
drwxr-xr-x    8 root     root         4096 Sep 23 16:51 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       117231 Sep 23 17:19 test.rar

# unrar e test.rar

UNRAR 3.60 freeware      Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Alexander Roshal


Extracting from test.rar

Extracting  messages                                                  OK
Extracting  messages.1                                                OK
Extracting  messages.2                                                OK
Extracting  messages.3                                                OK
Extracting  messages.4                                                OK
All OK
#
# ls -la
total 2588
drwxrwxrwt    2 root     root         4096 Sep 23 17:21 .
drwxr-xr-x    8 root     root         4096 Sep 23 16:51 ..
-rw-------    1 root     root       347559 Sep 23 17:15 messages
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep 19 04:00 messages.1
-rw-------    1 root     root       534363 Sep 12 04:00 messages.2
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Sep  5 04:00 messages.3
-rw-------    1 root     root       534291 Aug 29 04:00 messages.4
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       117231 Sep 23 17:19 test.rar

Man pages of rar and unrar:

# which unrar
/usr/local/bin/unrar



# rar

RAR 3.60   Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Alexander Roshal   5 Aug 2006
Shareware version         Type RAR -? for help

Usage:     rar  - -  
               <@listfiles...> 


  a             Add files to archive
  c             Add archive comment
  cf            Add files comment
  ch            Change archive parameters
  cw            Write archive comment to file
  d             Delete files from archive
  e             Extract files to current directory
  f             Freshen files in archive
  i[par]=  Find string in archives
  k             Lock archive
  l[t,b]        List archive [technical, bare]
  m[f]          Move to archive [files only]
  p             Print file to stdout
  r             Repair archive
  rc            Reconstruct missing volumes
  rn            Rename archived files
  rr[N]         Add data recovery record
  rv[N]         Create recovery volumes
  s[name|-]     Convert archive to or from SFX
  t             Test archive files
  u             Update files in archive
  v[t,b]        Verbosely list archive [technical,bare]
  x             Extract files with full path


  -             Stop switches scanning
  ad            Append archive name to destination path
  ag[format]    Generate archive name using the current date
  ap      Set path inside archive
  as            Synchronize archive contents
  av            Put authenticity verification (registered versions only)
  av-           Disable authenticity verification check
  c-            Disable comments show
  cfg-          Disable read configuration
  cl            Convert names to lower case
  cu            Convert names to upper case
  df            Delete files after archiving
  dh            Open shared files
  ds            Disable name sort for solid archive
  e[+]    Set file exclude and include attributes
  ed            Do not add empty directories
  en            Do not put 'end of archive' block
  ep            Exclude paths from names
  ep1           Exclude base directory from names
  ep3           Expand paths to full including the drive letter
  f             Freshen files
  fcu[file]     Read archive comment from Unicode file
  hp[password]  Encrypt both file data and headers
  id[c,d,p,q]   Disable messages
  ierr          Send all messages to stderr
  ilog[name]    Log errors to file (registered versions only)
  inul          Disable all messages
  isnd          Enable sound
  k             Lock archive
  kb            Keep broken extracted files
  m<0..5>       Set compression level (0-store...3-default...5-maximal)
  mc       Set advanced compression parameters
  md      Dictionary size in KB (64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096 or A-G)
  ms[ext;ext]   Specify file types to store
  n       Include only specified file
  n@            Read file names to include from stdin
  n@      Include files in specified list file
  o+            Overwrite existing files
  o-            Do not overwrite existing files
  ol            Save symbolic links as the link instead of the file
  or            Rename files automatically
  ow            Save or restore file owner and group
  p[password]   Set password
  p-            Do not query password
  r             Recurse subdirectories
  r0            Recurse subdirectories for wildcard names only
  rr[N]         Add data recovery record
  rv[N]         Create recovery volumes
  s[,v[-],e] Create solid archive
  s-            Disable solid archiving
  sfx[name]     Create SFX archive
  si[name]      Read data from standard input (stdin)
  sl      Process files with size less than specified
  sm      Process files with size more than specified
  t             Test files after archiving
  ta      Process files modified after  in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format
  tb      Process files modified before  in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format
  tk            Keep original archive time
  tl            Set archive time to latest file
  tn      Process files newer than 
  to      Process files older than 
  ts[N]  Save or restore file time (modification, creation, access)
  u             Update files
  v             Create volumes with size autodetection or list all volumes
  v[k,b]  Create volumes with size=*1000 [*1024, *1]
  ver[n]        File version control
  vn            Use the old style volume naming scheme
  vp            Pause before each volume
  w       Assign work directory
  x       Exclude specified file
  x@            Read file names to exclude from stdin
  x@      Exclude files in specified list file
  y             Assume Yes on all queries
  z[file]       Read archive comment from file


#
#
#
#



# unrar

UNRAR 3.60 freeware      Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Alexander Roshal

Usage:     unrar  - -  
               <@listfiles...> 


  e             Extract files to current directory
  l[t,b]        List archive [technical, bare]
  p             Print file to stdout
  t             Test archive files
  v[t,b]        Verbosely list archive [technical,bare]
  x             Extract files with full path


  -             Stop switches scanning
  ad            Append archive name to destination path
  ap      Set path inside archive
  av-           Disable authenticity verification check
  c-            Disable comments show
  cfg-          Disable read configuration
  cl            Convert names to lower case
  cu            Convert names to upper case
  dh            Open shared files
  ep            Exclude paths from names
  ep3           Expand paths to full including the drive letter
  f             Freshen files
  id[c,d,p,q]   Disable messages
  ierr          Send all messages to stderr
  inul          Disable all messages
  kb            Keep broken extracted files
  n       Include only specified file
  n@            Read file names to include from stdin
  n@      Include files in specified list file
  o+            Overwrite existing files
  o-            Do not overwrite existing files
  or            Rename files automatically
  ow            Save or restore file owner and group
  p[password]   Set password
  p-            Do not query password
  r             Recurse subdirectories
  sl      Process files with size less than specified
  sm      Process files with size more than specified
  ta      Process files modified after  in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format
  tb      Process files modified before  in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format
  tn      Process files newer than 
  to      Process files older than 
  ts[N]  Save or restore file time (modification, creation, access)
  u             Update files
  v             List all volumes
  ver[n]        File version control
  vp            Pause before each volume
  x       Exclude specified file
  x@            Read file names to exclude from stdin
  x@      Exclude files in specified list file
  y             Assume Yes on all queries