Open rar file or Extract rar files under Linux or UNIX
Q. How do I open rar archive files under Linux / UNIX operating systems?
A. RAR files are in compressed archive format, if you have downloaded rar files from the Internet, you need to unpack or unrar them (extract rar files).
RAR is a proprietary file format for data compression and archiving, developed by Eugene Roshal.
Under Linux and UNIX, use command called unrar. By default unrar is not being installed on Linux, FreeBSD or UNIX oses. You can install unrar command with the help of apt-get or yum command.
(See below for Windows XP info)
Install unrar command
Under Debian Linux, you need to type apt-get as follows to install unrar program:
# apt-get install unrar
If you are using Fedora core Linux then use yum command as follows (see discussion below):
# yum install unrar
If you are using FreeBSD, use:
# pkg_add -v -r unrar
If any of above, methods is not working for you, download binary package from official rarlab site:
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
Untar file
$ tar -zxvf rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
Both unrar and rar commands are located in rar sub-directory. Just go to rar directory:
$ cd rar
$ ./unrar
Now copy rar and unrar to /bin directory:
# cp rar unrar /bin
How to use unrar
unrar command supports various options below are common options that you need to use everyday.
Task: To open rar (unpack) file in current directory type command:
$ unrar e file.rar
Please note that replace file.rar filename with your actual filename.
Task: List (l) file inside rar archive:
$ unrar l file.rar
Task: To extract (x) files with full path type command:
$ unrar x file.rar
(D) To test (t) integrity of archive, file type command:
$ unrar t file.rar
How do I open rar file under Windows XP/NT/2000?
Windows XP or NT/2000 user
- If you are using Windows XP then I recommend to download Winrar. It is free download ( Free to try License) software.
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Related Other Helpful FAQs:
- Linux / UNIX command to open .gz files
- Howto open .daa files (Direct-Access-Archive) under Linux / UNIX
- Unzip files in particular directory or folder under Linux or UNIX
- How do I Compress a Whole Linux or UNIX Directory?
- How To Extract a Single File / Directory from Tarball Archive
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Tags: archive files, archiving, data_compression, extract rar linux, extract_rar_files, files_rar, Linux, linux rar, linux rar files, linux unrar, linux_freebsd, rar, rar file, rar file linux, rar files, rar files linux, rar linux, rar_command, UNIX, unix_oses, unrar, unrar linux, unrar_command, yum
February 21st, 2006 at 12:49 am
On my Redhat FC4… says there is no unrar or rar… does this package go under a different name?
[root@www ~]# yum install unrar
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: unrar
Nothing to do
February 21st, 2006 at 8:18 am
You need to point out to use dag RPM Repository for unrar command under Fedora Core Linux. I have following line in my /etc/yum.conf file:
[dag]
name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core
baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
Save file and import PGP key:
rpm –import http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
Upgrade your system by typing following command:
yum update
Install unrar:
yum install unrar
Or just download RPM file from dag site
December 27th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
nixcraft - that dag repo is giving a 404:
Setting up repositories
dag [1/4]
http://apt.sw.be/fedora/5/en/i386/dag/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404: Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:22:50 GMT
December 27th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Joe,
Grab unrar/rar software from http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm install the same. Type the following commands as root user:
cd /tmpwget http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
cd rar
cp rar unrar /bin
Now you can use rar and unrar
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Hi nix, well how to handle *.lzh file on linux?
I want to extract it….
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Eliade,
Files with .lzh or .lha extensions have been compressed with the LHa, LHarc, or LHx compression utilities. You need to use lha command.
lha x file.lhzDownload link
http://www.infor.kanazawa-it.ac.jp/~ishii/lhaunix/
Hope this helps
February 5th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Thanq.This info is exactly matched my requirement.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
hey nixcraft thanks for the info..
really helpful
February 7th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
This is just what I have been looking for, thanks!
February 26th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
when i try and use unrar i get the following error:
unrar: /lib/tls/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4′ not found (required by unrar)
how do i fix this? can someone perhaps kindly point me to another article or some instructions? thank you!
February 26th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Daniel,
What distro you are using? You need to have updated version of GLIBC.
March 17th, 2007 at 6:20 am
thanks dude it works! thanku for such an easy guide
March 29th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Thanks for this info! Ultimately this forwardet me to:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=542860.
That worked great for me. I think there might be a typo in the posting. I am using Centos Linux, so I thought I’d post what exactly I did:
•wget http://dag.wieers.com/packages/unrar/unrar-3.6.2-1.el4.rf.i386.rpm
•rpm -Uvh unrar-3.6.2-1.el4.rf.i386.rpm
•unrar e rarfile.rar
Cheers,
Richard
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:56 am
Thanks nixcraft for your nice guide, worked like a charm.
April 8th, 2007 at 2:11 am
How am i suppose to run these commands? Sorr
May 24th, 2007 at 9:52 am
How do I fix this error
Cannot find volume GA_-_S2E13_-_Begin_The_Begin.part2.rar
Grey’s Anatomy - Season 2 - Episode 13 - Begin The Begin.avi - CRC failed
Total errors: 1
i’m very sure that i’ve downloaded it and it is in my Desktop…
Thanks!
July 19th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Thanks for providing this info. Very helpful.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:49 am
cd /tmp
wget http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
cd rar
cp rar unrar /bin
but the result is
$ ./unrar
./unrar: /lib/tls/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4′ not found (required by ./unrar)
can any one tell me what is the problem?
August 10th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Very nice help for unrar, thanks
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Thanks Man.. The Unrar stuff works pretty nice.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Thanks
September 18th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
There is a program - RAR fix, able can extract information even from those compressed files that are protected with a password, works with all variants of this format and can recover data from archives and corrupt rar files with various compression rates and created in different software.
September 21st, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Here but it asks password to open the file
September 27th, 2007 at 5:20 am
hi, am using fedora linux and not able to install unrar using yum install unrar
it shows an error as No Match Argument rar.
please help me out of this.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I’ve heard you could also use 7zip to extract RAR files under *nix. That might be easier for some than using the method described in this post.
October 11th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
need some help with extracting .rar files on feisty fawn
October 15th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Hey thanks!
November 7th, 2007 at 12:29 am
you can use Winrar with WINE - you can decompress and create archives with and without password etc. You will get nag screen in 30 days but it will work further
November 18th, 2007 at 9:16 am
apt-get install unrar doesn’t work for debian.
For debian apt-get install unrar-free
Enjoy
Arif Meraj
Unix Administrator
Therapbd
November 24th, 2007 at 2:36 am
Installation For Suse 10 users:
# su
# yast2 -i unrar
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
For Ubuntu users (I’m using 7.10) you can find it in the Synaptic package handler menu.
Sorry for the translation if it is not accurate, I have the menu in Spanish.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Very helpful. I downloaded the binary package and followed the subsequent commands…
It works on Slackware, Yay! ^__^
January 25th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Hello when i execute ./rar i got this error
-bash-3.00# ./unrar
./unrar: /lib/tls/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4′ not found (required by ./unrar)
-bash-3.00#
any body can provid a help ,
Thanks
February 1st, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Hi,
I was getting same error.
I installed rar and unrar through rpm and its working fine.
rpm -ivh ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/dag/redhat/el3/en/i386/dag/RPMS/unrar-3.6.2-1.el3.rf.i386.rpmrpm -ivh ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/dag/redhat/el3/en/i386/dag/RPMS/unrar-3.6.2-1.el3.rf.i386.rpm
February 12th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
If you are searching for a GUI utility to extract and handle rar files with, there is PeaZip for Linux which comes handy:
http://peazip.sourceforge.net/
It runs both in Gnome and in KDE and is available as DEB and RPM.
February 16th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Great post!
Thank you!
February 18th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Carmel…thanks *so* much for the ifno re: peazip. I’m much more comfortable with a GUI and it was exactly was I was looking for. Worked perfectly!
February 19th, 2008 at 8:26 am
very useful one..
March 14th, 2008 at 8:37 am
I downloaded unrar successfully but i get an error when i try to open the file thats compressed. the error is:
Warning:You need to start extraction from a previous volume to unpack file.wmv
No files to extract
March 14th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I forgot to mention i a am using sidux [debian] live CD!
March 25th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
How?
file.001
file.002
…
file.par2
Possible?
April 10th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
thanx Mishu, nice to see Suse has a support here, i searched for long time… i will give a try tomorrow morning.
Mishu Says:
November 24th, 2007 at 2:36 am
Installation For Suse 10 users:
# su
# yast2 -i unrar
May 12th, 2008 at 3:27 am
cd /tmp
wget http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
tar -zxvf rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
cd rar
cp rar unrar /bin
when i put the last command it says:
cp: cannot create regular file `/bin/rar’: Permission denied
cp: cannot create regular file `/bin/unrar’: Permission denied
what do i do?
May 12th, 2008 at 8:32 am
igor,
Run last two command as a superuser (root).
May 12th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
vivek sorry i am new to this linux thing would you be able to tell me what exactly do i tyoe in the terminal? like the last two command you said with superuser but how do i write that? thank you very much i appreciate it.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:41 am
run “su -” and enter your root password, then issue your commands and you should receive no errors
May 30th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
thanks, it really works on fedora 8, keep blogging
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 am
Thanks!;)
June 10th, 2008 at 9:02 am
thanks a lot
June 13th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
# apt-get install unrar
It’s not work
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Package unrar is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package unrar has no installation candidate
Please, help (((
July 10th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Help, all those tools rar, peazip etc are very nice to use. But how can I extract a spawned rar archive?
Called *.rar, *.001 …
Thanks
July 19th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Thanks For The Very Good Description Here
It Worked Perfect For Me.
One Question
How Do I Extract Password Protected Rars
I Mean, I Have The Password, But How Do I Specify It In Command Line.
Need Syntax For That
July 19th, 2008 at 12:29 am
@celleke
Its Called Multi-Part Rars
You Dont Have To Do Anything Different For That
Heres The Ex.
unrar e file.part01.rar
unrar Looks For All The, I Tried And It Worked
file.partxx.rar and Extracts It For You
Hope It Helps
July 19th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Try
unrar e -p{password} file.rar
unrar e -pmySecrete demogame.rar
July 21st, 2008 at 11:16 am
has anyone a solution for that GLIBC problem?
although the libc.so.6 exists and has 777 the error appears, complete libc6 is installed. machine: debian7 minimal from netinst cd. thanks-a-lot!
July 30th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Same problem on Debian Etch…
unrar: /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4′ not found (required by unrar)
This problem seems to pretty old… Dating back to 2007 (and even older). No-one came with a solution… I’m starting to think this Linux shit isn’t the OS for me
Windows is easyer. So what if 99% of all viruses are made for Windows ? Ignorance is fucking biss…
July 31st, 2008 at 6:43 am
Everything is easy as long as you know what you’re doing
Windows ain’t easy. It’s frightening -> You don’t what what IT does ;-)))
July 31st, 2008 at 12:31 pm
There is something simply called ‘rar’ which uncompress AS WELL AS compress. That means you can create, read, modify RAR archives. Its free. I don’t know about its license.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:41 pm
aha, and where to get? googleing for “rar” could be difficult
July 31st, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Bill,
Type the following commands as root:
apt-get updateapt-get upgrade
apt-get update unrar
Here is output from my system:
cat /etc/debian_version4.0
unrarIf you need further assistance please feel free to use our forum as thread discussion is supported very well..
July 31st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Bill,
it is available for Fedora in freshrpms. I don’t about Debian based distros.
August 17th, 2008 (3 weeks ago) at 2:36 am
It works, thanks a lot.
Unrar and 7zip too. I install win-made version of 7zip (it was in my win distr’s collection) under WINE and it works great.