Here is a quick config tip on how to compress and extract files using RAR archive utility. First let’s see how we can compress directory using RAR. In our example we have a directory called my_files containing five files:
$ mkdir my_files $ touch my_files/file{1..5} $ ls my_files/ file1 file2 file3 file4 file5
To compress entire directory using RAR archive tool we use rar’s a
command. The below command will create a RAR archive called my_files.rar containing all five above files:
$ rar a my_files.rar my_files/ Creating archive my_files.rar Adding my_files/file5 OK Adding my_files/file4 OK Adding my_files/file3 OK Adding my_files/file2 OK Adding my_files/file1 OK Done $ ls -l my_files.rar -rw-rw-r--. 1 lrendek lrendek 307 Nov 3 06:55 my_files.rar
The syntax is same even when we need to compress only single file. In the next example we will create a RAR archive containing only a single file, file1 called file.rar:
$ rar a file.rar my_files/file1 Creating archive file.rar Adding my_files/file1 OK Done $ ls -l file.rar -rw-rw-r--. 1 lrendek lrendek 83 Nov 3 06:58 file.rar
In to following example we again compress entire directory my_files but we instruct RAR to use maximum compression:
rar a my_files.rar -m5 my_files/
To list the contents of RAR archive use l
command. For example to see what is inside of my_files.rar archive run:
$ rar l my_files.rar Archive my_files.rar Name Size Packed Ratio Date Time Attr CRC Meth Ver ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- file5 0 8 0% 03-11-14 06:52 -rw-rw-r-- 00000000 m5b 2.9 file4 0 8 0% 03-11-14 06:52 -rw-rw-r-- 00000000 m5b 2.9 file3 0 8 0% 03-11-14 06:52 -rw-rw-r-- 00000000 m5b 2.9 file2 0 8 0% 03-11-14 06:52 -rw-rw-r-- 00000000 m5b 2.9 file1 0 8 0% 03-11-14 06:52 -rw-rw-r-- 00000000 m5b 2.9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 0 40 0%
Now that we know how to archive files we can see how to extract files. In the next example we extract all files from my_files.rar archive:
$ unrar x my_files.rar OR $ rar x my_files.rar Extracting from my_files.rar Creating my_files OK Extracting my_files/file5 OK Extracting my_files/file4 OK Extracting my_files/file3 OK Extracting my_files/file2 OK Extracting my_files/file1 OK All OK
To extract only a single file from RAR archive you can specify the file ant its path as an rar argument. Next, example will extract on single file, file3:
$ unrar x my_files.rar my_files/file3 OR $ rar x my_files.rar my_files/file3 Extracting from my_files.rar Creating my_files OK Extracting my_files/file3 OK All OK