When it comes to handling zip files, Windows users have always had the advantage with WinRAR that automatically helps to extract and compressing zip files. On the other hand, in case of Linux operating systems, users have to either download other compatible tools or perform the operation through command terminal.

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StuffIt Expander - Windows. Free tool to expand SITX, ZIP, ZIPX, SIT5, and RAR archives. Includes context menu support in Windows Explorer. StuffIt® Expander - iOS. Browse and open StuffIt and ZIP archives from cloud providers direct from your iPhone or iPad devices with this free. RAR is a free tool that is pre-installed on Windows operating systems but unfortunately doesn’t support Linux platforms. Unrar is compatible mostly for Linux distributions where you can easily install the package from the command terminal using the apt programs. Rar Expander is a MacOSX program which extracts the files contained in single or multi-volume RAR archives. It uses the official unRAR library internally so it is fully compatible with archives produced by WinRAR.

What is a .RAR File Extension?

For users who don’t know, a RAR file is a compressed file that is split into a set of multi-volume files. This is usually done in cases where there are large file sets that are needed to be shared or transferred, hence are compressed into a zip file. Similarly, for zip files, when they are transferred or downloaded from the internet need to be extracted. A number of tools are available to help extract and compress these files within seconds, regardless of their size or quantity.

Extracting RAR Files in Linux distributions

RAR is a free tool that is pre-installed on Windows operating systems but unfortunately doesn’t support Linux platforms. If you will try extracting in Ubuntu, the archive manager will show you the following dialogue box:

This is because the system won’t recognize the file type like Windows and does not have any supported tool to extract it. In other cases, it will also display an error somewhat like this:

Read on below to find out how you can install RAR tools on Linux and use those to open, extract, and compress a file.

How to Install Unrar tool in Linux

Unrar is compatible mostly for Linux distributions where you can easily install the package from the command terminal using the apt programs.

Open Command Terminal and type the following command(s) if you’re using Ubuntu or Debian based distros:

Or

If you are using Fedora distro, type the command in your command prompt:

For users using CentOS/ RHEL 64-bit distros, you can install the Unrar tool using these commands:

(Just remove ‘x64’ from the above command if you want to alter it for 32-bit systems)

How to Extract a RAR File in Linux

To open or extract a .rar extension file in your current working directory, type the following command in the terminal:

This will start extracting your file using the Unrar tool like this below:

Note: Since you have the Unrar tool, you can also perform these operations directly through the right click, besides using these commands on the terminal.

To open or extract a .rar extension file in any specific path or directory, type the following command in the terminal. This will extract the files and locate them in the specified directory.

If you want to open or extract a .rar extension file in their original directory, use the following command:

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How to View Contents inside a RAR File in Linux

A compressed file contains multiple files of large sizes that are zipped together inside it. If you want to list out all the file contents inside an archive file, use the command below. This will display a list of files with their name, size, time, date created and permissions.

Testing a RAR File in Linux

If for instance, you have downloaded a file from the internet and would like to test its integrity, the Unrar tools offers that too. The following command will do a complete check on the archive file and its contents, and then show the results. Type:

The unrar tool that we just downloaded uses the unrar command to carry out the above tasks. It lets you extract, list out and test files. There is no option for creating a rar file with this particular tool. Therefore, we will install another Linux command-line utility called RAR to create compressed/archive files.

Installing RAR in Linux

To install the RAR command option, type the following commands in the terminal:

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After you execute the commands, the result will be:

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Creating RAR Files in Linux

In order to create a .rar file in Linux distribution, you will need to run the following command:

This will create an archive file name ‘filename’ for the directory filename1. See how this will look like below:

Deleting Files from any Archive

Out of the multiple files in an archive, if you want to delete a particular file through the command terminal, type the following command:

Recovering deleted Archives

If you deleted an archive file by accident or lost it through data loss, don’t worry, you can always recover it back. The following command will recover the file back or will fix it if there has been any loss or damage.

Setting password on a Particular Archive

This incredible Rar tool lets you do a number of interesting things with your archive files from creating, deleting, and adding, to changing their directories and protecting them through passwords.

If you want to protect your files from unknown access or extraction, you can set a password on them. To password-protect your file, type the following command:

Now, to verify the changes, type the command to open the directory to see if it asks for password.

Wrap Up

RAR and UNRAR are very useful when it comes to handling and managing files in Linux. They provide multiple options to make your work easier and more convenient. When compared to Windows, things get a little complicated for Ubuntu, but these commands are simple, easy to execute and give results within seconds.

If you need more description on the commands, just the run the following two:

When I just got a RAR file from a friend, and prepared to extract it to see the content in RAR archive, I found it asked for a password to extract. If I have gotten RAR password from friend, the problem would be easy. But if both of us don't know or forget encrypted RAR file password, what shoud we do? Now we can talk this problem in two situations and find solutions to extract encrypted RAR file when there is password or not.

Situation 1: Extract Encrypted RAR File with Password

If RAR file is encrypted by your friend, probably he/she has the archive password. You can try to ask your friend for rar file password and then use it to extract encrypted rar file with password in compression software like WinRAR.

Step 1: When WinRAR is the only compression software on your computer, right click the encrypted rar file and click Extract files. Or run WinRAR and navigate to directory where encrypted RAR file is saved. Select RAR file and click Extract to.

Step 2: In Extraction path and options window, set Destination path under General tab and click OK.

Step 3: Type password in Enter password box for encrypted RAR file. Click OK.

Then you can see the extracted folder in the location you choose as destionation path. You have successfully extract encrypted RAR file with WinRAR etc software.

However, there is a possibility that encrypted RAR file password is forgotten or lost and there is no password backup. When this happens unfortunately, please go on to see the situation 2 which is about how to extract encrypted RAR file without password.

Situation 2: Extract Encrypted RAR File without Password

When there is no RAR password, RAR file password recovery would be required first, so we can use recovered password to extract password protected RAR archive. If you don't know which third-party tool could really help you now, just take RAR Password Genius and follow the steps below to easily and effectively recover RAR file password and extract RAR file.

Steps to extract encrypted RAR archive without password

Step 1: Get RAR Password Genius Standard or Professional edition and install it on your computer.

Step 2: Now run Standard edition and import encrypted RAR file into it with Open button.

Tip: RAR Password Genius Professional User Guide

Step 3: In Type of attack drop-down list, choose one from Brute-force, Mask, Dictionary or Smart. And make password recovery type settings for what you choose.

Step 4: Click Start button to recover encrypted RAR file password.

Step 5: Save encrypted RAR file password in a text.

Step 6: Run WinRAR and open encrypted RAR archive in WinRAR by clicking File Open archive.

Step 7: Click Extract to in toolbar and a window pops up.

Step 8: In Extraction path and options window, under General option, select or create a location in Destination path to save archive file you prepare to extract. Click OK and a new dialog appears and asks for RAR archive password.

Step 9: Type encrypted RAR file password in Enter password box. Click OK and successfully extract encrypted RAR file with recovered password.

As you see, no matter we have password to open RAR file or not, we can extract encrypted RAR file with the methods above. But it is still necessary to save RAR file password in a safe place, so we can use it when we need.

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