Creating RAR archives in Linux is a simple and efficient way to compress and organize files. RAR, a proprietary archive format, is widely used due to its superior compression ratio and ability to handle large files. Developed by RARLAB, the RAR format is used in conjunction with WinRAR on Windows systems and the rar command-line utility on Linux systems.
Although rar isn't pre-installed on most Linux distributions, it can be easily installed through your distribution's default package manager. Once installed, you can create, extract, and manage RAR archives using the terminal application.
Related: view-rar-file-content
Steps to compress file and folder using rar in Linux:
- Open your preferred terminal application such as Konsole or GNOME Terminal.
- Install the RAR utility for your specific Linux distribution.
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install --assume-yes rar # Ubuntu and Debian
- Navigate to the directory containing the files and folders you want to archive.
$ cd /home/user $ ls archive
- Create a RAR archive of the selected files and folders.
$ rar a archive.rar archive RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Evaluation copy. Please register. Creating archive archive.rar Adding archive/folder-02/file-02 OK Adding archive/folder-02/file-01 OK Adding archive/folder-01/file-02 OK Adding archive/folder-01/file-01 OK Adding archive/folder-02 OK Adding archive/folder-01 OK Adding archive OK Done
Other options for rar command:
RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Usage: rar <command> -<switch 1> -<switch N> <archive> <files...> <@listfiles...> <path_to_extract\> <Commands> a Add files to archive c Add archive comment ch Change archive parameters cw Write archive comment to file d Delete files from archive e Extract files without archived paths f Freshen files in archive i[par]=<str> Find string in archives k Lock archive l[t[a],b] List archive contents [technical[all], 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[a],b] Verbosely list archive contents [technical[all],bare] x Extract files with full path <Switches> - Stop switches scanning @[+] Disable [enable] file lists ad Append archive name to destination path ag[format] Generate archive name using the current date ai Ignore file attributes ap<path> Set path inside archive as Synchronize archive contents 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 dw Wipe files after archiving e[+]<attr> 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 hp[password] Encrypt both file data and headers ht[b|c] Select hash type [BLAKE2,CRC32] for file checksum 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 iver Display the version number k Lock archive kb Keep broken extracted files log[f][=name] Write names to log file m<0..5> Set compression level (0-store...3-default...5-maximal) ma[4|5] Specify a version of archiving format mc<par> Set advanced compression parameters md<n>[k,m,g] Dictionary size in KB, MB or GB ms[ext;ext] Specify file types to store mt<threads> Set the number of threads n<file> Additionally filter included files n@ Read additional filter masks from stdin n@<list> Read additional filter masks from list file o[+|-] Set the overwrite mode oh Save hard links as the link instead of the file oi[0-4][:min] Save identical files as references ol[a] Process symbolic links as the link [absolute paths] or Rename files automatically ow Save or restore file owner and group p[password] Set password p- Do not query password qo[-|+] Add quick open information [none|force] r Recurse subdirectories r- Disable recursion r0 Recurse subdirectories for wildcard names only rr[N] Add data recovery record rv[N] Create recovery volumes s[<N>,v[-],e] Create solid archive s- Disable solid archiving sc<chr>[obj] Specify the character set sfx[name] Create SFX archive si[name] Read data from standard input (stdin) sl<size> Process files with size less than specified sm<size> Process files with size more than specified t Test files after archiving ta<date> Process files modified after <date> in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format tb<date> Process files modified before <date> in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format tk Keep original archive time tl Set archive time to latest file tn<time> Process files newer than <time> to<time> Process files older than <time> ts[m|c|a] Save or restore file time (modification, creation, access) u Update files v<size>[k,b] Create volumes with size=<size>*1000 [*1024, *1] ver[n] File version control vn Use the old style volume naming scheme vp Pause before each volume w<path> Assign work directory x<file> Exclude specified file x@ Read file names to exclude from stdin x@<list> Exclude files listed in specified list file y Assume Yes on all queries z[file] Read archive comment from file - View information of the newly created rar archive file.
$ file archive.rar archive.rar: RAR archive data, v5 $ ls -lh archive.rar -rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 412 Nov 3 08:32 archive.rar
Author: Mohd
Shakir Zakaria
Mohd Shakir Zakaria is an experienced cloud architect with a strong development and open-source advocacy background. He boasts multiple certifications in AWS, Red Hat, VMware, ITIL, and Linux, underscoring his expertise in cloud architecture and system administration.
Mohd Shakir Zakaria is an experienced cloud architect with a strong development and open-source advocacy background. He boasts multiple certifications in AWS, Red Hat, VMware, ITIL, and Linux, underscoring his expertise in cloud architecture and system administration.
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