Use Rar Files in Ubuntu

While installing packages from the source, you may encounter files in the RAR format.

So the question is how do you unrar a file in Ubuntu?

Well, in this tutorial, I will walk you through the following:

• How to unrar files in Ubuntu
• How to create a RAR file in Ubuntu

How to unrar files in Ubuntu

To unrar files in Ubuntu, you'd have to install a CLI tool called unrar using the following command:

sudo apt install unrar

Once done, you can use the unrar command with the x option and it will extract files in the original directory structure:

unrar x Filename.rar

For example, here, I extracted files from the Scripts.rar file:

unrar x Scripts.rar

But you can do a lot more with the unrar command.

1. Unrar files to a different directory

By default, the unrar command will extract files in the current working directory but that's not always user want.

To unrar files to a different directory, all you have to do is append the path where the files need to be extracted as shown:

unrar x Filename.rar /path/to/extract

For example, here, I extracted to the subdirectory named New:

unrar x Scripts.rar New/

2. List file contents of a RAR file

If you want to list the contents of a RAR file to verify file contents, it can be achieved using the l flag:

unrar l Filename.rar

How to create RAR files in Ubuntu

Similar to unrar, you need a different CLI utility that will allow you to create and modify RAR files.

And for that purpose, you'd have to install rar using the following:

sudo apt install rar

Once done, you can create a RAR file by using the rar command in the following manner:

rar Filename.rar File1 File2 File3 File4 FileN

For example, here, I created a RAR file named Scripts.sh containing multiple scripts:

rar a Scripts cat.sh empty-string.sh length.sh lines.sh

And unlike unrar command, the rar command allows you to modify existing RAR files in various ways.

1. Delete a file from the RAR archive

There are times when you may want to remove some unnecessary files from a RAR file and in that case, you can use the d option:

rar d Filename.rar File_to_remomve

For example, here, I removed cat.sh from the Scripts.rar file:

rar d Scripts.rar cat.sh

2. Add files to the existing RAR archive

Want to update the existing RAR file by adding some files to it? It can easily be done using the u option as shown:

rar u Filename.rar File1 File2

For example, here, I added non-empty.sh file to the Scripts.rar:

rar u Scripts.rar non-empty.sh

To verify the process, you can list its contents:

3. Create password-protected  RAR files

If you want to create a RAR file enabled with password protection, you'd have to use the -p flag with the a as shown:

rar a -p Filename.rar File1 File2 File3 

Once you execute the rar command in the above manner, it will prompt you to enter the password (twice),

Let's say I want to create a password-protected RAR file named Hello.rar with few files then, I will be using the following:

rar a -p Hello.rar read.sh length.sh

And now, if I try to unrar protected file, it will ask for the password:

Want to unzip gz files? Here you go

If you have no idea how to extract files from the gz files, here's a detailed guide to help you:

Unzip gz Files in Ubuntu Command Line

Learn to extract .gz files in the Ubuntu command line with gzip and unzip commands.

Learn UbuntuSagar Sharma

I hope you will find this guide helpful. Have any questions? Leave a comment.