> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.alphavps.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Working with RAR files under Linux - URL: https://blog.alphavps.com/working-with-rar-files-under-linux/ - Published: 2024-11-21T10:45:59.000Z - Updated: 2024-11-21T10:45:59.000Z - Author: David Filipov - Tags: Tutorials, Linux Basics, #series-linux-archives RAR, an acronym for **R**oshal **Ar**chive is a popular program used for compressing files for easier storage and transportation over the network. RAR is a proprietary compression format and while Linux distributions don’t come with built-in support for RAR, you can easily install utilities like `rar` to extract or create RAR archives. In this blog, we’ll guide you through installing the necessary tools and demonstrate a couple of common use cases in Linux. ## Installing RAR Ubuntu/Debian ``` sudo apt update sudo apt install rar ``` Fedora ``` sudo dnf install rar ``` CentOS/RHEL For CentOS and RHEL, you may need to enable the **EPEL** (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) before you can install rar ``` sudo dnf install epel-release sudo dnf install rar ``` ## Command syntaxes Rar uses the following syntaxis ``` rar [flag] [archive_name] [files_to_archive] ``` Here are some of the most common flags **a :** Creates archive; Add files to archive. **d :** Delete files from archive. **e :** Extract files to current directory. Does not create any subdirectories. **x** : Extract files with full path. **l :** List content of archive ## Create an archive Here is an example of creating an archive with the name "archive.rar" which includes the files "file1", "file2" and "file3" ``` rar a archive.rar file1 file2 file3 ``` Output: ``` root@hostname:~# rar a archive.rar file1 file2 file3 RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Evaluation copy. Please register. Adding file1 OK Adding file2 OK Adding file3 OK Done ``` We can also use the **a** flag to add a new file to an already existing archive. In this example, we want to add "file4" to our "archive.rar" file ``` rar a archive.rar file4 ``` Output: ``` root@hostname:~# rar a archive.rar file4 RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Evaluation copy. Please register. Updating archive archive.rar Adding file4 OK Done ``` ## Extract files from an archive To extract files from a .rar archive use the **e** flag ``` rar e archive.rar ``` Output: ``` root@hostname:~# rar e archive.rar RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Extracting from archive.rar Extracting file1 OK Extracting file2 OK Extracting file3 OK All OK ``` If you want to keep the full path of the files with directories you will need to use the **x** flag otherwise, you will extract all the files in your current directory. Let's say that along with the other 3 files in your archive, you have a directory called "dir1" with a file inside called "file4". You want to keep this path for file4 so you use the following command: ``` rar x archive.rar ``` Output: ``` root@hostname:~# rar x archive.rar RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Extracting from archive.rar Extracting file1 OK Extracting file2 OK Extracting file3 OK Creating dir1 OK Extracting dir1/file4 OK All OK ``` ## List contents of an archive In order to list the contents of an archive you can use the **l** flag ``` tar l archive.rar ``` Output: ``` root@hostname:~# rar l archive.rar RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Archive: archive.rar Details: RAR 5 Attributes Size Date Time Name ----------- --------- ---------- ----- ---- -rw-r--r-- 0 2024-10-11 14:30 file1 -rw-r--r-- 0 2024-10-11 14:30 file2 -rw-r--r-- 0 2024-10-11 14:30 file3 ----------- --------- ---------- ----- ---- 0 3 ``` ## Delete a file from an archive You can use the previously mentioned **l** flag to check the contents of an archive. Let's say we want to delete "file1" from the archive. Use the **d** flag in order to delete it. ``` tar d archive file1 ``` Output: ``` root@hostname:~# rar d archive.rar file1 RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Deleting from archive.rar Deleting file1 Done ``` ## Archive a folder Let's say that you want to archive your log folder with all the files inside it to have as a backup. You can do so with the following command: ``` rar a log_archive.rar /var/log ``` Output: ``` RAR 5.50 Copyright (c) 1993-2017 Alexander Roshal 11 Aug 2017 Trial version Type 'rar -?' for help Evaluation copy. Please register. Creating archive log_archive.rar Adding /var/log/dpkg.log OK Adding /var/log/lastlog OK Adding /var/log/fontconfig.log OK Adding /var/log/upgrade-policy-changed.log OK Adding /var/log/btmp OK Adding /var/log/wtmp OK Adding /var/log/bootstrap.log OK Adding /var/log/ubuntu-advantage.log OK Adding /var/log/apt/history.log OK Adding /var/log/apt/eipp.log.xz OK Adding /var/log/apt/term.log OK Adding /var/log/alternatives.log OK Adding /var/log/faillog OK Adding /var/log/dist-upgrade OK Adding /var/log/journal OK Adding /var/log/private OK Adding /var/log/apt OK Adding /var/log/unattended-upgrades OK Adding /var/log OK Done ```