How to Open rar file or Extract rar files under Linux or UNIX
RAR files are in compressed archive format, if you have downloaded rar files from the Internet, you need to unpack or unrar them (extract rar files).RAR is a proprietary file format for data compression and archiving, developed by Eugene Roshal.Under Linux and UNIX, use command called unrar. By default unrar is not being installed on Linux, FreeBSD or UNIX oses. You can install unrar command with the help of apt-get or yum command.
Install unrar command
Under Debian Linux, you need to type apt-get as follows to install unrar program:
# apt-get install unrar
If you are using Fedora core Linux then use yum command as follows (see discussion below):
# yum install unrar
If you are using FreeBSD, use:
# pkg_add -v -r unrar
If any of above, methods is not working for you, download binary package from official rarlab site:
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
Untar file
$ tar -zxvf rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz
Both unrar and rar commands are located in rar sub-directory. Just go to rar directory:
$ cd rar
$ ./unrar
Now copy rar and unrar to /bin directory:
# cp rar unrar /bin
How to use unrar
unrar command supports various options below are common options that you need to use everyday.
Task: To open rar (unpack) file in current directory type command:
$ unrar e file.rar
Please note that replace file.rar filename with your actual filename.
Task: List (l) file inside rar archive:
$ unrar l file.rar
Task: To extract (x) files with full path type command:
$ unrar x file.rar
(D) To test (t) integrity of archive, file type command:
$ unrar t file.rar
How to Copy, move, rename, and remove files in Linux
< Copying >
To copy files, you use the cp command. The following will copy file to file2. Note that if file2 doesn't exist, it'll be created, but if it exists, it'll be overwritten:
$ cp file file2
There aren't any undo commands in the Linux CLI, so accidentally overwriting an important file would probably make you pull your head off. The risk of doing so is smaller if you use the -i option ("interactive") with cp. The following does the same as the above, but if file2 exists, you'll be prompted before overwriting:
$ cp -i file file2
cp: overwrite `file2'? n
$
So it's a good idea to use the -i option whenever you're dealing with important files you don't want to lose!
If you want to copy file into directory dir1:
$ cp file dir1
The following would do the same as the above, copy file into dir1, but under a different name:
$ cp file dir1/file2
You can also copy multiple files into one directory with a single command:
$ cp file1 file2 file3 dir1
Note that if the last argument isn't a directory name, you'll get an error message complaining about it.
< Moving and renaming >
The mv command can be used for moving or renaming files. To rename a file, you can use it like this:
$ mv file file2
If file2 doesn't exist, it'll be created, but if it exists, it'll be overwritten. If you want to be prompted before overwriting files, you can use the -i option the same way as with cp:
$ mv -i file file2
mv: overwrite `file2'? y
$
To move the file into another directory:
$ mv file dir1
If you want to rename the file to file2 and move it into another directory, you probably already figured out the command:
$ mv file dir1/file2
< Removing files >
The rm command is used for removing files and directories. To remove a file:
$ rm file
If you use the -i option, you'll be prompted before removing the file:
$ rm -i file
You can also delete more files at once:
rm file1 file2
Be careful with the rm command! As I already told you, Linux doesn't have any undo commands, and it doesn't put files into Trash where you can save them later. Once you've deleted a file.
Ubuntu, fedora, centos, linux