User's Manual

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RAR 5.61 console version
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Welcome to the RAR Archiver!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~

RAR is a console application allowing to manage archive files

in command line mode. RAR provides compression, encryption,
data recovery and many other functions described in this manual.

RAR supports only RAR format archives, which have .rar file name
extension by default. ZIP and other formats are not supported.
Even if you specify .zip extension when creating an archive, it will
still be in RAR format. Windows users may install WinRAR, which supports
more archive types including RAR and ZIP formats.

WinRAR provides both graphical user interface and command line mode.
While console RAR and GUI WinRAR have the similar command line syntax,
some differences exist. So it is recommended to use this rar.txt manual
for console RAR (rar.exe in case of Windows version) and winrar.chm
WinRAR help file for GUI WinRAR (winrar.exe).

Configuration file
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RAR and UnRAR for Unix read configuration information from .rarrc file
in a user's home directory (stored in HOME environment variable)
or in /etc directory.

RAR and UnRAR for Windows read configuration information from rar.ini file,
placed in the same directory as the rar.exe file.

This file may contain the following string:

switches=<any RAR switches separated by spaces>

For example:

switches=-m5 -s

It is also possible to specify separate switch sets for individual

RAR commands using the following syntax:

switches_<command>=<any RAR switches separated by spaces>

For example:

switches_a=-m5 -s
switches_x=-o+
Environment variable
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Default parameters may be added to the RAR command line by establishing

an environment variable "RAR".

For instance, in Unix following lines may be added to your profile:

RAR='-s -md1024'
export RAR

RAR will use this string as default parameters in the command line and
will create "solid" archives with 1024 KB sliding dictionary size.

RAR handles options with priority as following:

command line switches highest priority

switches in the RAR variable lower priority
switches saved in configuration file lowest priority

Log file
~~~~~~~~

If the switch -ilog is specified in the command line or configuration

file, RAR will write informational messages, concerning errors
encountered while processing archives, into a log file. Read switch
-ilog description for more details.

The file order list for solid archiving - rarfiles.lst

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rarfiles.lst contains a user-defined file list, which tells RAR

the order in which to add files to a solid archive. It may contain
file names, wildcards and special entry - $default. The default
entry defines the place in order list for files not matched
with other entries in this file. The comment character is ';'.

In Windows this file should be placed in the same directory as RAR

or in %APPDATA%\WinRAR directory, in Unix - to the user's home directory
or in /etc.

Tips to provide improved compression and speed of operation:

- similar files should be grouped together in the archive;

- frequently accessed files should be placed at the beginning.

Normally masks placed nearer to the top of list have a higher priority,
but there is an exception from this rule. If rarfiles.lst contains such
two masks that all files matched by one mask are also matched by another,
that mask which matches a smaller subset of file names will have higher
priority regardless of its position in the list. For example, if you have
*.cpp and f*.cpp masks, f*.cpp has a higher priority, so the position of
'filename.cpp' will be chosen according to 'f*.cpp', not '*.cpp'.

RAR command line syntax

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Syntax

RAR <command> [ -<switches> ] <archive> [ <@listfiles...> ]

[ <files...> ] [ <path_to_extract\> ]

Description

Command line options (commands and switches) provide control of

creating and managing archives with RAR. The command is a string (or a
single letter) which commands RAR to perform a corresponding action.
Switches are designed to modify the way RAR performs the action. Other
parameters are archive name and files to be archived into or extracted
from the archive.

Listfiles are plain text files that contain names of files to process.
File names should start at the first column. It is possible to
put comments to the listfile after // characters. For example,
you may create backup.lst containing the following strings:

c:\work\doc\*.txt //backup text documents

c:\work\image\*.bmp //backup pictures
c:\work\misc

and then run:

rar a backup @backup.lst

If you wish to read file names from stdin (standard input),

specify the empty listfile name (just @).

By default, console RAR uses the single byte encoding in list files,
but it can be redefined with -sc<charset>l switch.

You may specify both usual file names and list files in the same
command line. If neither files nor listfiles are specified,
then *.* is implied and RAR will process all files.

Many RAR commands, such as extraction, test or list, allow to use

wildcards in archive name. If no extension is specified in archive
mask, RAR assumes .rar, so * means all archives with .rar extension.
If you need to process all archives without extension, use *. mask.
*.* mask selects all files. Wildcards in archive name are not allowed
when archiving and deleting.

In Unix you need to enclose RAR command line parameters containing

wildcards in single or double quotes to prevent their expansion
by Unix shell. For example, this command will extract *.asm files
from all *.rar archives in current directory:

rar e '*.rar' '*.asm'

Command could be any of the following:

a Add files to archive.

Examples:
 1) add all *.hlp files from the current directory to
the archive help.rar:

rar a help *.hlp

2) archive all files from the current directory and subdirectories

to 362000 bytes size solid, self-extracting volumes
and add the recovery record to each volume:

rar a -r -v362 -s -sfx -rr save

Because no file names are specified, all files (*) are assumed.

3) as a special exception, if directory name is specified as

an argument and if directory name does not include file masks
and trailing backslash, the entire contents of the directory
and all subdirectories will be added to the archive even
if switch -r is not specified.

The following command will add all files from the directory
Bitmaps and its subdirectories to the RAR archive Pictures.rar:

rar a Pictures.rar Bitmaps

4) if directory name includes file masks or trailing backslashes,

normal rules apply and you need to specify switch -r to process
its subdirectories.

The following command will add all files from directory Bitmaps,
but not from its subdirectories, because switch -r is not
specified:

rar a Pictures.rar Bitmaps\*

c Add archive comment. Comments are displayed while the archive is

being processed. Comment length is limited to 256 KB.

Examples:

rar c distrib.rar

Also comments may be added from a file using -z[file] switch.

The following command adds a comment from info.txt file:

rar c -zinfo.txt dummy

ch Change archive parameters.

This command can be used with most of archive modification

switches to modify archive parameters. It is especially
convenient for switches like -cl, -cu, -tl, which do not
have a dedicated command.

It is not able to recompress, encrypt or decrypt archive data

and it cannot merge or create volumes. If used without any
switches, 'ch' command just copies the archive data without
modification.
 Example:

Set archive time to latest file:

rar ch -tl files.rar

cw Write archive comment to specified file.

Format of output file depends on -sc switch.

If output file name is not specified, comment data will be

sent to stdout.

Examples:

1) rar cw arc comment.txt

2) rar cw -scuc arc unicode.txt

3) rar cw arc

d Delete files from archive. If this command removes all files

from archive, the empty archive is removed.

e Extract files without archived paths.

Extract files excluding their path component, so all files

are created in the same destination directory.

Use 'x' command if you wish to extract full pathnames.

Example:

rar e -or html.rar *.css css\

extract all *.css files from html.rar archive to 'css' folder

excluding archived paths. Rename extracted files automatically
in case several files have the same name.

f Freshen files in archive. Updates archived files older

than files to add. This command will not add new files
to the archive.

i[i|c|h|t]=<string>
Find string in archives.

Supports following optional parameters:

i - case insensitive search (default);

c - case sensitive search;

h - hexadecimal search;
 t - use ANSI, Unicode and OEM character tables (Windows only);

If no parameters are specified, it is possible to use

the simplified command syntax i<string> instead of i=<string>

It is allowed to specify 't' modifier with other parameters,

for example, ict=string performs case sensitive search
using all mentioned above character tables.

Examples:

1) rar "ic=first level" -r c:\*.rar *.txt

Perform case sensitive search of "first level" string

in *.txt files in *.rar archives on the disk c:

2) rar ih=f0e0aeaeab2d83e3a9 -r e:\texts\*.rar

Search for hex string f0 e0 ae ae ab 2d 83 e3 a9

in rar archives in e:\texts directory.

k Lock archive. Any command which intends to change the archive

will be ignored.

Example:

rar k final.rar

l[t[a],b]
List archive contents [technical [all], bare].

'l' command lists archived file attributes, size, date,

time and name, one file per line. If file is encrypted,
line starts from '*' character.

'lt' displays the detailed file information in multiline mode.

This information includes file checksum value, host OS,
compression options and other parameters.

'lta' provide the detailed information not only for files,

but also for service headers like NTFS streams
or file security data.

'lb' lists bare file names with path, one per line,
without any additional information.

You can use -v switch to list contents of all volumes

in volume set: rar l -v vol.part1.rar

Commands 'lt', 'lta' and 'lb' are equal to 'vt', 'vta'

and 'vb' correspondingly.

m[f] Move to archive [files only]. Moving files and directories

results in the files and directories being erased upon
successful completion of the packing operation. Directories will
 not be removed if 'f' modifier is used and/or '-ed' switch is
applied.

p Print file to stdout.

You may use this command together with -inul switch to disable
all RAR messages and print only file data. It may be important
when you need to send a file to stdout for use in pipes.

r Repair archive. Archive repairing is performed in two stages.

First, the damaged archive is searched for a recovery record
(see 'rr' command). If archive contains the previously added
recovery record and if damaged data area is continuous
and smaller than error correction code size in recovery record,
chance of successful archive reconstruction is high.
When this stage has been completed, a new archive is created,
named as fixed.arcname.rar, where 'arcname' is the original
(damaged) archive name.

If broken archive does not contain a recovery record or if

archive is not completely recovered due to major damage,
second stage is performed. During this stage only the archive
structure is reconstructed and it is impossible to recover
files which fail checksum validation, it is still possible,
however, to recover undamaged files, which were inaccessible
due to the broken archive structure. Mostly this is useful
for non-solid archives. This stage is never efficient
for archives with encrypted file headers, which can be repaired
only if recovery record is present.

When the second stage is completed, the reconstructed archive

is saved as rebuilt.arcname.rar, where 'arcname' is
the original archive name.

By default, repaired archives are created in the current

directory, but you can append an optional destpath\ parameter
to specify another destination directory.

Example:

rar r buggy.rar c:\fixed\

repair buggy.rar and place the result to 'c:\fixed' directory.

rc Reconstruct missing and damaged volumes using recovery volumes

(.rev files). You need to specify any existing volume
as the archive name, for example, 'rar rc backup.part03.rar'

Read 'rv' command description for information about

recovery volumes.

rn Rename archived files.

The command syntax is:

 rar rn <arcname> <srcname1> <destname1> ... <srcnameN> <destnameN>

For example, the following command:

rar rn data.rar readme.txt readme.bak info.txt info.bak

will rename readme.txt to readme.bak and info.txt to info.bak

in the archive data.rar.

It is allowed to use wildcards in the source and destination

names for simple name transformations like changing file
extensions. For example:

rar rn data.rar *.txt *.bak

will rename all *.txt files to *.bak.

RAR does not check if the destination file name is already

present in the archive, so you need to be careful to avoid
duplicated names. It is especially important when using
wildcards. Such a command is potentially dangerous, because
a wrong wildcard may corrupt all archived names.

rr[N] Add data recovery record. Optionally, redundant information

(recovery record) may be added to archive. While it increases
the archive size, it helps to recover archived files in case of
disk failure or data loss of other kind, provided that damage
is not too severe. Such damage recovery can be done with
command "r" (repair).

RAR 4.x and RAR 5.0 archives use different recovery record
structure and algorithms.

RAR 4.x recovery record is based on XOR algorithm.

You can specify 4.x record size as a number of recovery sectors
or as a percent of archive size. To specify a number of sectors
just add it directly after 'rr', like 'rr1000' for 1000 sectors.
To use a percent append 'p' or '%' modifier after the percent
number, such as 'rr5p' or 'rr5%' for 5%. Note that in Windows
.bat and .cmd files it is necessary to use 'rr5%%' instead of
'rr5%', because the command processor treats the single '%'
as the start of a batch file parameter, so it might be more
convenient to use 'p' instead of '%' in this case.

RAR 4.x recovery sectors are 512 bytes long. If damaged area
is continuous, every sector helps to recover 512 bytes of
damaged information. This value may be lower in cases of
multiple damage. Maximum number of recovery sectors is 524288.

Size of 4.x recovery record may be approximately determined as

<archive size>/256 + <number of recovery sectors>*512 bytes.

RAR 5.0 recovery record uses Reed-Solomon error correction codes.

Its ability to repair continuous damage is about the same
as for RAR 4.x, allowing to restore slightly less data than
recovery record size. But it is significantly more efficient
than RAR 4.x record in case of multiple damaged areas.
 RAR 5.0 record does not use 512 byte sectors and you can specify
its size only as a percent of archive size. Even if '%' or 'p'
modifier is not present, RAR treats the value as a percent
in case of RAR 5.0 format, so both 'rr5' and 'rr5p' mean 5%.
Due to service data overhead the actual resulting recovery record
size only approximately matches the user defined percent
and difference is larger for smaller archives.

RAR 5.0 recovery record size cannot exceed the protecting

archive size, so you cannot use more than 100% as a parameter.
Larger recovery records are processed slower both when creating
and repairing.

RAR 5.0 recovery record is more resistant to damage of recovery

record itself and can utilize a partially corrupt recovery
record data. Note, though, that 'R' repair command does not fix
broken blocks in recovery record. Only file data are corrected.
After successful archive repair, you may need to create a new
recovery record for saved files.

Both 4.x and 5.0 records are most efficient if data positions
in damaged archive are not shifted. If you copy an archive
from damaged media using some special software and if you have
a choice to fill damaged areas with zeroes or to cut out them
from copied file, filling with zeroes or any other value is
preferable, because it allows to preserve original data positions.
Still, even though it is not an optimal mode, both versions
of records attempt to repair data even in case of deletions
or insertions of reasonable size, when data positions were
shifted. RAR 5.0 recovery record handles deletions and insertions
more efficiently than RAR 4.x.

If you use the plain 'rr' command without optional parameter,

RAR will set the recovery record size to 3% of archive size
by default.

Example:

rar rr5p arcname

add the recovery record of 5% of archive size.

rv[N] Create recovery volumes (.rev files), which can be later

used to reconstruct missing and damaged files in a volume
set. This command makes sense only for multivolume archives
and you need to specify the name of the first volume
in the set as the archive name. For example:

rar rv3 data.part01.rar

This feature may be useful for backups or, for example,

when you posted a multivolume archive to a newsgroup
and a part of subscribers did not receive some of the files.
Reposting recovery volumes instead of usual volumes
may reduce the total number of files to repost.

Each recovery volume is able to reconstruct one missing

or damaged RAR volume. For example, if you have 30 volumes
 and 3 recovery volumes, you are able to reconstruct any
3 missing volumes. If the number of .rev files is less than
the number of missing volumes, reconstructing is impossible.
The total number of usual and recovery volumes must not
exceed 255 for RAR 4.x and 65535 for RAR 5.0 archive format.

Original RAR volumes must not be modified after creating

recovery volumes. Recovery algorithm uses data stored both
in REV files and in RAR volumes to rebuild missing RAR volumes.
So if you modify RAR volumes, for example, lock them, after
creating REV files, recovery process will fail.

Additionally to recovery data, RAR 5.0 recovery volumes

also store service information such as checksums of protected
RAR files. So they are slightly larger than RAR volumes
which they protect. If you plan to copy individual RAR and REV
files to some removable media, you need to take it into account
and specify RAR volume size by a few kilobytes smaller
than media size.

The optional <N> parameter specifies a number of recovery

volumes to create and must be less than the total number
of RAR volumes in the set. You may also append a percent
or 'p' character to this parameter, in such case the number of
creating .rev files will be equal to this percent taken
from the total number of RAR volumes. For example:

rar rv15% data.part01.rar

RAR reconstructs missing and damaged volumes either when

using 'rc' command or automatically, if it cannot locate
the next volume and finds the required number of .rev files
when unpacking.

Original copies of damaged volumes are renamed to *.bad

before reconstruction. For example, volname.part03.rar
will be renamed to volname.part03.rar.bad.

s[name] Convert archive to SFX. The archive is merged with a SFX module
(using a module in file default.sfx or specified in the switch).
In the Windows version default.sfx should be placed in the
same directory as the rar.exe, in Unix - in the user's
home directory, in /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib.

s- Remove SFX module from the already existing SFX archive.

RAR creates a new archive without SFX module, the original
SFX archive is not deleted.

t Test archive files. This command performs a dummy file

extraction, writing nothing to the output stream, in order to
validate the specified file(s).

Examples:

Test archives in current directory:

rar t *
 or for Unix:

rar t '*'

User may test archives in all sub-directories, starting

with the current path:

rar t -r *

or for Unix:

rar t -r '*'

u Update files in archive. Adds files not yet in the archive

and updates archived files that are older than files to add.

v[t[a],b]
Verbosely list archive contents [technical [all], bare].

'v' command lists archived file attributes, size, packed size,

compression ratio, date, time, checksum and name, one file
per line. If file is encrypted, line starts from '*' character.
For BLAKE2sp checksum only two first and one last symbol are
displayed.

'vt' displays the detailed file information in multiline mode.

This information includes file checksum value, host OS,
compression options and other parameters.

'vta' provide the detailed information not only for files,

but also for service headers like NTFS streams
or file security data.

'vb' lists bare file names with path, one per line,
without any additional information.

You can use -v switch to list contents of all volumes

in volume set: rar v -v vol.part1.rar

Commands 'vt', 'vta' and 'vb' are equal to 'lt', 'lta'

and 'lb' correspondingly.

x Extract files with full path.

Examples:

1) extract 10cents.txt to current directory not displaying

the archive comment

rar x -c- dime 10cents.txt

2) extract *.txt from docs.rar to c:\docs directory

rar x docs.rar *.txt c:\docs\

3) extract the entire contents of docs.rar to current directory

 rar x docs.rar

Switches (used in conjunction with a command):

-? Display help on commands and switches. The same as when none

or an illegal command line option is entered.

-- Stop switches scanning

This switch tells to RAR that there are no more switches

in the command line. It could be useful, if either archive
or file name starts from '-' character. Without '--' switch
such a name would be treated as a switch.

Example:

add all files from the current directory to the solid archive
'-StrangeName'

RAR a -s -- -StrangeName

-@[+] Disable [enable] file lists

RAR treats command line parameters starting from '@' character

as file lists. So by default, RAR attempts to read 'filename'
filelist, when encountering '@filename' parameter.
But if '@filename' file exists, RAR treats the parameter
as '@filename' file instead of reading the file list.

Switch -@[+] allows to avoid this ambiguity and strictly

define how to handle parameters starting from '@' character.

If you specify -@, all such parameters found after this switch
will be considered as file names, not file lists.

If you specify -@+, all such parameters found after this switch
will be considered as file lists, not file names.

This switch does not affect processing parameters located

before it.

Example:

test the archived file '@home'

rar t -@ notes.rar @home

-ac Clear Archive attribute after compression or extraction

(Windows version only).

If -ac is specified when archiving, "Archive" file attribute

is cleared for successfully compressed files. When extracting,
-ac will clear "Archive" attribute for extracted files.
 This switch does not affect directory attributes.

-ad Append archive name to destination path.

This option may be useful when unpacking a group of archives.

By default RAR places files from all archives in the same
directory, but this switch creates a separate directory
for files unpacked from each archive.

Example:

rar x -ad *.rar data\

RAR will create subdirectories below 'data' for every unpacking

archive.

-ag[format]
Generate archive name using the current date and time.

Appends the current date string to an archive name when

creating or processing an archive. Useful for daily backups.

Format of the appending string is defined by the optional

"format" parameter or by "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS" if this parameter
is absent. The format string may include the following
characters:

Y - year
M - month
MMM - month name as text string (Jan, Feb, etc.)
W - a week number (a week starts with Monday)
A - day of week number (Monday is 1, Sunday - 7)
D - day of month
E - day of year
H - hours
M - minutes (treated as minutes if encountered after hours)
I - minutes (treated as minutes regardless of hours position)
S - seconds
N - archive number. RAR searches for already existing archive
with generated name and if found, increments the archive
number until generating a unique name. 'N' format character
is not supported when creating volumes.
When performing non-archiving operations like extracting,
RAR selects the existing archive preceding the first
unused name or sets N to 1 if no such archive exists.

Each of format string characters listed above represents only

one character added to archive name. For example, use WW for
two digit week number or YYYY to define four digit year.

If the first character in the format string is '+', positions

of the date string and base archive name are exchanged,
so a date will precede an archive name.

The format string may contain optional text enclosed in '{'

and '}' characters. This text is inserted into archive name.
 All other characters are added to an archive name without
changes.

If you need to process an already existing archive, be careful

with -ag switch. Depending on the format string and time passed
since previous -ag use, generated and existing archive names
may mismatch. In this case RAR will create or open a new archive
instead of processing the already existing one. You may use
-log switch to write the generated archive name to a file
and then read it from file for further processing.

Examples:

1) use the default YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format

rar a -ag backup

2) use DD-MMM-YY format

rar t -agDD-MMM-YY backup

3) use YYYYMMDDHHMM format, place date before 'backup'

rar a -ag+YYYYMMDDHHMM backup

4) use YYYY-WW-A format, include fields description

rar a -agYYYY{year}-WW{week}-A{wday} backup

5) use YYYYMMDD and the archive number. It allows to generate

unique names even when YYYYMMDD format mask used more than
once in the same day

rar a -agYYYYMMDD-NN backup

-ai Ignore file attributes.

If this switch is used when extracting, RAR does not set

general file attributes stored in archive to extracted files.
This switch preserves attributes assigned by operating system
to a newly created file.

If this switch is used when archiving, predefined values,

typical for file and directory, are stored instead of actual
attributes.

In Windows it affects archive, system, hidden and read-only

attributes. in Unix - user, group, and others file permissions.

-ao Add files with "Archive" attribute set

(Windows version only).

If -ao is used when archiving, only files with "Archive"

file attribute will be added to archive. This switch does not
affect directories, so all matching directories are added
regardless of their attributes. You can also specify -ed switch
 if you prefer to omit all directory records.

Example:

add all disk C: files with "Archive" attribute set

to the 'f:backup' and clear files "Archive" attribute

rar a -r -ac -ao f:backup c:\*.*

-ap Set path inside archive. This path is merged to file

names when adding files to an archive and removed
from file names when extracting.

For example, if you wish to add the file 'readme.txt'

to the directory 'DOCS\ENG' of archive 'release',
you may run:

rar a -apDOCS\ENG release readme.txt

or to extract 'ENG' to the current directory:

rar x -apDOCS release DOCS\ENG\*.*

-as Synchronize archive contents

If this switch is used when archiving, those archived files

which are not present in the list of the currently added
files, will be deleted from the archive. It is convenient to
use this switch in combination with -u (update) to synchronize
contents of an archive and an archiving directory.

For example, after the command:

rar a -u -as backup sources\*.cpp

the archive 'backup.rar' will contain only *.cpp files

from directory 'sources', all other files will be deleted
from the archive. It looks similar to creating a new archive,
but with one important exception: if no files are modified
since the last backup, the operation is performed much faster
than the creation of a new archive.

-cfg- Ignore configuration file and RAR environment variable.

-cl Convert file names to lower case.

-cu Convert file names to upper case.

-c- Disable comments show.

-df Delete files after archiving

 Move files to archive. This switch in combination with
the command "A" performs the same action as the command "M".

-dh Open shared files

Allows to process files opened by other applications

for writing.

This switch helps if an application allowed read access

to file, but if all types of file access are prohibited,
the file open operation will still fail.

This option could be dangerous, because it allows

to archive a file, which at the same time is modified
by another application, so use it carefully.

-dr Delete files to Recycle Bin

Delete files after archiving and place them to Recycle Bin.

Available in Windows version only.

-ds Do not sort files while adding to a solid archive.

-dw Wipe files after archiving

Delete files after archiving. Before deleting file data

are overwritten by zero bytes to prevent recovery of deleted
files, file is truncated and renamed to temporary name.

Please be aware that such approach is designed for usual

hard disks, but may fail to overwrite the original file data
on solid state disks, as result of SSD wear leveling technology
and more complicated data addressing.

-ed Do not add empty directories

This switch indicates that directory records are not to be

stored in the created archive. When extracting such archives,
RAR creates non-empty directories based on paths of files
contained in them. Information about empty directories is
lost. All attributes of non-empty directories except a name
(access rights, streams, etc.) will be lost as well, so use
this switch only if you do not need to preserve such information.

If -ed is used with 'm' command or -df switch, RAR will not
remove empty directories.

-en Do not add "end of archive" block

Not supported for RAR 5.0 archives.

By default, RAR adds an "end of archive" block to the end of

a new or updated archive. It allows to skip external data like
 digital signatures safely, but in some special cases it may be
useful to disable this feature. For example, if an archive
is transferred between two systems via an unreliable link and
at the same time a sender adds new files to it, it may be
important to be sure that the already received file part will
not be modified on the other end between transfer sessions.

This switch cannot be used with volumes, because the end

of archive block contains information important for correct
volume processing.

-ep Exclude paths from names. This switch enables files to be

added to an archive without including the path information.
This could result in multiple files with the same name
existing in the archive.

If used when extracting, archived paths are ignored

for extracted files, so all files are created in the same
destination directory.

-ep1 Exclude base dir from names. Do not store or extract the path
entered in the command line. Ignored if path includes wildcards.

Examples:

1) add all files and directories from 'tmp' directory to archive

'test', but exclude 'tmp\' from archived names path:

rar a -ep1 -r test tmp\*

This is an equivalent to commands:

cd tmp
rar a -r ..\test
cd ..

2) extract files matching images\* mask to dest\ directory,

but remove 'images\' from paths of created files:

rar x -ep1 data images\* dest\

-ep2 Expand paths to full. Store full file paths (except the drive
letter and leading path separator) when archiving.

-ep3 Expand paths to full including the drive letter.

Windows version only.

This switch stores full file paths including the drive

letter if used when archiving. Drive separators (colons)
are replaced by underscore characters.

If you use -ep3 when extracting, it will change

underscores back to colons and create unpacked files
in their original directories and disks. If the user
also specified a destination path, it will be ignored.
 It also converts UNC paths from \\server\share to
__server\share when archiving and restores them to
the original state when extracting.

This switch can help to backup several disks to the same

archive. For example, you may run:

rar a -ep3 -r backup.rar c:\ d:\ e:\

to create backup and:

rar x -ep3 backup.rar

to restore it.

But be cautious and use -ep3 only if you are sure that
extracting archive does not contain any malicious files.
In other words, use it if you have created an archive yourself
or completely trust its author. This switch allows to overwrite
any file in any location on your computer including important
system files and should normally be used only for the purpose
of backup and restore.

-e[+]<attr>
Specifies file exclude or include attributes mask.

<attr> is a number in the decimal, octal (with leading '0')

or hex (with leading '0x') format.

By default, without '+' sign before <attr>, this switch

defines the exclude mask. So if result of bitwise AND between
<attr> and file attributes is nonzero, file would not be
processed.

If '+' sign is present, it specifies the include mask.

Only those files which have at least one attribute specified
in the mask will be processed.

In Windows version is also possible to use symbols D, S, H,

A and R instead of a digital mask to denote directories
and files with system, hidden, archive and read-only attributes.
The order in which the attributes are given is not significant.
Unix version supports D and V symbols to define directory
and device attributes.

It is allowed to specify both -e<attr> and -e+<attr>

in the same command line.

Examples:

1) archive only directory names without their contents

rar a -r -e+d dirs

2) do not compress system and hidden files:

rar a -esh files

 3) do not extract read-only files:

rar x -er files

-f Freshen files. May be used with archive extraction or creation.

The command string "a -f" is equivalent to the command 'f', you
could also use the switch '-f' with the commands 'm' or 'mf'. If
the switch '-f' is used with the commands 'x' or 'e', then only
old files would be replaced with new versions extracted from the
archive.

-hp[p] Encrypt both file data and headers.

This switch is similar to -p[p], but switch -p encrypts

only file data and leaves other information like file names
visible. This switch encrypts all sensitive archive areas
including file data, file names, sizes, attributes, comments
and other blocks, so it provides a higher security level.
Without a password it is impossible to view even the list of
files in archive encrypted with -hp.

Example:

rar a -hpfGzq5yKw secret report.txt

will add the file report.txt to the encrypted archive

secret.rar using the password 'fGzq5yKw'

-ht[b|c]
Select hash type [BLAKE2,CRC32] for file checksum.

File data integrity in RAR archive is protected by checksums

calculated and stored for every archived file.

By default, RAR uses CRC32 function to calculate the checksum.

RAR 5.0 archive format also allows to select BLAKE2sp hash
function instead of CRC32.

Specify -htb switch for BLAKE2sp and -htc for CRC32 hash function.
Since CRC32 is the default algorithm, you may need -htc only to
override -htb in RAR configuration.

CRC32 output is 32 bit length. While CRC32 properties are

suitable to detect most of unintentional data errors,
it is not reliable enough to verify file data identity.
In other words, if two files have the same CRC32,
it does not guarantee that file contents is the same.

BLAKE2sp output is 256 bit. Being a cryptographically strong

hash function, it practically guarantees that if two files
have the same value of BLAKE2sp, their contents is the same.
BLAKE2sp error detection property is also more reliable than
in shorter CRC32.

Since BLAKE2sp output is longer, resulting archive is

 slightly larger for -htb switch.

If archive headers are unencrypted (no switch -hp), checksums

for encrypted RAR 5.0 files are modified using a special
password dependent algorithm, to make impossible guessing
file contents based on checksums. Do not expect such encrypted
file checksums to match usual CRC32 and BLAKE2sp values.

This switch is supported only by RAR 5.0 format, so you

need to use -ma switch with it.

You can see checksums of archived files using 'vt' or 'lt'

commands.

Example:

rar a -ma -htb lists.rar *.lst

will add *.lst to lists.rar using BLAKE2sp for file checksums.

-id[c,d,p,q]
Disable messages.

Switch -idc disables the copyright string.

Switch -idd disables "Done" string at the end of operation.

Switch -idp disables the percentage indicator.

Switch -idq turns on the quiet mode, so only error messages

and questions are displayed.

It is allowed to use several modifiers at once,

so switch -idcdp is correct.

-ieml[.][addr]
Send archive by email. Windows version only.

Attach an archive created or updated by the add command

to email message. You need to have a MAPI compliant email
client to use this switch (most modern email programs
support MAPI interface).

You may enter a destination email address directly

in the switch or leave it blank. In the latter case you
will be asked for it by your email program. It is possible
to specify several addresses separated by commas or semicolons.

If you append a dot character to -ieml, an archive will be

deleted after it was successfully attached to an email.
If the switch is used when creating a multivolume archive,
every volume is attached to a separate email message.

-ierr Send all messages to stderr.

-ilog[name]
Log errors to file.

Write error messages to rar.log file. If optional 'name'

parameter is not specified, the log file is created
using the following defaults:

Unix: .rarlog file in the user's home directory;

Windows: rar.log file in %APPDATA%\WinRAR directory.

If 'name' parameter includes a file name without path,

RAR will create the log file in the default directory
mentioned above using the specified name. Include both path
and name to 'name' parameter if you wish to change
the location of log file.

By default, log file uses UTF-16 little endian encoding,

but it can be changed with -sc<charset>g switch, such as -scag
for native single byte encoding.

Example:

rar a -ilogc:\log\backup.log backup d:\docs

will create c:\log\backup.log log file in case of errors.

-inul Disable all messages.

-ioff[n]
Turn PC off after completing an operation.

Use -ioff or -ioff1 to turn PC off, -ioff2 to hibernate,

-ioff3 to sleep and -ioff4 to restart. Appropriate power features
must be supported by operating system. Windows version only.

-isnd Enable sound.

-iver Display the version number and quit. You can run just "RAR -iver".

-k Lock archive. Any command which intends to change the archive

will be ignored.

-kb Keep broken extracted files.

RAR, by default, deletes files with checksum errors

after extraction. The switch -kb specifies that files
with checksum errors should not be deleted.

-log[fmt][=name]
Write names to log file.
 This switch allows to write archive and file names to specified
text file in archiving, extracting, deleting and listing commands.
Its behavior is defined by 'fmt' string, which can include one
or more of following characters:

A - write archive names to log file. If RAR creates or processes

volumes, all volume names are logged.

F - write processed file names to log file. It includes

files added to archive and extracted, deleted or listed
files inside of archive.

P - if log file with specified name is exist, append data

to existing file instead of creating a new one.

U - write data in Unicode format.

If neither 'A' nor 'F' are specified, 'A' is assumed.

'name' parameter allows to specify the name of log file.

It must be separated from 'fmt' string by '=' character.
If 'name' is not present, RAR will use the default rarinfo.log
file name.

It is allowed to specify several -log switches in the same

command line.

This switch can be particularly useful, when you need to process

an archive created with -ag or -v switches in a batch script.
You can specify -loga=arcname.txt when creating an archive
and then read an archive name generated by RAR from arcname.txt
with an appropriate command. For example, in Windows batch file
it can be: set /p name=<arcname.txt.

Examples:

1) write names of created volumes to vollist.txt:

rar a -v100m -loga=vollist.txt volume.rar c:\data

2) write the generated archive name to backup.txt in Unicode:

rar a -ag -logau=backup.txt backup.rar myfiles\*

3) write names of tested volumes to vollist.txt and names

of tested archived files inside of volumes to filelist.txt:

rar t -log=vollist.txt -logf=filelist.txt volume.part01.rar

-m<n> Set compression method:

-m0 store do not compress file when adding to archive

-m1 fastest use fastest method (less compressive)
-m2 fast use fast compression method
-m3 normal use normal (default) compression method
-m4 good use good compression method (more
compressive, but slower)
 -m5 best use best compression method (slightly more
compressive, but slowest)

If this switch is not specified, RAR uses -m3 method

(normal compression).

-ma[4|5]
Specify a version of archiving format.

By default RAR creates archives in RAR 5.0 format.

Use -ma4 to create RAR 4.x archives.
Use -ma5 or just -ma in case you need to override -ma4 saved
in configuration and force RAR to use RAR 5.0 format.

This switch is used only when creating a new archive.

It is ignored when updating an existing archive.

-mc<par>
Set advanced compression parameters.

This switch is intended mainly for benchmarking and

experiments. In the real environment it is usually better
to allow RAR to select optimal parameters automatically.
Please note that improper use of this switch may lead
to very serious performance and compression loss, so use
it only if you clearly understand what you do.

It has the following syntax:

-mc[param1][:param2][module][+ or -]

where <module> is the one character field denoting a part

of the compression algorithm, which has to be configured.

It may have the following values:

A - audio compression;
C - true color (RGB) data compression;
D - delta compression;
E - x86 executable compression;
I - Intel Itanium executable compression;
T - text compression.

RAR 5.0 archive format supports only 'D' and 'E' values.

'+' sign at the end of switch applies the selected algorithm

module to all processed data, '-' disables the module at all.
If no sign is specified, RAR will choose modules automatically,
based on data and the current compression method.

Switch -mc- disables all optional modules and allows only

the general compression algorithm.

<Param1> and <Param2> are module dependent parameters

described below.
Audio compression, delta compression:

<Param1> is a number of byte channels (can be 1 - 31).

RAR splits multibyte channels to bytes, for example,
two 16-bit audio channels are considered by RAR as four
channels one byte each.

<Param2> is ignored.

x86 Intel executable compression, Intel Itanium executable

compression, true color (RGB) data compression:

<Param1> and <Param2> are ignored.

Text compression:

Text compression algorithm provides noticeably higher compression

on plain text data. But it cannot utilize several CPU cores
efficiently resulting in slower compression time comparing to
general algorithm in multicore and multiprocessor environment.
Also its decompression speed is much slower than in general
algorithm regardless of CPU cores number. This is why
the text compression is disabled by default. You can specify
-mct switch to allow RAR to select this algorithm automatically
for suitable data. Switch -mct+ will force use of the text
compression for all data.

Switch -mct can also include <Param1> and <Param2>, so its

full syntax is -mc[param1][:param2]t[+ or -].

<Param1> is the order of PPM algorithm (can be 2 - 63).

Usually a higher value slightly increases the compression ratio
of redundant data, but only if enough memory is available
to PPM. In case of lack of memory the result may be negative.
Higher order values decrease both compression and decompression
speed.

<Param2> is memory in megabytes allocated for PPM (1-128).

Higher values may increase the compression ratio, but note
that PPM uses the equal memory size both to compress and
decompress, so if you allocate too much memory when creating
an archive, other people may have problems when decompressing
it on a computer with less memory installed. Decompression
will be still possible using virtual memory, but it may
become very slow.

Examples:

1) switch -mc1a+ forces use of 8-bit mono audio compression

for all data.

2) switch -mc10:40t+ forces use of text compression

algorithm for all data, sets the compression order to 10
and allocates 40 MB memory.

3) switch -mc12t sets the text compression order to 12,

 when the text compression is used, but leaves to RAR to
decide when to use it.

4) switches -mct -mcd- allow RAR to apply the text compression

to suitable data and disable the delta compression.

-md<n>[k,m,g]
Select the dictionary size.

Sliding dictionary is the memory area used by compression

algorithm to find and compress repeated data patterns.
If size of file being compressed (or total files size in case
of solid archive) is larger than dictionary size, increasing
the dictionary is likely to increase the compression ratio,
reduce the archiving speed and increase memory requirements.

For RAR 4.x archive format the dictionary size can be:
64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB, 4 MB.

For RAR 5.0 archive format the dictionary size can be:
128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB, 4 MB, 8 MB, 16 MB,
32 MB, 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB.

You can use 'k', 'm' and 'g' modifiers to specify the size
in kilo-, mega- and gigabytes, like -md64m for 64 MB dictionary.
If no modifier is specified, megabytes are assumed,
so -md64m and -md64 are equal.

When archiving, RAR needs about 6x memory of specified

dictionary size, so 512 MB and 1 GB sizes are available
in 64 bit RAR version only. When extracting, slightly more
than a single dictionary size is allocated, so both 32
and 64 bit versions can unpack archives with all dictionaries
up to and including 1 GB.

If size of all source files for solid archive or size of largest

source file for non-solid archive is at least twice less than
dictionary size, RAR can reduce the dictionary size. It helps
to lower memory usage without decreasing compression.

Default sliding dictionary size is 4 MB for RAR 4.x

and 32 MB for RAR 5.0 archive format.

Example:

RAR a -s -ma -md128 lib *.dll

create a solid archive in RAR 5.0 format with 128 MB dictionary.

-ms[list]
Specify file types to store.

Specify file types, which will be stored without compression.

This switch may be used to store already compressed files,
which helps to increase archiving speed without noticeable
loss in the compression ratio.
 Optional <list> parameter defines the list of file extensions
separated by semicolons. For example, -msrar;zip;jpg will
force RAR to store without compression all RAR and ZIP
archives and JPG images. It is also allowed to specify wildcard
file masks in the list, so -ms*.rar;*.zip;*.jpg will work too.
Several -ms switches are permitted, such as -msrar -mszip
instead of -msrar;zip.

In Unix -ms switch containing several file types needs to be

enclosed in quote marks. It protects semicolons from processing
by Unix shell. Another solution is to use individual -ms<type>
switches for every file type.

If <list> is not specified, -ms switch will use the default

set of extensions, which includes the following file types:

7z, ace, arj, bz2, cab, gz, jpeg, jpg, lha, lz, lzh, mp3,
rar, taz, tgz, xz, z, zip, zipx

-mt<threads>
Set the number of threads.

<threads> parameter can take values from 1 to 32.

It defines the recommended maximum number of active threads
for compression algorithm also as for other RAR modules,
which can start several threads. While RAR attempts to follow
this recommendation, sometimes the real number of active
threads can exceed the specified value.

Change of <threads> parameter slightly affects the compression

ratio, so archives created with different -mt switches
will not be exactly the same even if all other compression
settings are equal.

If -mt switch is not specified, RAR will try to detect

the number of available processors and select the optimal
number of threads automatically.

-n<f> Additionally filter included files.

Apply the mask as an additional filter to included file list.

Wildcards can be used both in the name and file parts of
file mask. See switch -x description for details on mask syntax.
You can specify the switch '-n' several times.

This switch does not replace usual file masks, which still
need to be entered in the command line. It is an additional
filter limiting processed files only to those matching
the include mask specified in -n switch. It can help to
reduce the command line length sometimes.

For example, if you need to compress all *.txt and *.lst

files in directories Project and Info, you can enter:

rar a -r text Project\*.txt Project\*.lst Info\*.txt Info\*.lst

or using the switch -n:

 rar a -r -n*.txt -n*.lst text Project Info

-n@<lf> Read additional filter masks from list file.

Similar to -n<f> switch, but reads filter masks from

the list file. If you use -n@ without the list file name
parameter, it will read filter masks from stdin.

This switch does not replace usual list files or file masks,
which still need to be entered in the command line.
It is an additional filter limiting processed files only to
those matching the include mask specified in -n switch.

Example:

rar a -r [email protected] text Project Info @listfile.txt

-oc Set NTFS Compressed attribute. Windows version only.

This switch allows to restore NTFS Compressed attribute

when extracting files. RAR saves Compressed file attributes
when creating an archive, but does not restore them unless
-oc switch is specified.

-oh Save hard links as the link instead of the file.

If archiving files include several hard links, store the first

archived hard link as usual file and the rest of hard links
in the same set as links to this first file. When extracting
such files, RAR will create hard links instead of usual files.

You must not delete or rename the first hard link in archive
after the archive was created, because it will make extraction
of following links impossible. If you modify the first link,
all following links will also have the modified contents
after extracting. Extraction command must involve the first
hard link to create following hard links successfully.

This switch is supported only by RAR 5.0 format.

-oi[0-4][:<minsize>]
Save identical files as references.

Switch -oi0 (or just -oi-) turns off identical file processing,
so such files are compressed as usual files. It can be used to
override another -oi value stored in RAR configuration.

If -oi1 (or just -oi) is specified, RAR analyzes the file

contents before starting archiving. If several identical files
are found, the first file in the set is saved as usual file
and all following files are saved as references to this first
file. It allows to reduce the archive size, but applies some
restrictions to resulting archive. You must not delete or rename
the first identical file in archive after the archive was
created, because it will make extraction of following files
 using it as a reference impossible. If you modify the first file,
following files will also have the modified contents
after extracting. Extraction command must involve the first file
to create following files successfully.

It is recommended to use -oi only if you compress a lot of

identical files, will not modify an archive later and will
extract an archive entirely, without necessity to unpack or skip
individual files. If all identical files are small enough to
fit into compression dictionary specified with -md<n> switch,
switch -s can provide more flexible solution than -oi.

Switch -oi2 is similar to -oi1, with the only difference:

it will display names of found identical files before starting
archiving.

Switches -oi3 and -oi4 allow to utilize RAR to generate

lists of identical files. Though you still need to provide
a dummy archive name to make the command syntax valid,
in this mode an archive is not created and nothing is compressed.
If -oi3 is used, file sizes and names are displayed
and every identical file group is separated with empty line.
Switch -oi4 displays bare file names and skips the first
identical file in every file group, so only duplicates
are listed.

Optional <minsize> value allows to define the minimum file size

threshold. Files smaller than <minsize> are not analyzed
and not considered as identical. If this parameter is not
present, it is assumed to be 64 KB by default. Selecting
too small <minsize> may increase the time required to detect
identical files.

Switches -oi1 and -oi2 are supported only by RAR 5.0 format.

Examples:

1) rar a -oi -ma archive

Save contents of current directory to archive.rar.

Store identical files as references.

2) rar a -oi3:1000000 -r dummy c:\photo\*.jpg

List all duplicate *.jpg files lather than 1000000 bytes

found in c:\photo and its subdirectories.

-ol[a] Process symbolic links as the link [absolute paths]

Save symbolic links as links, so file contents is not archived.

In Windows version it also saves reparse points as links.
Such archive entries are restored as symbolic links
or reparse points when extracting.

Supported both for RAR 4.x and RAR 5.0 archives in RAR for Unix
and only for RAR 5.0 archives in RAR for Windows.

In Windows you may need to run RAR as administrator to create

 symbolic links when extracting.

RAR adds all links regardless of target when archiving with

-ol switch. When extracting, by default, RAR skips symbolic
links pointing outside of destination directory, with absolute
paths, excessive number of ".." in link target or with other
potentially dangerous link parameters. You can enable extracting
such links with -ola switch.

Links pointing to directories outside of extraction destination

directory can present a security risk. Enable their extraction
only if you are sure that archive contents is safe,
such as your own backup.

Links that are considered safe by RAR are extracted always

regardless of -ol or -ola switch.

-oni Allow potentially incompatible names.

While NTFS file system permits file names with trailing spaces
and dots, a lot of Windows programs fail to process such names
correctly. If this switch is not specified, RAR removes trailing
spaces and dots, if any, from file names when extracting.
Specify this switch if you need to extract such names as is.

Windows version only.

-or Rename extracted files automatically if file with the same name
already exists. Renamed file will get the name like
'filename(N).txt', where 'filename.txt' is the original file
name and 'N' is a number starting from 1 and incrementing
if file exists.

-os Save NTFS streams. Windows version only.

This switch has meaning only for NTFS file system and allows
to save alternate data streams associated with a file.
You may need to specify it when archiving if you use software
storing data in alternative streams and wish to preserve
these streams.

Streams are not saved for NTFS encrypted files.

-ow Use this switch when archiving to save file security

information and when extracting to restore it.

Unix RAR version saves file owner and group when using
this switch.

Windows version stores owner, group, file permissions and

audit information, but only if you have necessary privileges
to read them. Note that only NTFS file system supports
file based security under Windows.
-o[+|-] Set the overwrite mode. Can be used both when extracting
and updating archived files. Following modes are available:

-o Ask before overwrite

(default for extracting files);

-o+ Overwrite all

(default for updating archived files);

-o- Skip existing files.

-p[pwd] Set password

Set password <pwd> to encrypt files when archiving

or to decrypt when extracting.

Passwords are case-sensitive. Maximum password length is

127 characters. Longer passwords are truncated to this length.
If you omit a password in command line, you will be prompted
with "Enter password" message. You can also use file redirection
or pipe to specify a password if <pwd> parameter is missing.

Examples:

1) rar a -psecret texts.rar *.txt

add files *.txt and encrypt them with password "secret".

2) rar -p texts.rar *.txt < psw.txt

set contents of psw.txt file as a password.

-p- Do not query password

Do not query password for encrypted files when extracting.

Actually you can specify any invalid password to suppress
the password prompt and force RAR to issue 'incorrect password'
message when extracting an encrypted file. This switch just
sets '-' as a password.

-qo[-|+]
Add quick open information [none|force]

RAR archives store every file header containing information

such as file name, time, size and attributes immediately
before data of described file. This approach is more damage
resistant than storing all file headers in a single continuous
block, which if broken or truncated would destroy the entire
archive contents. But while being more reliable, such file
headers scattered around the entire archive are slower to
access if we need to quickly open the archive contents
in a shell like WinRAR graphical interface.

To improve archive open speed and still not make the entire
archive dependent on a single damaged block, RAR 5.0 archives
can include an optional quick open record. Such record is
 added to the end of archive and contains copies of file names
and other file information stored in a single continuous block
additionaly to normal file headers inside of archive.
Since the block is continuous, its contents can be read quickly,
without necessity to perform a lot of disk seek operations.
Every file header in this block is protected with a checksum.
If RAR detects that quick open information is damaged,
it resorts to reading individual headers from inside of archive,
so damage resistance is not lessened.

Quick open record contains the full copy of file header,

which may be several tens or hundreds of bytes per file,
increasing the archive size by the same amount. This size
increase is most noticeable for many small files, when file
data size is comparable to file header. So by default,
if no -qo is specified or -qo without parameter is used,
RAR stores copies of headers only for relatively large files
and continues to use local headers for smaller files.
Concrete file size threshold can depend on RAR version.
Such approach provides a reasonable open speed to archive size
tradeoff. If you prefer to have the maximum archive open speed
regardless of size, you can use -qo+ to store copies of all
file headers. If you need to have the smallest possible archive
and do not care about archive open speed in different programs,
specify -qo- to exclude the quick open information completely.

If you wish to measure the performance effect of this switch,

be sure that archive contents is not stored in a disk cache.
No real disk seeks are performed for cached archive file,
making access to file headers fast even without quick open
record.

-r Recurse subdirectories. May be used with commands:

a, u, f, m, x, e, t, p, v, l, c, cf and s.

When used with the commands 'a', 'u', 'f', 'm' will process
files in all sub-directories as well as the current working
directory.

When used with the commands x, e, t, p, v, l, c, cf or s will

process all archives in sub-directories as well as the current
working directory.

-r- Disable recursion.

Even without -r switch RAR can enable the recursion

automatically in some situations. Switch -r- prohibits it.

If you specify a directory name when archiving and if such

name does not include wildcards, by default RAR adds
the directory contents even if switch -r is not specified.
Also RAR automatically enables the recursion if disk root
without wildcards is specified as a file mask. Switch -r-
disables such behavior.

For example:
 rar a -r- arc dirname

command will add only the empty 'dirname' directory and ignore
its contents. Following command:

rar a -r- arc c:\

will compress contents of root c: directory only and

will not recurse into subdirectories.

-r0 Similar to -r, but when used with the commands 'a', 'u', 'f',
'm' will recurse into subdirectories only for those file masks,
which include wildcard characters '*' and '?'.

This switch works only for file names. Directory names without
a file name part, such as 'dirname', are not affected by -r0
and their contents is added to archive completely unless -r-
switch is specified.

Example:

rar a -r0 docs.rar *.doc readme.txt

add *.doc files from the current directory and its subdirectories
and readme.txt only from the current directory to docs.rar
archive. In case of usual -r switch, RAR would search for
readme.txt in subdirectories too.

-ri<p>[:<s>]
Set priority and sleep time. Available only in RAR for Windows.
This switch regulates system load by RAR in multitasking
environment. Possible task priority <p> values are 0 - 15.

If <p> is 0, RAR uses the default task priority.

<p> equal to 1 sets the lowest possible priority,
15 - the highest possible.

Sleep time <s> is a value from 0 to 1000 (milliseconds).

This is a period of time that RAR gives back to the system
after read or write operations while compressing or extracting.
Non-zero <s> may be useful if you need to reduce system load
even more than can be achieved with <p> parameter.

Example:

execute RAR with default priority and 10 ms sleep time:

rar a -ri0:10 backup *.*

-rr[N] Add data recovery record. This switch is used when creating
or modifying an archive to add a data recovery record to
the archive. See the 'rr[N]' command description for details.

-rv[N] Create recovery volumes. This switch is used when creating

a multivolume archive to generate recovery volumes.
 See the 'rv[N]' command description for details.

-s Create solid archive. A solid archive is an archive packed by

a special compression method, which treats several or all
files, within the archive, as one continuous data stream.

Solid archiving significantly increases compression, when

adding a large number of small, similar files. But it also
has a few important disadvantages: slower updating of existing
solid archives, slower access to individual files, lower
damage resistance.

Usually files in a solid archive are sorted by extension.

But it is possible to disable sorting with -ds switch or set
an alternative file order using a special file, rarfiles.lst.

Example:

create solid archive sources.rar with 512 KB dictionary,

recursing all directories, starting with the current directory.
Add only .asm files:

rar a -s -md512 sources.rar *.asm -r

-s<N> Create solid groups using file count

Similar to -s, but resets solid statistics after compressing

<N> files. Usually decreases compression, but also
decreases losses in case of solid archive damages.

-sc<charset>[objects]
Specify the character set.

'Charset' parameter is mandatory and can have one

of the following values:

U - Unicode UTF-16;
F - Unicode UTF-8;
A - the native single byte encoding, which is ANSI
for Windows version;
O - OEM (DOS) encoding. Windows version only.

Endianness of source UTF-16 files, such as list files

or comments, is detected based on the byte order mark.
If byte order mask is missing, little endian encoding is assumed.

'Objects' parameter is optional and can have one of

the following values:

G - log files produced by -ilog switch;

L - list files;
C - comment files;
R - messages sent to redirected files and pipes (Windows only).

It is allowed to specify more than one object, for example,

-scolc. If 'objects' parameter is missing, 'charset' is applied
 to all objects.

This switch allows to specify the character set for files

in -z[file] switch, list files and comment files written by
"cw" command.

Examples:

1) rar a -scol data @list

Read names contained in 'list' using OEM encoding.

2) rar c -scuc -zcomment.txt data

Read comment.txt as Unicode file.

3) rar cw -scuc data comment.txt

Write comment.txt as Unicode file.

4) rar lb -scur data > list.txt

Save archived file names in data.rar to list.txt in Unicode.

-se Create solid groups using extension

Similar to -s, but resets solid statistics if file extension

is changed. Usually decreases compression, but also
decreases losses from solid archive damages.

-sfx[name]
Create SFX archives. If this switch is used when creating a new
archive, a Self-Extracting archive (using a module in file
default.sfx or specified in the switch) would be created.
In the Windows version default.sfx should be placed in the
same directory as the rar.exe, in Unix - in the user's
home directory, in /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib.

Example:

rar a -sfxwincon.sfx myinst

create SelF-eXtracting (SFX) archive using wincon.sfx

SFX-module.

-si[name]
Read data from stdin (standard input), when creating
an archive. Optional 'name' parameter allows to specify
a file name of compressed stdin data in the created
archive. If this parameter is missing, the name will be
set to 'stdin'.

Example:

type Tree.Far | rar a -siTree.Far tree.rar

 will compress 'type Tree.Far' output as 'Tree.Far' file.

-sl<size>
Process only those files, which size is less than
specified in <size> parameter of this switch.
Parameter <size> must be specified in bytes.

-sm<size>
Process only those files, which size is more than
specified in <size> parameter of this switch.
Parameter <size> must be specified in bytes.

-sv Create independent solid volumes

By default RAR tries to reset solid statistics as soon

as possible when starting a new volume, but only
if enough data was packed after a previous reset
(at least a few megabytes).

This switch forces RAR to ignore packed data size and attempt
to reset statistics for volumes of any size. It decreases
compression, but increases chances to extract a part of data
if one of several solid volumes in a volume set was lost
or damaged.

Note that sometimes RAR cannot reset statistics even

using this switch. For example, it cannot be done when
compressing one large file split between several volumes.
RAR is able to reset solid statistics only between separate
files, but not inside of single file.

Ignored if used when creating a non-volume archive.

-sv- Create dependent solid volumes

Disables to reset solid statistics between volumes.

It slightly increases compression, but significantly reduces

chances to extract a part of data if one of several solid
volumes in a volume set was lost or damaged.

Ignored if used when creating a non-volume archive.

-s- Disable solid archiving

-t Test files after archiving. This switch is especially

useful in combination with the move command, so files will be
deleted only if the archive had been successfully tested.

-ta<date>
Process only files modified after the specified date.
 Format of the date string is YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.
It is allowed to insert separators like '-' or ':' to
the date string and omit trailing fields. For example,
the following switch is correct: -ta2001-11-20
Internally it will be expanded to -ta20011120000000
and treated as "files modified after 0 hour 0 minutes
0 seconds of 20 November 2001".

-tb<date>
Process only files modified before the specified date.
Format of the switch is the same as -ta<date>.

-tk Keep original archive date. Prevents RAR from modifying the
archive date when changing an archive.

-tl Set archive time to newest file. Forces RAR to set the date of a
changed archive to the date of the newest file in the archive.

-tn<time>
Process files newer than the specified time period. Format
of the time string is:

[<ndays>d][<nhours>h][<nminutes>m][<nseconds>s]

For example, use switch -tn15d to process files newer

than 15 days and -tn2h30m to process files newer than
2 hours 30 minutes.

-to<time>
Process files older than the specified time period. Format
of the switch is the same as -tn<time>.

-ts[m|c|a][+|-|1]
Save or restore file time (modification, creation, access).

Use -tsm to save the file modification time, -tsc for creation
time and -tsa for last access time. Multiple -ts switches,
such as -tsc -tsa, are allowed. If 'm', 'c' or 'a' are not
specified, all three file times are assumed.

Append '+' to store a file time with maximum possible precision.

Concrete value depends on a operating system and file system
and can be up 100 nanoseconds in Windows and 1 nanosecond
in Unix. Append '1' to set 1 second precision or '-' to not save
a file time. If '+', '-' or '1' are not present, '+' is assumed,
so -ts+ and -ts both save all three high precision times.

RAR 4.x archives always contain the modification time

and for RAR 4.x archive -tsm- still saves the modification time
with the lowest possible 2 second precision. Two other times
can be disabled. RAR 5.0 archives allow to omit any file time
including modification, so unpacked files will have the current
system time. Switches -tsm- -tsc- -tsa- or just -ts- will store
 a low precision modification time for RAR 4.x and no file time
for RAR 5.0 archive.

If -ts switch is not specified, RAR stores the high precision

modification time and omits two other times.

By default RAR sets only the modification time for extracted files,
even if archive contains other times. Use -ts or -ts+ when
unpacking to set all three times, -tsc and -tsa to set
creation and last access times, -tsm- or -ts- to set the current
system time instead of modification time stored in archive.

Windows allows to set all three file times when unpacking.

In Unix we can set the modification and last access, but not
creation time.

Examples:

1) rar a -ts backup

Store all file times with the highest possible precision.

2) rar x -tsa backup

Restore modification and last access time. Switch -tsm is not

required, because RAR sets the modification time by default.
If we wish to restore only the last access time, we should use
-tsm- -tsa switches.

3) rar a -tsm1 -tsc1 backup

Store low precision modification and creation times.

-u Update files. May be used with archive extraction or creation.

The command string "a -u" is equivalent to the command 'u', you
could also use the switch '-u' with the commands 'm' or 'mf'. If
the switch '-u' is used with the commands 'x' or 'e', then files
not present on the disk and files newer than their copies on the
disk would extracted from the archive.

-v Create volumes with size autodetection or list all volumes

This switch may be used when creating or listing volumes.

In the first case it enables volume size autodetection,

so new volumes will use all available space on the destination
media. It is convenient when creating volumes on removable
disks. You may read more about volumes in -v<size> description.

In the second case, when this switch is used together with

'V' or 'L' command, it forces RAR to list contents of all
volumes starting from that specified in the command line.
Without this switch RAR displays contents of only one single
specified volume.

-v<size>[k|b|f|m|M|g|G]
Create volumes with size=<size>*1000 [*1024 | *1].
By default this switch uses <size> as thousands (1000) of bytes
(not 1024 x bytes). You may also enter the size in kilobytes
using the symbol 'k', in bytes using the symbol 'b',
megabytes - 'm', millions of bytes - 'M', gigabytes - 'g',
billions (milliards) of bytes - 'G' or select one of several
predefined values using the symbol 'f' following the numerical
value. Predefined values can be 360, 720, 1200, 1440 or 2880
and replaced with corresponding floppy disk size.

If the size is omitted, autodetection will be used.

It is allowed to enter decimal fractions using the dot as

the decimal mark. For example, -v1.5g means 1.5 gigabytes.

You may specify several -v switches to set different sizes

for different volumes. For example:

rar a -v100k -v200k -v300k arcname

sets 100 KB size for first volume, 200 KB for second

and 300 KB for all following volumes.

If volumes are created on removable media, then after

the creation of the first volume, the user will be prompted
with:

Create next volume: Yes/No/All

At this moment in time, you should change the disks. Answering

'A' will cause all volumes to be created without a pause.

By default RAR volumes have names like 'volname.partNNN.rar',

where NNN is the volume number. For RAR 4.x archive format
using -vn switch it is possible to select another,
extension based naming scheme, where the first volume file
in a multi-volume set has the extension .rar, following
volumes are numbered from .r00 to .r99. RAR 5.0 archives
do not support -vn and extension based names.

When extracting or testing a multi-volume archive you must use

only the first volume name. If there is no next volume
on the drive and the disk is removable, the user will be
prompted with:

Insert disk with <next volume name>

Insert the disk with the correct volume and press any key.

If while extracting, the next volume is not found and volumes

are placed on the non-removable disk, RAR will abort with
the error message:

Cannot find <volume name>

Archive volumes cannot be modified. The commands 'd', 'f', 'u',

's' cannot be used with Multi-volume sets. The command 'a' may
be used only for the creation of a new multi-volume sequence.
 It is possible, although unlikely, that the file size, of a file
in a multi-volume set, could be greater than its uncompressed
size. This is due to the fact that 'storing' (no compression if
size increases) cannot be enabled for multi-volume sets.

Archive volumes may be Self-Extracting (SFX). Such an archive

should be created using both the '-v' and '-sfx' switches.

Example:

create archive in volumes of fixed size:

rar a -s -v1440 floparch.rar *.*

will create solid volumes of size 1440000 bytes.

-vd Erase disk contents before creating volume

All files and directories on the target disk will be erased

when '-vd' is used. The switch applies only to removable
media, the hard disk cannot be erased using this switch.

-ver[n] File version control

Forces RAR to keep previous file versions when updating

files in the already existing archive. Old versions are
renamed to 'filename;n', where 'n' is the version number.

By default, when unpacking an archive without the switch

-ver, RAR extracts only the last added file version, the name
of which does not include a numeric suffix. But if you specify
a file name exactly, including a version, it will be also
unpacked. For example, 'rar x arcname' will unpack only
last versions, when 'rar x arcname file.txt;5' will unpack
'file.txt;5', if it is present in the archive.

If you specify -ver switch without a parameter when unpacking,

RAR will extract all versions of all files that match
the entered file mask. In this case a version number is
not removed from unpacked file names. You may also extract
a concrete file version specifying its number as -ver parameter.
It will tell RAR to unpack only this version and remove
a version number from file names. For example,
'rar x -ver5 arcname' will unpack only 5th file versions.

If you specify 'n' parameter when archiving, it will limit

the maximum number of file versions stored in the archive.
Old file versions exceeding this threshold will be removed.

-vn Use the old style volume naming scheme

By default RAR volumes have names like 'volname.partNNN.rar',

where NNN is the volume number. For RAR 4.x archive format
using -vn switch it is possible to select another,
extension based naming scheme, where the first volume file
in a multi-volume set has the extension .rar, following
 volumes are numbered from .r00 to .r99. RAR 5.0 archives
do not support -vn and extension based names.

-vp Pause before each volume

By default RAR asks for confirmation before processing

next volume only when archiving to removable disks and only
if free disk space is less than volume size. This switch
forces RAR to always ask for such confirmation when creating
or extracting volumes. For example, it can be useful if you
wish to copy new volumes to another media immediately after
creating.

-w<p> Assign work directory as <p>. This switch may be used to assign
the directory for temporary files.

-x<f> Exclude the specified <f> file or directory. Wildcards can be

used in both the name and path parts of file mask. You can
specify the switch '-x' several times to define several
exclusion masks in the same command line.

If mask contains wildcards, it applies to files in current

directory and its subdirectories. It is not recursive without
wildcards, so "filename" mask will exclude 'filename' file
only in current directory when archiving or in root archive
directory when extracting.

Use "*\filename" syntax to exclude "filename" recursively

in all directories.

If you know the exact path to file, you can use "path\filename"
syntax to exclude only this copy of "filename". If you use
-xpath\filename syntax when unpacking an archive, "path" must be
the path inside of archive, not the file path on the disk after
unpacking.

By default, masks containing wildcards are applied only to files.

If you need a mask with wildcards to exclude several directories,
use the special syntax for directory exclusion masks.
Such masks must have the trailing path separator character
('\' for Windows and '/' for Unix). For example, "*tmp*\" mask
will exclude all directories matching "*tmp*" and "*\tmp\" will
exclude all 'tmp' directories. Since wildcards are present,
both masks will be applied to contents of current directory
and all its subdirectories.

If you wish to exclude only one directory, specify the exact

name of directory including the absolute or relative path
without any wildcards. In this case you do not need to append
the path separator to mask, which is required only for directory
exclusion masks containing wildcards to distinguish them
from file exclusion masks.

Examples:

1) rar a -r -x*.jpg -x*.avi rawfiles

 compress all files except *.jpg and *.avi in current directory
and its subdirectories;

2) rar a -r -x*\temp\ savec c:\*

compress all files on the disk c: except 'temp' directories

and files inside of 'temp' directories;

3) rar x -x*.txt docs

extract all files except *.txt from docs.rar.

-x@<lf> Exclude files listed in the specified list file. If you use -x@
without the list file name parameter, it will read file names
from stdin.

Example:

rar a [email protected] arch *.exe

-y Assume Yes on all queries.

-z[file]
Read archive comment from file <file>.

This switch can be used with any archive modification command

to read the archive comment from file and add it to archive.
Use with -sc switch if you need to specify the character set
for comment text file. If <file> is not present, comment
is read from stdin.

Limitations
~~~~~~~~~~~

Command limitations:

Commands 'd','u','f','c','cf' will not operate with archive volumes.

Command 'a' cannot be used to update an archive volume, only to

create a new one.

Exit values
~~~~~~~~~~~

RAR exits with a zero code (0) in case of successful operation.

Non-zero exit code indicates some kind of error:

Code Description

0 Successful operation.
1 Non fatal error(s) occurred.
2 A fatal error occurred.
 3 Invalid checksum. Data is damaged.
4 Attempt to modify an archive locked by 'k' command.
5 Write error.
6 File open error.
7 Wrong command line option.
8 Not enough memory.
9 File create error
10 No files matching the specified mask and options were found.
11 Wrong password.
255 User stopped the process.

Glossary
~~~~~~~~

Archive Special file containing one or more files optionally

compressed and/or encrypted.

Compression A method of encoding data to reduce it's size.

Checksum Value calculating for data block or file and allowing to

check data or file validity.

SFX archive SelF-eXtracting archive. Archive in executable format,

consisting of self-extracting module followed by
compressed data. It is enough to run such executable to
start extraction.

Solid An archive packed using a special compression method which

sees all files as one continuous data stream. Particularly
advantageous when packing a large number of small files.

Volume Part of a split archive. Splitting an archive to volumes

allows storing them on several removable disks.
Solid volumes must be extracted starting from first
volume in sequence.

Copyrights

(c) 1993-2018 Alexander Roshal