How do you CREATE rar files?

[motulist]

I searched the forum and only saw posts on how to unrar files, but I want to create rar files. I tried rarme but no matter how I seem to install it, it only gives me error messages. So I tried running the rar command line application, but I couldn't make heads or tails of the documentation. Does anyone know exactly what I should type in the command line to get it spit out split .rar files suitable for newsgroups? And does it also do pars or should I make those separately with MacPar Deluxe?

I am not command line illiterate, but I am command line challenged So don't feel like you'd insult me by mentioning every little step I need to take to get the job done.

os 10.3.9

thanks

 

[crachoar]

Unrar X

 

[motulist]

Answering my own post so it's in the database. And also, does anyone know if there's an easy way to get it to make pars at the same time?

Here's a step by step guide for how to rar files.

1) Download the application called RAR at

http://www.rarlabs.com/rar/rarosx-3.5.b5.tar.gz

2) decompress that file and there'll be a folder called "rar" (no quotes)

3) in that folder there's a file called "rar" (with no quotes)

**** IMPORTANT NOTE!!! -> If you don't know what you are doing in this next step you can totally destroy your whole computer, so proceed at your own risk. ****

4) do a search on your hard disk for an invisible folder called bin. This will be in the parent folder usr.

5) drag the FILE called "rar" in to that bin folder. It will ask you for your password, so go type it in and continue.

6) open the terminal and go to the directory that has the file or files you want to rar. (for more info on how to do basic things like change directories in the command line, do a search for that info)

7A) once in the folder housing the files you want to rar, type this

rar a WhateverRarFileNameYouWantHere

7B) to make a multi file rar archive, type the following instead of the above and replace where you see "####" with the file size you want each part to be, in kilobytes (kb).

rar a -v#### WhateverRarFileNameYouWantHere



8) to create par files for that rar archive you just created, just use MacPar Deluxe and save your self any further trouble

 

[motulist]

Unrar X

Read the post again. I am NOT talking about _UN_raring, I am talking about RARing, which is the reverse.

 

[brap]

Console rar is great. There's also a Cocoa frontend called RARMe, available on Versiontracker.

It's not really that interesting a topic, though...

 

[slooksterPSV]

rar a archive_name file1 file2 file3 filex

 

[slooksterPSV]

Just so you guys know how good RAR can work - you can make an image of 3GB and have it blank, and it'll make it 1KB, yes KB not MB, not GB, but KB
See this image, it compressed my folder about 50%

 

[crachoar]

Read the post again. I am NOT talking about _UN_raring, I am talking about RARing, which is the reverse.

My bad fella. I always thought you could use it to create rars as well. Guess it kinda sucks then.

I've been using WinRAR a lot more than Unrar X lately - got the right click 'add to rar' function in windows mixed up with the 'add to archive (.zip)' function in OSX.

 

[motulist]

Update:

I posted a rar to usenet that I created by following the steps in the guide I wrote out above, and it was well received. So just follow the guide and you'll be fine.

 

[268144]

Just so you guys know how good RAR can work - you can make an image of 3GB and have it blank, and it'll make it 1KB, yes KB not MB, not GB, but KB
See this image, it compressed my folder about 50%

yeah because its BLANK, what do you expect lol.

 

[madog]

Just so you guys know how good RAR can work - you can make an image of 3GB and have it blank, and it'll make it 1KB, yes KB not MB, not GB, but KB
See this image, it compressed my folder about 50%

Have you made an archive through Mac OS X's contextual menu (right click)? Zip might be older than RAR, but I'm curious to know if you've compressed the same files with rar and then with zip to see how much your saving. Personally, I don't like compressing with any third party apps, free or otherwise, as Windows (recent XP and above) and Mac OS X have zip capabilities built in. After that, I make compressed dmg's with Disk Utility for my own personal use. HDD space is so cheap these days, and you can't really compress audio/video (maybe to save a few MBs) as that's what takes up most of my space (300+ DVD collection backed up to my desktop) these days.

 

[adityashah1989]

Answering my own post so it's in the database. And also, does anyone know if there's an easy way to get it to make pars at the same time?

Here's a step by step guide for how to rar files.

1) Download the application called RAR at

http://www.rarlabs.com/rar/rarosx-3.5.b5.tar.gz

2) decompress that file and there'll be a folder called "rar" (no quotes)

3) in that folder there's a file called "rar" (with no quotes)

**** IMPORTANT NOTE!!! -> If you don't know what you are doing in this next step you can totally destroy your whole computer, so proceed at your own risk. ****

4) do a search on your hard disk for an invisible folder called bin. This will be in the parent folder usr.

5) drag the FILE called "rar" in to that bin folder. It will ask you for your password, so go type it in and continue.

6) open the terminal and go to the directory that has the file or files you want to rar. (for more info on how to do basic things like change directories in the command line, do a search for that info)

7A) once in the folder housing the files you want to rar, type this

rar a WhateverRarFileNameYouWantHere

7B) to make a multi file rar archive, type the following instead of the above and replace where you see "####" with the file size you want each part to be, in kilobytes (kb).

rar a -v#### WhateverRarFileNameYouWantHere



8) to create par files for that rar archive you just created, just use MacPar Deluxe and save your self any further trouble

I am finding this too complicated. Is there and easier way to rar files on mac? Considering this was the method used in 2005 there must be a much easier way in 2009.

 

[motulist]

I am finding this too complicated. Is there and easier way to rar files on mac? Considering this was the method used in 2005 there must be a much easier way in 2009.

I haven't tried to create a rar file in a long time, so I don't know what's happened to the tech since then, but a quick googling shows there are programs out there now that'll do it.

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm (click the link that says for os x)

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Compression-Tools/RAR-for-Mac-OS-X.shtml

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=rar+"os+x"

 

[Cannedkoala]

I use the terminal to rar files. Only because I don't do it super often so I don't really want contextual menus or programs cluttering things up. It's also pretty flexible to make split archives.

I used these instructions..

http://www.halfzerocan.com/how-to-rar-files-in-mac-os-x/2008/06/21/

Do those steps up to and including step 7. It's really straight forward and well explained of what to expect.

People mention that you can screw up your system but that's pretty easy to avoid so long as you don't do something silly. All you are doing is:

- showing all hidden files and folders
- finding the (formerly hidden) 'bin' folder, which i think is in the root 'macintosh hd'
- copying the rar file to the bin folder (safe to do, its just adding capability to terminal - you are only going to break something if you start deleting)
- hiding all files and folders so its back to normal and you are safe from yourself

then what i do is make a folder on the desktop, copy all files into it that i want to be in my rar archive. eg. Desktop\FOLDERWITHSTUFF

Then go to terminal, navigate into that folder with your old DOS skills =D

cd desktop
cd FOLDERWITHSTUFF

Terminal will tell you what folder you are in, and then you type your new rar command:

rar a MyRarArchive

I think of the 'a' as 'all' so it's 'rar 'All' files (in the folder I am in) and call the archive 'MyRarArchive''

so it will take all the files in 'FOLDERWITHSTUFF' and make them into 'MyRarArchive.rar'


If you do it once, it makes immediate sense. So I suggest just practice and fiddle.

If you want to be more advanced:

rar a -v100000 MySplitRarArchive

That will do exactly the same thing, but make part files of each 100000kb (100mb) in size. So approx for a 234mb file,

MySplitRarArchive.part01.rar (100mb)
MySplitRarArchive.part02.rar (100mb)
MySplitRarArchive.part03.rar (34mb)


Advantages over a GUI?
Not heaps really, but I think it is just as easy to do if it's not a common occurrence.
I'm sure someone could help write a script if you needed to make lots of rar files at once. Some sort of batch file sequence of scripts, eg:

-Navigate to first folder...
rar a -v100000 FirstRar

-navigate to second folder...
rar a -v100000 SecondRar

etc.


edit:
I think it's a processor intensive task and takes a while to rar large things. So because it's not really something I multitask while doing anyway, it's easy to just set up and leave for a bit.

Open Terminal

cd desktop
cd folder
rar a -v(filesize) Name

...Wait...

 

[fscarpa]

RarMachine: http://www.candyware.net/RarMachine.html

 

[-tWv-]

Do all compressing methods produce about the same result? I have noticed that using the rar terminal method is much much quicker than using the standard "compress" method. But does making a zip/rar/tar file all produce about the same size compressed folder?

 

[motulist]

Do all compressing methods produce about the same result? I have noticed that using the rar terminal method is much much quicker than using the standard "compress" method. But does making a zip/rar/tar file all produce about the same size compressed folder?

No, each type of compression method will produce archives of varying file size (though I'd say that the difference in archive size produced is pretty meaningless in today's world of high speed internet connections and large hard drives). On top of which (and which most people aren't aware of), many compression methods actually have option settings so you can select whether you want the archive to be a smaller final file size but slower to compress and decompress, or instead if you want it to be a larger file size but faster to compress and decompress.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Just so you guys know how good RAR can work - you can make an image of 3GB and have it blank, and it'll make it 1KB, yes KB not MB, not GB, but KB
See this image, it compressed my folder about 50%

I agree its fantastic, I did it several times in a row and now my entire Mac storage is down to a single bit. Awesome.

 

[Sayer]

One of the most useful benefits of a RAR archive is that it can self-repair if parts of the archive are damaged or elements of multi-file archives are lost completely.

The Zip format works very well on text data, but not so much on complex data such as images or executable binaries (which combine lots of complex data and text so there is still some savings).

I remember when RAR files starting showing up and Mac users in Japan really went full-tilt on the format. I have some Japanese Mac magazines and there are tons of RAR utilities listed in the software section.

 

[motulist]

One of the most useful benefits of a RAR archive is that it can self-repair if parts of the archive are damaged or elements of multi-file archives are lost completely.

FYI, you can make .PAR2 repair files for ANY type of file, not just rar files. So when I want to make a really secure backup of a disk, I use CCC or whatever to make an exact disk image copy of the disk, and then I create 10% PAR2 recovery files for that disk image file. That way I can access the files inside the disk image just like a normal disk without having to slowly decompress a gigantic rar file first, but that way it also has 10% parity recovery files so that if any random 10% of the disk image file gets damaged I can still recover 100% of the files stored within that disk image. Pretty neat, huh?

 

[John Doe 57]

SimplyRAR - Free App
*You can create RAR files up to 100MB. There is a custom option, but is does not work correctly.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21430

Split RAR files - Free App
*You can enter the value of the size of the RAR you want it to be.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~loekjehe/Split&Concat/

 

[FCBarca]

So no real easy to use software to make rar files of specific file sizes then eh?...I've been looking around and can't seem to come across anything

 

[Hawkeye411]

Hmmmmm ... people still use .rar ??

Interesting.

 

[John Doe 57]

So no real easy to use software to make rar files of specific file sizes then eh?...I've been looking around and can't seem to come across anything

Split RAR files - Free App
*You can enter the value of the size of the RAR you want it to be.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~loekjehe/Split&Concat/

 

[calliope8muse]

RAR Machine encryption help please?

RarMachine: http://www.candyware.net/RarMachine.html

I have downloaded and registered the software fine so far. But NO help files and here is the issue:

I want to compress (.rar) and encrypt some files. So, I chose "view options" and then I click on "use password" yes? Well I drop the file I need and it compresses fine....BUT I put any other password apart from mine and it will still extract the file !!!

how's that for support and how's that for encrypted security???

any suggestions to that please?