RAR (file format)

RAR is a proprietary archive file format that supports

RAR file format
data compression, error correction and file spanning.[3]
It was developed in 1993 by Russian software engineer Filename .rar, .rev, .r00, .r01
Eugene Roshal and the software is licensed by win.rar extension
GmbH.[3] The name RAR stands for Roshal Archive. Internet application/vnd.rar
media type
Uniform Type com.rarlab.rar-archive
File format Identifier (UTI)
Magic number 52 61 72 21 1A 07 00
The filename extensions used by RAR are .rar for (RAR 1.5 to 4.0)
the data volume set and .rev for the recovery volume 52 61 72 21 1A 07 01 00
set. Previous versions of RAR split large archives into (RAR 5+) [1]
several smaller files, creating a "multi-volume archive". Size limitation 263-1 bytes (almost 8
Numbers were used in the file extensions of the smaller exbibytes)
files to keep them in the proper sequence. The first file
Developed by Eugene Roshal
used the extension .rar, then .r00 for the second,
and then .r01, .r02, etc. Initial release March 1993[2]
Type of archive format
RAR compression applications and libraries (including format
GUI based WinRAR application for Windows, console Open format? No (decompression source
rar utility for different OSes and others) are proprietary code available, but not free
software, to which Alexander L. Roshal,[3] the elder software, due to restriction
brother of Eugene Roshal, owns the copyright. Version that it not be used to create
3 of RAR is based on Lempel-Ziv (LZSS) and RAR-compatible archives)
prediction by partial matching (PPM) compression, Website rarlab.com (https://www.rarla
specifically the PPMd implementation of PPMII by b.com/)
Dmitry Shkarin.[4]

The minimum size of a RAR file is 20 bytes. The maximum size of a RAR file is
9,223,372,036,854,775,807 (263 −1) bytes, which is one byte less than 8 EiB.[5]

Versions

The RAR file format revision history:

1.3 – the first public version, does not have the "Rar!" signature.
1.5 – changes are not known.
2.0 – released with WinRAR 2.0 and Rar for MS-DOS 2.0; features the following changes:
Multimedia compression for true color bitmap images and uncompressed audio.
Up to 1 MB compression dictionary.
Introduces archives data recovery protection record.
2.9[note 1] – released in WinRAR version 3.00. Feature changes in this version include:
 File extensions is changed from {volume name}.rar, {volume name}.r00, {volume
name}.r01, etc. to {volume name}.part001.rar, {volume name}.part002.rar, etc.
Encryption of both file data and file headers.
Improves compression algorithm using 4 MB dictionary size, Dmitry Shkarin's PPMII
algorithm for file data.
Optional creation of "recovery volumes" (.rev files) for error correction, which can be
used to reconstruct missing files in a volume set.
Support for archive files larger than 9 GB.
Support for Unicode file names stored in UTF-16 little endian format.
5.0 – supported by WinRAR 5.0 and later. Changes in this version:
Maximum compression dictionary size increased to 1 GB (default for WinRAR 5.x is 32
MB and 4 MB for WinRAR 4.x).
Maximum path length for files in RAR and ZIP archives is increased up to 2048
characters.
Support for Unicode file names stored in UTF-8 format.
Faster compression and decompression.
Multicore decompression support.
Greatly improves recovery.
Optional AES encryption increased from 128-bit to 256-bit.
Optional 256-bit BLAKE2 file hash instead of a default 32-bit CRC32 file checksum.
Optional duplicate file detection.
Optional NTFS hard and symbolic links.
Optional Quick Open Record. Rar4 archives had to be parsed before opening as file
names were spread throughout the archive, slowing operation particularly with slower
devices such as optical drives, and reducing the integrity of damaged archives. Rar5 can
optionally create a "quick open record", a special archive block at the end of the file that
contains the names of files included, allowing archives to be opened faster.
Removes specialized compression algorithms for Itanium executables, text, raw audio
(WAV), and raw image (BMP) files; consequently some files of these types compress
better in the older RAR (4) format with these options enabled than in RAR5.

Notes

1. WinRAR 5.0 and RAR for Android refer to this format as RAR4.

Software

Operating system support

Software is available for Microsoft Windows (named WinRAR), Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, and Android;
archive extraction is supported natively in ChromeOS. WinRAR supports the Windows graphical user
interface (GUI); other versions named RAR run as console commands. Later versions are not compatible
with some older operating systems previously supported:

WinRAR v6.10 supports Windows Vista and later.

WinRAR v6.02 is the last version that supports Windows XP.[6]
WinRAR v4.11 is the last version that supports Windows 2000.[6]
 WinRAR v3.93 is the last version that supports Windows 95, 98, ME, and NT 4.0.[6]
WinRAR 2.06 is the last version to support Windows 3.1, Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 3.5,
Windows NT 3.51 and Win32s.
RAR v3.93 is the last version that supports MS-DOS and OS/2 on 32-bit x86 CPUs such as
80386 and later. It supports long file names in a Windows DOS box (except Windows NT),
and uses the RSX DPMI extender.[7]
RAR v2.50 is the last version that supports MS-DOS and OS/2 on 16-bit x86 CPUs such as
Intel 8086, 8088, and 80286.[7]

Creating RAR files

RAR files can be created legally only with commercial software WinRAR (Windows), RAR[8] for
Android, command-line RAR (Windows, MS-DOS, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD), and other software
that has written permission from Alexander Roshal or uses copyrighted code under license from Roshal.
The software license agreements forbid reverse engineering.[3]

Third-party software for extracting RAR files

Several programs can unpack the file format.

RARLAB distributes the C++ source code and binaries for a command-line unrar
program.[9] The license permits its use to produce software capable of unpacking, but not
creating, RAR archives, without having to pay a fee. It is not a free software license.
7-Zip, a free and open-source program, starting from 7-Zip version 15.06 beta[10] can unpack
RAR5 archives, using the RARLAB unrar code.
PeaZip is a free RAR unarchiver, licensed under the LGPL, it runs as a RAR extractor on
Linux, macOS, and Windows, with a GUI. PeaZip supports both pre-RAR5 .rar files, and files
in the new RAR5 format.[11]
The Unarchiver is a proprietary software unarchiver for RAR and other formats. It runs on
macOS, and the command-line version, unar, also runs on Windows and on Linux, and is
free software licensed under the LGPL.[12] It supports all versions of the RAR archive format,
including RAR3 and RAR5.[13][14][15]
UNRARLIB (UniquE RAR File Library)[16] was an obsolete free software unarchiving library
called "unrarlib", licensed under the GPL. It could only decompress archives created by
RAR versions prior to 2.9; archives created by RAR 2.9 and later use different formats not
supported by this library. The original development-team ended work on this library in
2007.[17][18][16]
libarchive, a free and open-source library for reading and writing a variety of archive formats,
supports all RAR versions, including RAR5.[19] The code was written from scratch using
RAR's “technote.txt” format description.[20]
Microsoft announced (May 23, 2023)[21] native support for additional archive formats in
Windows 11, including tar, 7-zip, rar, gz and many others using the libarchive open-source
project. Recently (July 16, 2023), there have been Insider builds that have native support. It’s
said to come out in version 23H2.

Other uses of rar

The filename extension rar is also used by the unrelated Resource Adapter Archive file
format.[22][23][24][25][26][27]

See also
.cbr
List of archive formats
Comparison of archive formats
Comparison of file archivers
Data corruption, Bit rot, Disc rot

References
1. RAR 5.0 technote (https://www.rarlab.com/technote.htm)
2. "Interview by correspondence" (http://www.compression.ru/arctest/descript/roshal.htm) (in
Russian). 1997–2002. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
3. win.rar GmbH. "RAR and WinRAR END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT (EULA)" (https://w
ww.rarlab.com/license.htm). RARLAB. "The author and holder of the copyright of the
software is Alexander L. Roshal. [...] Neither RAR binary code, WinRAR binary code,
UnRAR source or UnRAR binary code may be used or reverse engineered to re-create the
RAR compression algorithm, which is proprietary, without written permission."
4. Christian Scheurer (2006-12-17). "unrarlib FAQ" (http://www.unrarlib.org/faq.html).
5. "WinRAR description" (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/WinRAR.shtml).
Retrieved 2013-05-01.
6. WinRAR Release History; RARsoft. (https://www.rarsoft.com/rarnew.htm)
7. "FreeDOS general questions" (https://web.archive.org/web/20141011061716/http://comment
s.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.freedos.general/14467). Archived from the original (htt
p://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.freedos.general/14467) on 2014-10-11.
Retrieved 2014-10-07.
8. "RAR - Apps on Google Play" (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rarlab.rar&
hl=en_US). play.google.com. Retrieved 2019-01-31.
9. "RarLab downloads: freeware UnRAR source and binaries download" (https://www.rarlab.co
m/rar_add.htm). RarLab.com. The license states: "The source code of UnRAR utility is
freeware".
10. "7-Zip / Discussion / Open Discussion: 7-Zip 15.06 beta" (https://sourceforge.net/p/sevenzip/
discussion/45797/thread/c611394e/). sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
11. PeaZip website (https://peazip.github.io/) with info about RAR5 extraction.
12. "MacPaw/XADMaster is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1" (http
s://github.com/MacPaw/XADMaster/blob/master/LICENSE). GitHub. 2018-03-21. Retrieved
2021-11-23.
13. The Unarchiver Website (http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html) contains unar.
Accessed 5 February 2013.
14. Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/free-rarv3-extraction) on The
Unarchiver
15. The Unarchiver changes (https://web.archive.org/web/20160623035042/http://unarchiver.c3.
cx/changes). Accessed Jun 10, 2016. On Internet Archive.
16. "Home" (http://www.unrarlib.org/). UnRarLib.org. UniquE RAR File Library. 2007.
17. "Features" (http://www.unrarlib.org/features.html). UnRarLib.org. UniquE RAR File Library.
2002.
18. "FAQ" (http://www.unrarlib.org/faq.html). UnRarLib.org. UniquE RAR File Library. December
2011.
19. "List of formats supported by libarchive" (https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/wiki/Libarchi
veFormats#archive-formats-supported). GitHub. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
20. "Support for RAR · Issue #151 · libarchive/Libarchive" (https://github.com/libarchive/libarchiv
e/issues/151). GitHub.
21. Panay, Panos (2023-05-23). "Bringing the power of AI to Windows 11 – unlocking a new era
of productivity for customers and developers with Windows Copilot and Dev Home" (https://b
logs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2023/05/23/bringing-the-power-of-ai-to-windows-11-u
nlocking-a-new-era-of-productivity-for-customers-and-developers-with-windows-copilot-and-
dev-home/). Windows Developer Blog. Retrieved 2023-05-26.
22. "The Java EE 5 Tutorial" (https://docs.oracle.com/javaee/5/tutorial/doc/bncjy.html). Retrieved
2017-12-02.
23. "RAR abbreviation stands for Resource Adapter Archive" (https://www.allacronyms.com/RA
R/Resource_Adapter_Archive). Retrieved 2017-12-02.
24. "Resource Adapter aRchive - How is Resource Adapter aRchive abbreviated?" (https://acro
nyms.thefreedictionary.com/Resource+Adapter+aRchive). Retrieved 2017-12-02.
25. "9 Packaging and Deploying Resource Adapters" (https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E12839_01/w
eb.1111/e13732/packdepl.htm#ADAPT228). Retrieved 2017-12-02.
26. "Apache Maven RAR Plugin" (https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-rar-plugin/).
Retrieved 2017-12-02.
27. "java - Is Resource Adapter Archive (RAR) the same as Roshal ARchive (RAR)? - Stack
Overflow" (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30172130/is-resource-adapter-archive-rar-th
e-same-as-roshal-archive-rar). Retrieved 2017-12-02.

External links
Official website (https://www.rarlab.com/)
RARLAB FTP download website (https://web.archive.org/web/20210103162023/ftp://ftp.rarl
ab.com/rar), current and old versions of WinRAR and RAR
RAR 5.0 archive file format (https://www.rarlab.com/technote.htm)

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