rarfile FAQ — RarFile documentation

# rarfile FAQ

## What are the dependencies?

It depends on `unrar` command-line utility to do the actual decompression. Note that by default it expect it to be in `PATH`. If unrar launching fails, you need to fix this.

Alternatively, `rarfile` can also use either unar from TheUnarchiver or bsdtar from libarchive as decompression backend. From those `unar` is preferred as `bsdtar` has very limited support for RAR archives.

It depends on cryptography or PyCryptodome modules to process archives with password-protected headers.

## Does it parse `unrar` output to get archive contents?

No, `rarfile` parses RAR structure in Python code. Also it can read uncompressed files from archive without external utility.

## Will rarfile support wrapping unrarlib/unrar.dll/unrar.so in the future?

No. The current architecture - parsing in Python and decompression with command line tools work well across all interesting operating systems (Windows/Linux/MacOS), wrapping a library does not bring any advantages.

Simple execution of command-line tools is also legally simpler situation than linking with external library.

## How can I get it work on Windows?

On Windows the `unrar.exe` is not in `PATH` so simple `Popen("unrar ..")` does not work. Solutions:

1. Add location of `unrar.exe` to PATH.

2. Copy `unrar.exe` to system directory that is in PATH, eg. `C:\Windows`.

It can be tested by simply opening command-line console and running `unrar`.

## How can I get it work on Linux/MacOS?

It fails because `unrar` is not installed or not in PATH.

1. Install `unrar`.

2. Make sure the location is in PATH.

It can be tested by simply opening command-line console and running `unrar`.

Instead `unrar` it might be preferable to install `unar`.

## How to avoid the need for user to manually install rarfile/unrar?

Include `rarfile.py` and/or `unrar` (or `unar`) with your application.

## Will it support creating RAR archives?

No. RARLAB is not interested in RAR becoming open format and specifically discourages writing RAR creation software.

In the meantime use either Zip (better compatibility) or 7z (better compression) format for your own archives.

## What is the USE_EXTRACT_HACK?

RarFile uses `unrar` to extract compressed files. But when extracting single file from archive containing many entries, `unrar` needs to parse whole archive until it finds the right entry. This makes random-access to entries slow. To avoid that, RarFile remembers location of compressed data for each entry and on read it copies it to temporary archive containing only data for that one file, thus making `unrar` fast.

The logic is only activated for entries smaller than `rarfile.HACK_SIZE_LIMIT` (20M by default). Bigger files are accessed directly from RAR.

Note - it only works for non-solid archives. So if you care about random access to files in your archive, do not create solid archives.