                RAR - What's new in the latest version


   Version 3.00

   1. We introduced RAR 3.0 discount program, so a single user
      license now is only $29.

      As always, already registered users do not need to pay again.
      RAR 1.x - 2.x registration is valid for 3.0 too.

      New international RAR site is www.rarlab.com. You may visit it
      to download latest versions and register RAR.

      Also do not forget that we have a lot of regional sites processing
      RAR registrations. Complete list is available in rar_site.txt.

   2. Compression algorithm improved. Changes include:

      a) dictionary size is increased to 4 MB, this helps to increase
         compression on large data sets;

      b) a special algorithm for text data, based on Dmitry Shkarin's
         PPMd ver.H sources: ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/pack/ppmdh.rar

         We express our sincere gratitude and respect to Dmitry for
         his excellent PPMd;

      c) special preprocessing algorithms for 32-bit x86 executables,
         Itanium executables, true color data, audio data and tables.
         In many cases significantly increasing compression;

      d) now RAR chooses the best combination of algorithms automatically,
         so switch -mm is obsolete.

         By default, RAR uses only the general compression algorithm
         in the "Fast" and "Fastest" compression methods (-m1 and -m2),
         advanced algorithms such as audio and true color processing are
         enabled only in "Normal"..."Best" (-m3..-m5) modes, the advanced
         text compression is activated only in "Good" and "Best"
         compression (-m4..-m5). This default can be overridden using
         the -mc switch.

      RAR 3.0 archives can be unpacked by any RAR version beginning
      from RAR 2.9, currently it is 2.9 and 3.0. RAR 3.0 can unpack
      archives created by all older RAR versions.

   3. Encryption algorithm is changed to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
      with 128 bit key length.

   4. Default volume naming scheme is changed from volname.rar,
      volname.r00, ..., to volname.part001.rar, volname.part002.rar, etc.
      Switch -vn allows to use the old extension based scheme.

   5. Added support of so called recovery volumes (.rev files),
      which can be used to reconstruct missing files in a volume set.
      One .rev file allows to reconstruct one missing RAR volume,
      for example, 5 .rev files are able to reconstruct any 5 volumes.

      Use the command rv[n] or switch -rv[n] to create recovery volumes.

      RAR automatically uses .rev files to reconstruct missing volumes
      when unpacking or testing a volume set. It is also possible
      to run the command 'rc' to force reconstructing.

      I wish to thank developers of Mirror program, who invented
      this idea and proposed to implement it in RAR.

   6. Switch -hp<pwd> can be used instead of -p<pwd> to encrypt
      both file data and file headers, so such information as file
      names, sizes, comments will not be visible without a password.

   7. Using switch -mc you may set advanced compression parameters
      such as prediction order and memory size for the text compression
      algorithm.

   8. Switch -ms allows to specify files, which will be stored
      without compression. For example, -msrar;zip;jpg.
      It helps to increase archiving speed without noticeable
      loss in the compression ratio.

   9. Command line switch -t allows to test files after archiving.
      This option is especially useful in combination with the move
      command, so files will be deleted only if archive had been
      successfully tested.

  10. Switches -ta<date> and -tb<date> allow to add or extract files
      modified after or before the specified date. Date format
      is YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. It is allowed to insert separators like '-'
      or ':' to date string and omit trailing fields. For example,
      the following switch is correct: -ta2001-11-20.

  11. Switch -ver tells RAR to keep old file versions in archive
      when adding their new versions.

  12. Switch -ad appends an archive name to destination path.
      It may be useful when unpacking a few archives at once,
      so files from each archive will go to separate folder.

  13. Switch -en disables adding "end of archive block".

      By default, RAR 3.0 adds "end of archive" block to the end of
      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 trasferred between two systems via a 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.

  14. Now RAR can update encrypted solid archives.

  15. Error messages are sent to stderr instead of stdout.

  16. New '+' modifier for -ag switch allows to place the date string
      before a base archive name.

  17. It is possible to use wildcards in the path part of file mask
      in -x switch. For example, -x*\temp\*.

  18. Switch -ilog accepts the optional log file name parameter.
      For example, -ilogc:\log\backup.log.


   Version 2.90

   1. Now it is possible to use full file paths such as d:\path\name
      in the exclude lists and -x<name> switch when archiving.
      Earlier versions understood only relative file paths here.

   2. New 'E' parameter for -ag switch denotes a day of year.
      For example: rar a -agEEE backup.

   3. To provide a reasonable tradeoff between compression and
      reliability, RAR resets solid statistics between volumes
      only if sufficient data (about 4 MB) had been processed since
      the last reset.

      You may use two new switches to change this default behaviour.
      Switch -sv forces RAR to always reset statistics, regardless
      of volume size, when -sv- disables such reset at all times.

      Switch -sv- supersedes -sd, though the latter is also recognized
      by RAR for compatibility purposes.

   4. The choice "Never" is added to the file overwrite request
      displayed by console mode RAR. Style of console RAR requests
      is somewhat altered.

   5. File lists (@listfile parameters of the command line) may now
      contain comments preceeded by // characters. For example:

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


   Version 2.80

   1. Command 's-' allows to remove SFX module from SFX archive.

   2. Switch '-ag' supports two new format parameters:

      a) 'W' - a number of the current week in a year;

      b) 'A' - a number of the current day in a week.
         Weeks start with Sunday.

   3. New switch '-k' - lock archive.

   4. New switch '-vp' - pause after each volume.

   5. You may specify the recovery record size as a percentage of 
      the total archive size in 'rr' command and '-rr' switch. 
      For example, -rr3%

   6. New -ep2 switch - store full file paths when archiving.

   7. Switch -sv is removed, now RAR by default creates independent 
      volumes. You may override it using the new -sd switch, but note 
      that it reduces your chances to restore a part of data in case 
      of archive damage.


   Version 2.71

   1. When using -as switch the previous version sometimes displayed
      a wrong file name in the "Deleting <filename>" message.
      Corrected now.


   Version 2.70

   1. Both compression and speed have been improved.
      My thanks to Alexander Khoroshev, who, once again, provided
      invaluabel assistance to improve this new version.

   2. Total progress percentage is displayed when testing or extracting
      from a single RAR archive (except volumes) or group of archives.

   3. New command line switches -to<time> and -tn<time> allow to
      process files older or newer than specified time.

   4. Switch -rr and command RR are not limited to 8 recovery sectors.
      Now the recovery record may contain up to 4096 sectors.

      If the sectors number is not specified, the size of the recovery
      information is about 1.2% of the total archive size, this usually
      allows the recovery of up tp 0.7% of continuously damaged data 
      of the total archive size.

      Note that recovery records larger than 8 sectors cannot be used
      by previous RAR versions.

   5. The default value of dictionary size is changed to 1024KB.

   6. RAR now supports wildcards in the archive name also in 'RR' command.

   7. New switch -idp disables displaying of the percentage indicator.
      May be useful when redirecting RAR output to a file.

