                             User's Manual
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            RAR 2.00 32-bit console version (Unix and Windows)
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

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

    RAR is a powerful tool which allows you to manage and control archive
  files. The archive is usually a regular file, which name has a ".rar"
  suffix.

  RAR features include:-

    *  Highly sophisticated, original compression algorithm
    *  Special compression algorithm optimized for multimedia data
    *  Better compression than similar tools, using 'solid' archiving
    *  Authenticity verification (registered version only)
    *  Self-extracting archives and volumes (SFX)
    *  Ability to recover physically damaged archives
    *  Locking, password, file order list, disk volume labels & more ...


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

  RAR for Unix reads configuration information from the file .rarrc in the
  user's home directory (stored in HOME environment variable).

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

  This file may contain the following strings:

  switches=<any RAR switches, separated with a space>
  regname=<your registration name>
  regcode=<your code as stated in registration>


 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, to a log file.  In Unix this file
  is named .rarlog and placed in the user's home directory. In Windows it
  is named rar.log and placed in the same directory as the rar.exe file.


 The file order list for solid archiving - RARFILES.LST
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  RARFILES.LST contains user-defined file list which tells RAR
  the order 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 ';'.

  This file should be placed in the same directory as RAR.

  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.


 RAR command line syntax
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Syntax

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

 Description

    Command line options (commands and switches) provides 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.

    In a UNIX environment you need to quote wildcards to avoid them being
    processed by RAR itself. For example, this command will extract
    *.asm files from RAR archives in current path:

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


    Command could be any of the following:

    a       Add files to archive.

            Example:

            rar a myarch

            Create or update existent archive myarch, adding all files
            in the current directory:


    c       Add archive comment. Comments are displayed while the archive is
            being processed. Comment length is limited to 62000 bytes

            Examples:

            rar c distrib.rar

            Also comments may be added from a file:

            rar c -zinfo.txt dummy


    cf      Add files comment. File comments are displayed when the 'v'
            command is given. File comment length is limited to 32767 bytes.

            Example:

            rar cf bigarch *.txt


    cw      Write archive comment to specified file.

            Example:

            rar cw oldarch comment.txt


    d       Delete files from archive. Note, if the processing of this
            command resulted in removing all the files from the archive, the
            empty archive would removed.


    e       Extract files to current directory.


    f       Freshen files in archive. Updates those files changed since they
            were packed to the archive. This command will not add new files
            to the archive.


    k       Lock archive. Any command which intend to change the archive
            will be ignored.

            Example:

            rar k final.rar


    l[t]    List contents of archive [technical]. Files are listed as with
            the 'v' command with the exception of the file path. i.e. only
            the file name is displayed. Optional technical information is
            displayed when 't' modifier is used.


    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.


    r       Repair archive. Archive repairing is performed in two stages.
            First, the damaged archive is searched for a recovery record
            (see 'rr' command). If the archive contains a recovery record
            and if the portion of the damaged data is continuous and less
            than N*512 bytes, where N is number of recovery sectors placed
            into the archive, the chance of successful archive
            reconstruction is very high. When this stage has completed, a
            new archive will be created, called _RECOVER.RAR.

            If a broken archive does not contain a recovery record or if
            the archive is not completely recovered due to major damage, a
            second stage is performed. During this stage only the archive
            structure is reconstructed and it is impossible to recover
            files which fail the CRC validation, it is still possible to
            recover undamaged files which were inaccessible due to the
            broken archive structure. Mostly this is useful for non-solid
            archives.

            When the second stage is completed, the reconstructed archive
            will be saved as _RECONST.RAR.

            While the recovery is in progress, RAR may prompt the user for
            assistance when a suspicious file is detected.

                      Suspicious entry

              Name:  <possibly filename>
              Size:  <size>    Packed: <compressed size>

                      Add it: Yes/No/All

            Answer 'y' to add this entry to the file _RECOVER.RAR.

            Example:

            rar r buggy.rar


    rr[N]   Add data recovery record. Optionally, redundant information
            (recovery record) may be added to an archive.  This will cause
            a small increase of the archive size and helps to recover
            archived files in case of floppy disk failure or data losses of
            any other kind. A recovery record contains up to 8 recovery
            sectors. The number of sectors may be specified directly in the
            'rr' command (N = 1, 2 .. 8) or if it is not specified by the
            user it will be selected automatically according to the archive
            size:

                   Archive size       Number of sectors
                     < 50Kb                   2
                     50Kb-500Kb               4
                     > 500Kb                  8

            If data are damaged continuously then each rr-sector helps to
            recover 512 bytes of damaged information. This value may be
            lower in cases of multiple damage.

            The size of the recovery record may be approximately determined
            by the formula <archive size>/256 + <number of recovery
            sectors>*512 bytes.


    s[name] Convert archive to SFX. The archive is merged with SFX-module
            (using a module in file default.sfx or specified in the switch).


    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 already in the archive
            and updates files changed since they were packed to the archive.


    v[t]    Verbosely list the contents of archive [technical].
            Files are listed using the format: full pathname, file comment,
            original and compressed size, compression ratio, last update
            date and time, attributes, CRC, compression method and minimum
            RAR version required to extract. Optional technical information
            is displayed when 't' modifier is used.

            To list the contents of all archive volumes, use an asterisk
            ('*') in place of the archive file extension or use the '-v'
            switch.

            Example:

            rar vt bambam >bambam.lst

            direct archive content list (technical) to a file:


    x       Extract files with full path.

            Example:

            rar x -av- -c- dime 10cents.txt

            extract specified file to current path. AV check and comment
            show are disabled.


    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.


    -av     Put authenticity verification (registered versions only).
            RAR will put, in every new and updated archive, information
            concerning the creator, last update time and archive name.

            If an archive, containing authenticity verification, is being
            modified and this switch is not specified, the authenticity
            verification information will be removed.

            When extracting, testing, listing or updating and archive with
            the '-av' switch, RAR will perform integrity validation and
            display the message:

              Verifying authenticity information ...

            In the case of successful authenticity verification, the message
            'Ok', creator name and last update information will be
            displayed. In the case of authenticity verification failure, the
            message 'FAILED' will be displayed.

            The Authenticity Verification feature, '-av,' is recommended for
            use with archives in a software distribution environment.

            In order to enable the Authenticity verification feature, the
            program MUST be registered. Please contact your local
            distribution site or the world-wide distribution center.


    -av-    Disable AV checking or adding.


    -cfg-   Disable read configuration and environment.


    -cl     Convert file names to lower case.


    -cu     Convert file names to upper case.


    -c-     Disable comments show.


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


    -ep     Exclude paths from names. This switch enables files to be added
            to an archive without including the path information. This
            could, of course, result in multiple files existing in the
            archive with the same name.


    -ep1    Exclude base dir from names. Do not store the path entered in
            the command line.

            Example:

            all files and directories from the directory tmp will be added
            to the archive 'pasta', but the path will not include 'tmp\'

            rar a -ep1 -r pasta 'tmp\*'

            This is equivalent to the commands:

            cd tmp
            rar a -ep1 -r pasta
            cd ..


    -e<atr> Specifies file exclude attributes mask. <atr> is a number in the
            decimal, octal (with leading '0') or hex (with leading '0x')
            format. If result of bitwise AND between <mask> and file
            attributes is nonzero, then file would not be added to archive.

            In the Windows version also is possible to use instead of
            digital mask symbols D, S, H, A and R to denote directories
            and files with system, hidden, archive and read-only attributes.
            The order in which the attributes are given is not significant.


    -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.


    -ierr   Send all messages to stderr.


    -ilog   Log errors to file.


    -inul   Disable all messages.


    -isnd   Enable sound.


    -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)

            By default RAR uses -m3 method (Normal compression).


    -md<n>  Select dictionary size <n> in Kb. Must be 64, 128, 256, 512 or
            1024. or a letter 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' or 'e' respectively.

            The sliding dictionary is a special memory area used by the
            compression algorithm. If the size of the file being compressed
            (or the total files size in the case of a solid archive) is
            greater than the dictionary size, then increasing the dictionary
            size will generally increase compression ratio, decrease packing
            speed and increase memory requirements.

            Default sliding dictionary size in 32-bit versions of RAR is 256
            Kb. In RAR versions for Unix, Windows and other 32-bit platforms
            it is possible to select five different sizes: 64, 128, 256, 512
            or 1024 Kb. Besides, speed of extraction in these versions does
            not depend upon dictionary size. In 16-bit version RAR for DOS
            the sliding dictionary size is fixed and equal to 64 Kb.
            Though RAR for DOS provides extracting files from large
            dictionary archives.

            The amount of memory required to create large dictionary
            archives is determined as 5*<dictionary size>+150Kb. About 1 Mb
            is required for extraction and 5*<dictionary size>+1150Kb to
            update solid archives.

            RAR for DOS can extract from large dictionary archives using
            conventional, EMS and disk memory. If no EMS or disk
            cache is available, the operation may slow down significantly. RAR
            for DOS cannot convert large dictionary archives to SFX with the
            default SFX module and cannot update such solid archives.

            Example:

            RAR a -s -mdd sources *.asm
                or
            RAR a -s -md512 sources *.asm

            Will create a solid archive using a 512 Kb dictionary.

    -mm[f]  Multimedia compression [force]. Enables a special multimedia
            compression algorithm. It is intended to compress digital audio
            data containing up to four 8-bit or two 16-bit channels. It
            works well with  true color (24-bit) bitmaps as well.
            Improvement in the compression ratio up to 30% over the normal
            compression may be achieved.

            When archiving file in the multimedia mode RAR performs
            intelligent data analysis and may use, for different parts of
            the file, general or multimedia compression depending on which
            is more suitable. Such analysis allows optimum performance when
            different data types are merged in the same file. The 'f'
            modifier forces the multimedia compression to be used for the
            whole file; it may help when certain multimedia files are to be
            compressed, but in most cases only increases archive size.

            Both the -m<N> "Set compression method" and -s "Create solid
            archive" switches can be used with multimedia compression,
            but they are in effect for those file parts where the general
            algorithm applies.

            If -mm is used with non-multimedia data, the compression ratio
            is usually unchanged in comparison with the general method, but
            due to multimedia analysis overhead, the packing speed is always
            slower. The usage of -mm is not recommended with normal data
            files.

            Example:

            rar a -m5 -s -mm All_My_Songs.rar *.wav

            Use the tightest compression method, solid archiving and
            multimedia compression with smart analysis, which method
            should be applied for particular data:


    -ol     Save symbolic links as the link instead of the file.
            Unix versions only.


    -ow     Save file owner and group information.
            Unix versions only.


    -o+     Overwrite existing files.


    -o-     Do not overwrite existing files.


    -p<p>   Encrypt files with the string <p> as password while archiving.
            The password is case-sensitive. If you omit the password on the
            command line, you will be prompted with message "Enter password".

            Example:

            rar a -pmyhoney secret1 *.txt

            encrypt files *.txt with password "myhoney".


    -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.


    -ri<p>[:<s>]
            Set priority and sleep time. Available only in RAR for Windows.
            This switch is used to regulate system load by RAR in a
            multitasking environment. The possible task priority values are
            from 0 to 15. When <p> is equal to 0, the default task priority
            is used, 1 corresponding to the lowest task priority, 15 - to
            the highest. The sleep time <s> is a value from 0 to 1000
            (milliseconds). This is the period of time that RAR will give
            back to system after every read or write during the packing or
            unpacking operation. The sleep time setting is useful when
            several tasks with the same priority are running in the system.

            Example:

            WinRAR a -r -sfx -ri0:10 backup *.*

            execute RAR with default priority and 10 ms of sleep after
            each read or write.


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


    -s      Create solid archive. Solid is a special archive type. Please
            refer to the appendix "Glossary" for further information.

            Example:

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

            create solid archive sources.rar with 512 Kb dictionary,
            recursing all directories, starting with the current directory.
            Add only .asm files:


    -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.

            Example:

            rar a -sfxidos.sfx -zscript.s myinst

            create SelF-eXtracting (SFX) archive using specified SFX-module
            and special installation script.


    -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.


    -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<n>[k|b]  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' or in bytes using the symbol 'b' following
            the numerical value. If the size is omitted, autodetection will
            be used.

            If volumes are created on the same drive as the temporary files
            (current drive by default, but may be changed with the switch
            '-w'), the autodetected size becomes meaningless. In this case
            the volume size must be explicitly defined.

            If volumes are created on a drive OTHER than the drive
            containing the temporary files, then after the first volume has
            been created, the user will be prompted with:

              Create next volume: Yes/No/All/Quit

            At this moment in time, you should change the disks. Answering
            'A' will cause all volumes to be created without a pause.

            The first volume file in a multi-volume set has the extension
            .RAR, following volumes are numbered from .R00 to .R99.

            When extracting or testing a multi-volume archive you must use
            only the first volume name (*.RAR). If there is no next volume
            on the drive (and volumes are not placed in the same directory
            as the temporary files), 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 in the same directory as the temporary files, RAR
            will abort with the error message:

             Cannot find <volume name>
             Cannot change disk with temporary files

            Archive volumes may not be modified. The commands 'd', 'f', 'u',
            's' can not 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 it's 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.


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


    -x<f>   Exclude specified file<f>, wildcards may be used. You may
            specify the switch '-x' several times:

            Example:

            rar a -r -x*.bak -x*.rar rawfiles

            *.bak and *.rar files will not be added to rawfiles


    -x@<lf> Exclude files using specified list file.

            Example:

            rar a -x@exlist.txt arch *.exe


    -y      Assume Yes on all queries.


    -z<f>   Read archive comment from file<f>.


 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


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

    Pathname is limited to 259 symbols.

    Maximum archive comment length is 62000 bytes.

    Command limitations:

    The commands 'd','u','f' will not operate with archive volumes.

    The command 'a' cannot be used to update an archive volume, only to
    create one.

    The commands 'c' and 'cf' will not operate with archive volumes, but
    will work with solid archives.


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

    RAR exits with a zero code (0) in case of successful operation. The exit
    code of non-zero means the operation is cancelled due to error:

     255   USER BREAK       User stopped the process

       8   MEMORY ERROR     Not enough memory for operation

       7   USER ERROR       Command line option error

       6   OPEN ERROR       Open file error

       5   WRITE ERROR      Write to disk error

       4   LOCKED ARCHIVE   Attempt to modify an archive previously locked
                            by the 'k' command

       3   CRC ERROR        A CRC error occurred when unpacking

       2   FATAL ERROR      A fatal error occurred

       1   WARNING          Non fatal error(s) occurred

       0   SUCCESS          Successful operation (User exit)


 Glossary
 ~~~~~~~~

    Archive      Special file containing one or more files optionally
                 encoded and/or compressed.

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

    CRC          Cyclic Redundancy Check. Mathematical method calculating
                 special checking information for data validity.

    SFX          Archive module used to extract files from when executed.
                 (SelF-eXtracting module), usually in the form of a .EXE
                 file.

    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 diskettes. Volumes must be extracted
                 starting from first in sequence.



 Copyrights

    (c) 1993-96 Eugene Roshal



