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 also comes in the following other editions: RAR for Linux and RAR for FreeBSD.

To use the RAR command line application, place the files in any folder on your hard drive, and call the utility by typing in the full path to the application (e.g., to run from the current directory, type "./rar" or "./unrar" followed by the appropriate parameters). Typing the application name (rar or unrar) without any parameters will produce a helpful guide to each program's usage.

Here are some key features of "RAR for Mac OS X":

· RAR introduces an original compression algorithm. It allows higher compression ratios than other PC archiving tools, especially on executable files, object libraries, large text files, etc.
· RAR offers an optional compression algorithm highly optimized for multimedia data.
· RAR provides functionality for creating a 'solid' archive, which can raise the compression ratio by 10% - 50% over more common methods, particularly when packing large numbers of small files.
· RAR offers the ability to create and change SFX archives using default and external SFX modules.
· RAR offers the ability to create a multi-volume archive as SFX.
· RAR offers a number of service functions, such as setting a password, adding archive and file comments. Even physically damaged archives may be repaired and an archive may be locked to prevent further changes. Authenticity information may be added for additional security and RAR will store information on the last update and name of the archive.

Limitations:

· 40 days trial.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· If you start WinRAR command from Explorer context menu in multiple monitor configuration, the command dialog will be displayed on the same monitor as context menu. In previous versions it was always displayed on primary monitor.
· WinRAR "Compress and email..." context menu command adds the archive name to email subject. Previous versions left the subject blank.
· In RAR 3.91 -x switch could also exclude folders from archiving even if mask contained wilcard characters and did not contain a path. For example, -x*. excluded all those folders, which do not have the extension in the name. Now -x switch uses RAR 3.80 approach for masks without path, excluding folders only if mask does not contain wildcards and matches the folder name exactly.

Bugs fixed:
· WinRAR 3.91 reported the incorrect "Unexpected end of archive" error, when opening an empty ZIP archive created with "New WinRAR ZIP archive" context menu command;
· if "Delete archive" option was enabled when unpacking several ZIP archives and if one of archives was damaged, WinRAR did not delete archives after the damaged one, even if they were unpacked successfully;
· if file matched two different masks in RarFiles.lst, WinRAR could select the last match. Normally, if neither of masks is a subset of another, the first match must be chosen.