RAR is a compressed container file similar to ZIP, created by Eugene Roshal. It can split large files into smaller volumes and compress more efficiently than ZIP, with a recovery record and AES support. WinRAR is the most popular program, but 7-zip is a free alternative.
A RAR (.rar) file is a proprietary compressed container file, similar to a ZIP (.zip) file. It was created by Eugene Roshal, hence the name Roshal ARchive. Roshal also helped develop programs to use the format, including the popular WinRAR. Although the ZIP format predates this format, the latter has advantages over ZIP compression.
The software creates RARs by adding one or more files to a container, giving the archive the .rar extension. Like compressed archives, files can be archived in this state but cannot be used until they are extracted or decompressed. Software like WinRAR extracts the files to a folder of your choice. While this may not look any different from compressed files, the format has some significant advantages.
Using the software, you can split large files into smaller multipart volumes, automatically named in sequential order. For example, .r01, .r02, .r03, and so on. Newer versions of WinRAR use part01.rar, part02.rar, part03.rar. Breaking the file into small pieces makes it easier to send over the network. Once received, the user double-clicks the first volume in the archive (eg .r01 or part01.rar) and an installed program will extract the contents, recombining all volumes into the single original file with its original extension.
In addition to its ability to handle large files, the RAR format has other advantages over the ZIP format. Of these, files compress more efficiently, resulting in smaller file sizes than compressed files (although it takes a little longer to compress and decompress these files). RAR files also incorporate redundancy or an archived “recovery record” within the archive, allowing you to repair a container that has been damaged. Newer versions of the format also support Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and multi-threading.
While the shareware WinRAR is probably the best known program, the ability to handle these files has been licensed to many software developers. Current versions of Windows operating systems incorporate native support for ZIP files only, leading many users to use dedicated third-party compression programs for the extra functionality they provide and the ability to handle all file types. A popular, free, and open source compression utility is 7-zip, which handles RAR, ZIP, CAB, TAR, and DEB formats, among others.
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