[ghporter]

The manufacturer has released new firmware for a camera accessory I have. It's in RAR format, and the Mac Archive Utility doesn't seem to like this particular file. What are some good (effective, dependable) and FREE apps to expand RAR files? The App Store has a bunch listed, but I'm somewhat skeptical about jumping on one or another of them without some kind of endorsement from someone from whom I can get answers to my questions.

TIA and all that...

[Spheric Harlot]

Been using unrarX for decades.

[Thorzdad]

Yep. UnrarX. Accept no substitutes.

[reader50]

I've reliably expanded RARs with:

The Unarchiver (free)
Pacifist (shareware, but fully functional) - support our own CharlesS
Stuffit Expander (yes, it's still around, and still free)
several RAR utilities that broke after Mojave.

[ghporter]

I didn’t know Pacifist would act as a general archive expander. Nice to know.

I tried to find my old WinZip license info, because I recall it being quite simple and bullet proof. But now it’s commercial - Corel owns it for cryin’ out loud.

So I’m going to dust off Pacifist - CharlesS recruited a bunch of us to test features in exchange for a copy. I haven’t even looked at it in quite a while, but I’m going to see how it does for me.

I have read great things about The Unarchiver, but like I said, I don’t trust reviews anymore. Never heard of UnrarX, but I will see what it offers, too.

[Spheric Harlot]

Actually, strike that. Used UnrarX for a while, but have been on Unarchiver since forever.

IIRC, it was because Unarchiver is completely transparent. No dialogs, no splash screens, nothing — unless it needs a password to extract.

[ghporter]

I tried Pacifist - it had errors opening the archive. I tried the built-in archive manager in Linux (Debian 10) and it errored and wrote a zero byte file.

So I got The Unarchiver from the App Store, and it took care of the file without any problems at all. While I'm satisfied that I have my firmware file ready to install, I'm really curious as to why everything else I tried failed.

Here's the site with the firmware link.. I am puzzled by this, and i don't like being puzzled by this sort of thing.

[CharlesS]

RAR support is something I've considered adding to Pacifist, but I haven't done it yet. Maybe in a future version?

[reader50]

I must have misremembered - I even reinstalled Pacifist3 just now to see if it could open RARs - no dice.

Up to Mojave, I used SimplyRAR, as it can also create RAR archives. Useful for segmenting large files into email-sized attachments. But it is 32-bit and broke after Mojave.

Backup choice for extraction-only was The Unarchiver, followed by Stuffit Expander.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

RAR support is something I've considered adding to Pacifist, but I haven't done it yet. Maybe in a future version?

I can see needing to expand compressed files in installation packages, so I figured I’d give it a try. I was happy that Pacifist gave me at least a moderately helpful error message, something like “an error occurred,” then offered to look for data somewhere else (receipts?).

Anyway, if you do add expand (or both compress and expand) for RAR, I think it would be good for it to be sort of an accessory. The UI of the version I have (I’m not at the machine that it’s installed on) is solidly about installation packages, fixing installations, etc. Expanding some random file doesn’t seem to fit in among those functions.

[reader50]

RARs are archives - they can contain multiple files and folders. Along with splitting the archive into multiple parts, when the whole archive is too big for the medium it's being sent through (or stored on). Besides splitting things to email-sized chunks, you can also use it to fit a backup into multiple DVD or BR burns. Less relevant than it once was, since optical discs stopped getting bigger, even as HDs did.

A RAR of a single file would still fit in the Pacifist interface, as an archive. ZIPs already do - those can handle single or multiple items too.

[ghporter]

Agreed, but what I’m thinking is that Pacifist’s button layout is very focused on installation. Of course just adding another button that says “Accessories” or “Tools” or something like that would fix that.