RAR for Mac

February, 17th 2025 - 711.91 KB - Trial

Latest Version

RAR 7.10 LATEST
Review by

Michael Reynolds
Operating System

Mac OS X
User Rating

Click to vote
Author / Product

RARLab / External Link
Filename

rarmacos-x64-701.tar.gz
MD5 Checksum

0ecf8d40b67ad2cd742aa4ccb7487d9e

RAR for Mac archiver app is a command-line utility designed to compress and store files in RAR archives, saving space and providing encryption for secure storage.

It is developed by the team behind the award-winning Windows app WinRAR, one of the world’s most popular archiving apps ever to be created. The Mac version supports all .rar and .zip archive files, as well as other popular file types, including CAB, ARJ, GZ, TAR, ACR, JAR, ISO, 7Z, XZ, and others.

The command-line interface allows users to execute various commands for archiving and extracting files, making it a versatile tool for managing compressed files on macOS. Sadly, the app completely lacks any kind of visual interface, forcing users to interact with it only via text commands.

The app is optimized for macOS ARM and macOS x64 operating systems, and can also run flawlessly on all modern Apple Silicon Mac hardware.

Main Features

Comprehensive Archiving – Compress and store files in RAR archives to save space, with full support for encrypting with private keys.
Uncompress Files – Gain access to files stored inside easily transferable archives.
Large Command List – Take full control over the archiving and uncompressing of files.
Large Format support – Supports all popular modern and legacy compressions standards.
Solid Archiving – Raises the compression rate by 10-50%, especially when packing a large number of small files.
Recovery & Repair – Gain access to physically damaged or partially downloaded archives.

Installation and Setup

To install this powerful file compression and decompression utility on a Mac, users can simply download this software from the official WinRAR website or our secure FileHorse servers.

Once downloaded, users can easily deploy this app using an automated installer that will add new commands to the text console field of your Mac.

Since the app does not feature any visual interface, the entire installation package weighs just half a megabyte, making it one of the most lightweight and streamlined apps anyone can install on their Mac.

How to Use

The RAR archiver app for Mac operates through the command-line interface, allowing technically minded users to execute various commands for archiving and extracting files.

Users can access the full list of commands in the WinRAR Help menu and utilize them to compress, store, and extract files in RAR archives.

The command-line interface provides flexibility and control over the archiving and extraction process, catering to advanced users familiar with command-line operations.

User Interface

As a command-line utility, the RAR archiver app for Mac does not have a graphical user interface.

Users interact with the software through the terminal, executing commands to perform archiving and extraction tasks.

FAQ

What is RAR for macOS?
It is the archiver app for Mac by the WinRAR team, packaged as a command-line utility designed to compress and store files in RAR archives, and all other advanced options available in the GUI versions of this app.

Is it safe?
100% yes! This powerful app comes from a reputable and trusted development team that has 3 decades of experience in handling compressed archive management processes.

Does this app feature a visual UI?
No. This is a command-line tool for advanced users who are used to managing their Mac files via Terminal commands.

Alternatives

The Unarchiver – A versatile file compression utility that supports a wide range of archive formats.

unRarX – A free alternative to WinRAR for Mac computers, offering basic archive decompression features inside an easy-to-use UI.

Keka – A versatile file compression tool, offering users an intuitive interface and robust features for compressing and extracting files.

BetterZip – A comprehensive archive management tool, providing users with advanced features for compressing, decompressing, and encrypting files effortlessly on the macOS platform.

iZip – A user-friendly file compression and extraction tool, offering seamless features for managing zip archives.

Pricing

Users can test all the capabilities of this app via a TRIAL license, after which they will be prompted to purchase a premium license.

System Requirements

This lightweight app runs flawlessly on all modern and legacy Mac hardware.

PROS

Supports a wide range of archive formats, including RAR and ZIP.
Provides encryption for secure storage of archives.
Advanced command-line operations.
Lightweight operation.
One of the most popular compressed archive management apps ever created.

CONS

Lack of graphical user interface.

Conclusion

The RAR for Mac is a powerful compression archive management command-line utility that caters to advanced users and professionals familiar with terminal operations by offering them an easy way to archive and extract files in various formats.

However, due to its complete lack of a graphical user interface, many users will find it hard to use when managing a large number of compression and decompression tasks.

Note: WinRAR for macOS is a command-line only application. If you want a more intuitive GUI client for your compression/decompression needs we suggest you try The Unarchiver or unRarX.

Also Available: Download WinRAR for Windows

Download RAR for Mac Latest Version

What's new in this version:

- "Settings/General" dialog page is split to "Settings/Interface" and "Settings/System" pagesDialog navigation uses vertical tabs instead of horizontal
- WinRAR sets the dark interface mode if "Color mode" option in "Settings/Interface" is set to "Dark"This option can enable dark and light modes unconditionally or use Windows color mode settings
- "Large memory pages" option in "Settings/System" dialog and -mlp command line switch enable using 2 MB memory pages instead of default 4 KB, when allocating large memory areas in RAR archive format compression and extraction routines
- It allows to improve archiving and, in some cases, extraction speedTypically the performance gain is more significant for bigger compression dictionaries and slower compression methods
- This feature requires "Lock pages in memory" privilege and if it is missing, WinRAR proposes to assign it to the current user account, making it available for other software tooWindows restart is necessary to activate the newly assigned privilege
- "Zone value only" option in "Settings/Security" dialog controls if archive Mark of the Web propagation includes only the security zone value or all available fields
- While additional fields, such as a download location or IP address, might help to identify a file source, they can be a privacy concern if file is shared with other persons
- Switch -om[-|1][=list] controls Mark of the Web propagation in WinRAR and console RAR command line mode
- Windows Vista and 32-bit Windows are not supported anymoreWinRAR requires Windows 7 x64 or later
- Unlike WinRAR, 32-bit self-extracting modules are still provided as a part of 64-bit installation package
- "Auto", "Always on" and "Disable" choices are now available for "Delta compression" and "Executable compression" options in "Advanced compression parameters" dialog
- To improve the compression speed, "Auto" applies these options depending on the compression method, such as disabling them for "Fastest" and "Fast" methodsUse "Always on" to enable them for all methods
- Name of environment variable to store the default set of RAR switches is changed from "RAR" to "RARINISWITCHES"It is rather typical for batch scripts to use "RAR" environment variable name to store RAR executable pathname, which led to the name conflict previously
- "Completion message title" and "Completion message text" options on "Text" page of "Advanced SFX options" dialog allow to define a custom message displayed on the successful completion of SFX archive extraction
- This message can also be added with "TextDone" script command
- SFX logo and icon options are moved to the new "Logo and icon" page of "Advanced SFX options" dialogDialog navigation uses vertical tabs instead of horizontal

Windows 11 context menu:
- compression profiles in the new context menu are placed above extraction commands, similarly to the legacy context menu
- separator lines are inserted between archive open, extraction and archiving command groups
- When extracting a file with NTFS "Compressed" attribute, this attribute is assigned in the beginning of file extractionTypically it reduces the extraction time compared to assigning it after writing the file data
- When adding files to existing RAR archive, folders previously stored in such archive are moved to a position after newly added filesSo folder timestamps are set after extracting all files and are not modified when creating files inside of these folders
- Temporary file isn't created anymore for "rar ch -tl" command if other switches or archive parameters do not imply the archive modificationModification time of newest archived file is set directly to originalarchive file, without copying the archive dataIt reduces disk write and processing time
- If archive is truncated at recovery record or quick open information service blocks, the additional message with truncated block type is displayed after the standard "Unexpected end of archive"
- RAR compression algorithm can use multiple Windows processor groups to utilize up to maximum supported 64 logical processorsIt can improve RAR compression speed on systems with logical processors number exceeding 64 and not multiple of 64
- Previously the maximum number of logical processors was limited to a single processor group size, such as 36 for 72 processors
- Additionally to size, a percent of archive size is also displayed for recovery record in "Show information" command
- For RAR 5.0 archives it is the exact value specified when creating the recovery recordFor older RAR formats it is the approximate value calculated from the available data
- When opening a nested archive from another archive opened in WinRAR, Mark of the Web data will be assigned to nested archive unless "Propagate Mark of the Web" option in WinRAR "Settings/Integration" is set to "Never"Previously it was assigned only if this option was set to "For all files" or to "For user defined files" and list of user defined files included the archive extension
- Also "For office files" and "For executable and office files" lists now include popular archive extensions supported by WinRAR
- Assigning Mark of the Web data to nested archives allows to propagate it to files extracted from such archives, which wasn't done by default in previous versions
- We are thankful to Qize Wang (ADLab of VenusTech) for bringing this issue to our attention

Fixed:
- if new files have been added to existing semi-solid RAR archive created with -se or -s switches, such files could be damagedThis issue doesn't affect usual solid archives created with -s, also as non-solid archives
- even though the long range search isn't used with -m1 "fastest" compression method, switches -m1 -mcl+ or -m1 -mcl with 256MB or larger compression dictionary still allocated memory required for long range search algorithm
- if "Remove redundant folders from extraction path" option was on when extracting a file from archive subfolder, clicking on ".." in the file list afterwards displayed the folder with the archive file instead of parent folder inside of archive
- if application was started from archive and created multiple files with monotonically growing date, WinRAR could issue archive update prompts for every created file instead of a single prompt