Unrar has been removed, but I need unrar. Alternatives?

[cryo-kronos]

So, unrar is gone from Homebrew, apparently because of licensing issues.

However, I need to install unrar on macOS Mojave. What are my alternatives?

[carlocab]

I've extracted the formula to my tap, which you can use via:

brew install carlocab/personal/unrar

There are bottles for Catalina and Big Sur, but I guess that doesn't quite work for you, so I suspect it'll build from source. If it doesn't work I'm willing to accept PRs, but I can't promise I'll spend time investigating it myself to fix it.

Otherwise, you can also extract the formula to your own tap yourself using brew extract.

[vom513]

Just came here after googling this. As was mentioned, other utils will handle rar (obviously more exotic archive operations may vary...).

I just tried 7z (formula: p7zip) and it supports rar archives.

[yuconora]

there is another in homebrew-cask
Named rar
so, you can use

brew install rar

command rar and unrar will be found in /usr/local/bin/

[ShanJiang21]

brew install carlocab/personal/unrar

Figured out why there is always a bug saying like below:

Error: No similarly named formulae found.
Error: No available formula or cask with the name "unrar".

License sucks.

[daleyzou]

it really works, thank you

[TheShubham-K]

@cryo-kronos thank you, it really works.

[cryo-kronos]

Interestingly, MacPorts still has unrar; they haven’t removed it. Given that MacPorts has traditionally been quite conservative, I’m surprised that Homebrew has removed unrar but MacPorts hasn’t.

As for alternatives, certain apps (e.g., nzbget) require unrar to function, so 7z isn’t going to work.

[gromgit]

Interestingly, MacPorts still has unrar; they haven’t removed it. Given that MacPorts has traditionally been quite conservative, I’m surprised that Homebrew has removed unrar but MacPorts hasn’t.

MacPorts allows distribution of software under a Restrictive/Distributable license; Homebrew doesn't. Each party is being perfectly consistent in applying their respective rules.

certain apps (e.g., nzbget) require unrar to function

@carlocab already offered an alternative that neither the Homebrew software nor maintainers have any issue with.

[reagle]

Has anyone found any alternatives yet? 7zip says unsupported format.

[SMillerDev]

There are a bunch of alternatives in the accepted answer.

[reagle]

Sorry, @yuconora's answer was hidden beneath a "View more" which surprised me -- Don't think I've seen that before on Github. Perhaps it's a Discussions thing?

[csarmiento]

I just found this gem:

brew info rar
rar: 6.0.0
https://www.rarlab.com/
Not installed
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/HEAD/Casks/rar.rb
==> Name
RAR Archiver
==> Description
Archive manager for data compression and backups
==> Artifacts
rar/default.sfx -> /usr/local/lib/default.sfx (Generic Artifact)
rar/rarfiles.lst -> /usr/local/etc/rarfiles.lst (Generic Artifact)
rar/rar (Binary)
rar/unrar (Binary)
==> Analytics
install: 2,326 (30 days), 4,512 (90 days), 8,555 (365 days)

It seems that rarlab has provided an official rar/unrar commad for MacOS

[ahuigo]

I just found this gem:

brew info rar
rar: 6.0.0
https://www.rarlab.com/
Not installed
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/HEAD/Casks/rar.rb
==> Name
RAR Archiver
==> Description
Archive manager for data compression and backups
==> Artifacts
rar/default.sfx -> /usr/local/lib/default.sfx (Generic Artifact)
rar/rarfiles.lst -> /usr/local/etc/rarfiles.lst (Generic Artifact)
rar/rar (Binary)
rar/unrar (Binary)
==> Analytics
install: 2,326 (30 days), 4,512 (90 days), 8,555 (365 days)

It seems that rarlab has provided an official rar/unrar commad for MacOS

“unrar” cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.

[csarmiento]

Do you know open source rar extractor for macOS? this is trial version

➜  Desktop rar

RAR 6.00   Copyright (c) 1993-2020 Alexander Roshal   1 Dec 2020
Trial version             Type 'rar -?' for help

Usage:     rar <command> -<switch 1> -<switch N> <archive> <files...>
               <@listfiles...> <path_to_extract\>

However, the unrar execuable says:

▶ unrar

UNRAR 6.00 freeware      Copyright (c) 1993-2020 Alexander Roshal

Usage:     unrar <command> -<switch 1> -<switch N> <archive> <files...>
               <@listfiles...> <path_to_extract\>

[srigi]

All the proposed alternatives cannot extract RAR5 archives. I downloaded unrar binary from https://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm and put it into /usr/local/bin manually.

[csarmiento]

Did you try the unrar that comes with rar from brew (brew install rar) ?

As the command says it is freeware...

▶ unrar

UNRAR 6.01 freeware      Copyright (c) 1993-2021 Alexander Roshal

Usage:     unrar <command> -<switch 1> -<switch N> <archive> <files...>
               <@listfiles...> <path_to_extract\>

[srigi]

I didn't. My problem is now solved, so nothing more I need to do.
Just for the sake of persistence (like when I reinstall macOS), I've put binary into my custom bin $HOME/bin.

But thank you for the suggestion.

[mrochcn]

brew install rar

[nguyenvulong]

7z did not work for me, but The Unarchiver (brew install --cask the-unarchiver) did.