Handling of RAR files

[MrZigi]

Hello Mike,

I'm a bit behind with NC updates so have a question if you could spare a minute or so.
I see this item in the release note of 1.5: "Improved the handling of RAR archives".

1. As a devoted long-time user of RAR where I could find some more documentation about this feature?
2. I see that e.g. files can be extracted on the fly while using the Copy or Preview function (not sure if available earlier). That's already great! Any chance this works once with password protected RAR archives?
3. Was there anything added to the NC interface to support compress w/ RAR? I'm using it as a defined Command Tool (not so perfect) and I'm still dreaming of seamless integration like offered by Compress function.

As usual, big thanks to the excellent job with NC! It's a great everyday aid to my work.
Thanks & best regards,
Zigi

[mikekazakov]

Hey, sure:

1. As a devoted long-time user of RAR where I could find some more documentation about this feature?

Before v1.5, Nimble Commander used the UnRAR library to deal with RAR archives, it was a separate VFS, written for this type specifically. It came with a swath of problems, starting with the poor integration with NC itself and ending with missing some of the format options. Starting with v1.5 RAR archives are handled using the libarchive library, as any other archive types.

2. I see that e.g. files can be extracted on the fly while using the Copy or Preview function (not sure if available earlier). That's already great! Any chance this works once with password protected RAR archives?

No, this won't work - libarchive does not support reading password-protected RAR archives.

3. Was there anything added to the NC interface to support compress w/ RAR? I'm using it as a defined Command Tool (not so perfect) and I'm still dreaming of seamless integration like offered by Compress function.

Currently the only supported format for compression is ZIP. While other formats can be added in theory, RAR is currently out of the question - libarchive does not implement compression for this format.

As usual, big thanks to the excellent job with NC! It's a great everyday aid to my work.

Thanks, you're welcome!

[MrZigi]

Hello Mike and to whom it may concern,

finally found the time to figure out why some RAR archives open in NC (and Finder) and others not.
It turns out solid archives (option -s) do not open. That's pity because solid archives are significantly smaller (sometimes as much as 50%).

Thanks & regards,
Zigi

[mikekazakov]

Sure, libarchive originated in FreeBSD, Apple just incorporates this library: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libarchive.

1. bsdtar and other parts of libarchive are shipped with macOS itself. NC builds and ships internally its own version of libarchive independently of macOS it runs on.
2. Well this functionality might be simply not implemented in the library yet. It's an OSS project and the RAR format is not the most popular one.
3. bsdtar --version will give you this information. macOS 15.1 reports 3.5.3, NC v1.7 uses 3.7.4:

   nimble-commander/3rd_Party/versions.txt

   Line 10 in 002ef66

   libarchive 3.7.4

[MrZigi]

NC 1.7? I can only see 1.6.0 in the App store and 1.6.1 as direct download as well as release info here.

[mikekazakov]

1.7 is currently in development and is available in nightly builds. 1.6 uses the same version of libarchive.

[MrZigi]

If 1.6 uses 3.7.4 of libarchive then it should not depend of the version of my macOS, correct? And in such case open solid archives, right?

[mikekazakov]

Yes, NC does not depend on the version of libarchive macOS ships.
To check if libarchive actually supports solid RAR archives (and not just says so in the code) - you need to get a fresh version of bsdtar and try that one. e.g. from Brew: https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libarchive.