Use RAR On Linux To Compress A File Into Multiple Parts

[singh9211]

The rar command can be useful on Linux to not only compress a file but also split the file into multiple parts during the compression. This will make the files easier to transfer to other servers or easier for other people to download. First rar needs to be installed which can done on CentOS using the directions below. After that we describe how to easily compress and break a file into multiple chunks using one simple rar command.

Install rar On CentOS Linux Using RPMForge and yum:

First install the RPMForge yum repository if you do not already have it installed using the directions in this article. After installing the RPMForge repo issue the below command to install RAR on Linux.

[root@dev ~]# yum install rar
Loading "allowdowngrade" plugin
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Determining fastest mirrors
rpmforge 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 2.2 MB 00:02
rpmforge : ################################################## 10367/10367
primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 202 B 00:00
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package rar.i386 0:3.8.0-1.el5.rf set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================== ===========================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================== ===========================
Installing:
rar i386 3.8.0-1.el5.rf rpmforge 264 k

Transaction Summary
================================================== ===========================
Install 1 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 264 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): rar-3.8.0-1.el5.rf 100% |=========================| 264 kB 00:01
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing: rar ######################### [1/1]

Installed: rar.i386 0:3.8.0-1.el5.rf
Complete!
[root@dev ~]#

Use RAR To Compress And Split Apart A File Into Multiple Parts On Linux:

Once RAR is installed you can easily compress and split apart a file using the below command. The file we start out with below is 368MB MySQL dump and after issuing the rar command below it has been split into 4 10MB files and 1 8.7MB file.

[root@dev ~]# rar a -v10240k compressed-db.rar devdb-11-12-2008.sql

RAR 3.80 Copyright (c) 1993-2008 Alexander Roshal 16 Sep 2008
Shareware version Type RAR -? for help

Evaluation copy. Please register.

Creating archive compressed-db.rar

Adding devdb-11-12-2008.sql
Calculating the control sum

Creating archive compressed-db.part02.rar

... devdb-11-12-2008.sql
Calculating the control sum

Creating archive compressed-db.part03.rar

... devdb-11-12-2008.sql
Calculating the control sum

Creating archive compressed-db.part04.rar

... devdb-11-12-2008.sql
Calculating the control sum

Creating archive compressed-db.part05.rar

... devdb-11-12-2008.sql OK
Calculating the control sum
Done
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
[root@dev ~]#

You can now move the 5 files between servers or share the files with others in a much easier way so they are not required to download one large file.

[singh9211]

The above is for making a split archive. If you want to make one archive of several files, just type;

rar a name_of_archive name_of_file_1 name_of_file_2 name_of_file_3

[khrachara]

ultra post thank you

[Fleming]

Hello Singh , Yes you have guided good , RAR is the best to compress/zip files on Linux.
This is the complete procedure to install , Thanks for sharing.

[Maxt3rJF]

I prefer using 7zip for that.

7z a -v<size> <output_filename> <file_or_folder_to_archive>

So for example you want to archive the foler /backup recursive into split files of 200MB into files named testbackup.7z, you would type


7z a -t7z -r -v200M ./testbackup.7z /backup

I prefer 7zip as it has a very good compression level.