How to Install WinRAR on Linux to Extract RAR Files

Archives have always been the conventional way of distributing software on Linux. This has spawned an utmost need for archive managers, and this is precisely why Linux distros ship with command-line utilities to handle archives and tarballs, some of which are overwhelming to newcomers.

How convenient would it be to install WinRAR on Linux, an archive manager that almost every computer user is familiar with?

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But the only "natively supported" WinRAR Linux client is a CLI app called rar. But that doesn't mean you can't use the good old graphical WinRAR on your Linux desktop. You just need to know how.

Installing WinRAR CLI, or rar on Linux is pretty straightforward. It's available in most Linux distro's official repositories and you can install it using the default package manager.

On Ubuntu and other Debian-based distros, run:

To install rar on Arch Linux:

On Fedora, RHEL, and other RPM-based Linux distros, issue the following command:

Enter y when prompted to confirm the installation.

Once installed, you can extract and create RAR archives by typing rar in the terminal. To get command-line help related to the program, run:

Contrary to what you might think, the program to extract a RAR file is unrar, and not rar. The unrar command is installed with rar, which is the command used for creating archives.

The basic command to create a RAR file is:

To extract a RAR archive, run:

...where e stands for extract.

The developers of WinRAR haven't developed a native GUI version of the software for Linux. As a result, there's no official package labeled WinRAR GUI or the like.

There is a way to graphically use WinRAR on Linux, though; you'll need to install Wine, a compatibility layer software used to run Windows apps on Linux.

You must be wondering whether Linux can run Windows EXE files. The short answer is "yes."

To begin, first, install Wine on your Linux machine. On Ubuntu and Debian, you can do so by running:

On Arch Linux and its derivatives:

You can install Wine on RHEL and Fedora with the following command:

Once installed, the next step is to download the WinRAR installation EXE file from the official website.

Download: WinRAR (EXE)

Select Windows as the Platform and download the 64-bit version. Save the file to a preferred location then navigate to that directory using the cd command:

Run the WinRAR installer using Wine as follows:

In the installation wizard, click Install. On the following window, select the file types you want WinRAR to support, then hit Ok and Done.

If the installation window is too small, enter "winecfg" in the terminal and switch to the Graphics tab. Then, change the value of Screen resolution to 250. Run the installation wizard again to see if the issue persists.

Post-installation, you can launch WinRAR from the applications menu. The WinRAR GUI works exactly as its native Windows counterpart and is easy to use for beginners and advanced users alike.

To open RARs on Linux, launch WinRAR from the applications menu and select the file.

While Linux commands like unzip and tar are efficient, they are not the most intuitive for beginners. It's hard to wrap your head around dozens of command-line arguments mapped with characters. It's complicated enough for experienced users.

In such a situation, WinRAR is a lifesaver as it offers an easy-to-use command-line program and a graphical utility (using Wine).

The "RAR" in WinRAR is actually a file format reserved for archives. You must understand what RAR means and learn how to open it on different operating systems.