Unrar free/nonfree

3 respostas [Última entrada]
GNUser
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Joined: 07/17/2013

Hey guys. I have a question, hopes someone can help me.
Unrar is needed to be able to open rar files, right? Ok, so, you install it from the repositories and you can read some rar files but not all of them. That is unrar free, which is free software right? So, my question is what is the difference between unrar free and nonfree. Is it a matter of license? The code needed to open newer rar files was obfuscated?? Is unrar nonfree shared only as binary and no source code???
Thanks =)

Michał Masłowski

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 05/15/2010

Use unar (works with all RAR files) or bsdtar (works with single volume
unencrypted ones), not any unrar.

unrar-free is free and supports only RARv2. I know no reason to
recommend it when distros include unar.

unrar is nonfree due to the license prohibing an use, see [0] for
details. (p7zip includes its source, so Debian and free distros patch
it to not include that source.)

Frontends don't support unar and don't try libarchive (on which bsdtar
is based) for RAR files. Backporting File Roller 3.8 or its unar
integration will help, or applying the Ark patch that a Parabola
developer wrote. A worse solution is to use a wrapper script like
ununrar that worked with some unar versions and accepted some unrar
commands used by frontends.

[0] http://ftp-master.metadata.debian.org/changelogs//non-free/u/unrar-nonfree/unrar-nonfree_5.0.10-1_copyright

icarolongo
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Joined: 03/26/2011
unar file.rar
GNUser
Desconectado
Joined: 07/17/2013

THANKS! =D
I had no idea that simply installing unar wouldn't solve the problem (I had it installed but using front ends was not working, now I know why, I thought unar and unrar were pretty much the same). Well, I will try unar command. I would still like to have a GUI for unar maybe one day it will be integrated into the already existent front ends =)
THANKS