Need command line help in UNRAR

[nikki]

Im a mswin user with no idea how to use a command line. Im triing to open a password protected archive. I created a my documents folder on the desktop and the archive is named test. Password is also test and the file is also test. Can someone give me some idea what a proper command line should look like?

[muggins]

nikki,

most commands will give you an indication of their syntax if you add
"--help" or "-h" after the command. eg:

unrar --help or unrar -h

i'm not sure of unrar's usage at the moment, as i'm sitting at a windows box, but from memory the usage is something like:

unrar e filename.rar , to extract in the current directory.

[muggins]

just googled and found this:

http://www.edenwaith.com/support/untar/help/unrar.html

[nikki]

Thanks for helping Muggins.That web page shows pretty much the same info i get when i type unrar and hit enter in the console.So far i can get the program to ask for the password twice but it will not find the archive or extract the file.Im typing ...UNRAR E -PTEST TEST.RAR...but no joy.

[MU]

nikki, are you in the same folder as your file?

Do we talk about windows or Linux?

In linux, do not use spaces in foldernames or filenames.
Do not work with the desktop.

Open a Rox-window (click on the home-icon on your desktop)

navigate to /root
create a folder /root/test
Save your test.rar there.
Navigate into /root/test

Right-click -> xterm here

Now in xterm, type "ls" to show all files, it should show test.rar
Now enter the unrar -command.
Do NOT use UPPERCASE, Linux is case-sensitive!
Not:
UNRAR E -PTEST TEST.RAR
but:
unrar e -ptest test.rar
if your password is "test".

Mark

[muggins]

and if mu's suggestions don't work, have you tried the,

"-p- Do not query password" , option?

(having never had to unrar a password protected rar archive i'm only guessing here!)

[muggins]

that would be "unrar e -p- test.rar" , of course.

[nikki]

Thanks for jumping in Mark. I know about the case sensitivity in Linux, i was just too lazy to use the italic button when i posted.Your instruction to use the xterm here button is what i was missing.
Thanks to both of you.

[BarryK]

also, have you tried xarchive? it is a gui frontend for rar/unrar, but I have never tested it with rar files.

[nikki]

Yes. That was the first thing i tried in puppy. Everytime i tried to open a password protected archive puppy would lockup. The only way to recover was to do a hard reboot and relaunch puppy. Even after installing the unrar.pup file it would lockup the computer. The only way i could open the archives is through the command line.