this should be in newbie section rather, but how do we handle rar files in slackware.

we don't handle them at all, we unrar them ...lol kidding

head over to linuxpackages.net and grab one of the premade packages and you'll be good to go.

p7zip, which is the command line version of 7-zip for Linux, may be able to open .rar
The windows version certainly can.

Slackware packages for p7zip and unrar, that are ready to install and use (SlackBuild script available so you can build them yourselves if you do not trust pre-packaged binaries).

Eric

thanks, but i wanted to be able to create rar files also, i downloaded the utility for linux from the official website, but it is giving an error, "unable to find libraries"

I have a couple of versions of rar that seem to work okay and there are no special library requirements.

I would have already put this on my website except that rar is shareware and so far I've stuck with GPL software.
But, you can download it yourself and use it (up to 40 days if you follow the license). Just do a web search (try clusty.com for a nice change over google) for it.

The versions I have are RPM's for fedora core:
rar-3.5.1-1.2.fc4.src.rpm
rar-3.5.4-1.fc4.src.rpm

Creating rar is a problem because the encoder is commercial.
Have a look a 7z compression, which has a slightly better performance and can be free.
The alternative is probably a licenced copy of winrar running under wine.

rar?
7z?
you are running linux, right?

I was a bit puzzled as a windows user who can cope with receiving a .rar file could also cope with .bz2
Most windows users only expect to see .zip

I agree david but with a slight twist.

I find that many American users prefer zip format in windows.

And I find that many European's prefer the rar format in windows.

A few years back I remeber getting my first rar file LOL. I went and got the trial of winrar and instantly saw a ton of benefits of it over zip for windows in my opnion.

There's a bunch of features that I kind of wish ARK in KDE had like winrar, but it will all be in time I'm sure.

I gotta say this tho, Linux tar is incredible. Using from the console was a unique learning curve, but time well spent for compiling kernels when out of X on slow pc's like I have.

I just tarred up my home directory to move it to a different drive, and wow, I can't believe it tar's up GIG's I dont think RAR could ever do that for me before.

But my version of winrar that I purchased open up tar files; which is pretty neat.

I don't know if winzip opens up tar, gonna have to give that a shot for kicks and giggles.

It does, .tar and .gz but not (in the versions up to 7 that I used) .bz2, and I needed WinRar for that.

I'm still clueless why anyone would want to use rar to compress data on Linux when there are some many better (free!!!) alternatives.

Eric

Some sites are predominately based on windows software and in my case will only accept rar uploads. For instance, I use the planetccrma kernal on another partition for recording so if I want to share a .gig file it has to be a rar or some sites wont accept it.

peace.

use winrar in linux
rarlabs.com

@Alien Bob
well mostly u would not want to, although it is only rarely but sometime u might want to do so, anyway if there is nothing free, i dont wanna spend money on doing so, unrar though was a must.

Alien Bob,
Thanks for the p7zip package.

I noticed a whole bunch of unusual perms in the package (ex. chmod 555 on some doc files).

Do a:
and you will see what I mean.