Forum Discussion
RAR for mac - Does WinRAR work on mac
WinRAR only has a command-line interface for mac so WinRAR does not work well on Mac. You need to go with WinRAR alternative instead.
If you want a no-fuss way to deal with RAR files on macOS, just grab FossZIP, it did everything you need.
See how it works: https://www.osxmac.com/how-to-open-rar-on-mac
Let me tell you about my search for a rar for mac solution. I had just switched to Mac at that time, and I thought that since the system was pre-installed with Python, maybe I could use it to process RAR files. It turned out that there was a way. Although it was a bit confusing at first, it became smoother later. The key is that you don’t need to install any third-party decompression software with a graphical interface.
✅ The steps are as follows:
Open the terminal and install a Python library called rarfile first (using pip):
bash python3 -m pip install rarfile
Then use a text editor to write a small script, such as unnrar.py:
python import rarfile rf = rarfile.RarFile('your file.rar')
rf.extractall('output directory') # If you don’t write a path, it will default to the current directory
Go back to the terminal and run it:
bash python3 unnrar.py
As long as the path is correct, it can be decompressed in a few seconds.
This method is actually quite suitable for technical people, or those who don’t mind writing a few lines of code. No graphical interface or mouse clicks are needed, the script is run and the whole process is completed in the terminal.
It is also an alternative but pure rar for mac solution - system native tools + Python scripts, clean, no trouble, no worry about advertising plug-ins.