The 7-Zip format is one popular option, but it's far from the standard. That said, we've come a long way since the days of ZIP and RAR, and we now have better ways to compress, encrypt, and transfer files. The RAR format was created to address some of the flaws in the ZIP format and comes with several benefits: smaller file sizes, the ability to split a RAR into multiple chunks, and error recovery. RAR stands for Roshal ARchive, named after the Russian software engineer who created the format.
That way, you only have to put one file up for download (or attach one file to an email), and receivers only need to download one file instead of many separate ones. Both are 'archive' file formats meant for compressing many individual files into one single file. If you already know this, or if you just don't care, feel free to skip down to the next section for the actual instructions.Ī RAR file is similar to a ZIP file.
In this quick overview, you'll learn everything you need to know about what RAR files are, why they exist, and how to open and extract RAR file contents on a Mac. You've never seen such a format before and, try as you might, you just can't seem to crack it open to access the goodies waiting for you inside. So you just downloaded a file and it arrived as a RAR archive.
