RAR - Versions

Versions

Several versions of the RAR format have been noted by third party developers:

• RAR1.3 (original, does not have "Rar!" signature)
• RAR1.5
• RAR2
• RAR3 (current) - implemented by developers of Rarlab WinRAR version 2.9 and released in WinRAR version 3.00. Many changes including:
  • File extensions changed from {volume name}.rar, {volume name}.r00, {volume name}.r01, etc. to {volume name}.part001.rar, {volume name}.part002.rar, etc.
  • Encryption algorithm was changed from cipher block chaining (CBC) mode to AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with 128 bit key length.
  • Encryption of both file data and file headers.
  • Improved compression algorithm using 4MB dictionary size, Dmitry Shkarin's PPMII algorithm for file data, and selective preprocessing algorithms based on platform and source file type.
  • Optional creation of "recovery volumes" (.rev files) with redundancy data which can be used to reconstruct missing files in a volume set.
  • Support for archive files larger than 9 GB.
  • Support for Unicode names.