Data types

vint

Variable length integer.  Can include one or more bytes, where lower
7 bits of every byte contain integer data and highest bit in every byte
is the continuation flag.  If highest bit is 0, this is the last byte
in sequence.  So first byte contains 7 least significant bits of integer
and continuation flag.  Second byte, if present, contains next 7 bits
and so on. 

Currently RAR format uses vint to store up to 64 bit integers,
resulting in 10 bytes maximum.  This value may be increased in the future
if necessary for some reason. 

Sometimes RAR needs to pre-allocate space for vint before knowing
its exact value.  In such situation it can allocate more space than really
necessary and then fill several leading bytes with 0x80 hexadecimal,
which means 0 with continuation flag set. 

byte, uint16, uint32, uint64

Byte, 16-, 32-, 64- bit unsigned integer in little endian format. 

Variable length data

We use ellipsis ... to denote variable length data areas. 

Hexadecimal values

We use 0x prefix to define hexadecimal values, such as 0xf000

General archive structure

General archive block format

Field

Size

Description

Header CRC32

uint32

CRC32 of header data starting from Header size field
and up to and including the optional extra area. 

Header size

vint

Size of header data starting from Header type field
and up to and including the optional extra area. 
This field must not be longer than 3 bytes in current implementation,
resulting in 2 MB maximum header size. 

Flags common for all headers:
0x0001 Extra area is present in the end of header. 
0x0002 Data area is present in the end of header. 
0x0004 Blocks with unknown type and this flag must be skipped when updating an archive. 
0x0008 Data area is continuing from previous volume. 
0x0010 Data area is continuing in next volume. 
0x0020 Block depends on preceding file block. 
0x0040 Preserve a child block if host block is modified. 

Optional data area, present only if 0x0002 header flag is set. 
Used to store large data amounts, such as compressed file data. 
Not counted in Header CRC and Header size fields. 

General extra area format

Extra area can include one or more records having the following format:

Size

vint

Size of record data starting from Type. 

Type

vint

Record type.  Different archive blocks have different associated extra area
record types.  Read the concrete archive block description for details. 
New record types can be added in the future, so unknown record types
need to be skipped without interrupting an operation. 

Data

...

Record dependent data.  May be missing if record consists only from
size and type. 

Archive blocks

Self-extracting module (SFX)

Any data preceding the archive signature.  Self-extracting module size
and contents is not defined.  At the moment of writing this documentation
RAR assumes the maximum SFX module size to not exceed 1 MB, but this value
can be increased in the future. 

Archive encryption header

Version of encryption algorithm.  Now only 0 version (AES-256)
is supported. 

Encryption flags

vint

0x0001 Password check data is present. 

KDF count

1 byte

Binary logarithm of iteration number for PBKDF2 function.  RAR can refuse
to process KDF count exceeding some threshold.  Concrete value of threshold
is a version dependent. 

Salt

16 bytes

Salt value used globally for all encrypted archive headers. 

Check value

12 bytes

Value used to verify the password validity.  Present only if 0x0001
encryption flag is set.  First 8 bytes are calculated using additional
PBKDF2 rounds, 4 last bytes is the additional checksum.  Together with
the standard header CRC32 we have 64 bit checksum to reliably verify
this field integrity and distinguish invalid password and damaged data. 
Further details can be found in UnRAR source code. 

This header is present only in archives with encrypted headers. 
Every next header after this one is started from 16 byte AES-256
initialization vector followed by encrypted header data.  Size of encrypted
header data block is aligned to 16 byte boundary. 

0x0001 Volume.  Archive is a part of multivolume set. 
0x0002 Volume number field is present.  This flag is present
in all volumes except first. 
0x0004 Solid archive. 
0x0008 Recovery record is present. 
0x0010 Locked archive. 

Volume number

vint

Optional field, present only if 0x0002 archive flag is set. 
Not present for first volume, 1 for second volume, 2 for third and so on. 

Contains positions of different service blocks, so they can be accessed
quickly, without scanning the entire archive.  This record is optional. 
If it is missing, it is still necessary to scan the entire archive to
verify presence of service blocks. 

Locator record

Size

vint

Type

vint

1

Flags

vint

0x0001 Quick open record offset is present. 
0x0002 Recovery record offset is present. 

Quick open offset

vint

Distance from beginning of quick open service block to beginning
of main archive header.  Present only if 0x0001 flag is set. 
If equal to 0, should be ignored.  It can be set to zero if preallocated
space was not enough to store resulting offset. 

Recovery record offset

vint

Distance from beginning of recovery record service block to beginning
of main archive header.  Present only if 0x0002 flag is set. 
If equal to 0, should be ignored.  It can be set to zero if preallocated
space was not enough to store resulting offset. 

File header and service header

These two header types use the similar data structure, so we describe them
both here. 

Size of data area.  Optional field, present only if 0x0002 header flag
is set.  For file header this field contains the packed file size. 

File flags

vint

Flags specific for these header types:
0x0001 Directory file system object (file header only). 
0x0002 Time field in Unix format is present. 
0x0004 CRC32 field is present. 
0x0008 Unpacked size is unknown. 

If flag 0x0008 is set, unpacked size field is still present,
but must be ignored and extraction must be performed until reaching
the end of compression stream.  This flag can be set if actual file size
is larger than reported by OS or if file size is unknown such as
for all volumes except last when archiving from stdin to multivolume
archive. 

Unpacked size

vint

Unpacked file or service data size. 

Attributes

vint

Operating system specific file attributes in case of file header. 
Might be either used for data specific needs or just reserved and set to 0
for service header. 

mtime

uint32

File modification time in Unix time format. 
Optional, present if 0x0002 file flag is set. 

Data CRC32

uint32

CRC32 of unpacked file or service data.  For files split between volumes
it contains CRC32 of file packed data contained in current volume
for all file parts except the last. 
Optional, present if 0x0004 file flag is set. 

Compression information

vint

Lower 6 bits (0x003f mask) contain the version of compression algorithm,
resulting in possible 0 - 63 values.  Current version is 0. 

7th bit (0x0040) defines the solid flag.  If it is set, RAR continues
to use the compression dictionary left after processing preceding files. 
It can be set only for file headers and is never set for service headers. 

Type of operating system used to create the archive. 
0x0000 Windows. 
0x0001 Unix. 

Name length

vint

File or service header name length. 

Name

?  bytes

Variable length field containing Name length bytes in UTF-8
format without trailing zero. 

For file header this is a name of archived file.  Forward slash character
is used as the path separator both for Unix and Windows names.  Backslashes
are treated as a part of name for Unix names and as invalid character
for Windows file names.  Type of name is defined by Host OS field. 

If Unix file name contains any high ASCII characters which cannot be
correctly converted to Unicode and UTF-8, we map such characters to
to 0xE080 - 0xE0FF private use Unicode area and insert 0xFFFE Unicode
non-character to resulting string to indicate that it contains mapped
characters, which need to be converted back when extracting.  Concrete
position of 0xFFFE is not defined, we need to search the entire string
for it.  Such mapped names are not portable and can be correctly unpacked
only on the same system where they were created. 

For service header this field contains a name of service header. 
Now the following names are used:

Optional data area, present only if 0x0002 header flag is set. 
Store file data in case of file header or service data for service header. 
Depending on the compression method value in Compression information
can be either uncompressed (compression method 0) or compressed. 

File and service headers use the same types of extra area
records:

Type

Name

Description

0x01

File encryption

File encryption information. 

0x02

File hash

File data hash. 

0x03

File time

High precision file time. 

0x04

File version

File version number. 

0x05

Redirection

File system redirection. 

0x06

Unix owner

Unix owner and group information. 

0x07

Service data

Service header data array. 

File encryption record

This record is present if file data is encrypted. 

Size

vint

Type

vint

0x01

Version

vint

Version of encryption algorithm.  Now only 0 version (AES-256)
is supported. 

If flag 0x0002 is present, RAR transforms the checksum preserving
file or service data integrity, so it becomes dependent on encryption key. 
It makes guessing file contents based on checksum impossible. 
It affects both data CRC32 in file header and checksums
in file hash record in extra area. 

KDF count

1 byte

Binary logarithm of iteration number for PBKDF2 function.  RAR can refuse
to process KDF count exceeding some threshold.  Concrete value of threshold
is version dependent. 

Salt

16 bytes

Salt value to set the decryption key for encrypted file. 

IV

16 bytes

AES-256 initialization vector. 

Check value

12 bytes

Value used to verify the password validity.  Present only if 0x0001
encryption flag is set.  First 8 bytes are calculated using additional
PBKDF2 rounds, 4 last bytes is the additional checksum.  Together with
the standard header CRC32 we have 64 bit checksum to reliably verify
this field integrity and distinguish invalid password and damaged data. 
Further details can be found in UnRAR source code. 

File hash record

Only the standard CRC32 checksum can be stored directly in file header. 
If other hash is used, it is stored in this extra area record:

For files split between volumes it contains a hash of file packed
data contained in current volume for all file parts except the last. 
For files not split between volumes and for last parts of split files
it contains an unpacked data hash. 

File time record

This record is used if it is necessary to store creation and last access
time or if 1 second precision of Unix mtime stored in file header is not
enough:

Size

vint

Type

vint

0x03

Flags

vint

0x0001 Time is stored in Unix time format if this flags is set
and in Windows FILETIME format otherwise
0x0002 Modification time is present
0x0004 Creation time is present
0x0008 Last access time is present

mtime

uint32 or uint64

Modification time.  Present if 0x0002 flag is set.  Depending on 0x0001
flag can be in Unix time or Windows FILETIME format. 

ctime

uint32 or uint64

Creation time.  Present if 0x0004 flag is set.  Depending on 0x0001
flag can be in Unix time or Windows FILETIME format. 

ctime

uint32 or uint64

Last access time.  Present if 0x0008 flag is set.  Depending on 0x0001
flag can be in Unix time or Windows FILETIME format. 

Unix owner record

0x0001 User name string is present
0x0002 Group name string is present
0x0004 Numeric user ID is present
0x0008 Numeric group ID is present

User name length

vint

Length of owner user name.  Present if 0x0001 flag is set. 

User name

?  bytes

Owner user name in native encoding.  Not zero terminated. 
Present if 0x0001 flag is set. 

Group name length

vint

Length of owner group name.  Present if 0x0002 flag is set. 

Group name

?  bytes

Owner group name in native encoding.  Not zero terminated. 
Present if 0x0002 flag is set. 

User ID

vint

Numeric owner user ID.  Present if 0x0004 flag is set. 

Group ID

vint

Numeric owner group ID.  Present if 0x0008 flag is set. 

Service data record

This record is used only by service headers to store additional
parameters. 

Size

vint

Type

vint

0x07

Data

?  bytes

Concrete contents of service data depends on service header type. 

End of archive header

End of archive marker.  RAR does not read anything after this header
letting to use third party tools to add extra information such as
a digital signature to archive. 

Header CRC32

uint32

Header size

vint

Header type

vint

5

Header flags

vint

Flags common for all headers

End of archive flags

vint

0x0001 Archive is volume and it is not last volume in the set

Service headers

RAR uses service headers based on the file header
data structure to store different supplementary information. 

Archive comment header

Optional header storing the main archive comment.  Contains CMT identifier
in file name field.  Placed before any file headers and after the main
archive header.  Comment data is stored in UTF-8 immediately after
the archive comment header.  Now RAR does not use compression for archive
comments, so packed and unpacked data sizes in header are equal and they
both define the comment data size.  Compression method in header is set
to 0. 

Quick open header

Optional header storing the quick open record.  Contains QO identifier
in file name field.  Placed after all file headers, but before the recovery
record and end of archive header.  It is possible to locate the quick open
header with locator record in main archive header. 

Quick open record data is stored immediately after the quick open header. 
RAR does not use compression for quick open data, so packed and unpacked
data sizes in header are equal and they both define the quick open data size. 
Compression method in header is set to 0. 

Quick open data is the array consisting of data cache structures. 
Every data cache structure stores a portion of archived data
and has the following format:

Field

Size

Description

Structure CRC32

uint32

CRC32 of structure data starting from Structure size field. 

Structure size

vint

Size of structure data starting from Flags field. 
This field must not be longer than 3 bytes in current implementation,
resulting in 2 MB maximum size. 

Flags

vint

Currently set to 0. 

Offset

vint

Offset from beginning of quick open header to beginning of archive data
cached in current structure.  We can use this value to calculate
the absolute position of archived data stored the current structure. 
It is guaranteed that absolute archive positions referred by data cache
structures are always growing when going from beginning of structure array
to end. 

Data size

vint

Size of archive data stored in the current structure. 

Data

?  bytes

Archive data stored in the current structure. 

Normally RAR uses the quick open data to store copies of file and service
headers.  It can store either all headers or only a part of them.  If required
header is missing in quick open data or if structure CRC32 is invalid,
data are read from its original archive position. 

Using the quick open data is optional.  You can skip it completely
and read only standard archive headers.  But it is important to use the same
access pattern when reading file names to display them to user and
to extract files.  Otherwise it would be possible to see one file name
and extract another in case the quick open data and real archive data
are intentionally created different.  It could introduce a security threat. 
So if you use the quick open data when displaying the archive contents,
use it when extracting.  If you do not use it when displaying
the archive contents, do not use it when extracting.