Can Unrar Restore File Permissions from Metadata?

RAR archives are capable of storing detailed filesystem permissions, and the unrar utility can restore these permissions to match the original archive metadata. However, unrar cannot inspect and patch the permissions of already-extracted files in-place; to repair incorrect or missing permissions, you must re-extract the files using the appropriate flags and administrative privileges. Whether permissions can be recovered depends on how the archive was created, the filesystem in use, and the user rights available during extraction.

How Permissions Are Stored in RAR Archives

When an archive is created, standard file data is packaged alongside optional filesystem metadata:

  • Linux / POSIX Systems: Standard file permissions (rwx bitmasks for user, group, and others) are preserved automatically. Ownership information (UID and GID) can also be stored.
  • Windows / NTFS Systems: Extended file information, such as Access Control Lists (ACLs), file owners, and audit information, is preserved only if the archive was created using the -ow switch.

If this metadata was stripped or excluded during compression, unrar has no reference data to draw from and will apply the default system permissions (such as the current umask on Linux) to the extracted files.

Restoring Permissions on Linux and macOS

On Unix-like systems, unrar applies stored POSIX permission bits automatically when using the extract command (unrar x):

unrar x archive.rar

To fully repair or restore original user and group ownership, the command must be run with elevated privileges (sudo or root). If an unprivileged user extracts the archive, the permission bits may be set, but file ownership will default to the user performing the extraction because standard users cannot reassign file ownership (chown).

Restoring Permissions on Windows (NTFS)

Windows file permissions rely on security descriptors rather than basic POSIX bits. To restore original file owners and Access Control Lists, specify the -ow switch during extraction:

unrar x -ow archive.rar

For this to succeed:

  • The target drive must use an NTFS filesystem (FAT32 and exFAT do not support NTFS ACLs).
  • The terminal or command prompt must be run as an Administrator to grant permission to modify ownership and security descriptors.

Repairing Permissions on Previously Extracted Files

unrar does not include a command to scan existing files on disk and apply metadata changes without extracting the actual contents. If a set of files on your system has corrupted or misconfigured permissions, the standard repair workflow is to force an overwrite extraction:

unrar x -o+ archive.rar

The -o+ switch instructs unrar to overwrite existing files unconditionally, replacing the damaged files on disk with fresh copies that possess the exact permission profiles stored inside the archive's metadata.