How to Print RAR Files to Stdout with Unrar

This guide explains how to display the contents of a file stored inside a RAR archive directly to standard output (stdout) using the unrar command-line utility. By routing file contents to stdout instead of extracting them to the disk, you can inspect files instantly, pipe data into other command-line tools, or stream contents without consuming extra storage space.

The Print Command: unrar p

The command used to output file contents directly to standard output is p (print).

The basic syntax is:

unrar p archive.rar [filename]

If you do not specify a filename, unrar will print the contents of every file in the archive sequentially to standard output.

Suppressing Headers and Metadata

By default, unrar displays a copyright banner, processing details, and archive metadata alongside the file contents. When piping the output to another program, these extra messages can corrupt your data stream.

To ensure only the actual file content is printed, use the -inul (inhibit messages) switch:

unrar p -inul archive.rar document.txt

Common Usage Examples

Viewing a File in a Pager

To read a text file inside an archive without creating an extracted copy:

unrar p -inul archive.rar notes.txt | less

Searching Inside an Archived File

To search for a specific term inside an archived file using grep:

unrar p -inul archive.rar server.log | grep "ERROR"

Working with Password-Protected Archives

If the archive is encrypted, pass the password directly using the -p switch:

unrar p -inul -pSecretPassword archive.rar secure_data.csv