Official UnRAR Source Code Repository

This article explains how to locate, obtain, and compile the official source code for the UnRAR utility. While many modern utilities are hosted on public version control platforms, UnRAR follows a traditional distribution model managed directly by its original author. Below, you will find the direct distribution source, licensing terms, and instructions for building the software.

The Official Upstream Source

RARLAB and the author of RAR, Alexander Roshal, do not maintain a public Git, GitHub, or GitLab repository for the official UnRAR utility. Instead, the canonical upstream source code is distributed exclusively as tarball archives directly from RARLAB's website.

The official source code archive is hosted on RARLAB's add-ons page: https://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm

On this page, the source code package is listed as UnRAR source (typically named unrarsrc-x.x.x.tar.gz, where x.x.x represents the current version number).

Third-Party Mirrors and Git Repositories

Because RARLAB does not use Git for public distribution, many package maintainers and developers maintain their own mirrors:

Linux Distribution Packaging Repositories: Distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch maintain package tracking systems that pull the raw tarballs from RARLAB and track packaging patches in their own Git instances.
GitHub Mirrors: Various individual developers host automated mirrors or Git imports of the UnRAR source tarballs on GitHub. While convenient for tracking commit history, these repositories are unofficial and are not maintained by RARLAB.

For the latest security patches and updates directly from the author, you should always reference the source tarball from the RARLAB website.

Licensing Considerations

The UnRAR source code is distributed as freeware, but it is not strictly open source under standard OSI (Open Source Initiative) definitions. The UnRAR license permits anyone to use, compile, and distribute the decompression code, provided that the source code is not used to reverse-engineer or recreate the proprietary RAR compression algorithm.

How to Download and Compile UnRAR

To build the utility directly from the official source on a Unix-like system:

Download the archive:
```
wget https://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrarsrc-6.2.12.tar.gz
```
(Replace the version number with the latest release available on the site.)
Extract the archive:
```
tar -zxvf unrarsrc-*.tar.gz
cd unrar
```
Compile the binary using the provided makefile:
```
make
```
Install the executable (optional):
```
make install
```

This generates the standard standalone unrar binary as well as the libunrar shared library if built with the appropriate make target (make lib).