Sign Up

Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.

Have an account? Sign In

Have an account? Sign In Now

Sign In

Login to our social questions & Answers Engine to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.

Sign Up Here

Forgot Password?

Don't have account, Sign Up Here

Forgot Password

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.

Have an account? Sign In Now

You must login to ask a question.

Forgot Password?

Need An Account, Sign Up Here

Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported.

Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.

Please briefly explain why you feel this user should be reported.

Sign InSign Up

The Archive Base

The Archive Base Logo The Archive Base Logo

The Archive Base Navigation

  • SEARCH
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
Search
Ask A Question

Mobile menu

Close
Ask a Question
  • Home
  • Add group
  • Groups page
  • Feed
  • User Profile
  • Communities
  • Questions
    • New Questions
    • Trending Questions
    • Must read Questions
    • Hot Questions
  • Polls
  • Tags
  • Badges
  • Buy Points
  • Users
  • Help
  • Buy Theme
  • SEARCH
Home/ Questions/Q 658257
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Editorial Team
Asked: May 13, 20262026-05-13T22:54:48+00:00 2026-05-13T22:54:48+00:00

What I need is to be able to extract the files in a .rar

  • 0

What I need is to be able to extract the files in a .rar file into streams. I’m creating a test case to get a sense of how to use unrar source. I’ve been searching and tinkering for a while, but I can’t figure out how to use the library. I’m surprised I can’t even find documentation or a tutorial for it, considering how common .rar archives are.

I’ve made a bit of progress on my own, but it doesn’t always work. Certain files are extracted properly. Other files are jumbled up for some reason (but not completely “garbage” binary data). All I know so far is, usually (but not always):

  • not working files have fileInfo.Method = 48. They appear to be files that have a compression ratio of 100% – i.e. no compression

  • working files have fileInfo.Method = 49, 50, 51, 52, or 53, which correspond to the compression speeds, Fastest, Fast, Normal, Good, Best

But I have no idea why that is. Still can’t find documentation or a working example.

Below is the test case source I have so far and an example rar archive that, when extracted with this program, has both working and not working files.

/* put in the same directory as the unrar source files
 * compiling with:
 *   make clean
 *   make lib
 *   g++ rartest.cpp -o rartest libunrar.so -lboost_filesystem
 */

#include  <cstring>
#include  <iostream>
#include  <fstream>

#include  <boost/filesystem.hpp>

#define _UNIX
#define  RARDLL
#include  "dll.hpp"

using namespace std;
namespace fs = boost::filesystem;

//char fileName[100] = "testout0.jpg\0";
//
//// doens't work
//int PASCAL ProcessDataProc(unsigned char* buffer, int buffLen) {
//  cout  << "writing..." << endl;
//  ofstream outFile(fileName);
//  cout << buffLen << endl;
//  cout << outFile.write((const char*)buffer, buffLen) << endl;
//  cout  << "done writing..." << endl;
//  fileName[7]++;
//}

int CALLBACK CallbackProc(unsigned int msg, long myBuffer, long rarBuffer, long bufferLen) {
  switch(msg) {
    case UCM_CHANGEVOLUME:
      break;
    case UCM_PROCESSDATA:
      memcpy((char*)myBuffer, (char*)rarBuffer, bufferLen);
      break;
    case UCM_NEEDPASSWORD:
      break;
  }
  return 1;
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  if (argc != 2)
    return 0;
  ifstream archiveStream(argv[1]);
  if (!archiveStream.is_open())
    cout << "fstream couldn't open file\n";

  // declare and set parameters
  HANDLE rarFile;
  RARHeaderDataEx fileInfo;
  RAROpenArchiveDataEx archiveInfo;
  memset(&archiveInfo, 0, sizeof(archiveInfo));
  archiveInfo.CmtBuf = NULL;
  //archiveInfo.OpenMode = RAR_OM_LIST;
  archiveInfo.OpenMode = RAR_OM_EXTRACT;
  archiveInfo.ArcName = argv[1];

  // Open file
  rarFile = RAROpenArchiveEx(&archiveInfo);
  if (archiveInfo.OpenResult != 0) {
    RARCloseArchive(rarFile);
    cout  << "unrar couldn't open" << endl;
    exit(1);
  }
  fileInfo.CmtBuf = NULL;

  cout  << archiveInfo.Flags << endl;

  // loop through archive
  int numFiles = 0;
  int fileSize;
  int RHCode;
  int PFCode;
  while(true) {
    RHCode = RARReadHeaderEx(rarFile, &fileInfo);
    if (RHCode != 0) break;

    numFiles++;
    fs::path path(fileInfo.FileName);
    fileSize = fileInfo.UnpSize;

    cout << fileInfo.Method << " " << fileInfo.FileName << " (" << fileInfo.UnpSize << ")" << endl;

    char fileBuffer[fileInfo.UnpSize];

    // not sure what this does
    //RARSetProcessDataProc(rarFile, ProcessDataProc);

    // works for some files, but not for others
    RARSetCallback(rarFile, CallbackProc, (long) &fileBuffer);
    PFCode = RARProcessFile(rarFile, RAR_TEST, NULL, NULL);

    // properly extracts to a directory... but I need a stream
    // and I don't want to write to disk, read it, and delete from disk
    //PFCode = RARProcessFile(rarFile, RAR_EXTRACT, ".", fileInfo.FileName);

    // just skips
    //PFCode = RARProcessFile(rarFile, RAR_SKIP, NULL, NULL);

    if (PFCode != 0) {
      RARCloseArchive(rarFile);
      cout  << "error processing this file\n" << endl;
      exit(1);
    }
    ofstream outFile(path.filename().c_str());
    outFile.write(fileBuffer, fileSize);
  }
  if (RHCode != ERAR_END_ARCHIVE)
    cout  << "error traversing through archive: " << RHCode << endl;
  RARCloseArchive(rarFile);

  cout  << "num files: " << numFiles << endl;

}

update:

I’ve found a file that appears to be (claims to be?) the documentation, but according to the file, I’m not doing anything wrong. I think I might be forced to resort to CRC checking the buffers and implementing a workaround if it fails.

solution source (thanks, Denis Krjuchkov!):

/* put in the same directory as the unrar source files
 * compiling with:
 *   make clean
 *   make lib
 *   g++ rartest.cpp -o rartest libunrar.so -lboost_filesystem
 */

#include  <cstring>
#include  <iostream>
#include  <fstream>

#include  <boost/filesystem.hpp>
#include    <boost/crc.hpp>

#define _UNIX
#define  RARDLL
#include  "dll.hpp"

using namespace std;
namespace fs = boost::filesystem;

//char fileName[100] = "testout0.jpg\0";
//
//// doens't work
//int PASCAL ProcessDataProc(unsigned char* buffer, int buffLen) {
//  cout  << "writing..." << endl;
//  ofstream outFile(fileName);
//  cout << buffLen << endl;
//  cout << outFile.write((const char*)buffer, buffLen) << endl;
//  cout  << "done writing..." << endl;
//  fileName[7]++;
//}

int CALLBACK CallbackProc(unsigned int msg, long myBufferPtr, long rarBuffer, long bytesProcessed) {
  switch(msg) {
    case UCM_CHANGEVOLUME:
      return -1;
      break;
    case UCM_PROCESSDATA:
      memcpy(*(char**)myBufferPtr, (char*)rarBuffer, bytesProcessed);
      *(char**)myBufferPtr += bytesProcessed;
      return 1;
      break;
    case UCM_NEEDPASSWORD:
      return -1;
      break;
  }
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  if (argc != 2)
    return 0;
  ifstream archiveStream(argv[1]);
  if (!archiveStream.is_open())
    cout << "fstream couldn't open file\n";

  // declare and set parameters
  RARHANDLE rarFile;  // I renamed this macro in dll.hpp for my own purposes
  RARHANDLE rarFile2;
  RARHeaderDataEx fileInfo;
  RAROpenArchiveDataEx archiveInfo;
  memset(&archiveInfo, 0, sizeof(archiveInfo));
  archiveInfo.CmtBuf = NULL;
  //archiveInfo.OpenMode = RAR_OM_LIST;
  archiveInfo.OpenMode = RAR_OM_EXTRACT;
  archiveInfo.ArcName = argv[1];

  // Open file
  rarFile = RAROpenArchiveEx(&archiveInfo);
  rarFile2 = RAROpenArchiveEx(&archiveInfo);
  if (archiveInfo.OpenResult != 0) {
    RARCloseArchive(rarFile);
    cout  << "unrar couldn't open" << endl;
    exit(1);
  }
  fileInfo.CmtBuf = NULL;

//  cout  << archiveInfo.Flags << endl;

  // loop through archive
  int numFiles = 0;
  int fileSize;
  int RHCode;
  int PFCode;
  int crcVal;
  bool workaroundUsed = false;
    char currDir[2] = ".";
    char tmpFile[11] = "buffer.tmp";
  while(true) {
    RHCode = RARReadHeaderEx(rarFile, &fileInfo);
    if (RHCode != 0) break;
    RARReadHeaderEx(rarFile2, &fileInfo);

    numFiles++;
    fs::path path(fileInfo.FileName);
    fileSize = fileInfo.UnpSize;
    crcVal = fileInfo.FileCRC;

    cout << dec << fileInfo.Method << " " << fileInfo.FileName << " (" << fileInfo.UnpSize << ")" << endl;
    cout << " " << hex << uppercase << crcVal << endl;

    char fileBuffer[fileSize];
    char* bufferPtr = fileBuffer;

    // not sure what this does
    //RARSetProcessDataProc(rarFile, ProcessDataProc);

    // works for some files, but not for others
    RARSetCallback(rarFile, CallbackProc, (long) &bufferPtr);
    PFCode = RARProcessFile(rarFile, RAR_TEST, NULL, NULL);

    // properly extracts to a directory... but I need a stream
    // and I don't want to write to disk, read it, and delete from disk
//    PFCode = RARProcessFile(rarFile, RAR_EXTRACT, currDir, fileInfo.FileName);

    // just skips
    //PFCode = RARProcessFile(rarFile, RAR_SKIP, NULL, NULL);

    if (PFCode != 0) {
      RARCloseArchive(rarFile);
      cout  << "error processing this file\n" << endl;
      exit(1);
    }

    // crc check
    boost::crc_32_type crc32result;
    crc32result.process_bytes(&fileBuffer, fileSize);
    cout << " " << hex << uppercase << crc32result.checksum() << endl;

    // old workaround - crc check always succeeds now!
    if (crcVal == crc32result.checksum()) {
      RARProcessFile(rarFile2, RAR_SKIP, NULL, NULL);
    }
    else {
      workaroundUsed = true;
      RARProcessFile(rarFile2, RAR_EXTRACT, currDir, tmpFile);
      ifstream inFile(tmpFile);
      inFile.read(fileBuffer, fileSize);
    }

    ofstream outFile(path.filename().c_str());
    outFile.write(fileBuffer, fileSize);
  }
  if (workaroundUsed) remove(tmpFile);
  if (RHCode != ERAR_END_ARCHIVE)
    cout  << "error traversing through archive: " << RHCode << endl;
  RARCloseArchive(rarFile);

  cout  << dec << "num files: " << numFiles << endl;

}
  • 1 1 Answer
  • 0 Views
  • 0 Followers
  • 0
Share
  • Facebook
  • Report

Leave an answer
Cancel reply

You must login to add an answer.

Forgot Password?

Need An Account, Sign Up Here

1 Answer

  • Voted
  • Oldest
  • Recent
  • Random
  1. Editorial Team
    Editorial Team
    2026-05-13T22:54:48+00:00Added an answer on May 13, 2026 at 10:54 pm

    I’m not familar with unrar, after quick reading of a documentation I think you are assuming that CallbackProc is called exactly once per file. However, I think unrar may call it multiple times. It unpacks some data then calls CallbackProc, then unpacks next data chunk and again calls CallbackProc, the process is iterated until all data is processed.
    You should remember how many bytes are actually written to buffer, and append new data at corresponding offset.

    • 0
    • Reply
    • Share
      Share
      • Share on Facebook
      • Share on Twitter
      • Share on LinkedIn
      • Share on WhatsApp
      • Report

Sidebar

Related Questions

I need to be able to extract jar files on the command line. Piece
I need to be able to extract a zip file, and insert the names
I need to be able to extract the different between two hex colours, represented
I need to extract images from a FB fan page. I'm able to read
Need to be able to pull Magento products into an external template. Need to
I have two XML files that I need to parse into one record. The
My app is able to extract .deb files but only if you specify where
I need to make use of a config file as often one does. In
I need to loop through a folder containing many excel files and extract the
I am working on a application and need to extract the gz files inside

Explore

  • Home
  • Add group
  • Groups page
  • Communities
  • Questions
    • New Questions
    • Trending Questions
    • Must read Questions
    • Hot Questions
  • Polls
  • Tags
  • Badges
  • Users
  • Help
  • SEARCH

Footer

© 2021 The Archive Base. All Rights Reserved
With Love by The Archive Base

Insert/edit link

Enter the destination URL

Or link to existing content

    No search term specified. Showing recent items. Search or use up and down arrow keys to select an item.