How to create multi RAR archives in Ubuntu?

[K.Morgan]

I have a 20GB folder that i would like to compress into RAR format across five 4GB files. I have installed RAR in Ubuntu by sudo apt-get install rar but now i'm lost.

[oldos2er]

You can use Archive Manager to create RAR files; I think it's under the menu Applications, Accessories. Or type "file-roller" in a terminal to start the program.

[K.Morgan]

Thanks. Is there a way of splitting the archives into 4GB pieces? i can't seem to find any options in Archive manager to do this.

[Slim Odds]

Thanks. Is there a way of splitting the archives into 4GB pieces? i can't seem to find any options in Archive manager to do this.

info split

the split utility is very handy.

[K.Morgan]

'Info split' doesn't make any sense to me, do i use this instead of Archive manager?

[Ms_Angel_D]

Don't know if your into WinRar but I got it working easily through wine, which I only use when creating multi-part archives. It shouldn't be to difficult to get going in that manner.

[ww711]

http://www.computerhope.com/unix/usplit.htm

there's an example at the bottom on how to use split.

[oldos2er]

'Info split' doesn't make any sense to me, do i use this instead of Archive manager?

"info split" is a command you would enter into the terminal. It just gives you info about the split command. You'd use "split" on an already created RAR archive.

[K.Morgan]

Ah right, so i create the RAR archive first as one big file, and then use split to split the large RAR file into smaller sizes.

[qpieus]

To do exactly what you asked, using only rar:

I don't know how to do it with any GUI, but from the command line it's easy.
Open a terminal and use this command:


rar a -r -m3 -v5g archivename path/to/folder/that/you/want/to/split

Explanation:

a = add files to archive

r = recursive, you need this if the folder you want to split has subfolders.

m3 = medium compression, use 0 for no compression, 5 for best compression. Adjust as desired.

v = multivolume (split)

5g = 5 GB per volume. Adjust number as desired. Use m for MB for smaller jobs.

archivename = the name you want the archive to be called. If you don't specify a path here, the archive will be placed in whatever directory the terminal is in (probably your /home)

path/to/folder/that/you/want/to/split = self explanatory :)

All this is explained in the rar man page. Rar can do tons of stuff from the command line. In a terminal:
man rar

[K.Morgan]

Thanks qpieus, i almost went down the road of installing Winrar in Wine, been trying so hard not to use any applications in wine, guess now i don't need to. Great.