Software:The Unarchiver
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| Original author(s) | Dag Ågren |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Circlesoft, MacPaw[1] |
| Initial release | September 2006 |
| Operating system | macOS, Linux using GNUstep libraries, and command line only on Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS |
| Available in | 18 languages |
List of languages English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Turkish | |
| Type | File Extractor / Decompressor |
| License | Proprietary since acquisition[2] Formerly LGPLv2.1-or-later |
| Website | theunarchiver |
The Unarchiver is a free[2] data decompression utility, which supports more formats than Archive Utility[3] (formerly known as BOMArchiveHelper), the built-in archive unpacker program in macOS. It can also handle filenames in various character encodings, created using operating system versions that use those character encodings.[4] The Unarchiver does not compress files.[5]
History
Open source era
The Unarchiver, version 1.1 was publicly introduced to the world in September 2006 by Finland-based MacOS software developer Dag Ågren to run on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.[6][7] Ågren's last public release was version 3.11.1 that was released in May 2016 for Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther and higher[8]
The Unarchiver was free software licensed under the LGPL, up to version 3.11.1 (released 2016).[9] This version, and the versions prior to the buyout, are still available for download from Dag Ågren’s original website.[10] The Unarchiver version 3.11.1 provided a free-software implementation of extraction of RAR versions up to RAR5.[11][12]
Closed source era
Ukraine-based MacPaw purchased The Unarchiver and related software technology from Dag Ågren in July 2017 for an undisclosed sum.[13][14] MacPaw released version 4.0.0 in June 2018 for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and higher.[15] Version 4.1.0 was released in February 2019.[16] Version 4.3.5 was released in May 2022 for Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.[17]
The most recent version, 4.3.9, was released in March 2025 for MacOS 10.13 High Sierra or later.[18]
Related software
unar and lsar command line utilities
The corresponding command line utilities unar and lsar are free software licensed under the LGPL[19][20] run on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS.[21]
Ågren released version 1.0 of the command line utilities in March 2012.[22] Ågren's last public release was version 1.10.1, which was released in May 2016.[23] MacPaw performed minor fixes and bumped the version up to 1.10.7 by April 2020.[24]
The Archive Browser
In March 2012, Ågren released version 1.0 of The Archive Browser, a finder-like program that can browse inside almost any archive which can be opened by The Unarchiver, on the Mac App Store as a commercial program that required Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later.[25] Ågren's last public release was version 1.11.1 that was released in May 2016 for OS X 10.7 Lion and higher[26] Although, MacPaw acquired The Archive Browser in 2017, MacPaw did not further develop this technology and eventually dropped its distribution by mid-2020.[27]
Archives
Archives is an iOS version of The Unarchiver. Version 1.0 was released in October 2012 by Dag Ågren as a commercial product.[28] Ågren's last public release was version 2.1 that was released in May 2016.[29] MacPaw performed minor fixes and released version 2.1.1 via the Mac App Store in October 2018. Version 2.1.1 is the most recent edition.[30]
References
- ↑ "MacPaw acquires The Unarchiver Mac app, will keep it updated & free". 27 July 2017. https://9to5mac.com/2017/07/27/macpaw-acquires-the-unarchiver-mac-app/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "End User License Agreement (EULA) for MacPaw Products. Disclaimer and Limitations." (in en). https://macpaw.com/eula.
- ↑ Popescu, George (19 August 2013). "The Unarchiver – A Better Way to Decompress Archives". http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/mac/The-Unarchiver-Review-374828.shtml. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ↑ Seff, Jon (7 May 2013). "Mac Gems: The Unarchiver is a free, robust file-extraction utility". Macworld. http://www.macworld.com/article/2037025/mac-gems-the-unarchiver-is-a-free-robust-file-extraction-utility.html. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ↑ Fenton, William (18 June 2014). "The Unarchiver (for Mac)". PC Magazine. https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2459672,00.asp. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "The Unarchiver v1.1". http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "wakaba.c3.cx". https://wakaba.c3.cx/.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "The Unarchiver v3.11.1 for Workgroups". http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html.
- ↑ "The Unarchiver source code from 2016 is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1". 2011-05-12. https://heptapod.host/DagAgren/TheUnarchiver/-/tree/branch/default.
- ↑ "The Unarchiver". http://wakaba.c3.cx/releases/TheUnarchiver/.
- ↑ Smith, Brett (10 May 2011). "Another High Priority Project done: The Unarchiver provides free RARv3 extraction tools". http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/free-rarv3-extraction.
- ↑ "The Unarchiver changes". http://unarchiver.c3.cx/changes.
- ↑ Degtiarenko, Igor (2017-07-27). "MacPaw acquires The Unarchiver and commits to making it even better". https://macpaw.com/news/macpaw-bought-unarchiver.
- ↑ Vlasenko, Valerie (July 31, 2017). "Finnish Unarchiver Acquired by Ukrainian MacPaw". https://arcticstartup.com/finnish-unarchiver-acquired-ukrainian-macpaw/.
- ↑ "The Unarchiver". MacPaw. https://theunarchiver.com/.
- ↑ "The Unarchiver". MacPaw. https://theunarchiver.com/.
- ↑ "The Unarchiver". MacPaw. https://theunarchiver.com/.
- ↑ "The Unarchiver". MacPaw. https://theunarchiver.com/.
- ↑ "Unar and Lsar - Command Line Tools for The Unarchiver". MacPaw. https://theunarchiver.com/command-line., including The Unarchiver source code from 2016.
- ↑ "MacPaw/XADMaster is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1". MacPaw. 2018-03-21. https://github.com/MacPaw/XADMaster/blob/master/LICENSE.
- ↑ "Command line tools". MacPaw. https://theunarchiver.com/command-line. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "Command line tools". http://unarchiver.c3.cx/commandline.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "Command line tools". http://unarchiver.c3.cx/commandline.
- ↑ Taykalo, Paul (8 April 2020). "Commit 9bda55e". https://github.com/MacPaw/unar/commit/9bda55e9cc8724ef1ba00308f3db74f090fd4ad5.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "The Archive Browser v1.0". http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/archivebrowser.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "The Archive Browser v1.11.1". http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/archivebrowser.
- ↑ "The Archive Browser". MacPaw. https://theunarchiver.com/archive-browser.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "Archives v1.0". http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/archives.
- ↑ Ågren, Dag. "Archives v2.1". http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/archives.
- ↑ "Archives: Opens any format". Mac App Store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/archives-opens-any-format/id562790811.
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Unarchiver. |
- The Unarchiver's Website
- unar, lsar source code repository
- Pre-buyout free software releases (source code and binaries)
- Code repository for the free software version
