a - archive m5 - compression level, 0= lowest compression...1...2...3...4...5= max compression -v5M split the output file in 5 megabytes archives, change to 700 for a CD, or 4200 for a DVD R recursive for directories, do not use it for files It's better to have the output of a compression already split than use the 'split' command after compression, would consume the double amount of disk space. Found at http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com/2008/05/howto-create-split-rar-files-in-ubuntu.html

Written on OSX after `brew install unrar coreutils`; presumably works on other unices with minimal modifications. Didn't test rars that actually have paths in them, just "flat" files. Won't include files in the rar starting with a dot.

extract () { if [ -f $1 ] ; then case $1 in *.tar.bz2) tar xvjf $1 ;; *.tar.gz) tar xvzf $1 ;; *.tar.xz) tar Jxvf $1 ;; *.bz2) bunzip2 $1 ;; *.rar) unrar x $1 ;; *.gz) gunzip $1 ;; *.tar) tar xvf $1 ;; *.tbz2) tar xvjf $1 ;; *.tgz) tar xvzf $1 ;; *.zip) unzip $1 ;; *.Z) uncompress $1 ;; *.7z) 7z x $1 ;; *) echo "don't know how to extract '$1'..." ;; esac read -r -p "Delete the compressed file? [Y/N] " response response=${response,,} # tolower if [[ $response =~ ^([Yy]es|YES|[Yy])$ ]]; then echo "rm '$1'" rm $1 fi else echo "'$1' is not a valid file!" fi }

compress(){ # compress [FIle/Folder] [NewFileName].[Suffix] # compress image.jpg pictures.tar.bz2 # compress Document/ folder.rar if [ -f $1 ] || [ -d $1 ]; then case $2 in *.tar.bz2) tar -jcvf $2 $1 ;; *.tar.gz) tar -zcvpf $2 $1 ;; *.tar) tar -cvpf $2 $1 ;; *.zip) zip -r $2 $1 ;; *.rar) rar a -r -rr10 $2 $1 ;; *) echo "don't know how to compres '$1'..." ;; esac else echo "'$1' is not a valid file or folder2" fi }