[needs packaging] New upstream stable release available: RAR 4.20

[W5WMW]

Binary package hint: rar

A new stable release (4.20) of RAR for Linux (i386 and x64 architectures) is now available upstream: http://rarlab.com/download.htm
Please replace the beta version that is currently in repositories with new stable RAR version.
Thank you.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

If rar has bugs, you may want to consider unar, a free alternative.

File Roller in Ubuntu 12.10 will natively support unar if you install it, otherwise you can use unar from the command line (or lsar if you just want to see what's inside the .rar).

[Ma Hsiao-chun (mahsiaochun)]

@jbicha
The problem is how can an uninformed user make a right choice between rar and unrar?

[Ma Hsiao-chun (mahsiaochun)]

I'd like to request SRU for all supported Ubuntu releases, as long as 4.20 binary runs.

I think my branch is functionally working since it is just a trivial change from previous stuff.

The meta-data in debian directory has room for improvements, though.
http://packages.qa.debian.org/r/rar.html

Another arguable topic is, do we really need to use rar_static instead of rar?

[Michael Terry (mterry)]

Ma, I don't think this meets the requirements of an SRU: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates

I uploaded your branch to raring though. Thanks so much!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package rar - 2:4.2.0-0ubuntu1

---------------
rar (2:4.2.0-0ubuntu1) raring; urgency=low

  * New upstream release (LP: #731066)
    - Can properly handle UTF-8 filenames (LP: #587980)
 -- Ma Xiaojun <email address hidden> Wed, 17 Oct 2012 02:39:57 -0500

[Ma Hsiao-chun (mahsiaochun)]

Please explain why it deosn't meet the requirements of an SRU.
I don't think a beta version of a closed source software is worth keeping.
I can make a deeper study later you are going to listen.

To see how annoying things can be "rar" is installed:
Try opening the file in file-roller with "rar" installed:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/45139465/test.rar
And observe the magic when "rar" is removed or purged.
( According to Jeremy, you probably need to make sure that "rar" and "unrar" is mutual exclusive in 12.10 to observe the magic. )

Garbage file name/path in an archive can be a form of data lose I guess.

[Ma Hsiao-chun (mahsiaochun)]

As I just tried 12.10, it still pulls both "rar" and "unrar" if none is previously installed. And no matter whether "unrar" is installed, "rar" still garbages UTF-8 filename in File Roller.