[Fsf-Debian] rar/unrar

[Andrew Roffey]

On 18/10/12 06:46, Daniel Martí wrote:
> Hello Bryan,
>
> On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 04:42:03PM -0400, Bryan Quigley wrote:
>> I think it makes sense to remove both the unrar and rar nonfree
>> programs from the nonfree repo in either Wheezy or Wheezy+1.  If
>> not, we should investigate why so many users are installing
>> unrar/rar.  Unrar has a number of Dependants that pull it in. Many
>> of them I don't understand why (Evince, Okular).
>
> That being said, I suppose that's the reason why unrar-nonfree is
> still in the repos. And that would also explain why Evince, Okular
> and other programs prefer the nonfree package; because it can open
> every .rar file, not just the unprotected ones. Though things might
> have changed lately and this reasoning may be now obsolete - please
> let me know if that's the case.

The case for the non-free unrar decreases significantly, if there are
less scenarios for which it is used.

How many people are using password-protected RAR archives?

Bryan Quigley wrote:
> Found the answer.  It's for a cbr comic file.  Checking the source
> evince supports calling the following external programs to decompress
> a "comic" file: RARLABS (nonfree), GNA UNRAR, UNZIP, P7ZIP,  TAR

Could Evince and Okular be modified to use unar instead of unrar? I 
don't know. But if Debian removed unrar, there *might* be more reason 
for upstream to change.

Andrew.