Using php5-rar to extract files with an RAR extension Recently, I received a compressed file with an RAR extension from a colleague. Not being able to view it under MacOS, I went on to download the MacPort php5-rar thinking that it would solve my problem.  I soon realized that this was not a utility, but an API for viewing, extracting and creating RAR files programmatically.  Please correct me if I am wrong, since the only documentation I have been able to find on this MacPort thus far is an API reference manual.

By later browsing this SE, I discovered that there is another utility called iUnarchive, which allows one to extract/view RAR files.  As I am a bit ignorant when it comes to these things, if I were to download and install it, would it interfere with the php5-rar MacPort that I installed earlier?

Furthermore, as iUnarchive appears to be a tool only for extracting/viewing files, is there an equivalent (free) tool under MacOS that can be used to create RAR files?
There does not appear to be any freeware RAR compression software according to this Wikipedia article. However, if you are willing to consider trialware (or "nagware"), you can download the commandline RAR for OS X (also see here).