How to create subfolder on RAR/ZIP extraction if archive does not have one?

Question

I have a lot of RAR or ZIP archives to decompress. Some of the archives contain a single folder with all files in this folder. Some other archives have all files at root level.

Case 01

Archive01.rar
    MyFolder
       file01.txt
       file02.txt 
       file03.txt 
       etc.

Case 02

Archive02.rar
    -file01.txt
    -file02.txt
    -file031.txt
    etc.

I know how extract all archives into a subfolder.

But how to create the subfolder only when there is none present in archive?

What I mean is within a batch process for processing thousands of archives there should be no folder created additionally on extraction if the archive file belongs to case 01 . But if archive file belongs to case 02 the extraction should be done into a subfolder with name of archive file.

Case 01 result

 MyFolder <- Folder
   file01.txt
   file02.txt 
   file03.txt 
   etc.

Case 02 result

 Archive02 <-Folder base on the archive name
   -file01.txt
   -file02.txt
   -file031.txt
   etc.

Answer 1

The console version Rar.exe has the command l to list archive file contents according to text file Rar.txt in program files folder of WinRAR being the manual for console version. The list output on running Rar.exe with command l (or L) could be processed in a batch file to determine if the RAR archive file contains at top level just a single directory and nothing else. But Rar.exe supports like free UnRAR.exe just RAR archives.

To support also ZIP archives it is necessary to use GUI version WinRAR.exe which supports extraction of RAR and ZIP archives and some other archive types.

The manual for WinRAR.exe is the help of WinRAR which can be opened on clicking in menu Help on menu item Help topics on running WinRAR. On help tab Contents there is the list item Command line mode with all necessary information in referenced help pages for running WinRAR.exe from command line.

It can be seen on looking on list of Commands that WinRAR.exe does not support a command l to output archive file contents to a console window because of being a graphic user interface application.

So it is not really possible to determine from command line or within a batch file if an archive file contains at top level just a single directory on using WinRAR.exe.

However, that does not really matter as it would be inefficient to first parse an archive file for file and directory names and then use the appropriate command to extract the archive file without or with specifying an extra extraction folder on command line.

It is much more efficient to first extract all *.rar (and later also all *.zip) files using just one WinRAR call with switch -ad to extract each archive file into a subdirectory with name of the archive file and second eliminate each extraction directory not being necessary because the corresponding archive file contained just a single directory at top level.

This smart approach is used in the batch file below which contains following additional features to make it useful for hopefully many WinRAR users:

1. The working directory can be specified as first argument on calling the batch file which can be even a UNC path.

2. The batch file finds out automatically where WinRAR.exe is installed working also for those use cases with 32-bit or 64-bit WinRAR not being installed in default program files directory (as on all of my computers).

Note: The commented batch file as posted below does not check if in current or specified directory an existing archive file was extracted already before. So it is not advisable to run the batch file multiple times on a directory with archive files once processed not being removed from that directory.

@echo off
rem Change working directory if batch file was started with an argument.
if not "%~1" == "" (
    pushd "%~1" 2>nul
    if errorlevel 1 (
        echo Specified directory "%~1" does not exist.
        echo/
        pause
        goto :EOF
    )
)

setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion

rem Does WinRAR exist in default program files folder?
set "WinRAR=%ProgramFiles%\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe"
if exist "%WinRAR%" goto StartExtraction

rem Does WinRAR exist in default program files folder for x86 applications?
set "WinRAR=%ProgramFiles(x86%\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe"
if exist "%WinRAR%" goto StartExtraction

rem Try to determine installation location of WinRAR.exe from registry.
set "TypeToken=2"
goto GetPathFromRegistry

rem On Windows Vista and later REG.EXE outputs without version info:

rem HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WinRAR.exe
rem    (Default)    REG_SZ    Full path to WinRAR\WinRAR.exe

rem There are only spaces used to separate value name, value type and value string.

rem But REG.EXE version 3.0 outputs on Windows XP with version info:

rem ! REG.EXE VERSION 3.0
rem
rem HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WinRAR.exe
rem     <NO NAME>   REG_SZ  Full path to WinRAR\WinRAR.exe

rem NOTE: There are 4 indent spaces and 2 separating tabs in REG 3.0 output line.

rem So either token 2 or token 3 contains value type REG_SZ
rem used to identify the line with the wanted information.

:GetPathFromRegistry
for /F "skip=1 tokens=%TypeToken%*" %%A in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe QUERY "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WinRAR.exe" /ve 2^>nul') do (
    if "%%A" == "REG_SZ" (
        if exist "%%~fB" (
            set "WinRAR=%%~fB"
            goto StartExtraction
        )
    ) else if "%%A" == "NAME>" (
        set "TypeToken=3"
        goto GetPathFromRegistry
    )
)

endlocal
if not "%~1" == "" popd
echo Could not determine directory containing WinRAR.exe.
echo/
echo Please configure it manually in file: %~f0
echo/
pause
goto :EOF


rem WinRAR supports multiple archive types on extraction.
rem Specify here the archive file extensions for extraction.

:StartExtraction
for %%I in (rar zip) do call :ExtractArchives %%I

rem Restore previous command environment, restore previous current directory
rem and exit this batch file without fall through to the subroutines below.
endlocal
if not "%~1" == "" popd
goto :EOF


rem The subroutine ExtractArchives processes all archive files in current
rem directory with the file extension passed to subroutine as first argument.

rem WinRAR is called once to extract all files with specified file extension
rem for extraction into a subdirectory with name of the archive file.

rem Then one more subroutine is called for each archive file to determine
rem if it is safe to move the extracted archive file contents up one level.

:ExtractArchives
if not exist "*.%~1" goto :EOF
"%WinRAR%" x -ad -cfg- -ibck -y -- "*.%~1"
for %%A in ("*.%~1") do call :MoveUpExtracted "%%~nA"
goto :EOF

rem The subroutine MoveUpExtracted first checks if for the archive file
rem passed to the subroutine as first argument a subdirectory exists at
rem all, i.e. the extraction before was successful for that archive.

rem Next it counts the subdirectories in the archive extraction directory.
rem Nothing is moved up if there is more than 1 subdirectory in archive
rem extraction directory.

rem Also nothing is moved up if archive extraction directory contains
rem 1 or more files.

rem After verification of archive extraction directory really containing
rem only a single subdirectory and nothing else, the name of the archive
rem extraction directory is compared case-insensitive with the name of
rem the single subdirectory in archive extraction directory. On equal
rem directory names the archive extraction directory is renamed by
rem appending _tmp to make it possible to move the subdirectory with same
rem name up one level in directory hierarchy. There is hopefully by chance
rem never a directory present in current directory with name of an archive
rem file and _tmp appended.

rem Next it is checked if in current directory there is not already existing
rem a directory with name of the subdirectory from extracted archive in which
rem case it is also not possible to move the directory up one level. In this
rem special use case the archive extraction directory is kept containing just
rem a single subdirectory with restoring original directory name.

rem Then the single subdirectory in archive extraction directory is moved up
rem one level which is very fast as just the file allocation table is updated
rem and no data is really moved.

rem The directory movement could fail if the extracted directory has hidden
rem attribute set. In this case temporarily remove the hidden attribute,
rem move the directory up one level in directory hierarchy and set the
rem hidden attribute again on the directory.

rem On a succesful moving up of the extracted directory the (renamed)
rem extraction directory being now empty is deleted as not further needed.


:MoveUpExtracted
if not exist "%~1\" (
    echo Error: No folder for archive %~1
    goto :EOF
)

echo Processing archive folder "%~1"
set FolderCount=0
set "FolderName="
for /F "delims=" %%D in ('dir "%~1\*" /AD /B 2^>nul') do (
    if defined FolderName goto :EOF
    set /A FolderCount+=1
    set "FolderName=%%D"
)
if not %FolderCount% == 1 goto :EOF

for /F "delims=" %%F in ('dir "%~1\*" /A-D /B 2^>nul') do goto :EOF

set "ParentRenamed=0"
set "ParentFolder=%~1"
if /I "%~1" == "%FolderName%" (
    ren "%~1" "%~1_tmp" 2>nul
    if errorlevel 1 (
        echo Failed to rename "%~1" to "%~1_tmp".
        goto :EOF
    )
    set "ParentFolder=%~1_tmp"
    set "ParentRenamed=1"
)

if exist "%FolderName%" (
    if %ParentRenamed% == 1 ren "%~1_tmp" "%~1"
    echo Error: Folder exists "%FolderName%"
    goto :EOF
)

move "%ParentFolder%\%FolderName%" "%FolderName%" >nul 2>nul
if not errorlevel 1 (
    rd "%ParentFolder%"
    goto :EOF
)

%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe -h "%ParentFolder%\%FolderName%" >nul
move "%ParentFolder%\%FolderName%" "%FolderName%" >nul
if errorlevel 1 (
    if %ParentRenamed% == 1 (
        ren "%ParentFolder%" "%~1"
        goto :EOF
    )
)

%SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe +h "%FolderName%"
rd "%ParentFolder%"
goto :EOF

---

I'm using 32-bit Windows since Windows 95, but I ran myself never into the MAX_PATH limitation, i.e. absolute file/folder names being longer than 259 characters.

So it was a really interesting and also a very time consuming challenge to rewrite the batch file to work also when archive file names are very long, for example exactly 256 characters for file name + file extension.

During the development of the the batch file below I found out following:

1. Some commands like DIR, FOR, RD and REN support short 8.3 names in path AND file/folder name while other commands like ATTRIB and MOVE support them only in path, but not in file/folder name (at least on Windows XP).
   So it is not possible to move a folder or change its attributes using its short 8.3 name.

2. All commands fail on using just relative folder names with relative folder path when folder name with full path is longer than 259 characters. This means Windows command interpreter first determines folder name with complete path before executing any command. So the current directory should have a short path on processing archives with very long names or containing a directory with a very long name.

3. I could not figure out how to get short name of a folder or its path using %~fs1 as explained by call /? or %%~fsI (in batch file) as explained by for /? when only a relative folder path is parsed by Windows command interpreter, i.e. just the long name of a folder without its path.

4. On running command DIR with option /X to get short name of a directory, the third column contains the short name and the fourth column the long name. But short name in third column can be missing on very short folder names.

Output of dir /AD /X on English Windows 7 SP1 x64 executed on an NTFS partition with Germany set in Windows Region and Language settings:

 Volume in drive C is System
 Volume Serial Number is 7582-4210

 Directory of C:\Temp\Test

29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>                       .
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>                       ..
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>          ARCHIV~1     archive_with_a_very_very_very_..._long_name_1
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>                       Batch
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>                       xyz

Same command dir /AD /X executed on German Windows XP SP3 x86 on a FAT32 partition also with Germany set in Windows Region and Language settings:

 Datenträger in Laufwerk F: ist TEMP
 Volumeseriennummer: CAA5-41AA

 Verzeichnis von F:\Temp

29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>                       .
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>                       ..
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>          BATCH        Batch
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>                       xxx
29.04.2017  22:39    <DIR>          ARCHIV~1     archive_with_a_very_very_very_..._long_name_1

Note: The very long directory name was truncated here by me with ... in name.

Why directory Batch has on Windows XP computer short name BATCH but no short name on Windows 7 is not really explainable for me.

Here is the batch script supporting also long archive names and long directory names in archive as long as the path of current directory is short.

@echo off
rem Change working directory if batch file was started with an argument.
if not "%~1" == "" (
    pushd "%~1" 2>nul
    if errorlevel 1 (
        echo Specified directory "%~1" does not exist.
        echo/
        pause
        goto :EOF
    )
)

setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion

rem Does WinRAR exist in default program files folder?
set "WinRAR=%ProgramFiles%\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe"
if exist "%WinRAR%" goto StartExtraction

rem Does WinRAR exist in default program files folder for x86 applications?
set "WinRAR=%ProgramFiles(x86%\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe"
if exist "%WinRAR%" goto StartExtraction

rem Try to determine installation location of WinRAR.exe from registry.
set "TypeToken=2"
goto GetPathFromRegistry

rem On Windows Vista and later REG.EXE outputs without version info:

rem HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WinRAR.exe
rem    (Default)    REG_SZ    Full path to WinRAR\WinRAR.exe

rem There are only spaces used to separate value name, value type and value string.

rem But REG.EXE version 3.0 outputs on Windows XP with version info:

rem ! REG.EXE VERSION 3.0
rem
rem HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WinRAR.exe
rem     <NO NAME>   REG_SZ  Full path to WinRAR\WinRAR.exe

rem NOTE: There are 4 indent spaces and 2 separating tabs in REG 3.0 output line.

rem So either token 2 or token 3 contains value type REG_SZ
rem used to identify the line with the wanted information.

:GetPathFromRegistry
for /F "skip=1 tokens=%TypeToken%*" %%A in ('%SystemRoot%\System32\reg.exe QUERY "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\WinRAR.exe" /ve 2^>nul') do (
    if "%%A" == "REG_SZ" (
        if exist "%%~fB" (
            set "WinRAR=%%~fB"
            goto StartExtraction
        )
    ) else if "%%A" == "NAME>" (
        set "TypeToken=3"
        goto GetPathFromRegistry
    )
)

endlocal
if not "%~1" == "" popd
echo Could not determine directory containing WinRAR.exe.
echo/
echo Please configure it manually in file: %~f0
echo/
pause
goto :EOF


rem WinRAR supports multiple archive types on extraction.
rem Specify here the archive file extensions for extraction.

rem But first delete temporary folder from a previous breaked execution.

:StartExtraction
rd /Q /S # 2>nul

for %%I in (rar zip) do call :ExtractArchives %%I

rem Restore previous command environment, restore previous current directory
rem and exit this batch file without fall through to the subroutines below.
endlocal
if not "%~1" == "" popd
goto :EOF


rem The subroutine ExtractArchives processes all archive files in current
rem directory with the file extension passed to subroutine as first argument.

rem WinRAR is called once to extract all files with specified file extension
rem for extraction into a subdirectory with name of the archive file.

rem Then one more subroutine is called for each archive file to determine
rem if it is safe to move the extracted archive file contents up one level.

:ExtractArchives
if not exist "*.%~1" goto :EOF
"%WinRAR%" x -ad -cfg- -ibck -y -- "*.%~1"
for %%A in ("*.%~1") do call :MoveUpExtracted "%%~nA" %1
goto :EOF

rem The subroutine MoveUpExtracted first checks if for the archive file
rem passed to the subroutine as first argument a subdirectory exists at
rem all, i.e. the extraction before was successful for that archive, and
rem determines short 8.3 name of this directory.

rem Next it counts the subdirectories in the archive extraction directory
rem using short directory name. Nothing is moved up if there is more than
rem 1 subdirectory in archive extraction directory.

rem Also nothing is moved up if archive extraction directory contains
rem 1 or more files.

rem After verification of archive extraction directory really containing
rem only a single subdirectory and nothing else, the current archive folder
rem is renamed to # (single character folder name) using short folder name.

rem This folder rename should work in general. The current archive folder
rem is kept in case of this folder rename fails unexpected because it is
rem not yet known if the current directory does not already contain the
rem single directory extracted from current archive or rename failed
rem because of a permission or a directory sharing access restriction.

rem Next it is checked if in current directory there is not already existing
rem a directory with name of the subdirectory from extracted archive in which
rem case it is also not possible to move the directory up one level. In this
rem special use case the archive extraction directory is kept containing just
rem a single subdirectory with restoring original directory name. In case of
rem restoring archive directory fails unexpected, the directory with name #
rem is deleted and the archive is extracted once again into a directory with
rem name of archive file.

rem It is clear on this point that the single directory in archive extraction
rem directory can be moved up to current directory from directory wit having
rem now the temporary name #.

rem Moving a directory with command MOVE is not possible if hidden attribute
rem is set on directory. For that reason it is checked next if the directory
rem to move up has hidden attribute set using its short directory name.

rem In case of directory has hidden attribute is indeed set, it is removed
rem which is also verified. The verification can't be done with errorlevel
rem evaluation as external command ATTRIB does not set errorlevel on failed
rem attribute change. So the attribute check is done once again after the
rem hidden attribute is removed with ATTRIB.

rem ATTRIB also fails to change the attribute if absolute folder path is
rem longer than 259 characters. In this case the current extraction folder
rem with temporary name # is deleted completely and the current archive is
rem extracted once again to current directory without creation of an
rem additional directory with name of archive file.

rem Then the single subdirectory in archive extraction directory having
rem now name # is also renamed to # using short directory name to avoid
rem a problem on next command MOVE with an absolute folder path longer
rem than 259 characters as much as possible.

rem The directory extracted from archive with name # in directory # is
rem moved up to current directory with suppressing all errors which could
rem occur for example if path of current directory plus name of directory
rem as extracted from archive file is too long.

rem The directory # in current directory with its subdirectory # is deleted
rem on a moving error and the current archive file is extracted once again
rem into current directory without creation of an additional directory with
rem name of archive file.

rem But on successful movement of the folder with correct name to current
rem directory the hidden attribute is set on folder if the extracted folder
rem has it also set before moving the folder and the finally empty folder #
rem is deleted before exiting subroutine.


:MoveUpExtracted
set "FolderToCheck=%~f1"
set "FolderToCheck=%FolderToCheck:~0,258%"
for /F "skip=5 tokens=4*" %%X in ('dir "%FolderToCheck%*" /AD /X 2^>nul') do (
    if "%%Y" == "%~1" set "ArchiveFolder=%%X" & goto Subfolders
    if "%%Y" == "" if /I "%%X" == "%~1" set "ArchiveFolder=%%X" & goto Subfolders
)
echo Error: No folder for archive %~1
goto :EOF

:Subfolders
@echo off
echo Processing archive folder "%~1"
set FolderCount=0
set "FolderName="
for /F "delims=" %%D in ('dir "%ArchiveFolder%\*" /AD /B 2^>nul') do (
    if defined FolderName goto :EOF
    set /A FolderCount+=1
    set "FolderName=%%D"
)
if not %FolderCount% == 1 goto :EOF

for /F "delims=" %%F in ('dir "%ArchiveFolder%\*" /A-D /B 2^>nul') do goto :EOF

ren "%ArchiveFolder%" # 2>nul
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo Error: Failed to rename "%~1"
    goto :EOF
)

set "FolderToCheck=%~dp1%FolderName%"
set "FolderToCheck=%FolderToCheck:~0,258%"
for /F "skip=5 tokens=4*" %%X in ('dir "%FolderToCheck%*" /AD /X 2^>nul') do (
    if "%%Y" == "%FolderName%" goto FolderExist
    if "%%Y" == "" if /I "%%X" == "%FolderName%" goto FolderExist
)

set "HiddenFolder=0"
set "FolderToCheck=%~dp1#\%FolderName%"
set "FolderToCheck=%FolderToCheck:~0,258%"
for /F "skip=5 tokens=4*" %%X in ('dir "%FolderToCheck%*" /AD /X 2^>nul') do (
    if "%%Y" == "%FolderName%" set "FolderToMove=%%X" & goto CheckHidden
    if "%%Y" == "" if /I "%%X" == "%FolderName%" set "FolderToMove=%%X" & goto CheckHidden
)

:CheckHidden
for %%X in ("#\%FolderToMove%") do (
    for /F "tokens=2 delims=h" %%H in ("%%~aX") do (
        if %HiddenFolder% == 1 goto ArchiveExtract
        set "HiddenFolder=1"
        %SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe -h "#\%FolderName%"
        goto CheckHidden
    )
)

ren "#\%FolderToMove%" # 2>nul
move #\# "%FolderName%" >nul 2>nul
if errorlevel 1 goto ArchiveExtract

if %HiddenFolder% == 1 %SystemRoot%\System32\attrib.exe +h "%FolderName%"
rd #
goto :EOF

:ArchiveExtract
rd /Q /S #
"%WinRAR%" x -cfg- -ibck -y -- "%~1.%~2"
goto :EOF

:FolderExist
echo Error: Folder exists "%FolderName%"
ren # "%~1" 2>nul
if not errorlevel 1 goto :EOF
rd /Q /S #
"%WinRAR%" x -ad -cfg- -ibck -y -- "%~1.%~2"
goto :EOF

It would be definitely better to write a console application in C or C++ or C# being long path aware replacing subroutine MoveUpExtracted in above batch scripts.

On Windows 10 version 1607 (Anniversary Update) or later Windows versions the MAX_PATH limit of 260 characters (259 characters plus terminating null byte) can be disabled via a group policy or by adding a registry value, see

• How to enable NTFS Long Paths in Windows 10 by Sergey Tkachenko
• How to Make Windows 10 Accept File Paths Over 260 Characters by Walter Glenn

For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.

• attrib /?
• call /?
• dir /?
• echo /?
• endlocal /?
• for /?
• goto /?
• if /?
• move /?
• pause /?
• popd /?
• pushd /?
• rd /?
• reg /?
• reg query /?
• rem /?
• ren /?
• set /?
• setlocal /?

Read also the Microsoft articles:

• Using Command Redirection Operators
• Testing for a Specific Error Level in Batch Files

Answer 2

You'll have to check if data is inside folder or in root.

If it's in root click on extract to /foldername (Case 02)

otherwise just extract here (Case 01)