RARFILES.LST - set file order in solid archives

Files in a solid archive are usually sorted by extension. It is possible to set an alternative file order using a special file, rarfiles.lst (this should be in the same folder as WinRAR.exe or in %APPDATA%\WinRAR folder). It is already provided in the WinRAR distributive, but may be customized for user files set. This is a plain text file, which defines the order of files when a solid archive is created. The file rarfiles.lst may contain file names, wildcards and a special entry - $default. The default entry defines the place in the order list for files not matched with other entries in rarfiles.lst.

Tips to provide improved compression and speed of operation:

• Similar files should be grouped together in the archive if possible;
• Frequently accessed files should be placed at the beginning.

Normally masks placed nearer to the top of list have a higher priority, but there is an exception from this rule. If rarfiles.lst contains such two masks that all files matched by one mask are also matched by another, that mask which matches a smaller subset of file names will have a higher priority regardless of its position in the list. For example, if you have *.cpp and f*.cpp masks, f*.cpp has a higher priority, so the position of 'filename.cpp' will be chosen according to 'f*.cpp', not '*.cpp'.

Example of rarfiles.lst

file_id.diz
readme.*
*.doc
*.txt
*.hlp
*.inf
*.exe
*.dll
$default
*.rar