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](http://www.iunarchive.com/) , 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?