binutils: ar
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1 1 ar
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1 ar [-]P[MOD] [--plugin NAME] [--target BFDNAME] [RELPOS] [COUNT] ARCHIVE [MEMBER...]
1 ar -M [ <mri-script ]
1
1 The GNU 'ar' program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives.
1 An "archive" is a single file holding a collection of other files in a
1 structure that makes it possible to retrieve the original individual
1 files (called "members" of the archive).
1
1 The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner,
1 and group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on
1 extraction.
1
1 GNU 'ar' can maintain archives whose members have names of any
1 length; however, depending on how 'ar' is configured on your system, a
1 limit on member-name length may be imposed for compatibility with
1 archive formats maintained with other tools. If it exists, the limit is
1 often 15 characters (typical of formats related to a.out) or 16
1 characters (typical of formats related to coff).
1
1 'ar' is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are
1 most often used as "libraries" holding commonly needed subroutines.
1
1 'ar' creates an index to the symbols defined in relocatable object
1 modules in the archive when you specify the modifier 's'. Once created,
1 this index is updated in the archive whenever 'ar' makes a change to its
1 contents (save for the 'q' update operation). An archive with such an
1 index speeds up linking to the library, and allows routines in the
1 library to call each other without regard to their placement in the
1 archive.
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1 You may use 'nm -s' or 'nm --print-armap' to list this index table.
1 If an archive lacks the table, another form of 'ar' called 'ranlib' can
1 be used to add just the table.
1
1 GNU 'ar' can optionally create a _thin_ archive, which contains a
1 symbol index and references to the original copies of the member files
1 of the archive. This is useful for building libraries for use within a
1 local build tree, where the relocatable objects are expected to remain
1 available, and copying the contents of each object would only waste time
1 and space.
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1 An archive can either be _thin_ or it can be normal. It cannot be
1 both at the same time. Once an archive is created its format cannot be
1 changed without first deleting it and then creating a new archive in its
1 place.
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1 Thin archives are also _flattened_, so that adding one thin archive
1 to another thin archive does not nest it, as would happen with a normal
1 archive. Instead the elements of the first archive are added
1 individually to the second archive.
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1 The paths to the elements of the archive are stored relative to the
1 archive itself.
1
1 GNU 'ar' is designed to be compatible with two different facilities.
1 You can control its activity using command-line options, like the
1 different varieties of 'ar' on Unix systems; or, if you specify the
1 single command-line option '-M', you can control it with a script
1 supplied via standard input, like the MRI "librarian" program.
1
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