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ar(1)

NAME

       ar - create, modify, and extract from archives

SYNOPSIS

       ar [-X32_64] [-]p[mod [relpos] [count]] archive [member...]

DESCRIPTION

       The  GNU  ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives.  An
       archive is a single file holding a  collection  of  other  files  in  a
       structure  that	makes  it possible to retrieve the original individual
       files (called members of the archive).

       The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and
       group  are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on extraction.

       GNU ar can maintain archives whose members have names  of  any  length;
       however,  depending  on how ar is configured on your system, a limit on
       member-name length may be imposed for compatibility with  archive  for-
       mats  maintained with other tools.  If it exists, the limit is often 15
       characters (typical of formats related to a.out) or 16 characters (typ-
       ical of formats related to coff).

       ar  is  considered  a  binary utility because archives of this sort are
       most often used as libraries holding commonly needed subroutines.

       ar creates an index to the symbols defined in relocatable  object  mod-
       ules  in  the  archive  when you specify the modifier s.  Once created,
       this index is updated in the archive whenever ar makes a change to  its
       contents  (save	for  the q update operation).  An archive with such an
       index speeds up linking to the library,	and  allows  routines  in  the
       library to call each other without regard to their placement in the ar-
       chive.

       You may use nm -s or nm --print-armap to list this index table.	If  an
       archive	lacks  the table, another form of ar called ranlib can be used
       to add just the table.

       GNU ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities.  You
       can control its activity using command-line options, like the different
       varieties of ar on Unix systems; or, if you specify the single command-
       line  option -M, you can control it with a script supplied via standard
       input, like the MRI ``librarian'' program.

OPTIONS

       GNU ar allows you to mix the operation code p and modifier flags mod in
       any order, within the first command-line argument.

       If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash.

       The p keyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be  any  of
       the following, but you must specify only one of them:

       d   Delete  modules  from the archive.  Specify the names of modules to
	   be deleted as member...; the archive is untouched if you specify no
	   files to delete.
	   more than one member.

	   If no modifiers are used with "m", any members you name in the mem-
	   ber	arguments are moved to the end of the archive; you can use the
	   a, b, or i modifiers to move them to a specified place instead.

       p   Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard	output
	   file.   If the v modifier is specified, show the member name before
	   copying its contents to standard output.

	   If you specify no member arguments, all the files  in  the  archive
	   are printed.

       q   Quick  append;  Historically, add the files member... to the end of
	   archive, without checking for replacement.

	   The modifiers a, b, and i do not affect this operation; new members
	   are always placed at the end of the archive.

	   The modifier v makes ar list each file as it is appended.

	   Since  the  point  of this operation is speed, the archive's symbol
	   table index is not updated, even if it already existed; you can use
	   ar s or ranlib explicitly to update the symbol table index.

	   However,  too  many	different systems assume quick append rebuilds
	   the index, so GNU ar implements q as a synonym for r.

       r   Insert the files member... into archive  (with  replacement).  This
	   operation  differs  from  q in that any previously existing members
	   are deleted if their names match those being added.

	   If one of the files named in member... does not exist, ar  displays
	   an  error  message,	and leaves undisturbed any existing members of
	   the archive matching that name.

	   By default, new members are added at the end of the file;  but  you
	   may	use one of the modifiers a, b, or i to request placement rela-
	   tive to some existing member.

	   The modifier v used with this operation elicits a  line  of	output
	   for	each  file  inserted,  along with one of the letters a or r to
	   indicate whether the file was appended (no old member  deleted)  or
	   replaced.

       t   Display  a  table  listing the contents of archive, or those of the
	   files listed in member... that are present in  the  archive.   Nor-
	   mally  only	the  member name is shown; if you also want to see the
	   modes (permissions), timestamp, owner, group,  and  size,  you  can
	   request that by also specifying the v modifier.

	   If  you  do	not  specify  a  member,  all files in the archive are
	   listed.

	   If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in  an
	   archive  (say  b.a), ar t b.a fie lists only the first instance; to
	   see them all, you must ask for a complete listing---in our example,
	   ar t b.a.
       A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter,  to
       specify variations on an operation's behavior:

       a   Add	new files after an existing member of the archive.  If you use
	   the modifier a, the name of an  existing  archive  member  must  be
	   present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.

       b   Add new files before an existing member of the archive.  If you use
	   the modifier b, the name of an  existing  archive  member  must  be
	   present  as	the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
	   (same as i).

       c   Create the archive.	The specified archive is always created if  it
	   did not exist, when you request an update.  But a warning is issued
	   unless you specify in advance that you  expect  to  create  it,  by
	   using this modifier.

       f   Truncate  names  in	the archive.  GNU ar will normally permit file
	   names of any length.  This will cause it to create  archives  which
	   are	not compatible with the native ar program on some systems.  If
	   this is a concern, the f modifier may  be  used  to	truncate  file
	   names when putting them in the archive.

       i   Insert  new files before an existing member of the archive.	If you
	   use the modifier i, the name of an existing archive member must  be
	   present  as	the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
	   (same as b).

       l   This modifier is accepted but not used.

       N   Uses the count parameter.  This  is	used  if  there  are  multiple
	   entries  in	the  archive  with  the  same name.  Extract or delete
	   instance count of the given name from the archive.

       o   Preserve the original dates of members when	extracting  them.   If
	   you	do not specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive
	   are stamped with the time of extraction.

       P   Use the full path name when matching names in the archive.  GNU  ar
	   can	not create an archive with a full path name (such archives are
	   not POSIX complaint), but other archive creators can.  This	option
	   will  cause	GNU ar to match file names using a complete path name,
	   which can be convenient when extracting a single file from  an  ar-
	   chive created by another tool.

       s   Write  an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing
	   one, even if no other change is made to the archive.  You  may  use
	   this modifier flag either with any operation, or alone.  Running ar
	   s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it.

       S   Do not generate an archive symbol table.  This can speed up	build-
	   ing	a  large  library in several steps.  The resulting archive can
	   not be used with the linker.  In order to build a symbol table, you
	   must  omit  the S modifier on the last execution of ar, or you must
	   run ranlib on the archive.

       u   Normally, ar r... inserts all files listed into  the  archive.   If
	   you	would like to insert only those of the files you list that are

       V   This modifier shows the version number of ar.

       ar ignores an initial option spelt -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX.
       The behaviour produced by this option is the default for  GNU  ar.   ar
       does  not  support  any of the other -X options; in particular, it does
       not support -X32 which is the default for AIX ar.

SEE ALSO

       nm(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000,  2001,  2002,
       2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission  is  granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version  1.1  or
       any  later  version  published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
       Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with	no  Back-Cover
       Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
       Free Documentation License''.

binutils-2.14.91		  2004-04-09				 AR(1)

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