1AR(1) GNU Development Tools AR(1)
2
6 ar - create, modify, and extract from archives
7
9 ar [--plugin name] [-X32_64] [-]p[mod [relpos] [count]] archive
10 [member...]
11
13 The GNU ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives. An
14 archive is a single file holding a collection of other files in a
15 structure that makes it possible to retrieve the original individual
16 files (called members of the archive).
17 The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and
19 group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on extraction.
20 GNU ar can maintain archives whose members have names of any length;
22 however, depending on how ar is configured on your system, a limit on
23 member-name length may be imposed for compatibility with archive
24 formats maintained with other tools. If it exists, the limit is often
25 15 characters (typical of formats related to a.out) or 16 characters
26 (typical of formats related to coff).
27 ar is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are
29 most often used as libraries holding commonly needed subroutines.
30 ar creates an index to the symbols defined in relocatable object
32 modules in the archive when you specify the modifier s. Once created,
33 this index is updated in the archive whenever ar makes a change to its
34 contents (save for the q update operation). An archive with such an
35 index speeds up linking to the library, and allows routines in the
36 library to call each other without regard to their placement in the
37 archive.
38 You may use nm -s or nm --print-armap to list this index table. If an
40 archive lacks the table, another form of ar called ranlib can be used
41 to add just the table.
42 GNU ar can optionally create a thin archive, which contains a symbol
44 index and references to the original copies of the member files of the
45 archives. Such an archive is useful for building libraries for use
46 within a local build, where the relocatable objects are expected to
47 remain available, and copying the contents of each object would only
48 waste time and space. Thin archives are also flattened, so that adding
49 one or more archives to a thin archive will add the elements of the
50 nested archive individually. The paths to the elements of the archive
51 are stored relative to the archive itself.
52 GNU ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities. You
54 can control its activity using command-line options, like the different
55 varieties of ar on Unix systems; or, if you specify the single command-
56 line option -M, you can control it with a script supplied via standard
57 input, like the MRI "librarian" program.
58
60 GNU ar allows you to mix the operation code p and modifier flags mod in
61 any order, within the first command-line argument.
62 If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash.
64 The p keyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be any of
66 the following, but you must specify only one of them:
67 d Delete modules from the archive. Specify the names of modules to
69 be deleted as member...; the archive is untouched if you specify no
70 files to delete.
71 If you specify the v modifier, ar lists each module as it is
73 deleted.
74 m Use this operation to move members in an archive.
76 The ordering of members in an archive can make a difference in how
78 programs are linked using the library, if a symbol is defined in
79 more than one member.
80 If no modifiers are used with "m", any members you name in the
82 member arguments are moved to the end of the archive; you can use
83 the a, b, or i modifiers to move them to a specified place instead.
84 p Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard output
86 file. If the v modifier is specified, show the member name before
87 copying its contents to standard output.
88 If you specify no member arguments, all the files in the archive
90 are printed.
91 q Quick append; Historically, add the files member... to the end of
93 archive, without checking for replacement.
94 The modifiers a, b, and i do not affect this operation; new members
96 are always placed at the end of the archive.
97 The modifier v makes ar list each file as it is appended.
99 Since the point of this operation is speed, the archive's symbol
101 table index is not updated, even if it already existed; you can use
102 ar s or ranlib explicitly to update the symbol table index.
103 However, too many different systems assume quick append rebuilds
105 the index, so GNU ar implements q as a synonym for r.
106 r Insert the files member... into archive (with replacement). This
108 operation differs from q in that any previously existing members
109 are deleted if their names match those being added.
110 If one of the files named in member... does not exist, ar displays
112 an error message, and leaves undisturbed any existing members of
113 the archive matching that name.
114 By default, new members are added at the end of the file; but you
116 may use one of the modifiers a, b, or i to request placement
117 relative to some existing member.
118 The modifier v used with this operation elicits a line of output
120 for each file inserted, along with one of the letters a or r to
121 indicate whether the file was appended (no old member deleted) or
122 replaced.
123 s Add an index to the archive, or update it if it already exists.
125 Note this command is an exception to the rule that there can only
126 be one command letter, as it is possible to use it as either a
127 command or a modifier. In either case it does the same thing.
128 t Display a table listing the contents of archive, or those of the
130 files listed in member... that are present in the archive.
131 Normally only the member name is shown; if you also want to see the
132 modes (permissions), timestamp, owner, group, and size, you can
133 request that by also specifying the v modifier.
134 If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
136 listed.
137 If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in an
139 archive (say b.a), ar t b.a fie lists only the first instance; to
140 see them all, you must ask for a complete listing---in our example,
141 ar t b.a.
142 x Extract members (named member) from the archive. You can use the v
144 modifier with this operation, to request that ar list each name as
145 it extracts it.
146 If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
148 extracted.
149 Files cannot be extracted from a thin archive.
151 A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter, to
153 specify variations on an operation's behavior:
154 a Add new files after an existing member of the archive. If you use
156 the modifier a, the name of an existing archive member must be
157 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
158 b Add new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use
160 the modifier b, the name of an existing archive member must be
161 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
162 (same as i).
163 c Create the archive. The specified archive is always created if it
165 did not exist, when you request an update. But a warning is issued
166 unless you specify in advance that you expect to create it, by
167 using this modifier.
168 D Operate in deterministic mode. When adding files and the archive
170 index use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file
171 modes for all files. When this option is used, if ar is used with
172 identical options and identical input files, multiple runs will
173 create identical output files regardless of the input files'
174 owners, groups, file modes, or modification times.
175 f Truncate names in the archive. GNU ar will normally permit file
177 names of any length. This will cause it to create archives which
178 are not compatible with the native ar program on some systems. If
179 this is a concern, the f modifier may be used to truncate file
180 names when putting them in the archive.
181 i Insert new files before an existing member of the archive. If you
183 use the modifier i, the name of an existing archive member must be
184 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
185 (same as b).
186 l This modifier is accepted but not used.
188 N Uses the count parameter. This is used if there are multiple
190 entries in the archive with the same name. Extract or delete
191 instance count of the given name from the archive.
192 o Preserve the original dates of members when extracting them. If
194 you do not specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive
195 are stamped with the time of extraction.
196 P Use the full path name when matching names in the archive. GNU ar
198 can not create an archive with a full path name (such archives are
199 not POSIX complaint), but other archive creators can. This option
200 will cause GNU ar to match file names using a complete path name,
201 which can be convenient when extracting a single file from an
202 archive created by another tool.
203 s Write an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing
205 one, even if no other change is made to the archive. You may use
206 this modifier flag either with any operation, or alone. Running ar
207 s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it.
208 S Do not generate an archive symbol table. This can speed up
210 building a large library in several steps. The resulting archive
211 can not be used with the linker. In order to build a symbol table,
212 you must omit the S modifier on the last execution of ar, or you
213 must run ranlib on the archive.
214 T Make the specified archive a thin archive. If it already exists
216 and is a regular archive, the existing members must be present in
217 the same directory as archive.
218 u Normally, ar r... inserts all files listed into the archive. If
220 you would like to insert only those of the files you list that are
221 newer than existing members of the same names, use this modifier.
222 The u modifier is allowed only for the operation r (replace). In
223 particular, the combination qu is not allowed, since checking the
224 timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation q.
225 v This modifier requests the verbose version of an operation. Many
227 operations display additional information, such as filenames
228 processed, when the modifier v is appended.
229 V This modifier shows the version number of ar.
231 ar ignores an initial option spelt -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX.
233 The behaviour produced by this option is the default for GNU ar. ar
234 does not support any of the other -X options; in particular, it does
235 not support -X32 which is the default for AIX ar.
236 The optional command line switch --plugin name causes ar to load the
238 plugin called name which adds support for more file formats. This
239 option is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin
240 support enabled.
241 @file
243 Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted
244 in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or
245 cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not
246 removed.
247 Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace
249 character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
250 option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including
251 a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
252 included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
253 @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.
254
256 nm(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils.
257
259 Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
260 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free
261 Software Foundation, Inc.
262 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
264 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
265 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
266 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
267 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
268 Free Documentation License".
269binutils-2.21 2010-12-08 AR(1)