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 t Display a table listing the contents of archive, or those of the
125 files listed in member... that are present in the archive.
126 Normally only the member name is shown; if you also want to see the
127 modes (permissions), timestamp, owner, group, and size, you can
128 request that by also specifying the v modifier.
129 If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
131 listed.
132 If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in an
134 archive (say b.a), ar t b.a fie lists only the first instance; to
135 see them all, you must ask for a complete listing---in our example,
136 ar t b.a.
137 x Extract members (named member) from the archive. You can use the v
139 modifier with this operation, to request that ar list each name as
140 it extracts it.
141 If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
143 extracted.
144 Files cannot be extracted from a thin archive.
146 A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter, to
148 specify variations on an operation's behavior:
149 a Add new files after an existing member of the archive. If you use
151 the modifier a, the name of an existing archive member must be
152 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
153 b Add new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use
155 the modifier b, the name of an existing archive member must be
156 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
157 (same as i).
158 c Create the archive. The specified archive is always created if it
160 did not exist, when you request an update. But a warning is issued
161 unless you specify in advance that you expect to create it, by
162 using this modifier.
163 D Operate in deterministic mode. When adding files and the archive
165 index use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file
166 modes for all files. When this option is used, if ar is used with
167 identical options and identical input files, multiple runs will
168 create identical output files regardless of the input files'
169 owners, groups, file modes, or modification times.
170 f Truncate names in the archive. GNU ar will normally permit file
172 names of any length. This will cause it to create archives which
173 are not compatible with the native ar program on some systems. If
174 this is a concern, the f modifier may be used to truncate file
175 names when putting them in the archive.
176 i Insert new files before an existing member of the archive. If you
178 use the modifier i, the name of an existing archive member must be
179 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
180 (same as b).
181 l This modifier is accepted but not used.
183 N Uses the count parameter. This is used if there are multiple
185 entries in the archive with the same name. Extract or delete
186 instance count of the given name from the archive.
187 o Preserve the original dates of members when extracting them. If
189 you do not specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive
190 are stamped with the time of extraction.
191 P Use the full path name when matching names in the archive. GNU ar
193 can not create an archive with a full path name (such archives are
194 not POSIX complaint), but other archive creators can. This option
195 will cause GNU ar to match file names using a complete path name,
196 which can be convenient when extracting a single file from an
197 archive created by another tool.
198 s Write an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing
200 one, even if no other change is made to the archive. You may use
201 this modifier flag either with any operation, or alone. Running ar
202 s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it.
203 S Do not generate an archive symbol table. This can speed up
205 building a large library in several steps. The resulting archive
206 can not be used with the linker. In order to build a symbol table,
207 you must omit the S modifier on the last execution of ar, or you
208 must run ranlib on the archive.
209 T Make the specified archive a thin archive. If it already exists
211 and is a regular archive, the existing members must be present in
212 the same directory as archive.
213 u Normally, ar r... inserts all files listed into the archive. If
215 you would like to insert only those of the files you list that are
216 newer than existing members of the same names, use this modifier.
217 The u modifier is allowed only for the operation r (replace). In
218 particular, the combination qu is not allowed, since checking the
219 timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation q.
220 v This modifier requests the verbose version of an operation. Many
222 operations display additional information, such as filenames
223 processed, when the modifier v is appended.
224 V This modifier shows the version number of ar.
226 ar ignores an initial option spelt -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX.
228 The behaviour produced by this option is the default for GNU ar. ar
229 does not support any of the other -X options; in particular, it does
230 not support -X32 which is the default for AIX ar.
231 The optional command line switch --plugin name causes ar to load the
233 plugin called name which adds support for more file formats. This
234 option is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin
235 support enabled.
236 @file
238 Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted
239 in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or
240 cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not
241 removed.
242 Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace
244 character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
245 option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including
246 a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
247 included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
248 @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.
249
251 nm(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils.
252
254 Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
255 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free
256 Software Foundation, Inc.
257 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
259 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
260 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
261 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
262 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
263 Free Documentation License".
264binutils-2.20 2009-10-16 AR(1)