1AR(1)                        GNU Development Tools                       AR(1)
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NAME

6       ar - create, modify, and extract from archives
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ar [-X32_64] [-]p[mod] [--plugin name] [--target bfdname] [--output
10       dirname] [relpos] [count] archive [member...]
11

DESCRIPTION

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
18       The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and
19       group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on extraction.
20
21       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
28       ar is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are
29       most often used as libraries holding commonly needed subroutines.
30
31       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
39       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
43       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       archive.  This is useful for building libraries for use within a local
46       build tree, where the relocatable objects are expected to remain
47       available, and copying the contents of each object would only waste
48       time and space.
49
50       An archive can either be thin or it can be normal.  It cannot be both
51       at the same time.  Once an archive is created its format cannot be
52       changed without first deleting it and then creating a new archive in
53       its place.
54
55       Thin archives are also flattened, so that adding one thin archive to
56       another thin archive does not nest it, as would happen with a normal
57       archive.  Instead the elements of the first archive are added
58       individually to the second archive.
59
60       The paths to the elements of the archive are stored relative to the
61       archive itself.
62
63       GNU ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities.  You
64       can control its activity using command-line options, like the different
65       varieties of ar on Unix systems; or, if you specify the single command-
66       line option -M, you can control it with a script supplied via standard
67       input, like the MRI "librarian" program.
68

OPTIONS

70       GNU ar allows you to mix the operation code p and modifier flags mod in
71       any order, within the first command-line argument.
72
73       If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash.
74
75       The p keyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be any of
76       the following, but you must specify only one of them:
77
78       d   Delete modules from the archive.  Specify the names of modules to
79           be deleted as member...; the archive is untouched if you specify no
80           files to delete.
81
82           If you specify the v modifier, ar lists each module as it is
83           deleted.
84
85       m   Use this operation to move members in an archive.
86
87           The ordering of members in an archive can make a difference in how
88           programs are linked using the library, if a symbol is defined in
89           more than one member.
90
91           If no modifiers are used with "m", any members you name in the
92           member arguments are moved to the end of the archive; you can use
93           the a, b, or i modifiers to move them to a specified place instead.
94
95       p   Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard output
96           file.  If the v modifier is specified, show the member name before
97           copying its contents to standard output.
98
99           If you specify no member arguments, all the files in the archive
100           are printed.
101
102       q   Quick append; Historically, add the files member... to the end of
103           archive, without checking for replacement.
104
105           The modifiers a, b, and i do not affect this operation; new members
106           are always placed at the end of the archive.
107
108           The modifier v makes ar list each file as it is appended.
109
110           Since the point of this operation is speed, implementations of ar
111           have the option of not updating the archive's symbol table if one
112           exists.  Too many different systems however assume that symbol
113           tables are always up-to-date, so GNU ar will rebuild the table even
114           with a quick append.
115
116           Note - GNU ar treats the command qs as a synonym for r - replacing
117           already existing files in the archive and appending new ones at the
118           end.
119
120       r   Insert the files member... into archive (with replacement). This
121           operation differs from q in that any previously existing members
122           are deleted if their names match those being added.
123
124           If one of the files named in member... does not exist, ar displays
125           an error message, and leaves undisturbed any existing members of
126           the archive matching that name.
127
128           By default, new members are added at the end of the file; but you
129           may use one of the modifiers a, b, or i to request placement
130           relative to some existing member.
131
132           The modifier v used with this operation elicits a line of output
133           for each file inserted, along with one of the letters a or r to
134           indicate whether the file was appended (no old member deleted) or
135           replaced.
136
137       s   Add an index to the archive, or update it if it already exists.
138           Note this command is an exception to the rule that there can only
139           be one command letter, as it is possible to use it as either a
140           command or a modifier.  In either case it does the same thing.
141
142       t   Display a table listing the contents of archive, or those of the
143           files listed in member... that are present in the archive.
144           Normally only the member name is shown, but if the modifier O is
145           specified, then the corresponding offset of the member is also
146           displayed.  Finally, in order to see the modes (permissions),
147           timestamp, owner, group, and size the v modifier should be
148           included.
149
150           If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
151           listed.
152
153           If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in an
154           archive (say b.a), ar t b.a fie lists only the first instance; to
155           see them all, you must ask for a complete listing---in our example,
156           ar t b.a.
157
158       x   Extract members (named member) from the archive.  You can use the v
159           modifier with this operation, to request that ar list each name as
160           it extracts it.
161
162           If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
163           extracted.
164
165           Files cannot be extracted from a thin archive, and there are
166           restrictions on extracting from archives created with P: The paths
167           must not be absolute, may not contain "..", and any subdirectories
168           in the paths must exist.  If it is desired to avoid these
169           restrictions then used the --output option to specify an output
170           directory.
171
172       A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter, to
173       specify variations on an operation's behavior:
174
175       a   Add new files after an existing member of the archive.  If you use
176           the modifier a, the name of an existing archive member must be
177           present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
178
179       b   Add new files before an existing member of the archive.  If you use
180           the modifier b, the name of an existing archive member must be
181           present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
182           (same as i).
183
184       c   Create the archive.  The specified archive is always created if it
185           did not exist, when you request an update.  But a warning is issued
186           unless you specify in advance that you expect to create it, by
187           using this modifier.
188
189       D   Operate in deterministic mode.  When adding files and the archive
190           index use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file
191           modes for all files.  When this option is used, if ar is used with
192           identical options and identical input files, multiple runs will
193           create identical output files regardless of the input files'
194           owners, groups, file modes, or modification times.
195
196           If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives,
197           then this mode is on by default.  It can be disabled with the U
198           modifier, below.
199
200       f   Truncate names in the archive.  GNU ar will normally permit file
201           names of any length.  This will cause it to create archives which
202           are not compatible with the native ar program on some systems.  If
203           this is a concern, the f modifier may be used to truncate file
204           names when putting them in the archive.
205
206       i   Insert new files before an existing member of the archive.  If you
207           use the modifier i, the name of an existing archive member must be
208           present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
209           (same as b).
210
211       l   This modifier is accepted but not used.
212
213       N   Uses the count parameter.  This is used if there are multiple
214           entries in the archive with the same name.  Extract or delete
215           instance count of the given name from the archive.
216
217       o   Preserve the original dates of members when extracting them.  If
218           you do not specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive
219           are stamped with the time of extraction.
220
221       O   Display member offsets inside the archive. Use together with the t
222           option.
223
224       P   Use the full path name when matching or storing names in the
225           archive.  Archives created with full path names are not POSIX
226           compliant, and thus may not work with tools other than up to date
227           GNU tools.  Modifying such archives with GNU ar without using P
228           will remove the full path names unless the archive is a thin
229           archive.  Note that P may be useful when adding files to a thin
230           archive since r without P ignores the path when choosing which
231           element to replace.  Thus
232
233                   ar rcST archive.a subdir/file1 subdir/file2 file1
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235           will result in the first "subdir/file1" being replaced with "file1"
236           from the current directory.  Adding P will prevent this
237           replacement.
238
239       s   Write an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing
240           one, even if no other change is made to the archive.  You may use
241           this modifier flag either with any operation, or alone.  Running ar
242           s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it.
243
244       S   Do not generate an archive symbol table.  This can speed up
245           building a large library in several steps.  The resulting archive
246           can not be used with the linker.  In order to build a symbol table,
247           you must omit the S modifier on the last execution of ar, or you
248           must run ranlib on the archive.
249
250       T   Make the specified archive a thin archive.  If it already exists
251           and is a regular archive, the existing members must be present in
252           the same directory as archive.
253
254       u   Normally, ar r... inserts all files listed into the archive.  If
255           you would like to insert only those of the files you list that are
256           newer than existing members of the same names, use this modifier.
257           The u modifier is allowed only for the operation r (replace).  In
258           particular, the combination qu is not allowed, since checking the
259           timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation q.
260
261       U   Do not operate in deterministic mode.  This is the inverse of the D
262           modifier, above: added files and the archive index will get their
263           actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values.
264
265           This is the default unless binutils was configured with
266           --enable-deterministic-archives.
267
268       v   This modifier requests the verbose version of an operation.  Many
269           operations display additional information, such as filenames
270           processed, when the modifier v is appended.
271
272       V   This modifier shows the version number of ar.
273
274       The ar program also supports some command-line options which are
275       neither modifiers nor actions, but which do change its behaviour in
276       specific ways:
277
278       --help
279           Displays the list of command-line options supported by ar and then
280           exits.
281
282       --version
283           Displays the version information of ar and then exits.
284
285       -X32_64
286           ar ignores an initial option spelled -X32_64, for compatibility
287           with AIX.  The behaviour produced by this option is the default for
288           GNU ar.  ar does not support any of the other -X options; in
289           particular, it does not support -X32 which is the default for AIX
290           ar.
291
292       --plugin name
293           The optional command-line switch --plugin name causes ar to load
294           the plugin called name which adds support for more file formats,
295           including object files with link-time optimization information.
296
297           This option is only available if the toolchain has been built with
298           plugin support enabled.
299
300           If --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled
301           then ar iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins in
302           alphabetic order and the first plugin that claims the object in
303           question is used.
304
305           Please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used
306           by ld's -plugin option.  In order to make ar use the  linker plugin
307           it must be copied into the ${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory.  For
308           GCC based compilations the linker plugin is called
309           liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0.  For Clang based compilations it is called
310           LLVMgold.so.  The GCC plugin is always backwards compatible with
311           earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one.
312
313       --target target
314           The optional command-line switch --target bfdname specifies that
315           the archive members are in an object code format different from
316           your system's default format.  See
317
318       --output dirname
319           The --output option can be used to specify a path to a directory
320           into which archive members should be extracted.  If this option is
321           not specified then the current directory will be used.
322
323           Note - although the presence of this option does imply a x
324           extraction operation that option must still be included on the
325           command line.
326
327       @file
328           Read command-line options from file.  The options read are inserted
329           in place of the original @file option.  If file does not exist, or
330           cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not
331           removed.
332
333           Options in file are separated by whitespace.  A whitespace
334           character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire
335           option in either single or double quotes.  Any character (including
336           a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
337           included with a backslash.  The file may itself contain additional
338           @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.
339

SEE ALSO

341       nm(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils.
342
344       Copyright (c) 1991-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
345
346       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
347       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
348       any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
349       Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
350       Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
351       Free Documentation License".
352
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355binutils-2.35.1                   2020-09-19                             AR(1)
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