1AR(1) GNU Development Tools AR(1)
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6 ar - create, modify, and extract from archives
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9 ar [-X32_64] [-]p[mod [relpos] [count]] archive [member...]
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12 The GNU ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives. An
13 archive is a single file holding a collection of other files in a
14 structure that makes it possible to retrieve the original individual
15 files (called members of the archive).
16 The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and
18 group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on extraction.
19 GNU ar can maintain archives whose members have names of any length;
21 however, depending on how ar is configured on your system, a limit on
22 member-name length may be imposed for compatibility with archive for‐
23 mats maintained with other tools. If it exists, the limit is often 15
24 characters (typical of formats related to a.out) or 16 characters (typ‐
25 ical of formats related to coff).
26 ar is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are
28 most often used as libraries holding commonly needed subroutines.
29 ar creates an index to the symbols defined in relocatable object mod‐
31 ules in the archive when you specify the modifier s. Once created,
32 this index is updated in the archive whenever ar makes a change to its
33 contents (save for the q update operation). An archive with such an
34 index speeds up linking to the library, and allows routines in the
35 library to call each other without regard to their placement in the ar‐
36 chive.
37 You may use nm -s or nm --print-armap to list this index table. If an
39 archive lacks the table, another form of ar called ranlib can be used
40 to add just the table.
41 GNU ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities. You
43 can control its activity using command-line options, like the different
44 varieties of ar on Unix systems; or, if you specify the single command-
45 line option -M, you can control it with a script supplied via standard
46 input, like the MRI "librarian" program.
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49 GNU ar allows you to mix the operation code p and modifier flags mod in
50 any order, within the first command-line argument.
51 If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash.
53 The p keyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be any of
55 the following, but you must specify only one of them:
56 d Delete modules from the archive. Specify the names of modules to
58 be deleted as member...; the archive is untouched if you specify no
59 files to delete.
60 If you specify the v modifier, ar lists each module as it is
62 deleted.
63 m Use this operation to move members in an archive.
65 The ordering of members in an archive can make a difference in how
67 programs are linked using the library, if a symbol is defined in
68 more than one member.
69 If no modifiers are used with "m", any members you name in the mem‐
71 ber arguments are moved to the end of the archive; you can use the
72 a, b, or i modifiers to move them to a specified place instead.
73 p Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard output
75 file. If the v modifier is specified, show the member name before
76 copying its contents to standard output.
77 If you specify no member arguments, all the files in the archive
79 are printed.
80 q Quick append; Historically, add the files member... to the end of
82 archive, without checking for replacement.
83 The modifiers a, b, and i do not affect this operation; new members
85 are always placed at the end of the archive.
86 The modifier v makes ar list each file as it is appended.
88 Since the point of this operation is speed, the archive's symbol
90 table index is not updated, even if it already existed; you can use
91 ar s or ranlib explicitly to update the symbol table index.
92 However, too many different systems assume quick append rebuilds
94 the index, so GNU ar implements q as a synonym for r.
95 r Insert the files member... into archive (with replacement). This
97 operation differs from q in that any previously existing members
98 are deleted if their names match those being added.
99 If one of the files named in member... does not exist, ar displays
101 an error message, and leaves undisturbed any existing members of
102 the archive matching that name.
103 By default, new members are added at the end of the file; but you
105 may use one of the modifiers a, b, or i to request placement rela‐
106 tive to some existing member.
107 The modifier v used with this operation elicits a line of output
109 for each file inserted, along with one of the letters a or r to
110 indicate whether the file was appended (no old member deleted) or
111 replaced.
112 t Display a table listing the contents of archive, or those of the
114 files listed in member... that are present in the archive. Nor‐
115 mally only the member name is shown; if you also want to see the
116 modes (permissions), timestamp, owner, group, and size, you can
117 request that by also specifying the v modifier.
118 If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
120 listed.
121 If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in an
123 archive (say b.a), ar t b.a fie lists only the first instance; to
124 see them all, you must ask for a complete listing---in our example,
125 ar t b.a.
126 x Extract members (named member) from the archive. You can use the v
128 modifier with this operation, to request that ar list each name as
129 it extracts it.
130 If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are
132 extracted.
133 A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter, to
135 specify variations on an operation's behavior:
136 a Add new files after an existing member of the archive. If you use
138 the modifier a, the name of an existing archive member must be
139 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
140 b Add new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use
142 the modifier b, the name of an existing archive member must be
143 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
144 (same as i).
145 c Create the archive. The specified archive is always created if it
147 did not exist, when you request an update. But a warning is issued
148 unless you specify in advance that you expect to create it, by
149 using this modifier.
150 f Truncate names in the archive. GNU ar will normally permit file
152 names of any length. This will cause it to create archives which
153 are not compatible with the native ar program on some systems. If
154 this is a concern, the f modifier may be used to truncate file
155 names when putting them in the archive.
156 i Insert new files before an existing member of the archive. If you
158 use the modifier i, the name of an existing archive member must be
159 present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
160 (same as b).
161 l This modifier is accepted but not used.
163 N Uses the count parameter. This is used if there are multiple
165 entries in the archive with the same name. Extract or delete
166 instance count of the given name from the archive.
167 o Preserve the original dates of members when extracting them. If
169 you do not specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive
170 are stamped with the time of extraction.
171 P Use the full path name when matching names in the archive. GNU ar
173 can not create an archive with a full path name (such archives are
174 not POSIX complaint), but other archive creators can. This option
175 will cause GNU ar to match file names using a complete path name,
176 which can be convenient when extracting a single file from an ar‐
177 chive created by another tool.
178 s Write an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing
180 one, even if no other change is made to the archive. You may use
181 this modifier flag either with any operation, or alone. Running ar
182 s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it.
183 S Do not generate an archive symbol table. This can speed up build‐
185 ing a large library in several steps. The resulting archive can
186 not be used with the linker. In order to build a symbol table, you
187 must omit the S modifier on the last execution of ar, or you must
188 run ranlib on the archive.
189 u Normally, ar r... inserts all files listed into the archive. If
191 you would like to insert only those of the files you list that are
192 newer than existing members of the same names, use this modifier.
193 The u modifier is allowed only for the operation r (replace). In
194 particular, the combination qu is not allowed, since checking the
195 timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation q.
196 v This modifier requests the verbose version of an operation. Many
198 operations display additional information, such as filenames pro‐
199 cessed, when the modifier v is appended.
200 V This modifier shows the version number of ar.
202 ar ignores an initial option spelt -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX.
204 The behaviour produced by this option is the default for GNU ar. ar
205 does not support any of the other -X options; in particular, it does
206 not support -X32 which is the default for AIX ar.
207 @file
209 Read command-line options from file. The options read are inserted
210 in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or
211 cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not
212 removed.
213 Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace charac‐
215 ter may be included in an option by surrounding the entire option
216 in either single or double quotes. Any character (including a
217 backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be
218 included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional
219 @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.
220
222 nm(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils.
223
225 Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
226 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
227 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
229 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
230 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
231 Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
232 Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
233 Free Documentation License".
234binutils-2.17 2006-06-23 AR(1)