man(1) Manual page archive


     AR(1)                                                       AR(1)

     NAME
          ar, ranlib - archive and library maintainer

     SYNOPSIS
          ar key [ posname ] afile [ file ... ]

          ranlib archive ...

     DESCRIPTION
          Ar maintains groups of files combined into a single archive
          file, afile. If it is not to be modified, the archive may be
          read from standard input, indicated by the name .  The main
          use of a ar is to create and update library files for the
          loader ld(1). It can be used, though, for any similar pur-
          pose.

          Key is one character from the set drqtpmx, optionally con-
          catenated with one or more of vuaibcl. The files are con-
          stituents of the archive afile. The meanings of the key
          characters are:

          d    Delete files from the archive file.

          r    Replace files in the archive file.  Optional modifiers
               are
               u    Only replace files with modified dates later than
                    that of the archive.
               a    Place new files after posname in the archive
                    rather than at the end.
               b or i
                    Place new files before posname in the archive.

          q    Quick.  Append files to the end of the archive without
               checking for duplicates.  Avoids quadratic behavior in
               `for i in *.o; do ar r lib.a $i; done'.

          t    List a table of contents of the archive.  If names are
               given, only those files are listed.

          p    Print the named files in the archive.

          m    Move the named files to the end or elsewhere, specified
               as with `r'.

          x    Extract the named files.  If no names are given, all
               files in the archive are extracted.  In neither case
               does x alter the archive file.

          v    Verbose.  Give a file-by-file description of the making
               of a new archive file from the old archive and the

     AR(1)                                                       AR(1)

               constituent files.  With p, precede each file with a
               name.  With t, give a long listing of all information
               about the files, somewhat like a listing by ls(1),
               showing
                    mode uid/gid size date name

          c    Create.  Normally ar will create a new archive when
               afile does not exist, and give a warning.  Option c
               discards any old contents and suppresses the warning.

          l    Local.  Normally ar places its temporary files in the
               directory This option causes them to be placed in the
               local directory.

          Ranlib makes a table-of-contents file for each library
          archive. With this table the loader ld(1) will extract files
          as if it were repeatedly invoked until no more subroutines
          can be found.

     EXAMPLES
          ar cr lib.a *.o; ranlib lib.a
               Replace the contents of library `lib.a' with the object
               files in the current directory.

          pcat old.a.z | ar t -
               List the contents of an archived and compressed collec-
               tion of old files; see pack(1).

     FILES
          temporaries

     SEE ALSO
          ld(1), ar(5)

     BUGS
          If the same file is mentioned twice in an argument list, it
          may be put in the archive twice.
          Ld(1) warnings that a library is newer than its table of
          contents happen when a library is copied.