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AR(1)			     GNU Development Tools			 AR(1)

NAME
       ar - create, modify, and extract from archives

SYNOPSIS
       ar [-X32_64] [-]p[mod [relpos] [count]] archive [member...]

DESCRIPTION
       The  GNU	 ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives.  An
       archive is a single file holding a  collection  of  other  files	 in  a
       structure  that	makes  it possible to retrieve the original individual
       files (called members of the archive).

       The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and
       group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on extraction.

       GNU  ar	can  maintain archives whose members have names of any length;
       however, depending on how ar is configured on your system, a  limit  on
       member-name  length  may be imposed for compatibility with archive for‐
       mats maintained with other tools.  If it exists, the limit is often  15
       characters (typical of formats related to a.out) or 16 characters (typ‐
       ical of formats related to coff).

       ar is considered a binary utility because archives  of  this  sort  are
       most often used as libraries holding commonly needed subroutines.

       ar  creates  an index to the symbols defined in relocatable object mod‐
       ules in the archive when you specify the	 modifier  s.	Once  created,
       this  index is updated in the archive whenever ar makes a change to its
       contents (save for the q update operation).  An archive	with  such  an
       index  speeds  up  linking  to  the library, and allows routines in the
       library to call each other without regard to their placement in the ar‐
       chive.

       You  may use nm -s or nm --print-armap to list this index table.	 If an
       archive lacks the table, another form of ar called ranlib can  be  used
       to add just the table.

       GNU ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities.  You
       can control its activity using command-line options, like the different
       varieties of ar on Unix systems; or, if you specify the single command-
       line option -M, you can control it with a script supplied via  standard
       input, like the MRI "librarian" program.

OPTIONS
       GNU ar allows you to mix the operation code p and modifier flags mod in
       any order, within the first command-line argument.

       If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash.

       The p keyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be  any  of
       the following, but you must specify only one of them:

       d   Delete  modules  from the archive.  Specify the names of modules to
	   be deleted as member...; the archive is untouched if you specify no
	   files to delete.

	   If  you  specify  the  v  modifier,	ar  lists each module as it is
	   deleted.

       m   Use this operation to move members in an archive.

	   The ordering of members in an archive can make a difference in  how
	   programs  are  linked  using the library, if a symbol is defined in
	   more than one member.

	   If no modifiers are used with "m", any members you name in the mem‐
	   ber	arguments are moved to the end of the archive; you can use the
	   a, b, or i modifiers to move them to a specified place instead.

       p   Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard	output
	   file.   If the v modifier is specified, show the member name before
	   copying its contents to standard output.

	   If you specify no member arguments, all the files  in  the  archive
	   are printed.

       q   Quick  append;  Historically, add the files member... to the end of
	   archive, without checking for replacement.

	   The modifiers a, b, and i do not affect this operation; new members
	   are always placed at the end of the archive.

	   The modifier v makes ar list each file as it is appended.

	   Since  the  point  of this operation is speed, the archive's symbol
	   table index is not updated, even if it already existed; you can use
	   ar s or ranlib explicitly to update the symbol table index.

	   However,  too  many	different systems assume quick append rebuilds
	   the index, so GNU ar implements q as a synonym for r.

       r   Insert the files member... into archive  (with  replacement).  This
	   operation  differs  from  q in that any previously existing members
	   are deleted if their names match those being added.

	   If one of the files named in member... does not exist, ar  displays
	   an  error  message,	and leaves undisturbed any existing members of
	   the archive matching that name.

	   By default, new members are added at the end of the file;  but  you
	   may	use one of the modifiers a, b, or i to request placement rela‐
	   tive to some existing member.

	   The modifier v used with this operation elicits a  line  of	output
	   for	each  file  inserted,  along with one of the letters a or r to
	   indicate whether the file was appended (no old member  deleted)  or
	   replaced.

       t   Display  a  table  listing the contents of archive, or those of the
	   files listed in member... that are present in  the  archive.	  Nor‐
	   mally  only	the  member name is shown; if you also want to see the
	   modes (permissions), timestamp, owner, group,  and  size,  you  can
	   request that by also specifying the v modifier.

	   If  you  do	not  specify  a	 member,  all files in the archive are
	   listed.

	   If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in  an
	   archive  (say  b.a), ar t b.a fie lists only the first instance; to
	   see them all, you must ask for a complete listing---in our example,
	   ar t b.a.

       x   Extract members (named member) from the archive.  You can use the v
	   modifier with this operation, to request that ar list each name  as
	   it extracts it.

	   If  you  do	not  specify  a	 member,  all files in the archive are
	   extracted.

       A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter,  to
       specify variations on an operation's behavior:

       a   Add	new files after an existing member of the archive.  If you use
	   the modifier a, the name of an  existing  archive  member  must  be
	   present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification.

       b   Add new files before an existing member of the archive.  If you use
	   the modifier b, the name of an  existing  archive  member  must  be
	   present  as	the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
	   (same as i).

       c   Create the archive.	The specified archive is always created if  it
	   did not exist, when you request an update.  But a warning is issued
	   unless you specify in advance that you  expect  to  create  it,  by
	   using this modifier.

       f   Truncate  names  in	the archive.  GNU ar will normally permit file
	   names of any length.	 This will cause it to create  archives	 which
	   are	not compatible with the native ar program on some systems.  If
	   this is a concern, the f modifier may  be  used  to	truncate  file
	   names when putting them in the archive.

       i   Insert  new files before an existing member of the archive.	If you
	   use the modifier i, the name of an existing archive member must  be
	   present  as	the relpos argument, before the archive specification.
	   (same as b).

       l   This modifier is accepted but not used.

       N   Uses the count parameter.  This  is	used  if  there	 are  multiple
	   entries  in	the  archive  with  the	 same name.  Extract or delete
	   instance count of the given name from the archive.

       o   Preserve the original dates of members when	extracting  them.   If
	   you	do not specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive
	   are stamped with the time of extraction.

       P   Use the full path name when matching names in the archive.  GNU  ar
	   can	not create an archive with a full path name (such archives are
	   not POSIX complaint), but other archive creators can.  This	option
	   will	 cause	GNU ar to match file names using a complete path name,
	   which can be convenient when extracting a single file from  an  ar‐
	   chive created by another tool.

       s   Write  an object-file index into the archive, or update an existing
	   one, even if no other change is made to the archive.	 You  may  use
	   this modifier flag either with any operation, or alone.  Running ar
	   s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it.

       S   Do not generate an archive symbol table.  This can speed up	build‐
	   ing	a  large  library in several steps.  The resulting archive can
	   not be used with the linker.	 In order to build a symbol table, you
	   must	 omit  the S modifier on the last execution of ar, or you must
	   run ranlib on the archive.

       u   Normally, ar r... inserts all files listed into  the	 archive.   If
	   you	would like to insert only those of the files you list that are
	   newer than existing members of the same names, use  this  modifier.
	   The	u  modifier is allowed only for the operation r (replace).  In
	   particular, the combination qu is not allowed, since	 checking  the
	   timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation q.

       v   This	 modifier  requests the verbose version of an operation.  Many
	   operations display additional information, such as  filenames  pro‐
	   cessed, when the modifier v is appended.

       V   This modifier shows the version number of ar.

       ar ignores an initial option spelt -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX.
       The behaviour produced by this option is the default for	 GNU  ar.   ar
       does  not  support  any of the other -X options; in particular, it does
       not support -X32 which is the default for AIX ar.

       @file
	   Read command-line options from file.	 The options read are inserted
	   in  place of the original @file option.  If file does not exist, or
	   cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and  not
	   removed.

	   Options  in file are separated by whitespace.  A whitespace charac‐
	   ter may be included in an option by surrounding the	entire	option
	   in  either  single  or  double  quotes.  Any character (including a
	   backslash) may  be  included	 by  prefixing	the  character	to  be
	   included  with a backslash.	The file may itself contain additional
	   @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.

SEE ALSO
       nm(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995,  1996,  1997,  1998,	 1999,
       2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission  is  granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version  1.1  or
       any  later  version  published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
       Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with	no  Back-Cover
       Texts.	A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
       Free Documentation License".

binutils-2.17.50.0.6-26.el5	  2013-10-01				 AR(1)
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