ar(1)
NAME
ar - maintain portable archive or library
SYNOPSIS
/usr/ccs/bin/ar -d [-Vv] archive file...
/usr/ccs/bin/ar -m [-abiVv] [posname] archive file...
/usr/ccs/bin/ar -p [-sVv] archive [file...]
/usr/ccs/bin/ar -q [-cVv] archive file...
/usr/ccs/bin/ar -r [-abciuVv] [posname] archive file...
/usr/ccs/bin/ar -t [-sVv] archive [file...]
/usr/ccs/bin/ar -x [-CsTVv] archive [file...]
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar -d [-Vv] archive file...
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar -m [-abiVv] [posname] archive file...
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar -p [-sVv] archive [file...]
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar -q [-cVv] archive file...
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar -r [-abciuVv] [posname] archive file...
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar -t [-sVv] archive [file...]
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar -x [-CsTVv] archive [file...]
DESCRIPTION
The ar utility maintains groups of files combined into a
single archive file. Its main use is to create and update
library files. However, it can be used for any similar pur-
pose. The magic string and the file headers used by ar con-
sist of printable ASCII characters. If an archive is com-
posed of printable files, the entire archive is printable.
When ar creates an archive, it creates headers in a format
that is portable across all machines. The portable archive
format and structure are described in detail in ar(3HEAD).
The archive symbol table (described in ar(3HEAD)) is used by
the link editor ld(1) to effect multiple passes over
libraries of object files in an efficient manner. An archive
symbol table is only created and maintained by ar when there
is at least one object file in the archive. The archive sym-
bol table is in a specially named file that is always the
first file in the archive. This file is never mentioned or
accessible to the user. Whenever the ar command is used to
create or update the contents of such an archive, the symbol
table is rebuilt. The -s option described below will force
the symbol table to be rebuilt.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a Positions new files in archive after the file named by
the posname operand.
-b Positions new files in archive before the file named
by the posname operand.
-c Suppresses the diagnostic message that is written to
standard error by default when archive is created.
-C Prevents extracted files from replacing like-named
files in the file system. This option is useful when
-T is also used to prevent truncated file names from
replacing files with the same prefix.
-d Deletes one or more files from archive.
-i Positions new files in archive before the file named
by the posname operand (equivalent to -b).
-m Moves files. If -a, -b, or -i with the posname operand
are specified, moves files to the new position; other-
wise, moves files to the end of archive.
-p Prints the contents of files in archive to standard
output. If no files are specified, the contents of all
files in archive will be written in the order of the
archive.
-q Quickly appends files to the end of archive. Position-
ing options -a, -b, and -i are invalid. The command
does not check whether the added files are already in
archive. This option is useful to avoid quadratic
behavior when creating a large archive piece-by-piece.
-r Replaces or adds files in archive. If archive does not
exist, a new archive file will be created and a diag-
nostic message will be written to standard error
(unless the -c option is specified). If no files are
specified and the archive exists, the results are
undefined. Files that replace existing files will not
change the order of the archive. If the -u option is
used with the -r option, then only those files with
dates of modification later than the archive files are
replaced. If the -a, -b, or -i option is used, then
the posname argument must be present and specifies
that new files are to be placed after (-a) or before
(-b or -i) posname; otherwise the new files are placed
at the end.
-s Forces the regeneration of the archive symbol table
even if ar is not invoked with an option that will
modify the archive contents. This command is useful to
restore the archive symbol table after the strip(1)
command has been used on the archive.
-t Prints a table of contents of archive. The files
specified by the file operands will be included in the
written list. If no file operands are specified, all
files in archive will be included in the order of the
archive.
-T Allows file name truncation of extracted files whose
archive names are longer than the file system can sup-
port. By default, extracting a file with a name that
is too long is an error; a diagnostic message will be
written and the file will not be extracted.
-u Updates older files. When used with the -r option,
files within archive will be replaced only if the
corresponding file has a modification time that is at
least as new as the modification time of the file
within archive.
-V Prints its version number on standard error.
/usr/ccs/bin/ar
-v Gives verbose output. When used with the option char-
acters -d, -r, or -x, writes a detailed file-by-file
description of the archive creation and the consti-
tuent files, and maintenance activity. When used with
-p, writes the name of the file to the standard output
before writing the file itself to the standard output.
When used with -t, includes a long listing of informa-
tion about the files within the archive. When used
with -x, prints the filename preceding each extrac-
tion. When writing to an archive, a message is written
to the standard error.
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar
-v Same as /usr/ccs/bin/ar version, except when writing
to an archive, no message is written to the standard
error.
-x Extracts the files named by the file operands from
archive. The contents of archive will not be changed.
If no file operands are given, all files in archive
will be extracted. If the file name of a file
extracted from archive is longer than that supported
in the directory to which it is being extracted, the
results are undefined. The modification time of each
file extracted will be set to the time file is
extracted from archive.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
archive
A path name of the archive file.
file A path name. Only the last component will be used when
comparing against the names of files in the archive.
If two or more file operands have the same last path
name component ( basename(1)), the results are
unspecified. The implementation's archive format will
not truncate valid file names of files added to or
replaced in the archive.
posname
The name of a file in the archive file, used for rela-
tive positioning; see options -m and -r.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
variables that affect the execution of ar: LANG, LC_ALL,
LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_TIME, and NLSPATH.
TMPDIR
Determine the pathname that overrides the default
directory for temporary files, if any.
TZ Determine the timezone used to calculate date and time
strings written by ar -tv. If TZ is unset or null, an
unspecified default timezone shall be used.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
/usr/ccs/bin/ar
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWbtool |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
/usr/xpg4/bin/ar
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWxcu4 |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Standard |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
basename(1), cc(1B), cpio(1), ld(1), lorder(1), strip(1),
tar(1), ar(3HEAD), a.out(4), attributes(5), environ(5),
standards(5)
NOTES
If the same file is mentioned twice in an argument list, it
may be put in the archive twice.
By convention, archives are suffixed with the characters .a.
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