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
    archive.

    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
   archive 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
   processed, 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.

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

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002
    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".