ARCHIVE (V) 3/15/72 ARCHIVE (V)
NAME archive (library) file format
DESCRIPTION The archive command ar is used to combine several
files into one. Archives are used mainly as li-
braries to be searched by the link-editor ld.
A file produced by ar has a "magic number" at the
start, followed by the constituent files, each
preceded by a file header. The magic number is
177555(8) (it was chosen to be unlikely to occur
anywhere else). The header of each file is 16
bytes long:
0-7
file name, null padded on the right
8-11
Modification time of the file
12
User ID of file owner
13
file mode
14-15
file size
If the file is an odd number of bytes long, it is
padded with a null byte, but the size in the
header is correct.
Notice there is no provision for empty areas in
an archive file.
SEE ALSO ar, ld