ARCHIVE(V) 9/10/73 ARCHIVE(V)





ARCHIVE(V)                   9/10/73                   ARCHIVE(V)







NAME

     ar - archive (library) file format



DESCRIPTION

     The archive command ar is used to combine several files into

     one.   Archives  are used mainly as libraries 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 (I), ld (I)



BUGS

     Names are only 8 characters, not 14.  More important,  there

     isn't  enough  room  to  store the proper mode, so ar always

     extracts in mode 666.
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