2.9BSD/usr/man/cat5/ar.5

AR(5)               UNIX Programmer's Manual                AR(5)

NAME
     ar - archive (library) file format

SYNOPSIS
     #include <ar.h>

DESCRIPTION
     The archive command _a_r is used to combine several files into
     one.  Archives are used mainly as libraries to be searched
     by the link-editor _l_d.

     A file produced by _a_r has a magic number at the start, fol-
     lowed by the constituent files, each preceded by a file
     header.  The magic number and header layout as described in
     the include file are:

          #define ARMAG 0177545
          struct  ar_hdr {
                  char  ar_name[14];
                  long  ar_date;
                  char  ar_uid;
                  char  ar_gid;
                  int   ar_mode;
                  long  ar_size;
          };

     The name is a null-terminated string; the date is in the
     form of _t_i_m_e(2); the user ID and group ID are numbers; the
     mode is a bit pattern per _c_h_m_o_d(2); the size is counted in
     bytes.

     Each file begins on a word boundary; a null byte is inserted
     between files if necessary.  Nevertheless the size given
     reflects the actual size of the file exclusive of padding.

     Notice there is no provision for empty areas in an archive
     file.

SEE ALSO
     ar(1), ld(1), nm(1)

BUGS
     Coding user and group IDs as characters is a botch.

Printed 4/30/83                                                 1