[TUHS] 1bsd compatible ar utility

[Will Senn via TUHS]

On 7/22/26 2:56 PM, segaloco via TUHS wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026 at 12:20, Will Senn via TUHS<tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I am working through a 1BSD installation on Research Unix V6.
>> The||cont.a archives use magic |0177545|, which stock V6 ar does not
>> understand. V7 appears to be able to, but on V6 it immediately dies with
>> |Bad system call|. Inspection shows references to later calls including
>> |access|and |ioctl|, so it appears to have been linked against a post-V6
>> libc. I came across some old emails talking about this and an nar
>> utility... Does anyone know where the source for this |nar|utility
>> lives, or of a V6-native |ar|that supports |0177545|archives?
>>
>> newoldar on the host works fine, too, but I'd rather not extract on the
>> host. I'm hoping to do this native. I'm working with a pristine v6
>> installed from tape on pdp 11/70 with split I/D and FPP (opensimh).
>>
>> 1BSD doesn't include an ar utility in the tarball on TUHS. Did folks not
>> do this from pure v6? or what?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Will
>>
> Both USG PG3 and PWB1 have copies of ar(I) featuring the NARMAG value of 0177545, they may prove useful.
>
> https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=USG_PG3/usr/source/cmd1/ar.c
> https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=PWB1/sys/source/s1/ar.c
>
> - Matt G.

Thanks, Matt,

I pulled the PWB1 |ar.c|, made a few small changes for stock V6 
compatibility (just enough for t and x support), and compiled it 
natively under V6. The resulting binary successfully lists and extracts 
the |0177545|1BSD archives.

So the archive problem is "solved". Much appreciated.

Will