AR(5)								File Formats Manual							     AR(5)

NAME

       ar - archive (library) file format

SYNOPSIS

       #include <ar.h>

DESCRIPTION

       The  archive command ar combines several files into one.  Archives are mainly used as libraries of object files intended to be loaded using
       the link-editor ld(1).

       A file created with ar begins with the ``magic'' string "!<arch>
".  The rest of the archive is made up of objects, each of which is  com-
       posed  of  a header for a file, a possible file name, and the file contents.  The header is portable between machine architectures, and, if
       the file contents are printable, the archive is itself printable.

       The header is made up of six variable length ASCII fields, followed by a two character trailer.	The fields are the object name (16 charac-
       ters),  the  file last modification time (12 characters), the user and group id's (each 6 characters), the file mode (8 characters) and the
       file size (10 characters).  All numeric fields are in decimal, except for the file mode which is in octal.

       The modification time is the file st_mtime field, i.e., CUT seconds since the epoch.  The user and group  id's  are  the  file  st_uid  and
       st_gid  fields.	 The  file  mode  is the file st_mode field.  The file size is the file st_size field.	The two-byte trailer is the string
       "`
".

       Only the name field has any provision for overflow.  If any file name is more than 16 characters in length or contains an  embedded  space,
       the  string  "#1/"  followed by the ASCII length of the name is written in the name field.  The file size (stored in the archive header) is
       incremented by the length of the name.  The name is then written immediately following the archive header.

       Any unused characters in any of these fields are written as space characters.  If any fields are their particular maximum number of charac-
       ters in length, there will be no separation between the fields.

       Objects	in  the  archive  are  always  an even number of bytes long; files which are an odd number of bytes long are padded with a newline
       (``
'') character, although the size in the header does not reflect this.

SEE ALSO

       ar(1), stat(2)

HISTORY

       There have been at least four ar formats.  The first was denoted by the leading ``magic'' number 0177555 (stored as type int).	These  ar-
       chives  were  almost  certainly created on a 16-bit machine, and contain headers made up of five fields.  The fields are the object name (8
       characters), the file last modification time (type long), the user id (type char), the file mode  (type	char)  and  the  file  size  (type
       unsigned int).  Files were padded to an even number of bytes.

       The  second was denoted by the leading ``magic'' number 0177545 (stored as type int).  These archives may have been created on either 16 or
       32-bit machines, and contain headers made up of six fields.  The fields are the object name (14 characters),  the  file	last  modification
       time  (type  long), the user and group id's (each type char), the file mode (type int) and the file size (type long).  Files were padded to
       an even number of bytes.  For more information on converting from this format see arcv(8).

       The current archive format (without support for long character names and names with embedded spaces) was introduced in 4.0BSD.  The headers
       were the same as the current format, with the exception that names longer than 16 characters were truncated, and names with embedded spaces
       (and often trailing spaces) were not supported.	It has been extended for these reasons, as described above.  This format is under develop-
       ment.

COMPATIBILITY

       No  archive  format is currently specified by any standard.  AT&T System V UNIX has historically distributed archives in a different format
       from all of the above.

3rd Berkeley Distribution					September 24, 1993							     AR(5)