bsd man page for ranlib

RANLIB(1)						      General Commands Manual							 RANLIB(1)

NAME
       ranlib - table-of-contents for archive libraries

SYNOPSIS
       ranlib [-t] file ...

DESCRIPTION
       Ranlib  creates	a  table  of  external	references  for  archive  libraries,  normally	used by the loader, ld(1).  This table is is named
       ``__.SYMDEF'' and is prepended to the archive.  Files in the archive which are not executable and symbols which are  uninteresting  to  the
       loader are ignored.

       The options are as follows:

       -t     Set  the	modification time of the __.SYMDEF file.  This time is compared by the loader with the modification time of the archive to
	      verify that the table is up-to-date with respect to the archive.	If the modification time has been changed without  any	change	to
	      the  archive (for example, by a cp(1)), the -t option can be used to ``touch'' the modification time so that it appears that the ta-
	      ble is up-to-date.

FILES
       /tmp	     default temporary file directory

       ranlib.XXXXXX temporary file names

SEE ALSO
       ar(1), ld(1), lorder(1), nm(1), ranlib(5)

HISTORY
       A ranlib command appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

4.3 Berkeley Distribution					    May 9, 1991 							 RANLIB(1)