AR(1)

📦 version 2.45.1, in arch rolling

🌸 ar — create, modify, and extract from archives 🌸

okay bestie, gather round — this is the ar page from GNU Development Tools, manual slot AR(1). It's giving "librarian but make it binary" and honestly? iconic. Let's go 💅

✨ NAME ✨

ar — create, modify, and extract from archives 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ar [-X32_64] [-]p[mod] [--plugin name] [--target bfdname] [--output
dirname] [--record-libdeps libdeps] [--thin] [relpos] [count] archive
[member...]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So the GNU ar program creates, modifies, and extracts from archives. And what even is an archive, you ask? It's a single file holding a whole collection of other files, in a structure that makes it possible to retrieve the original individual files back out. Those individual files are called members of the archive. Cute, right? 🫶

The original files' contents, mode (permissions), timestamp, owner, and group are preserved in the archive, and can be restored on extraction. no cap, it really does keep all of that 💖

GNU ar can maintain archives whose members have names of any length. BUT — depending on how ar is configured on your system, a limit on member-name length may be imposed for compatibility with archive formats maintained with other tools. If it exists, the limit is often 15 characters (typical of formats related to a.out) or 16 characters (typical of formats related to coff). iykyk 🙈

ar is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are most often used as libraries holding commonly needed subroutines. Since libraries often will depend on other libraries, ar can also record the dependencies of a library when the --record-libdeps option is specified. very "my library has a library" of it ✨

ar creates an index to the symbols defined in relocatable object modules in the archive when you specify the modifier s. Once created, this index is updated in the archive whenever ar makes a change to its contents (save for the q update operation — yeah, that one's the exception, remember that 🧚). An archive with such an index speeds up linking to the library, and allows routines in the library to call each other without regard to their placement in the archive. obsessed, honestly.

You may use nm -s or nm --print-armap to list this index table. If an archive lacks the table, another form of ar called ranlib can be used to add just the table. slay, a whole separate little guy for one job 💀

GNU ar can optionally create a thin archive, which contains a symbol index and references to the original copies of the member files of the archive. This is useful for building libraries for use within a local build tree, where the relocatable objects are expected to remain available, and copying the contents of each object would only waste time and space. eco-friendly queen behavior 🌈

An archive can either be thin or it can be normal. It cannot be both at the same time. Once an archive is created its format cannot be changed without first deleting it and then creating a new archive in its place. pick a lane bestie, and commit 😭

Thin archives are also flattened, so that adding one thin archive to another thin archive does not nest it, as would happen with a normal archive. Instead the elements of the first archive are added individually to the second archive. no nesting dolls here 🎀

The paths to the elements of the archive are stored relative to the archive itself. noted 📌

GNU ar is designed to be compatible with two different facilities. You can control its activity using command-line options, like the different varieties of ar on Unix systems; or, if you specify the single command-line option -M, you can control it with a script supplied via standard input, like the MRI "librarian" program. two eras of ar in one body, main character energy 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

GNU ar allows you to mix the operation code p and modifier flags mod in any order, within the first command-line argument. freedom!! 🦋

If you wish, you may begin the first command-line argument with a dash. (yes, both ways work, you're welcome 💅)

The p keyletter specifies what operation to execute; it may be any of the following, but you must specify only one of them:

  • d — Delete modules from the archive. Specify the names of modules to be deleted as member...; the archive is untouched if you specify no files to delete.

If you specify the v modifier, ar lists each module as it is deleted. bye bestie, we'll remember you 😭

  • m — Use this operation to move members in an archive.

The ordering of members in an archive can make a difference in how programs are linked using the library, if a symbol is defined in more than one member. important!

If no modifiers are used with "m", any members you name in the member arguments are moved to the end of the archive; you can use the a, b, or i modifiers to move them to a specified place instead. rearranging the group chat ✨

  • p — Print the specified members of the archive, to the standard output file. If the v modifier is specified, show the member name before copying its contents to standard output.

If you specify no member arguments, all the files in the archive are printed. the whole thing, unhinged but valid 🙈

  • q — Quick append; Historically, add the files member... to the end of archive, without checking for replacement.

The modifiers a, b, and i do not affect this operation; new members are always placed at the end of the archive.

The modifier v makes ar list each file as it is appended.

Since the point of this operation is speed, implementations of ar have the option of not updating the archive's symbol table if one exists. Too many different systems however assume that symbol tables are always up-to-date, so GNU ar will rebuild the table even with a quick append. doing the extra work anyway, voluntary queen 💖

Note — GNU ar treats the command qs as a synonym for r — replacing already existing files in the archive and appending new ones at the end. plot twist 📖
  • r — Insert the files member... into archive (with replacement). This operation differs from q in that any previously existing members are deleted if their names match those being added. out with the old 💀

If one of the files named in member... does not exist, ar displays an error message, and leaves undisturbed any existing members of the archive matching that name. no partial chaos, we respect the archive 🫶

By default, new members are added at the end of the file; but you may use one of the modifiers a, b, or i to request placement relative to some existing member.

The modifier v used with this operation elicits a line of output for each file inserted, along with one of the letters a or r to indicate whether the file was appended (no old member deleted) or replaced. a or r, that's the whole personality test 🌸

  • s — Add an index to the archive, or update it if it already exists. Note this command is an exception to the rule that there can only be one command letter, as it is possible to use it as either a command or a modifier. In either case it does the same thing. dual role icon ⭐
  • t — Display a table listing the contents of archive, or those of the files listed in member... that are present in the archive. Normally only the member name is shown, but if the modifier O is specified, then the corresponding offset of the member is also displayed. Finally, in order to see the modes (permissions), timestamp, owner, group, and size the v modifier should be included. details girlies, this is your moment 💅

If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are listed.

If there is more than one file with the same name (say, fie) in an archive (say b.a), ar t b.a fie lists only the first instance; to see them all, you must ask for a complete listing — in our example, ar t b.a. only the first one!! don't get got 🙈

  • x — Extract members (named member) from the archive. You can use the v modifier with this operation, to request that ar list each name as it extracts it.

If you do not specify a member, all files in the archive are extracted.

Files cannot be extracted from a thin archive, and there are restrictions on extracting from archives created with P: The paths must not be absolute, may not contain "..", and any subdirectories in the paths must exist. If it is desired to avoid these restrictions then used the --output option to specify an output directory.

fr fr, read that twice 🫶

A number of modifiers (mod) may immediately follow the p keyletter, to specify variations on an operation's behavior:

  • a — Add new files after an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier a, the name of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification. after, bestie ✨
  • b — Add new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier b, the name of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification. (same as i). before, bestie ✨
  • c — Create the archive. The specified archive is always created if it did not exist, when you request an update. But a warning is issued unless you specify in advance that you expect to create it, by using this modifier. heads up, it'll side-eye you with a warning if you skip this 🙈
  • D — Operate in deterministic mode. When adding files and the archive index use zero for UIDs, GIDs, timestamps, and use consistent file modes for all files. When this option is used, if ar is used with identical options and identical input files, multiple runs will create identical output files regardless of the input files' owners, groups, file modes, or modification times. reproducible build queen!! 🔥

If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then this mode is on by default. It can be disabled with the U modifier, below.

  • f — Truncate names in the archive. GNU ar will normally permit file names of any length. This will cause it to create archives which are not compatible with the native ar program on some systems. If this is a concern, the f modifier may be used to truncate file names when putting them in the archive. ✂️ short names for compatibility, you do you
  • i — Insert new files before an existing member of the archive. If you use the modifier i, the name of an existing archive member must be present as the relpos argument, before the archive specification. (same as b). literally the same as b, twins 💜
  • l — Specify dependencies of this library. The dependencies must immediately follow this option character, must use the same syntax as the linker command line, and must be specified within a single argument. I.e., if multiple items are needed, they must be quoted to form a single command line argument. For example:
l "-L/usr/local/lib -lmydep1 -lmydep2"

quote it or it falls apart, no cap 🎀

  • N — Uses the count parameter. This is used if there are multiple entries in the archive with the same name. Extract or delete instance count of the given name from the archive. pick your fighter 🔢
  • o — Preserve the original dates of members when extracting them. If you do not specify this modifier, files extracted from the archive are stamped with the time of extraction. nostalgia mode vs. right-now mode 🕰️
  • O — Display member offsets inside the archive. Use together with the t option. offsets!!! numbers!!! 💅

okay and that's where part 1 wraps, bestie — more coming, don't go anywhere 🦋

  • P — use the full path name when matching or storing names in the archive. Okay so heads up bestie: archives made with full path names are not POSIX compliant, and honestly they might not play nice with anything other than up-to-date GNU tools 😬. Modifying those archives with GNU ar without P will strip the full path names right out — unless the archive is a thin archive. Also note: P is lowkey useful when you're adding files to a thin archive, because r without P totally ignores the path when deciding which element to replace. So like:
ar rcST archive.a subdir/file1 subdir/file2 file1

…will result in the first "subdir/file1" being replaced with "file1" from the current directory 🌸. Adding P prevents that replacement. Slay.

  • s — write an object-file index into the archive, or update one that already exists, even if literally no other change is made 💅. You can use this modifier with any operation, or all by itself. Running ar s on an archive is equivalent to running ranlib on it. Iconic.
  • S — do not generate an archive symbol table 🚫. This can speed up building a large library in several steps. The catch? The resulting archive can not be used with the linker 😭. To actually build a symbol table, you must omit the S modifier on the last execution of ar, or you must run ranlib on the archive. No cap.
  • T — deprecated alias for --thin. T is not recommended because in many ar implementations T means something completely different, as specified by X/Open System Interface. So yeah, proceed with caution 🙈.
  • u — normally, ar r... inserts all files listed into the archive. If you would like to insert only those of the files you list that are newer than existing members of the same names, use this modifier ✨. The u modifier is allowed only for the operation r (replace). In particular, the combination qu is not allowed, since checking the timestamps would lose any speed advantage from the operation q.
Note — if an archive has been created in a deterministic manner, eg. via the use of the D modifier, then replacement will always happen and the u modifier will be ineffective 💀.
  • U — do not operate in deterministic mode. This is the inverse of the D modifier above: added files and the archive index will get their actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values 👑.

This is the default unless binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives.

  • v — this modifier requests the verbose version of an operation 🗣️. Many operations display additional information, such as filenames processed, when the modifier v is appended. Very "tell me everything" of it.
  • V — this modifier shows the version number of ar ⭐.

The ar program also supports some command-line options which are neither modifiers nor actions, but which do change its behaviour in specific ways 🦋:

  • --help — displays the list of command-line options supported by ar and then exits. Your little cheat sheet 💖.
  • --version — displays the version information of ar and then exits.
  • -X32_64 — ar ignores an initial option spelled -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX 🙃. The behaviour produced by this option is the default for GNU ar. ar does not support any of the other -X options; in particular, it does not support -X32 which is the default for AIX ar. So don't come at it with AIX energy, it's not gonna work.
  • --plugin name — the optional command-line switch --plugin name causes ar to load the plugin called name which adds support for more file formats, including object files with link-time optimization information 🧚.

This option is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin support enabled.

If --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled, then ar iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins in alphabetic order and the first plugin that claims the object in question is used.

Please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld's -plugin option 🙈. In order to make ar use the linker plugin it must be copied into the ${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. For GCC based compilations the linker plugin is called liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0. For Clang based compilations it is called LLVMgold.so. The GCC plugin is always backwards compatible with earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one. Literally just copy the newest one and you're golden 💅.
  • --target target — the optional command-line switch --target bfdname specifies that the archive members are in an object code format different from your system's default format. See

(yes, that sentence really does just end at "See" — that's how it's written, bestie, not me being lazy 💀🙈)

  • --output dirname — the --output option can be used to specify a path to a directory into which archive members should be extracted 🎀. If this option is not specified then the current directory will be used.
Note — although the presence of this option does imply a x extraction operation, that option must still be included on the command line. Like, you still gotta say it out loud, no shortcuts.
  • --record-libdeps libdeps — the --record-libdeps option is identical to the l modifier, just handled in long form 🌈.
  • --thin — make the specified archive a thin archive ✨. If it already exists and is a regular archive, the existing members must be present in the same directory as archive.
  • @ file — read command-line options from file 📄. The options read are inserted in place of the original @file option. If file does not exist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not removed.

Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the entire option in either single or double quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to be included with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional @file options; any such options will be processed recursively 🌀. It's giving inception, honestly.

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

nm(1), ranlib(1), and the Info entries for binutils. Go read them, they're literally so good 🫶.

Copyright (c) 1991-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License" 💜.

And that's a wrap, bestie 🎀✨ this little masterpiece is from binutils-2.45.1, dated 2026-01-23, and it lives in the AR(1) chapter of the manual. Now go archive something iconic 💅👑

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