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| <title>ar - create and maintain library archives</title> |
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| <h1>ar</h1> |
| <h4 align="right">create and maintain library archives</h4> |
| |
| <h2>Synopsis</h2> |
| |
| <pre> |
| ar [-][dprtx][cuv] <i>archive</i> [<i>file</i> ...] |
| </pre> |
| |
| <h2>Options</h2> |
| |
| <table> |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>-</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| The <b>-</b> is optional for introducing <tt>ar</tt> command-line |
| arguments; this is a POSIX requirement, and I've never seen anyone |
| use it.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>c</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| Don't print a diagnostic message to <i>stderr</i> when |
| <i>archive</i> is created.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>d</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| Delete <i>file(s)</i> from <i>archive</i>.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>p</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| Write the contents of the named <i>file(s)</i> to <i>stdout</i>. |
| If no <i>file(s)</i> are specified, all of the files in |
| <i>archive</i> are written in the order of the archive.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>r</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| Replace or add <i>file(s)</i> to the <i>archive</i>. This will |
| create <i>archive</i> if it doesn't already exist.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>t</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| Write the table of contents of <i>archive</i> to <i>stdout</i>. |
| If not <i>file(s)</i> are specified, list all of the files, |
| otherwise only list the specified files.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>u</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| Update older files. When used with the <b>r</b> option, files |
| within the archive are only replaced if <i>file</i> has a |
| modification date at least as new as the <i>file</i> already in |
| the archive.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>v</b></td> |
| <td valign="top">Give verbose output.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><b>x</b></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| Extract <i>file(s)</i> from the <i>archive</i>. If no |
| <i>file(s)</i> are specified, all of the files in <i>archive</i> |
| are extracted.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><i>archive</i></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| The pathname of an archive file.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| <tr> |
| <td valign="top"><i>file</i></td> |
| <td valign="top"> |
| One more more pathnames of object files; only the file name is |
| used when comparing against the names of files in the |
| archive.</td> |
| </tr> |
| |
| </table> |
| |
| <h2>Description</h2> |
| |
| <p>The <tt>ar</tt> utility creates and maintains groups of files |
| combined into a library. Once a library has been created, you can |
| add new files, and extract, delete, or replace existing files.</p> |
| |
| <h2>Exit status</h2> |
| |
| <p><tt>ar</tt> exits with one of the following values:</p> |
| |
| <table> |
| <tr><td valign="top">0</td> |
| <td valign="top">Successful completion.</td></tr> |
| <tr><td valign="top">> 0</td> |
| <td>An error occurred.</td></tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <h2>Bugs</h2> |
| |
| <p>No known bugs, but <em>please</em> read the comments in the code if |
| you want to use it in another application.</p> |
| |
| <h2>Comments</h2> |
| |
| <p>This is a POSIX 1003.2-1992 based <tt>ar</tt> command; it's not |
| 100% POSIX 1003.2 because POSIX specifies a file format for |
| <tt>ar</tt> archives. The BeOS <tt>ar</tt> produces library files |
| compatible (at least in theory <tt>:-)</tt>) with Metrowerks |
| CodeWarrior for PowerPC.</p> |
| |
| <p>This <tt>ar</tt> and its source code were written as a service to |
| the Be developer community, to make it easier for us to port UNIX |
| applications and libraries. The code was written from scratch, after |
| reverse-engineering the Metrowerks library and object file format |
| (mostly because the library/object file format documentation was |
| incorrect).</p> |
| |
| <p>If you find this useful, please |
| <a href="mailto:chrish@kagi.com">let me know</a>, and tell me what |
| you're working on. Be sure to include a URL for your homepage or your |
| product homepages for my |
| <a href="http://www.qnx.com/~chrish/Be/community/">Be Community</a> |
| pages.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you find any bugs, please try to fix them, and send me a context |
| diff (use <tt>diff -c original_file fixed_file</tt>) so I can include |
| your fixes in the next update. I <i>have</i> tested this, but these |
| things have a way of slipping though.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you'd like to know what other things I'm working on, take a look |
| at my <a href="http://www.qnx.com/~chrish/Be/software/">Be |
| Software</a> pages, and my |
| <a href="http://www.qnx.com/~chrish/Be/">Be Happy!</a> pages.</p> |
| |
| <h2>License</h2> |
| |
| <p>This program binary and its source code have been donated to the |
| BeOS Developer Community by Arcane Dragon Software free of charge. |
| You can do whatever you want with it.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you <em>really</em> want to show your appreciation, you could |
| always send me a gift of some sort; cool software you wrote, nice |
| pictures for my desktop, ZIP drive disks, RAM, hard drives, post |
| cards, a pointer to a really cool/useful/interesting web site, |
| an MPEG audio file of an interesting band (make sure you can give me |
| enough information to track down their CDs if I like it!), <i>etc.</i> |
| Send me some <a href="mailto:chrish@kagi.com">email</a> and I'll let you |
| know where to send it.</p> |
| |
| <p>But you don't have to do anything. Just write good BeOS software. |
| But you're already doing that, right?</p> |
| |
| <h2>Disclaimer</h2> |
| |
| <p>You use this at your own risk. I've tried to ensure that the code |
| is correct, but software usually has bugs. If <tt>ar</tt> destroys |
| your valuable data, formats your hard drive, kicks your cat, and lets |
| the air out of your tires, I'm not responsible for it. The code is |
| here, so you should feel fairly safe that there's nothing evil going |
| on.</p> |
| |
| <p>And, as I learned once again in December 1997, you really should |
| keep backups of everything. I only lost a day's work, but it was |
| still annoying, and it could've been much, much worse.</p> |
| |
| <h3>A word about the code</h3> |
| |
| <p>This code isn't meant to be the ultimate in efficiency or speed, |
| it's intended to be fairly easy to understand and maintain |
| (hopefully). I was also quite keen on having something that was |
| correct, without jumping through a lot of unnecessary hoops.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you think this code sucks, don't use it. You're already applying |
| this to your choice of operating system! <tt>:-)</tt></p> |
| |
| <h2>Versions</h2> |
| |
| <dl compact> |
| |
| <dt><strong>1.1 (April 18, 1998)</strong></dt> |
| <dd>Changes include: |
| <ul> |
| <li>Extract option (<b>x</b>) will preserve a file's mode bits |
| when overwriting an existing file (this may go away if it's |
| not POSIX behaviour).</li> |
| |
| <li>Extracted files will now have the proper file type.</li> |
| |
| <li>Removed attempt to use <i>umask()</i> to set newly created |
| archive's mode bits; apparently, I'm not sure how it |
| works and my POSIX manual isn't helping.</li> |
| |
| <li>Should be 100% endian-neutral now; using this on BeOS for |
| x86 is only useful if you're manipulating <em>PowerPC</em> |
| objects though. The <tt>ar</tt> in |
| <a href="http://www.ninemoons.com/GG/index.html">GeekGadgets</a> |
| should work fine for x86 objects/libraries.</li> |
| |
| <li>Updated the <tt>README.txt</tt> file; now it's got useful |
| information about building/using the POSIX ar.</li> |
| </ul></dd> |
| |
| <dt><strong>1.0 (January 13, 1998)</strong></dt> |
| <dd>Initial release.</dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <hr> |
| <p>Chris Herborth (<a href="mailto:chrish@qnx.com">chrish@qnx.com</a>)</p> |
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