From: arnold@skeeve.com
To: paul.winalski@gmail.com, clemc@ccc.com
Cc: tuhs@tuhs.org, segaloco@protonmail.com
Subject: [TUHS] Re: Origins of the SGS (System Generation Software) and COFF (Common Object File Format)
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2023 05:45:16 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <202302241245.31OCjGrb015310@freefriends.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CABH=_VRWFcpSPuC3CL9K5XO9AEYnOucV4k5+rp=koTEjn-RSFA@mail.gmail.com>
Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com> wrote:
> I can't think of any reason why ar(1) would care about the file format
> or internal contents of any of the modules it archives. ar(1) is a
> general archiving tool and can archive anything. It happens that the
> designers of ld(1) decided to use ar(1) to provide searchable object
> file libraries.
>
> ranlib(1) is a different matter. In order to index global symbols it
> has to understand the object file format(s) of the modules it is
> indexing. ranlib(1) most certainly would have to be taught to
> understand COFF. But not ar(1).
You are correct that ar(1) was originally just an archiver. However,
the System V people built ranlib into it; the .a file for a library
has a sort of hidden extra member that is the list of symbols in
the archive.
With tar and cpio, ar apparently fell out of use as a general
archiver, and today it's only used for libraries of relocatable
object files.
Arnold
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-02-24 12:45 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 24+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-02-22 20:16 [TUHS] " segaloco via TUHS
2023-02-22 22:20 ` [TUHS] " Clem Cole
2023-02-23 0:17 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-02-23 6:30 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2023-02-23 14:25 ` KenUnix
2023-02-23 19:37 ` Warner Losh
2023-02-24 17:01 ` Rich Salz
2023-02-23 16:49 ` Paul Winalski
2023-02-23 18:38 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-02-23 20:40 ` Paul Winalski
2023-02-24 12:45 ` arnold [this message]
2023-02-24 13:13 ` Arno Griffioen via TUHS
2023-02-25 19:28 ` arnold
2023-02-25 19:34 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2023-02-24 14:01 ` Harald Arnesen
2023-02-25 2:07 ` Dave Horsfall
2023-02-25 15:30 ` Clem Cole
2023-02-25 17:29 ` Paul Winalski
2023-02-23 15:13 Noel Chiappa
2023-02-23 21:37 Paul Ruizendaal
2023-02-23 22:11 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-02-24 0:07 ` segaloco via TUHS
2023-02-25 20:14 Brian Walden
2023-02-26 15:51 Paul Winalski
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