From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 2439 invoked from network); 24 Feb 2023 12:45:48 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (2600:3c01:e000:146::1) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 24 Feb 2023 12:45:48 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F4084317A; Fri, 24 Feb 2023 22:45:41 +1000 (AEST) Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 797044313D for ; Fri, 24 Feb 2023 22:45:32 +1000 (AEST) X-Envelope-From: arnold@skeeve.com Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id 31OCjIme015322 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Fri, 24 Feb 2023 05:45:18 -0700 Received: (from arnold@localhost) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id 31OCjGrb015310; Fri, 24 Feb 2023 05:45:16 -0700 From: arnold@skeeve.com Message-Id: <202302241245.31OCjGrb015310@freefriends.org> X-Authentication-Warning: frenzy.freefriends.org: arnold set sender to arnold@skeeve.com using -f Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2023 05:45:16 -0700 To: paul.winalski@gmail.com, clemc@ccc.com References: In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 7/5/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID-Hash: CXGNKMN5B4MDLMGP3T3SFL7W7MWTMSTT X-Message-ID-Hash: CXGNKMN5B4MDLMGP3T3SFL7W7MWTMSTT X-MailFrom: arnold@skeeve.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: tuhs@tuhs.org, segaloco@protonmail.com X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Origins of the SGS (System Generation Software) and COFF (Common Object File Format) List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Paul Winalski 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