NAME
ranlib —
archive (library) table-of-contents
format
SYNOPSIS
#include
<ranlib.h>
DESCRIPTION
The archive table-of-contents command
ranlib creates a table of contents for archives,
containing object files, to be used by the link-editor
ld(1). It operates on archives
created with the utility ar(1).
The ranlib function prepends a new file to
the archive which has three separate parts. The first part is a standard
archive header, which has a special name field,
“__.SYMDEF”.
The second part is a long followed by a list of ranlib structures. The long is the size, in bytes, of the list of ranlib structures. Each of the ranlib structures consists of a zero based offset into the next section (a string table of symbols) and an offset from the beginning of the archive to the start of the archive file which defines the symbol. The actual number of ranlib structures is this number divided by the size of an individual ranlib structure.
The third part is a long followed by a string table. The long is the size, in bytes, of the string table.