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RANLIB(5)                   BSD File Formats Manual                  RANLIB(5)

NAME
     ranlib -- archive (library) table-of-contents format

SYNOPSIS
     #include <mach-o/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" or "__.SYMDEF SORTED".  If
     the archive does not have multiple members that define symbol then "__.SYMDEF SORTED" should be used
     and the table of contents should be sorted by name.

     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.

SEE ALSO
     ar(1), ranlib(1)

Darwin                         November 16, 2001                        Darwin