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From: David Chisnall <theraven@theravensnest.org>
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Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 12:43:32 +0100
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To: pete <petechou@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: BSD archive file formats
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Hi Pete. =20

The end of the man page says:

>      This manual page documents the ar(1) archive formats used by the =
4.4BSD
>      and UNIX SVR4 operating system releases.

I think it's probably safe to assume that the 4.4BSD format was dropped =
at some indeterminate point in the past, probably when we moved from =
a.out to ELF format binaries.  If the tools currently shipped in the =
base system are not producing them, then support is probably not =
important - people can always install GNU binutils from ports if it is =
for some legacy software.

David

On 3 Aug 2012, at 12:36, pete wrote:

> Hi folks,
>=20
> I'm working on archive file format support in MCLinker project.
>=20
> GNU variant archive format is supported in MCLinker now. And from =
FreeBSD
> man pages, I can find there are some differences between BSD and GNU
> variants. However, when I try to check BSD variant on freebsd9 (i386), =
I
> can only find GNU variant archive files. And if using "ar" to make an
> archive file on freebsd9, I still get a GNU variant one.
>=20
> So, I would like to ask if BSD variant supported/existing in BSD =
system. Or
> I missed something in configuring or others?
>=20
> I'm new to BSD. Any information will be helpful!
>=20
> Thanks,
> Pete
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