.\"	$NetBSD: ranlib.5,v 1.7 2017/07/03 21:30:59 wiz Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"     from: @(#)ranlib.5.5	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd June 6, 1993
.Dt RANLIB 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ranlib
.Nd a.out archive (library) table-of-contents format
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In ranlib.h
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The archive table-of-contents command
.Nm
creates a table of contents for archives, containing object files, to
be used by the link-editor
.Xr ld 1 .
It operates on archives created with the utility
.Xr ar 1 .
.Pp
The
.Nm
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".
.Pp
The second part is a
.Dq 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.
.Pp
The third part is a
.Dq long
followed by a string table.
The long is the size, in bytes of the string table.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ar 1 ,
.Xr ranlib 1
.Sh BUGS
The
.Tn <ranlib.h>
header file, and the
.Nm
manual page, do not describe the table-of-contents used by ELF systems, which
is that from the
.At V.4
ABI.