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Re: ELF archiver string table
- From: Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>
- To: Rohit Arul Raj <rohitarulraj at gmail dot com>
- Cc: binutils at sourceware dot org
- Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:27:08 +0100
- Subject: Re: ELF archiver string table
- References: <c356fd4e0706182148q70d6c406h89051e9c71900cb3@mail.gmail.com> <c356fd4e0706182159x2d5cbc5do81565171bc4ae587@mail.gmail.com>
Hi Ramana,
I am working on archiver to work with ELF object files on windows.
Is there any reason why you are writing your own archiver rather than
using the 'ar' program ?
Some where i read that the archive string table member, for longer
names i.e. "//", in windows COFF or ELF archives, should be the third
member in the archive.
Presumably you mean that this restriction applies if you want to be
compatible with the archive format produced by other archivers.
Can somebody help me on these things
1. Why there is a restriction that string table member should be the
third member on windows?
Sorry, I was unaware that there was such a restriction. You could ask
on the Cygwin mailing list. There may be somebody there who knows more
about it.
Is this restriction mentioned in a publicly available document ? If so
then maybe you could point us at it ?
2. Can I place the string table member just after the symbol directory
entry?
I am beginning to suspect that I have not understood exactly what sort
of tool you are talking about, so perhaps you could provide more details.
If you are talking about a tool like the POSIX "ar" command then it may
interest you to know that the POSIX spec is fairly flexible. This is
from the POSIX.1-2001 specification for the ar command:
"The archive format is not described. It is recognized that
there are several known ar formats, which are not compatible.
The ar utility is included, however, to allow creation of
archives that are intended for use only on one machine. The
archive is specified as a file, and it can be moved as a file.
This does allow an archive to be moved from one machine to
another machine that uses the same implementation of ar."
Cheers
Nick