5 ranlib

ranlib [--plugin name] [-DhHvVt] archive

ranlib generates an index to the contents of an archive and stores it in the archive. The index lists each symbol defined by a member of an archive that is a relocatable object file.

You may use ‘nm -s’ or ‘nm --print-armap’ to list this index.

An archive with such an index speeds up linking to the library and allows routines in the library to call each other without regard to their placement in the archive.

The GNU ranlib program is another form of GNU ar; running ranlib is completely equivalent to executing ‘ar -s’. See ar.

-h

-H

--help

Show usage information for ranlib.

-v

-V

--version

Show the version number of ranlib.

-D

Operate in deterministic mode. The symbol map archive member’s header will show zero for the UID, GID, and timestamp. When this option is used, multiple runs will produce identical output files.

If binutils was configured with --enable-deterministic-archives, then this mode is on by default. It can be disabled with the ‘-U’ option, described below.

-t

Update the timestamp of the symbol map of an archive.

-U

Do not operate in deterministic mode. This is the inverse of the ‘-D’ option, above: the archive index will get actual UID, GID, timestamp, and file mode values.

If binutils was configured without --enable-deterministic-archives, then this mode is on by default.