Difference between tar and ar 693

Tristan ) Greetings. ) ) Quoth the GNU ar(1) man page: ) ) This description could apply equally well to tar. So why two separate ) programs and file formats? Is there something about the ar format which ) makes it particularly well-suited for making executable code libraries but ) not general-purpose archives? And likewise, is there something about the ) tar format which makes it unsuitable for executable code libraries?

You haven't read far enough into the manual page.

ar is considered a binary utility because archives of this sort are most often used as libraries holding commonly needed subroutines.

ar will create an index to the symbols defined in relocat- able object modules in the archive when you specify the modifier `s'. Once created, this index is updated in the archive whenever ar makes a change to its contents (save for the `q' update operation). An archive with such an index speeds up linking to the library, and allows rou- tines in the library to call each other without regard to their placement in the archive.

'ar' is (or used to be) used for making, for example, libc.a and libm.a

SaSW, Willem -- Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for any of the statements made in the above text. For all I know I might be drugged or something.. No I'm not paranoid. You all think I'm paranoid, don't you ! #EOT