Which format does static library (.lib) files use? Where can I find "Official" specifications of .

Posted by claws on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by claws
Published on 2010-03-03T13:21:01Z Indexed on 2010/03/31 17:33 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 286

Filed under:

static-libraries

|

gcc

|

visual-studio

|

mingw

Just now I found that static libraries in *nix systems, in other words *.a libraries are nothing but archives of relocatables(*.o files) in ar fromat.

What about static libraries(*.lib files) in windows? Which format are they in?
I found an article: http://www.microsoft.com/msj/0498/hood0498.aspx which explains *.lib file structure. But Where can I find "Official" specifications of *.lib file structure/format?
Other than ar.exe of mingw is there any tool from Microsoft which extracts relocatable objects of *.lib & *.a files?

EDIT:

I wonder why I'm unable to get to this question. If there are no official specifications. Then how does the compiler ('linker' to be more correct) writers work with *.LIB files?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about static-libraries

Weak-linking with static libraries

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have declared an external function with a GCC weak attribute in a .c file: extern int weakFunction( ) __attribute__ ((weak)); Compiled object file has weakFunction defined as a weak symbol. Output of nm: 1791: w weakFunction I am calling the weak defined function as follows: if (weakFunction… >>> More
Size of static libraries generated by XCode

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a project tree in XCode that looks like this: AppProject depends on ObjcWrapper that in turn depends on PureCppLib. ObjcWrapper and PureCppLib are static library projects. Combined, all sources barely reach 15k lines of code, and, as expected, the size of resulting binary is about 750Kb in… >>> More
Using Unit Tests While Developing Static Libraries in Obj-C

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm developing a static library in Obj-C for a CocoaTouch project. I've added unit testing to my Xcode project by using the built in OCUnit framework. I can run tests successfully upon building the project and everything looks good. However I'm a little confused about something. Part of what the… >>> More
cpptask ordering of static libraries in gcc command line

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
How do I force cpptask to move the static libraries to the end on arg list issued to the compiler? Here is the clause I am using <cpptasks:cc description="appname" subsystem="console" objdir="obj" outfile="dist/app_test"> <compiler refid="testsslcc" /> … >>> More
two static libraries

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I am currently providing a static library using vs2008. I am in the process of building my static library. However, since I am using another static library is there a way that then i package this as a single library. The reason here is that they will be calling functions in my library that depend… >>> More

Related posts about gcc

alias gcc='gcc -fpermissive' or modifying ./configure script

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I am compiling quite big project from source. The compilation always ends with: error: invalid conversion from ‘const char*’ to ‘char*’ [-fpermissive] I have already compiled this project one year ago. So I know a solution to this. Actualy I found more solutions: Adding a typecast to appropriate… >>> More
Changes in gcc/persistence of optimization flags gcc/C

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Just curious. Using gcc/gdb under Ubuntu 9.10. Reading a C book that also often gives the disassembly of the object file. When reading in January, my disassembly looks a lot like the book's; now, it's quite different - possibly more optimized (I notice some re-arrangements in the assembly code now… >>> More
gcc 4.5 installation problem under ubuntu

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I tried to install gcc 4.5 on ubuntu 10.04 but failed. Here is a compile error that I don't know how to solve. Is there anyone successfully install the latest gcc on ubuntu? Following is my steps and the error message, I'd like to know where is the problem.... Step1: download these files: gcc-core-4… >>> More
not able to use g++ from Fedora

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
$ yum list | grep gcc arm-gp2x-linux-gcc.i686 4.1.2-11.fc12 @fedora arm-gp2x-linux-gcc-c++.i686 4.1.2-11.fc12 @fedora gcc.i686 4.4.3-4.fc12 @updates libgcc.i686 … >>> More
Yesterday's broken codebase hunt me back

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need a fun oky. I just love this openmoko hardware and hacking into it. Please could somebody help me to compile qemu.I 'm so sad and I want to compile qemu and it required the GCC3.x and then I downloaded gcc 3.2 but when I configure it and build it, it gives a very sad error message. G_FOR_TARGET="… >>> More