What is a .ar file?

application/x-archive

The Unix ar archive (.ar/.a) is a simple concatenation format with a magic header and 60-byte member headers, used mainly for static libraries (libfoo.a) and Debian .deb packages. It stores files without compression.

How to use a .ar file

Use an example .ar archive to test ar/static-library tooling, member extraction, and .deb/ar parsers.

Download example .ar file

Unix ar ArchiveA Unix ar archive with three members — the simple format that backs static libraries (.a) and Debian packages (.deb). Hand-written to spec; for testing ar extractors and archive tooling.

Convert a .ar file to another format

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