I have an archive file generated by a xilinx archiver using:
arm-xilinx-linux-gnueabi-ar -rs mylib.a
Looking inside of it using ar -t mylib.a
only shows a collection of .o files. But the 's' option is supposed to add the index file to facilitate linkage. What does the index file look like?
The archive symbol table is usually named / or // or __.SYMDEF and is typically the first entry in the archive, from
https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ar&sektion=5 section Special Archive Members. I'll take libz.a from my system and I can see:
$ hexdump -C libz.a| head -n 60
00000000 21 3c 61 72 63 68 3e 0a 2f 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 |!<arch>./ |
00000010 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 30 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 | 0 |
00000020 20 20 20 20 30 20 20 20 20 20 30 20 20 20 20 20 | 0 0 |
00000030 30 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 31 36 38 34 20 20 20 20 |0 1684 |
00000040 20 20 60 0a 00 00 00 69 00 00 06 d8 00 00 06 d8 | `....i........|
00000050 00 00 06 d8 00 00 06 d8 00 00 13 1c 00 00 13 1c |................|
00000060 00 00 13 1c 00 00 13 1c 00 00 13 1c 00 00 13 1c |................|
00000070 00 00 13 1c 00 00 13 1c 00 00 48 18 00 00 48 18 |..........H...H.|
The first entry is / with 1684 bytes. I can then extract the index file and "show" it to you. The index file "looks" like the following:
$ dd if=libz.a bs=1 skip=68 count=1684 status=none | hexdump -e '"%_c"'
\0*
i\0*
006330\0*
006330\0*
006330\0*
006330\0*
023034\0*
023034\0*
023034\0*
023034\0*
023034\0*
023034\0*
023034\0*
023034\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
H030\0*
236334\0*
236334\0*
236334\0*
3158\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0*
331t\0001,310\0001,310\0001;004\0001;004\0001;004\0001;004\0001;004\0001;004\0001;004\0001;004\0001t030\0001t030\0001t030\0001t030\0001t030\0001t030\0001177004\0001177004\0001177004\00012100\00012100\0001222034\0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001230 \0001275,\0001275,\0001275,\0001275,\0001275,\0001275,\0001275,\0001275,\0001337`\0001337`\0001337`\0001337`\0001337`\0001337`\0001337`\0001337`\0001337`adler32_z\0adler32\0adler32_combine\0adler32_combine64\0get_crc_table\0crc32_z\0crc32\0crc32_combine64\0crc32_combine\0crc32_combine_gen64\0crc32_combine_gen\0crc32_combine_op\0deflateSetDictionary\0deflateGetDictionary\0deflateResetKe*
p\0deflateReset\0deflateSetHeader\0deflatePending\0deflatePrime\0deflateTune\0deflateBound\0deflate\0deflateParams\0deflateEnd\0deflateInit2_\0deflateInit_\0deflateCopy\0deflate_copyright\0inflateBackInit_\0inflateBack\0inflateBackEnd\0inflate_fast\0inflateResetKe*
p\0inflateReset\0inflateReset2\0inflateInit2_\0inflateInit_\0inflatePrime\0inflate\0inflateEnd\0inflateGetDictionary\0inflateSetDictionary\0inflateGetHeader\0inflateSync\0inflateSyncPoint\0inflateCopy\0inflateUndermine\0inflateValidate\0inflateMark\0inflateCodesUsed\0inflate_table\0inflate_copyright\0_length_code\0_dist_code\0_tr_init\0_tr_stored_block\0_tr_flush_bits\0_tr_align\0_tr_flush_block\0_tr_tal*
y\0zlibVersion\0zlibCompileFlags\0zEr*
or\0z_er*
msg\0zcal*
oc\0zcfre*
\0compres*
2\0compres*
\0compres*
Bound\0uncompres*
2\0uncompres*
\0gzclose\0gzopen\0gzopen64\0gzdopen\0gzbuf*
er\0gzrewind\0gzse*
k64\0gzse*
k\0gztel*
64\0gztel*
\0gzof*
set64\0gzof*
set\0gzeof\0gzer*
or\0gzclearer*
\0gz_er*
or\0gz_intmax\0gzread\0gzfread\0gzgetc\0gzgetc_\0gzungetc\0gzgets\0gzdirect\0gzclose_r\0gzwrite\0gzfwrite\0gzputc\0gzputs\0gzvprintf\0gzprintf\0gzflush\0gzsetparams\0gzclose_w\0*
That said, I do not find the "look like" very usefull.