README FOR AR: THE ARCHIVER

AUTHOR: Gregory Pietsch

INTRODUCTION

The ar utility can be used to create and maintain groups of files combined
into an archive. Once an archive has been created, new files can be added,
and existing files can be extracted, deleted, or replaced. If an archive
consists entirely of printable files, the entire archive shall be printable.

The format of the archive is the same as the format of 4.4 BSD archives.  It
has varied on different Unixes, and the GNU ar format is different.

Gregory Pietsch originally wrote this as part of a binutils for a FreeDOS C
compiler.  He then abandoned the project, but bits and pieces of it may be
useful.  Gregory's email address is gpietsch@comcast.net.

HELP TEXT

The help text in the file help.txt should be a sufficient description of the
options to the ar utility.  The only difference is that the -s option is
accepted but it does not do anything; the reason for this is that I (GKP) have 
no idea what archive symbol tables look like.  GNU just treats it as a special
file.

COMPILING:

This program has been successfuly compiled under GCC with Cygwin using the
following commands:

        ./configure;make;make install

It has also been compiled under OpenWatcom 1.9. The config.h file may need to
be modified.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER:

Copyright (C) 2020 Gregory Pietsch

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA.
