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@section Archives

@strong{Description}@*

An archive (or library) is just another BFD.  It has a symbol

table, although there's not much a user program will do with it.

The big difference between an archive BFD and an ordinary BFD

is that the archive doesn't have sections.  Instead it has a

chain of BFDs that are considered its contents.  These BFDs can

be manipulated like any other.  The BFDs contained in an

archive opened for reading will all be opened for reading.  You

may put either input or output BFDs into an archive opened for

output; they will be handled correctly when the archive is closed.

Use @code{bfd_openr_next_archived_file} to step through

the contents of an archive opened for input.  You don't

have to read the entire archive if you don't want

to!  Read it until you find what you want.

Archive contents of output BFDs are chained through the

@code{next} pointer in a BFD.  The first one is findable through

the @code{archive_head} slot of the archive.  Set it with

@code{bfd_set_archive_head} (q.v.).  A given BFD may be in only one

open output archive at a time.

As expected, the BFD archive code is more general than the

archive code of any given environment.  BFD archives may

contain files of different formats (e.g., a.out and coff) and

even different architectures.  You may even place archives

recursively into archives!

This can cause unexpected confusion, since some archive

formats are more expressive than others.  For instance, Intel

COFF archives can preserve long filenames; SunOS a.out archives

cannot.  If you move a file from the first to the second

format and back again, the filename may be truncated.

Likewise, different a.out environments have different

conventions as to how they truncate filenames, whether they

preserve directory names in filenames, etc.  When

interoperating with native tools, be sure your files are

homogeneous.

Beware: most of these formats do not react well to the

presence of spaces in filenames.  We do the best we can, but

can't always handle this case due to restrictions in the format of

archives.  Many Unix utilities are braindead in regards to

spaces and such in filenames anyway, so this shouldn't be much

of a restriction.

Archives are supported in BFD in @code{archive.c}.

@subsection Archive functions

@findex bfd_get_next_mapent

@subsubsection @code{bfd_get_next_mapent}

@strong{Synopsis}

@example

symindex bfd_get_next_mapent

   (bfd *abfd, symindex previous, carsym **sym);

@end example

@strong{Description}@*

Step through archive @var{abfd}'s symbol table (if it

has one).  Successively update @var{sym} with the next symbol's

information, returning that symbol's (internal) index into the

symbol table.

Supply @code{BFD_NO_MORE_SYMBOLS} as the @var{previous} entry to get

the first one; returns @code{BFD_NO_MORE_SYMBOLS} when you've already

got the last one.

A @code{carsym} is a canonical archive symbol.  The only

user-visible element is its name, a null-terminated string.

@findex bfd_set_archive_head

@subsubsection @code{bfd_set_archive_head}

@strong{Synopsis}

@example

bfd_boolean bfd_set_archive_head (bfd *output, bfd *new_head);

@end example

@strong{Description}@*

Set the head of the chain of

BFDs contained in the archive @var{output} to @var{new_head}.

@findex bfd_openr_next_archived_file

@subsubsection @code{bfd_openr_next_archived_file}

@strong{Synopsis}

@example

bfd *bfd_openr_next_archived_file (bfd *archive, bfd *previous);

@end example

@strong{Description}@*

Provided a BFD, @var{archive}, containing an archive and NULL, open

an input BFD on the first contained element and returns that.

Subsequent calls should pass

the archive and the previous return value to return a created

BFD to the next contained element. NULL is returned when there

are no more.