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| -rw-r--r-- | lib/libarchive/libarchive-formats.5 | 21 |
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 12 deletions
diff --git a/lib/libarchive/libarchive-formats.5 b/lib/libarchive/libarchive-formats.5 index dcd45e8..52e2e36 100644 --- a/lib/libarchive/libarchive-formats.5 +++ b/lib/libarchive/libarchive-formats.5 @@ -236,20 +236,17 @@ compressed with the algorithm. Older zip compression algorithms are not supported. .Ss Archive (library) file format -The Unix archives (commonly created by the +The Unix archive format (commonly created by the .Xr ar 1 -archiver) are mainly used as libraries of object files intended to -be loaded using the link-editor +archiver) is a general-purpose format which is +used almost exclusively for object files to be +read by the link editor .Xr ld 1 . -Altough it is capable of creating archives for any purpose, -nowadays it is used only to create static libraries and -for other purpose, -.Xr tar 1 -is the prefered way. The ar format has never been standardised, -currently there exist two commonly used format, one is -the GNU variant derived from SVR4, the other is the -BSD format first appeared in 4.4BSD. -Libarchive provides read and write support for both two variants. +The ar format has never been standardised. +There are two common variants: +the GNU format derived from SVR4, +and the BSD format, which first appeared in 4.4BSD. +Libarchive provides read and write support for both variants. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr ar 1 , .Xr cpio 1 , |
