Use ar to merge libraries?

[Andrew Begel]

Without using the MRI librarian compability commands, is there a way for
ar to merge .a files when building a new library? 
i.e.

ar cru libbar.a bar1.o bar2.o
ar cru libfoo.a libbar.a foo.o 

The result here is libfoo.a, which, if I had my way, would consist of
three .o's, bar1.o, bar2.o and foo.o. However, right now, this gives
*two* entries in libfoo.a, libbar.a and foo.o. Since libbar.a is now
nested inside libfoo.a, normal linking against libfoo.a of symbols
inside bar1.o and bar2.o won't work. 

Thanks,

Andrew