ELF archiver string table

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Ramana,

> I am working on archiver to work with ELF object files on windows.

Is there any reason why you are writing your own archiver rather than 
using the 'ar' program ?

> Some where i read that the archive string table member, for longer
> names i.e. "//", in windows COFF or ELF archives, should be the third
> member in the archive.

Presumably you mean that this restriction applies if you want to be 
compatible with the archive format produced by other archivers.

> Can somebody help me on these things
> 1. Why there is a restriction that string table member should be the
> third member on windows?

Sorry, I was unaware that there was such a restriction.  You could ask 
on the Cygwin mailing list.  There may be somebody there who knows more 
about it.

Is this restriction mentioned in a publicly available document ?  If so 
then maybe you could point us at it ?


> 2. Can I place the string table member just after the symbol directory 
> entry?

I am beginning to suspect that I have not understood exactly what sort 
of tool you are talking about, so perhaps you could provide more details.

If you are talking about a tool like the POSIX "ar" command then it may 
interest you to know that the POSIX spec is fairly flexible.  This is 
from the POSIX.1-2001 specification for the ar command:

   "The archive format is not described. It is recognized that
    there are several known ar formats, which are not compatible.
    The ar utility is included, however, to allow creation of
    archives that are intended for use only on one machine. The
    archive is specified as a file, and it can be moved as a file.
    This does allow an archive to be moved from one machine to
    another machine that uses the same implementation of ar."

Cheers
   Nick