Questions about *.a files on windows

[hzp]

I downloaded strawberry pearl and I was looking through the library files, they are in .a files which according to google is a unix archive file type?

I have seen them in use in other places as well and I want to learn more about them, but I don't have unix running

How can I go about opening this types of files? To look at their contents

Thank you

 

[Simon Bridge]

unix archive files can have any suffix, but the usual one is ".ar"
the .a files are likely "static libraries", sort of program fragments made from .o (object code) files.
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/static-libraries.html

To learn more about how UNIX does things, but without the expense, you could consider solaris or some form of linux.

 

[hzp]

unix archive files can have any suffix, but the usual one is ".ar"
the .a files are likely "static libraries", sort of program fragments made from .o (object code) files.
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/static-libraries.html

To learn more about how UNIX does things, but without the expense, you could consider solaris or some form of linux.

Thank you for the reply. There are other files I am interested in - they have a different header when I open them in a hex editor. For example the lib files
have "!<arch>./ ", and these particular files have variations on "ARCH000..1..ý..á", all beginning ARCH000, is this some kind of custom archive?

 

[jtbell]

The .lib files may be "dynamic libraries" as opposed to the "static libraries" that Simon mentioned.

 

[hzp]

The .lib files may be "dynamic libraries" as opposed to the "static libraries" that Simon mentioned.

Oh okay but my interests are the differences between these two files that have the same extension but seem to be different

The extension is .a

 

[gsal]

Well...I just googled "strawberry perl" is a Perl environment for Windows (downloaded and installed for the heck of it).

But (wikipedia) Perl was invented for Unix back in 1987...so, for they to provide you with as UNIX experience as possible on Windows, they have packaged a few things in your download package, including a minimalistic "unix-like" envrionment called MinGW (refer to installation directory C:\perl\c\i686-w64-mingw32\bin) and a bunch of unix utilities including the command "ar".

So, if you launch your perl command line, you actually have access to the "ar" command (you may need to specify full path to it) and you should be able to inspect one of those *.a file with command "ar tv filename.a" ...I did

If looks like the contents inside some of those *.a files is nothing else but *.dll files.

Anyway, read up on UNIX command "ar" to learn about *.a files.

Alternately, I seems that winzip-like Windows utility IZArc can handl *.a files, if that is easier...did not try this.
.

 

[hzp]

Well...I just googled "strawberry perl" is a Perl environment for Windows (downloaded and installed for the heck of it).

But (wikipedia) Perl was invented for Unix back in 1987...so, for they to provide you with as UNIX experience as possible on Windows, they have packaged a few things in your download package, including a minimalistic "unix-like" envrionment called MinGW (refer to installation directory C:\perl\c\i686-w64-mingw32\bin) and a bunch of unix utilities including the command "ar".

So, if you launch your perl command line, you actually have access to the "ar" command (you may need to specify full path to it) and you should be able to inspect one of those *.a file with command "ar tv filename.a" ...I did

If looks like the contents inside some of those *.a files is nothing else but *.dll files.

Anyway, read up on UNIX command "ar" to learn about *.a files.

Alternately, I seems that winzip-like Windows utility IZArc can handl *.a files, if that is easier...did not try this.
.

Yes this works for the first type of *.a files which seems to be the standard but these other *.a files the format is not recognized. The files I mentioned earlier with the same extension but different headers

Basically I'm trying to figure out if anyone has any knowledge of these different types of *.a files

 

[gsal]

Maybe you should attach the files so people can inspect them by themselves

 

[hzp]

Maybe you should attach the files so people can inspect them by themselves

Here you go buddy

 

[gsal]

Hhhhmmm...the heading sure does not match the specified " !<arch> " for the "ar" format.

Another google search seems to reveal that somebody is doing something on purpose that is not supported by any official tool...like packing certain things into games, obfuscating, compressing, etc., and making difficult to retrieve...I am not a gamer, so, I don't know these things...but read up on these two links:

zenhax thread

QuickBMS script shows the "ARCH000" that your file has.

 

[hzp]

Hhhhmmm...the heading sure does not match the specified " !<arch> " for the "ar" format.

Another google search seems to reveal that somebody is doing something on purpose that is not supported by any official tool...like packing certain things into games, obfuscating, compressing, etc., and making difficult to retrieve...I am not a gamer, so, I don't know these things...but read up on these two links:

zenhax thread

QuickBMS script shows the "ARCH000" that your file has.

Yes, you're exactly right! This is from the resource folder of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Thank you for the information