NAME

       shtool-arx - GNU shtool ar(1) extensional command

SYNOPSIS

       shtool arx [-t|--trace] [-C|--command cmd] op archive file [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

       shtool arx is a wrapper around the archiving tool ar(1). It provides the ability to create
       archives out of existing archives, i.e., if one of file matches ""*.a"", the archive
       member files of file are used instead of file itself.

       The trick of this command is the automatic handling of archive members which is especially
       interesting if one wants to construct a (usually top-level) library archive out of pre-
       built sub-library archives (usually staying inside subdirs) in a large source tree. For
       GNU libtool based projects, a similar functionality is provided by GNU libtool internally,
       too.

OPTIONS

       The following command line options are available.

       -t, --trace
           Shows the actually involved shell commands.

       -C, --command cmd
           Set the used ar(1) command to cmd instead of just "ar" (searched in $PATH).

EXAMPLE

        #   Makefile
        AR=ar
        RANLIB=ranlib
          :
        OBJS=foo.o bar.o
        LIBS=baz/libbaz.a quux/libquux.a
          :
        libfoo.a: $(OBJS) $(LIBS)
            shtool arx -C $(AR) rc libfoo.a $(OBJS) $(LIBS)
            $(RANLIB) libfoo.a

HISTORY

       The GNU shtool arx command was originally written by Ralf S.  Engelschall
       <rse@engelschall.com> in 1999 for GNU shtool. It was prompted by need to build libraries
       out of sub-libraries inside the OSSP project.

SEE ALSO

       shtool(1), ar(1).