Which format does static library (.lib) files use? Where can I find "Official" specifications of .

Posted by claws on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by claws
Published on 2010-03-03T13:21:01Z Indexed on 2010/03/31 17:33 UTC
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Filed under:

static-libraries

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gcc

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visual-studio

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mingw

Just now I found that static libraries in *nix systems, in other words *.a libraries are nothing but archives of relocatables(*.o files) in ar fromat.

What about static libraries(*.lib files) in windows? Which format are they in?
I found an article: http://www.microsoft.com/msj/0498/hood0498.aspx which explains *.lib file structure. But Where can I find "Official" specifications of *.lib file structure/format?
Other than ar.exe of mingw is there any tool from Microsoft which extracts relocatable objects of *.lib & *.a files?

EDIT:

I wonder why I'm unable to get to this question. If there are no official specifications. Then how does the compiler ('linker' to be more correct) writers work with *.LIB files?

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