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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-14T22:30:52+00:00

Just now I found that static libraries in *nix systems, in other words *.a

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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.

  1. What about static libraries(*.lib files) in windows? Which format are they in?

  2. I found an article (archived copy 1, archived copy 2) which explains *.lib file structure. But Where can I find “Official” specifications of *.lib file structure/format?

  3. 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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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I found that *.LIB file uses the ar file format.

    Official Specifications: Section 7. “Archive (Library) File Format” of Microsoft Portable Executable and Common Object File Format Specification describes this format.

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