A File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
Extension .a (UNIX), .lib (Windows)
Type Static Library
Binary Format Yes
Text Format No
Compression Typically not compressed
MIME Type application/x-archive
Usable in Linking Yes
Contains Metadata Yes
Index Included Yes
Support for All Languages Depends on compiler used to produce it
Compiled Yes
Directly Executable No
Requires Linking Yes
Platform-specific Yes
Portable No
Usage Embedding code/libraries in executables
Creation Tools ar, libtool
Commonly Used with gcc, clang
Compatibility Specific to compiler and platform
Typical File Size Varies, often larger than shared libraries