Does anyone use ar(1) anymore?

[Doug Gwyn <gwyn>]

> Why doesn't anyone use ar anymore?

Because there are at least 5 different "ar" archive formats in common
use.  As of UNIX System V Release 2 and 4.2BSD, the latest formats are
more-or-less compatible (the main difference, apart from object library
symbol tables, is that member names are /-terminated on SVR2 and space-
terminated on 4.2BSD) and support portable completely text archives.

If everyone had a common version of a recent "ar", it would be the most
convenient way to package sources for distribution.  Other alternatives
include the ASCII-header version of "cpio", which not everyone has either.

P.S.  It would be nice if the 4.2BSD "ar" would support /-terminated
member names in addition to space-terminated ones.