--help

Displays the list of command line options supported by ar and then exits.

--version

Displays the version information of ar and then exits.

-X32_64

ar ignores an initial option spelt -X32_64, for compatibility with AIX. The behaviour produced by this option is the default forGNU ar. ar does not support any of the other -X options; in particular, it does not support -X32 which is the default for AIXar.

--plugin

The optional command line switch --plugin name causes ar to load the plugin called name which adds support for more file formats,including object files with link-time optimization information.This option is only available if the toolchain has been built with plugin support enabled.If --plugin is not provided, but plugin support has been enabled then ar iterates over the files in ${libdir}/bfd-plugins inalphabetic order and the first plugin that claims the object in question is used.Please note that this plugin search directory is not the one used by ld's -plugin option. In order to make ar use the linkerplugin it must be copied into the ${libdir}/bfd-plugins directory. For GCC based compilations the linker plugin is calledliblto_plugin.so.0.0.0. For Clang based compilations it is called LLVMgold.so. The GCC plugin is always backwards compatiblewith earlier versions, so it is sufficient to just copy the newest one.

--target

The optional command line switch --target bfdname specifies that the archive members are in an object code format different fromyour system's default format. See@fileRead command-line options from file. The options read are inserted in place of the original @file option. If file does notexist, or cannot be read, then the option will be treated literally, and not removed.Options in file are separated by whitespace. A whitespace character may be included in an option by surrounding the entireoption in either single or double quotes. Any character (including a backslash) may be included by prefixing the character to beincluded with a backslash. The file may itself contain additional @file options; any such options will be processed recursively.