AIX Version 4.3 Differences Guide

symbols exported with svc3264 are assigned a storage-mapping class,
XMC_SVC3264. The existing flags and options -T, -D, -S, -bD, -bS, -bmaxdata,
-bmaxstack, -bpD, and -bpT will accept 64-bit values as arguments. The 64-bit
values are passed to the binder in the respective binder subcommands,
regardless of the mode. The binder reports errors for used values that are too
large for 32-bit mode. Depending on the options specified, some values are never
used and do not result in an error.
3.3.5 Archiver
The AIX 4.3 the ar command handles the archiving of 64-bit XCOFF object
modules in addition to the current 32-bit object modules. An archive file in AIX 4.2
supports only a single global symbol table to reference the symbols contained in
all object-file modules within the archive. To support the two formats of object
files, it is important that the symbols of 64-bit objects be distinguishable from
those of 32-bit objects. This is not an issue for the old (pre-AIX 4.3) archive file
format since 64-bit modules are not stored in these archives. For the AIX 4.3
archive format, however, there are two global symbol tables: one for 32-bit object
symbols and one for 64-bit object symbols. The ar command is able to recognize
each type of object file and store its symbols in the appropriate table.
The ar command maintains compatibility with the previous archive file format. If
given an archive file of the old format, ar still adds, deletes, reorders, and lists
members without altering the format of the archive file except in two cases: when
the user explicitly requests conversion to the AIX 4.3 format by using the -o
option, or when the user adds a 64-bit object to the archive. For the latter case, a
64-bit object cannot be handled by the old-format archive, so conversion is
required. A mechanism is provided for ar to refuse the 64-bit object instead of
converting the archive format.
When creating a new archive, the 4.3 ar command automatically uses the new
format. For files that are not XCOFF objects of either type, ar processes them as
usual. If such files are added to a nonexisting archive, the new format is used in
creation. If ar is given an old-format archive, it is not reformatted (unless the user
requests it). The new maximum size of an archive has increased from (10 11 - 1)
to (10 19 - 1) bytes.
A new flag has been added, -X, which requires an argument of either 32, 64, or
32_64. This flag indicates to ar whether to accept only 32-bit objects or only
64-bit objects (in addition to any non-object files, which are always valid) or both.
If both -X32 and -X64 are specified, ar treats it as if -X32_64 were specified and
accept both object types. If only one of the options is specified, ar ignores all
object files in the archive that are not of the specified type. If such objects are
specified on the command line, an error message is issued, but other acceptable
objects are still processed. If the -X option is given with an unrecognized
argument, an error message is printed with the usage statement, and ar exits.
A new environment variable, OBJECT_MODE, is recognized by ar to determine
the XCOFF file type(s) acceptable for processing. The values of
OBJECT_MODE=32, OBEJECT_MODE=64, and OBJECT_MODE=32_64 all
have the equivalent function of their -X flag counterparts. If both the environment
variable and the -X flag are specified, the flag will take precedence over the
environment variable. If no -X flag is given and OBJECT_MODE is unset or is set
to an unrecognized value, 32-bit mode is used.
64 AIX Version 4.3 Differences Guide