{
 "id": "archiver-format",
 "name": "Archiver Format",
 "category": "archive",
 "identifiers": {
  "extensions": [
   "a",
   "ar",
   "lbr",
   "lib"
  ],
  "mime": [
   "application/x-archive"
  ],
  "puid": [
   "fmt/1835"
  ],
  "wikidata": [
   "Q105854561"
  ],
  "magic": [
   {
    "offset": 0,
    "hex": "213c617263683e",
    "notes": "Archiver Format"
   }
  ],
  "signatures": [
   {
    "name": "Archiver Format",
    "sequences": [
     {
      "position": "bof",
      "offset": 0,
      "pattern": "213c617263683e"
     }
    ]
   }
  ]
 },
 "status": "writable",
 "summary": "Archiver Format (.ar) is a non-compressed archive format associated with the archiver utility for Unix-style operating systems. It has largely been replaced by .tar for general archiving use, but persists in use for specialized applications involving statically-linked libraries for development. The format has never been standardised with modern archives based on a common format with two main variants - BSD and System V (previously known as COFF). There are other known past variants such as V6, V7, AIX (small), AIX (big) and Coherent.",
 "tools": [
  {
   "name": "ar",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q300839",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "libarchive",
   "url": "https://libarchive.org/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true,
   "license": "2-clause BSD License",
   "open_source": true
  }
 ],
 "projects": [
  {
   "name": "PRONOM fmt/1835",
   "url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/fmt/1835",
   "kind": "format-doc"
  },
  {
   "name": "Wikidata Q105854561",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105854561",
   "kind": "wiki"
  },
  {
   "name": "File Formats Wiki",
   "url": "http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/AR",
   "kind": "wiki"
  }
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "sources": [
   "pronom",
   "wikidata"
  ]
 },
 "updated": "2026-10-20",
 "aliases": [],
 "structure": [],
 "parsers": [],
 "conversions": [],
 "samples": [],
 "claims": [],
 "verification": []
}