.LIB File Format – Linker members

Windows COFF library

The first two members of a Windows library are both named /. Each is an index of the public symbols of every member, so the linker can find a symbol without reading the objects. The first exists for compatibility with old tools; Microsoft’s linker uses the second, which is sorted.

First linker member

  1. 0Number of symbols, big-endian4 bytes
  2. 4Offsets: the file offset of the member header defining each symbol, big-endian4 bytes each
  3. …String table: zero-terminated names, in the order of the offsetsvaries
The first linker member, a big-endian index.

Second linker member

  1. 0Number of members, little-endian4 bytes
  2. 4Member offsets: the file offset of each member header, little-endian4 bytes each
  3. …Number of symbols, little-endian4 bytes
  4. …Indices: for each symbol, its member’s 1-based number, little-endian2 bytes each
  5. …String table: zero-terminated names, sorted, in the order of the indicesvaries
The second linker member, a sorted little-endian index.