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Looks like it. There's [ar][1] and that's all I can find about it. [pax][2] is linked at the bottom, but is not required to understand the ar format.

[1]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xcu/ar.html

[2]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xcu/pax.html

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I think pax was more of a POSIX replacement for cpio and tar. While those three and ar all could be used to bundle files together into a single file, only ar had the special affinity with the linker as a way of bundling object files together into libraries. The others were more aimed at backing up directories to a tape drive, as the example on the pax man page shows.

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