How to open a code or text file online
Three steps, a few seconds, no software.
Open your .A file
Drop it on the box, choose it from your device, or paste the text straight in.
View it instantly
Your .A file opens neatly formatted with line numbers.
Search, copy or download
Search the text, jump to any line, then copy what you need or download a clean copy.
What is a .A file?
Plain text that programs, servers and people write every day.
A .a file is a static library used on Unix, Linux, and macOS. It is an ar-format archive of compiled object files that the linker copies into your program at build time. You do not open it like a document - inspect it with "ar t lib.a" (list members) or "nm lib.a" (list symbols). A small number of Ada compilers also use .a for source code; if the file is plain text, that is the case.
Programs that open .A files
| Full name | Unix/Linux Static Library (ar archive) |
|---|---|
| Developer | Unix lineage (ar archiver); GNU binutils on Linux |
| First released | ar archive format from early Unix (1970s); standard static-library extension on Unix/Linux/macOS |
| Category | Text & Code |
| MIME type | application/x-archive |
| Signature | 21 3C 61 72 63 68 3E 0A "!\n" - ar archive signature |
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Frequently asked questions
Is my .A file uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read and highlighted for you.
Why do some characters look wrong (é, ł)?
That usually means the file was saved in one encoding and opened in another. We detect UTF-8, UTF-16 and the Windows-1250/1252 code pages automatically and show which one was used.
Can it handle huge log files?
Yes, up to 50 MB. Only the lines on screen are drawn, so scrolling stays smooth. Syntax colours are switched off for files over 1.5 MB to keep things fast.
How do the log level filters work?
We find levels like ERROR, WARN, INFO and DEBUG on each line. Lines without a level, such as stack traces, stay with the entry above them, so filtering to errors keeps the full trace.
Can I edit the file?
This is a viewer. To change code, download it or copy it into your editor. Converting encodings and line endings is planned.
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