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I know that object files(.o) are always relocatable,

what about .a and .so files?

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A .a file is just an archive of other files. Typically those are .o files, to which you already know the answer. They don't have to be though - they don't have to be object code at all in fact - they can literally be any files you like.

A .so file has to be relocatable to work as it has to be able to be loaded at different addresses in different processes depending on what address is available at runtime.

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So .a file is not ELF format,why can nm still deal with it? –  linux Jul 13 '11 at 14:06
Because it has been taught how to read them... –  TomH Jul 13 '11 at 14:43
What format is ar using? –  linux Jul 13 '11 at 15:34
The ar archive format ;-) –  TomH Jul 13 '11 at 15:52
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