How do I get version number from a static library?

Question

I have a .a file for a library I'm linking to an iOS application. How do I know the version number of the library? I don't need to do this programmatically, I just need to get it manually once.

Answer 1

There is no common theme on how to encode a version number into a static library.

Sometimes there is none present at all. Sometimes that is done using a header that belongs to that library. Sometimes it is done using a function that returns such information. In some cases that static library is part of a pseudo framework which contains a plist that might contain a correct version number.

Remember, a static library by itself is not much more than a bunch of object files put into a file archive. There is hardly any additional information, not to speak of metadata.