Using

The Free Software Foundation Inc. thanks The Nice Computer Company of Australia for loaning Dean Elsner to write the first (Vax) version of as for Project GNU. The proprietors, management and staff of TNCCA thank FSF for distracting the boss while they got some work done.

Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.

Overview

This manual is a user guide to the GNU assembler . This version of the manual describes configured to generate code for architectures.

Here is a brief summary of how to invoke . For details, see section Command-Line Options.

 [ -a[dhlns] ] [ -D ] [ -f ] [ --help ]
 [ -I dir ] [ -J ] [ -K ] [ -L ] [ -o objfile ]
 [ -R ] [ --statistics ] [ -v ] [ -version ] [ --version ]
 [ -W ] [ -w ] [ -x ] [ -Z ]
 [ -- | files ... ]

-a[dhlns]
Turn on listings, in any of a variety of ways:
-ad
omit debugging directives
-ah
include high-level source
-al
include assembly
-an
omit forms processing
-as
include symbols
You may combine these options; for example, use `-aln' for assembly listing without forms processing. By itself, `-a' defaults to `-ahls'---that is, all listings turned on.
-D
Ignored. This option is accepted for script compatibility with calls to other assemblers.
-f
"fast"---skip whitespace and comment preprocessing (assume source is compiler output).
--help
Print a summary of the command line options and exit.
-I dir
Add directory dir to the search list for .include directives.
-J
Don't warn about signed overflow.
-K
This option is accepted but has no effect on the family.
-L
Keep (in the symbol table) local symbols, starting with `L'.
-o objfile
Name the object-file output from objfile.
-R
Fold the data section into the text section.
--statistics
Print the maximum space (in bytes) and total time (in seconds) used by assembly.
-v
-version
Print the as version.
--version
Print the as version and exit.
-W
Suppress warning messages.
-w
Ignored.
-x
Ignored.
-Z
Generate an object file even after errors.
-- | files ...
Standard input, or source files to assemble.

Structure of this Manual

This manual is intended to describe what you need to know to use GNU . We cover the syntax expected in source files, including notation for symbols, constants, and expressions; the directives that understands; and of course how to invoke .

We also cover special features in the configuration of , including assembler directives.

On the other hand, this manual is not intended as an introduction to programming in assembly language--let alone programming in general! In a similar vein, we make no attempt to introduce the machine architecture; we do not describe the instruction set, standard mnemonics, registers or addressing modes that are standard to a particular architecture.

, the GNU Assembler

GNU as is really a family of assemblers. This manual describes , a member of that family which is configured for the architectures. If you use (or have used) the GNU assembler on one architecture, you should find a fairly similar environment when you use it on another architecture. Each version has much in common with the others, including object file formats, most assembler directives (often called pseudo-ops) and assembler syntax.

is primarily intended to assemble the output of the GNU C compiler for use by the linker . Nevertheless, we've tried to make assemble correctly everything that other assemblers for the same machine would assemble.

Unlike older assemblers, is designed to assemble a source program in one pass of the source file. This has a subtle impact on the .org directive (see section .org new-lc , fill).

Object File Formats

The GNU assembler can be configured to produce several alternative object file formats. For the most part, this does not affect how you write assembly language programs; but directives for debugging symbols are typically different in different file formats. See section Symbol Attributes. On the , is configured to produce format object files.

Command Line

After the program name , the command line may contain options and file names. Options may appear in any order, and may be before, after, or between file names. The order of file names is significant.

`--' (two hyphens) by itself names the standard input file explicitly, as one of the files for to assemble.

Except for `--' any command line argument that begins with a hyphen (`-') is an option. Each option changes the behavior of . No option changes the way another option works. An option is a `-' followed by one or more letters; the case of the letter is important. All options are optional.

Some options expect exactly one file name to follow them. The file name may either immediately follow the option's letter (compatible with older assemblers) or it may be the next command argument (GNU standard). These two command lines are equivalent:

 -o my-object-file.o mumble.s
 -omy-object-file.o mumble.s

Input Files

We use the phrase source program, abbreviated source, to describe the program input to one run of . The program may be in one or more files; how the source is partitioned into files doesn't change the meaning of the source.

The source program is a concatenation of the text in all the files, in the order specified.

Each time you run it assembles exactly one source program. The source program is made up of one or more files. (The standard input is also a file.)

You give a command line that has zero or more input file names. The input files are read (from left file name to right). A command line argument (in any position) that has no special meaning is taken to be an input file name.

If you give no file names it attempts to read one input file from the standard input, which is normally your terminal. You may have to type ctl-D to tell there is no more program to assemble.

Use `--' if you need to explicitly name the standard input file in your command line.

If the source is empty, produces a small, empty object file.

Filenames and Line-numbers

There are two ways of locating a line in the input file (or files) and either may be used in reporting error messages. One way refers to a line number in a physical file; the other refers to a line number in a "logical" file. See section Error and Warning Messages.

Physical files are those files named in the command line given to .

Logical files are simply names declared explicitly by assembler directives; they bear no relation to physical files. Logical file names help error messages reflect the original source file, when source is itself synthesized from other files. See section .app-file string.

Output (Object) File

Every time you run it produces an output file, which is your assembly language program translated into numbers. This file is the object file. Its default name is a.out. b.out when is configured for the Intel 80960. You can give it another name by using the -o option. Conventionally, object file names end with `.o'. The default name is used for historical reasons: older assemblers were capable of assembling self-contained programs directly into a runnable program. (For some formats, this isn't currently possible, but it can be done for the a.out format.)

The object file is meant for input to the linker . It contains assembled program code, information to help integrate the assembled program into a runnable file, and (optionally) symbolic information for the debugger.

Error and Warning Messages

may write warnings and error messages to the standard error file (usually your terminal). This should not happen when a compiler runs automatically. Warnings report an assumption made so that could keep assembling a flawed program; errors report a grave problem that stops the assembly.

Warning messages have the format

file_name:NNN:Warning Message Text

(where NNN is a line number). If a logical file name has been given (see section .app-file string) it is used for the filename, otherwise the name of the current input file is used. If a logical line number was given (see section .line line-number) then it is used to calculate the number printed, otherwise the actual line in the current source file is printed. The message text is intended to be self explanatory (in the grand Unix tradition).

Error messages have the format

file_name:NNN:FATAL:Error Message Text
The file name and line number are derived as for warning messages. The actual message text may be rather less explanatory because many of them aren't supposed to happen.

Command-Line Options

This chapter describes command-line options available in all versions of the GNU assembler; see section VAX Dependent Features, for options specific to the .

If you are invoking via the GNU C compiler (version 2), you can use the `-Wa' option to pass arguments through to the assembler. The assembler arguments must be separated from each other (and the `-Wa') by commas. For example:

gcc -c -g -O -Wa,-alh,-L file.c

emits a listing to standard output with high-level and assembly source.

Usually you do not need to use this `-Wa' mechanism, since many compiler command-line options are automatically passed to the assembler by the compiler. (You can call the GNU compiler driver with the `-v' option to see precisely what options it passes to each compilation pass, including the assembler.)

Enable Listings: -a[dhlns]

These options enable listing output from the assembler. By itself, `-a' requests high-level, assembly, and symbols listing. You can use other letters to select specific options for the list: `-ah' requests a high-level language listing, `-al' requests an output-program assembly listing, and `-as' requests a symbol table listing. High-level listings require that a compiler debugging option like `-g' be used, and that assembly listings (`-al') be requested also.

Use the `-ad' option to omit debugging directives from the listing.

Once you have specified one of these options, you can further control listing output and its appearance using the directives .list, .nolist, .psize, .eject, .title, and .sbttl. The `-an' option turns off all forms processing. If you do not request listing output with one of the `-a' options, the listing-control directives have no effect.

The letters after `-a' may be combined into one option, e.g., `-aln'.

-D

This option has no effect whatsoever, but it is accepted to make it more likely that scripts written for other assemblers also work with .

Work Faster: -f

`-f' should only be used when assembling programs written by a (trusted) compiler. `-f' stops the assembler from doing whitespace and comment preprocessing on the input file(s) before assembling them. See section Preprocessing.

Warning: if you use `-f' when the files actually need to be preprocessed (if they contain comments, for example), does not work correctly.

.include search path: -I path

Use this option to add a path to the list of directories searches for files specified in .include directives (see section .include "file"). You may use -I as many times as necessary to include a variety of paths. The current working directory is always searched first; after that, searches any `-I' directories in the same order as they were specified (left to right) on the command line.

Difference Tables: -K

On the family, this option is allowed, but has no effect. It is permitted for compatibility with the GNU assembler on other platforms, where it can be used to warn when the assembler alters the machine code generated for `.word' directives in difference tables. The family does not have the addressing limitations that sometimes lead to this alteration on other platforms.

Include Local Labels: -L

Labels beginning with `L' (upper case only) are called local labels. See section Symbol Names. Normally you do not see such labels when debugging, because they are intended for the use of programs (like compilers) that compose assembler programs, not for your notice. Normally both and discard such labels, so you do not normally debug with them.

This option tells to retain those `L...' symbols in the object file. Usually if you do this you also tell the linker to preserve symbols whose names begin with `L'.

By default, a local label is any label beginning with `L', but each target is allowed to redefine the local label prefix.

Name the Object File: -o

There is always one object file output when you run . By default it has the name `a.out'. `a.out'. You use this option (which takes exactly one filename) to give the object file a different name.

Whatever the object file is called, overwrites any existing file of the same name.

Join Data and Text Sections: -R

-R tells to write the object file as if all data-section data lives in the text section. This is only done at the very last moment: your binary data are the same, but data section parts are relocated differently. The data section part of your object file is zero bytes long because all its bytes are appended to the text section. (See section Sections and Relocation.)

When you specify -R it would be possible to generate shorter address displacements (because we do not have to cross between text and data section). We refrain from doing this simply for compatibility with older versions of . In future, -R may work this way.

Display Assembly Statistics: --statistics

Use `--statistics' to display two statistics about the resources used by : the maximum amount of space allocated during the assembly (in bytes), and the total execution time taken for the assembly (in CPU seconds).

Announce Version: -v

You can find out what version of as is running by including the option `-v' (which you can also spell as `-version') on the command line.

Suppress Warnings: -W

should never give a warning or error message when assembling compiler output. But programs written by people often cause to give a warning that a particular assumption was made. All such warnings are directed to the standard error file. If you use this option, no warnings are issued. This option only affects the warning messages: it does not change any particular of how assembles your file. Errors, which stop the assembly, are still reported.

Generate Object File in Spite of Errors: -Z

After an error message, normally produces no output. If for some reason you are interested in object file output even after gives an error message on your program, use the `-Z' option. If there are any errors, continues anyways, and writes an object file after a final warning message of the form `n errors, m warnings, generating bad object file.'

Syntax

This chapter describes the machine-independent syntax allowed in a source file. syntax is similar to what many other assemblers use; it is inspired by the BSD 4.2 assembler.

Preprocessing

The internal preprocessor:

It does not do macro processing, include file handling, or anything else you may get from your C compiler's preprocessor. You can do include file processing with the .include directive (see section .include "file"). You can use the GNU C compiler driver to get other "CPP" style preprocessing, by giving the input file a `.S' suffix. See section `Options Controlling the Kind of Output' in Using GNU CC.

Excess whitespace, comments, and character constants cannot be used in the portions of the input text that are not preprocessed.

If the first line of an input file is #NO_APP or if you use the `-f' option, whitespace and comments are not removed from the input file. Within an input file, you can ask for whitespace and comment removal in specific portions of the by putting a line that says #APP before the text that may contain whitespace or comments, and putting a line that says #NO_APP after this text. This feature is mainly intend to support asm statements in compilers whose output is otherwise free of comments and whitespace.

Whitespace

Whitespace is one or more blanks or tabs, in any order. Whitespace is used to separate symbols, and to make programs neater for people to read. Unless within character constants (see section Character Constants), any whitespace means the same as exactly one space.

Comments

There are two ways of rendering comments to . In both cases the comment is equivalent to one space.

Anything from `/*' through the next `*/' is a comment. This means you may not nest these comments.

/*
  The only way to include a newline ('\n') in a comment
  is to use this sort of comment.
*/

/* This sort of comment does not nest. */

Anything from the line comment character to the next newline is considered a comment and is ignored. The line comment character is see section VAX Dependent Features.

To be compatible with past assemblers, lines that begin with `#' have a special interpretation. Following the `#' should be an absolute expression (see section Expressions): the logical line number of the next line. Then a string (see section Strings) is allowed: if present it is a new logical file name. The rest of the line, if any, should be whitespace.

If the first non-whitespace characters on the line are not numeric, the line is ignored. (Just like a comment.)

                          # This is an ordinary comment.
# 42-6 "new_file_name"    # New logical file name
                          # This is logical line # 36.
This feature is deprecated, and may disappear from future versions of .

Symbols

A symbol is one or more characters chosen from the set of all letters (both upper and lower case), digits and the three characters `_.$'. No symbol may begin with a digit. Case is significant. There is no length limit: all characters are significant. Symbols are delimited by characters not in that set, or by the beginning of a file (since the source program must end with a newline, the end of a file is not a possible symbol delimiter). See section Symbols.

Statements

A statement ends at a newline character (`\n') or at a semicolon (`;'). The newline or semicolon is considered part of the preceding statement. Newlines and semicolons within character constants are an exception: they do not end statements.

It is an error to end any statement with end-of-file: the last character of any input file should be a newline.

You may write a statement on more than one line if you put a backslash (\) immediately in front of any newlines within the statement. When reads a backslashed newline both characters are ignored. You can even put backslashed newlines in the middle of symbol names without changing the meaning of your source program.

An empty statement is allowed, and may include whitespace. It is ignored.

A statement begins with zero or more labels, optionally followed by a key symbol which determines what kind of statement it is. The key symbol determines the syntax of the rest of the statement. If the symbol begins with a dot `.' then the statement is an assembler directive: typically valid for any computer. If the symbol begins with a letter the statement is an assembly language instruction: it assembles into a machine language instruction.

A label is a symbol immediately followed by a colon (:). Whitespace before a label or after a colon is permitted, but you may not have whitespace between a label's symbol and its colon. See section Labels.

label:     .directive    followed by something
another_label:           # This is an empty statement.
           instruction   operand_1, operand_2, ...

Constants

A constant is a number, written so that its value is known by inspection, without knowing any context. Like this:

.byte  74, 0112, 092, 0x4A, 0X4a, 'J, '\J # All the same value.
.ascii "Ring the bell\7"                  # A string constant.
.octa  0x123456789abcdef0123456789ABCDEF0 # A bignum.
.float 0f-314159265358979323846264338327\
95028841971.693993751E-40                 # - pi, a flonum.

Character Constants

There are two kinds of character constants. A character stands for one character in one byte and its value may be used in numeric expressions. String constants (properly called string literals) are potentially many bytes and their values may not be used in arithmetic expressions.

Strings

A string is written between double-quotes. It may contain double-quotes or null characters. The way to get special characters into a string is to escape these characters: precede them with a backslash `\' character. For example `\\' represents one backslash: the first \ is an escape which tells to interpret the second character literally as a backslash (which prevents from recognizing the second \ as an escape character). The complete list of escapes follows.

\b
Mnemonic for backspace; for ASCII this is octal code 010.
\f
Mnemonic for FormFeed; for ASCII this is octal code 014.
\n
Mnemonic for newline; for ASCII this is octal code 012.
\r
Mnemonic for carriage-Return; for ASCII this is octal code 015.
\t
Mnemonic for horizontal Tab; for ASCII this is octal code 011.
\ digit digit digit
An octal character code. The numeric code is 3 octal digits. For compatibility with other Unix systems, 8 and 9 are accepted as digits: for example, \008 has the value 010, and \009 the value 011.
\\
Represents one `\' character.
\"
Represents one `"' character. Needed in strings to represent this character, because an unescaped `"' would end the string.
\ anything-else
Any other character when escaped by \ gives a warning, but assembles as if the `\' was not present. The idea is that if you used an escape sequence you clearly didn't want the literal interpretation of the following character. However has no other interpretation, so knows it is giving you the wrong code and warns you of the fact.

Which characters are escapable, and what those escapes represent, varies widely among assemblers. The current set is what we think the BSD 4.2 assembler recognizes, and is a subset of what most C compilers recognize. If you are in doubt, do not use an escape sequence.

Characters

A single character may be written as a single quote immediately followed by that character. The same escapes apply to characters as to strings. So if you want to write the character backslash, you must write '\\ where the first \ escapes the second \. As you can see, the quote is an acute accent, not a grave accent. A newline (or semicolon `;') immediately following an acute accent is taken as a literal character and does not count as the end of a statement. The value of a character constant in a numeric expression is the machine's byte-wide code for that character. assumes your character code is ASCII: 'A means 65, 'B means 66, and so on.

Number Constants

distinguishes three kinds of numbers according to how they are stored in the target machine. Integers are numbers that would fit into an int in the C language. Bignums are integers, but they are stored in more than 32 bits. Flonums are floating point numbers, described below.

Integers

A binary integer is `0b' or `0B' followed by zero or more of the binary digits `01'.

An octal integer is `0' followed by zero or more of the octal digits (`01234567').

A decimal integer starts with a non-zero digit followed by zero or more digits (`0123456789').

A hexadecimal integer is `0x' or `0X' followed by one or more hexadecimal digits chosen from `0123456789abcdefABCDEF'.

Integers have the usual values. To denote a negative integer, use the prefix operator `-' discussed under expressions (see section Prefix Operator).

Bignums

A bignum has the same syntax and semantics as an integer except that the number (or its negative) takes more than 32 bits to represent in binary. The distinction is made because in some places integers are permitted while bignums are not.

Flonums

A flonum represents a floating point number. The translation is indirect: a decimal floating point number from the text is converted by to a generic binary floating point number of more than sufficient precision. This generic floating point number is converted to a particular computer's floating point format (or formats) by a portion of specialized to that computer.

A flonum is written by writing (in order)

At least one of the integer part or the fractional part must be present. The floating point number has the usual base-10 value.

does all processing using integers. Flonums are computed independently of any floating point hardware in the computer running .

into a field whose width depends on which assembler directive has the bit-field as its argument. Overflow (a result from the bitwise and requiring more binary digits to represent) is not an error; instead, more constants are generated, of the specified width, beginning with the least significant digits.

The directives .byte, .hword, .int, .long, .short, and .word accept bit-field arguments.

Sections and Relocation

Background

Roughly, a section is a range of addresses, with no gaps; all data "in" those addresses is treated the same for some particular purpose. For example there may be a "read only" section.

The linker reads many object files (partial programs) and combines their contents to form a runnable program. When emits an object file, the partial program is assumed to start at address 0. assigns the final addresses for the partial program, so that different partial programs do not overlap. This is actually an oversimplification, but it suffices to explain how uses sections.

moves blocks of bytes of your program to their run-time addresses. These blocks slide to their run-time addresses as rigid units; their length does not change and neither does the order of bytes within them. Such a rigid unit is called a section. Assigning run-time addresses to sections is called relocation. It includes the task of adjusting mentions of object-file addresses so they refer to the proper run-time addresses.

An object file written by has at least three sections, any of which may be empty. These are named text, data and bss sections.

can also generate whatever other named sections you specify using the `.section' directive (@xref{Section,,.section}). If you do not use any directives that place output in the `.text' or `.data' sections, these sections still exist, but are empty.

can also generate whatever other named sections you specify using the `.space' and `.subspace' directives. See HP9000 Series 800 Assembly Language Reference Manual (HP 92432-90001) for details on the `.space' and `.subspace' assembler directives.

Within the object file, the text section starts at address 0, the data section follows, and the bss section follows the data section.

To let know which data changes when the sections are relocated, and how to change that data, also writes to the object file details of the relocation needed. To perform relocation must know, each time an address in the object file is mentioned:

In fact, every address ever uses is expressed as

(section) + (offset into section)
Further, most expressions computes have this section-relative nature.

In this manual we use the notation {secname N} to mean "offset N into section secname."

Apart from text, data and bss sections you need to know about the absolute section. When mixes partial programs, addresses in the absolute section remain unchanged. For example, address {absolute 0} is "relocated" to run-time address 0 by . Although the linker never arranges two partial programs' data sections with overlapping addresses after linking, by definition their absolute sections must overlap. Address {absolute 239} in one part of a program is always the same address when the program is running as address {absolute 239} in any other part of the program.

The idea of sections is extended to the undefined section. Any address whose section is unknown at assembly time is by definition rendered {undefined U}---where U is filled in later. Since numbers are always defined, the only way to generate an undefined address is to mention an undefined symbol. A reference to a named common block would be such a symbol: its value is unknown at assembly time so it has section undefined.

By analogy the word section is used to describe groups of sections in the linked program. puts all partial programs' text sections in contiguous addresses in the linked program. It is customary to refer to the text section of a program, meaning all the addresses of all partial programs' text sections. Likewise for data and bss sections.

Some sections are manipulated by ; others are invented for use of and have no meaning except during assembly.

Sections

deals with just four kinds of sections, summarized below.

These sections hold your program. and treat them as separate but equal sections. Anything you can say of one section is true another.
bss section
This section contains zeroed bytes when your program begins running. It is used to hold unitialized variables or common storage. The length of each partial program's bss section is important, but because it starts out containing zeroed bytes there is no need to store explicit zero bytes in the object file. The bss section was invented to eliminate those explicit zeros from object files.
absolute section
Address 0 of this section is always "relocated" to runtime address 0. This is useful if you want to refer to an address that must not change when relocating. In this sense we speak of absolute addresses being "unrelocatable": they do not change during relocation.
undefined section
This "section" is a catch-all for address references to objects not in the preceding sections.

An idealized example of three relocatable sections follows. Memory addresses are on the horizontal axis.

Internal Sections

These sections are meant only for the internal use of . They have no meaning at run-time. You do not really need to know about these sections for most purposes; but they can be mentioned in warning messages, so it might be helpful to have an idea of their meanings to . These sections are used to permit the value of every expression in your assembly language program to be a section-relative address.

ASSEMBLER-INTERNAL-LOGIC-ERROR!
An internal assembler logic error has been found. This means there is a bug in the assembler.
expr section
The assembler stores complex expression internally as combinations of symbols. When it needs to represent an expression as a symbol, it puts it in the expr section.

Sub-Sections

fall into two sections: text and data. You may have separate groups of data in named sections that you want to end up near to each other in the object file, even though they are not contiguous in the assembler source. allows you to use subsections for this purpose. Within each section, there can be numbered subsections with values from 0 to 8192. Objects assembled into the same subsection go into the object file together with other objects in the same subsection. For example, a compiler might want to store constants in the text section, but might not want to have them interspersed with the program being assembled. In this case, the compiler could issue a `.text 0' before each section of code being output, and a `.text 1' before each group of constants being output.

Subsections are optional. If you do not use subsections, everything goes in subsection number zero.

Subsections appear in your object file in numeric order, lowest numbered to highest. (All this to be compatible with other people's assemblers.) The object file contains no representation of subsections; and other programs that manipulate object files see no trace of them. They just see all your text subsections as a text section, and all your data subsections as a data section.

To specify which subsection you want subsequent statements assembled into, use a numeric argument to specify it, in a `.text expression' or a `.data expression' statement. You can also use an extra subsection argument with arbitrary named sections: `.section name, expression'. Expression should be an absolute expression. (See section Expressions.) If you just say `.text' then `.text 0' is assumed. Likewise `.data' means `.data 0'. Assembly begins in text 0. For instance:

.text 0     # The default subsection is text 0 anyway.
.ascii "This lives in the first text subsection. *"
.text 1
.ascii "But this lives in the second text subsection."
.data 0
.ascii "This lives in the data section,"
.ascii "in the first data subsection."
.text 0
.ascii "This lives in the first text section,"
.ascii "immediately following the asterisk (*)."

Each section has a location counter incremented by one for every byte assembled into that section. Because subsections are merely a convenience restricted to there is no concept of a subsection location counter. There is no way to directly manipulate a location counter--but the .align directive changes it, and any label definition captures its current value. The location counter of the section where statements are being assembled is said to be the active location counter.

bss Section

The bss section is used for local common variable storage. You may allocate address space in the bss section, but you may not dictate data to load into it before your program executes. When your program starts running, all the contents of the bss section are zeroed bytes.

Addresses in the bss section are allocated with special directives; you may not assemble anything directly into the bss section. Hence there are no bss subsections. See section .comm symbol , length , see section .lcomm symbol , length.

Symbols

Symbols are a central concept: the programmer uses symbols to name things, the linker uses symbols to link, and the debugger uses symbols to debug.

Warning: does not place symbols in the object file in the same order they were declared. This may break some debuggers.

Labels

A label is written as a symbol immediately followed by a colon `:'. The symbol then represents the current value of the active location counter, and is, for example, a suitable instruction operand. You are warned if you use the same symbol to represent two different locations: the first definition overrides any other definitions.

Giving Symbols Other Values

A symbol can be given an arbitrary value by writing a symbol, followed by an equals sign `=', followed by an expression (see section Expressions). This is equivalent to using the .set directive. See section .set symbol, expression.

Symbol Names

Symbol names begin with a letter or with one of `._'. On most machines, you can also use $ in symbol names; exceptions are noted in section VAX Dependent Features. That character may be followed by any string of digits, letters, dollar signs (unless otherwise noted in section VAX Dependent Features), and underscores.

Case of letters is significant: foo is a different symbol name than Foo.

Each symbol has exactly one name. Each name in an assembly language program refers to exactly one symbol. You may use that symbol name any number of times in a program.

Local Symbol Names

Local symbols help compilers and programmers use names temporarily. There are ten local symbol names, which are re-used throughout the program. You may refer to them using the names `0' `1' ... `9'. To define a local symbol, write a label of the form `N:' (where N represents any digit). To refer to the most recent previous definition of that symbol write `Nb', using the same digit as when you defined the label. To refer to the next definition of a local label, write `Nf'---where N gives you a choice of 10 forward references. The `b' stands for "backwards" and the `f' stands for "forwards".

Local symbols are not emitted by the current GNU C compiler.

There is no restriction on how you can use these labels, but remember that at any point in the assembly you can refer to at most 10 prior local labels and to at most 10 forward local labels.

Local symbol names are only a notation device. They are immediately transformed into more conventional symbol names before the assembler uses them. The symbol names stored in the symbol table, appearing in error messages and optionally emitted to the object file have these parts:

L
All local labels begin with `L'. Normally both and forget symbols that start with `L'. These labels are used for symbols you are never intended to see. If you use the `-L' option then retains these symbols in the object file. If you also instruct to retain these symbols, you may use them in debugging.
digit
If the label is written `0:' then the digit is `0'. If the label is written `1:' then the digit is `1'. And so on up through `9:'.
^A
This unusual character is included so you do not accidentally invent a symbol of the same name. The character has ASCII value `\001'.
ordinal number
This is a serial number to keep the labels distinct. The first `0:' gets the number `1'; The 15th `0:' gets the number `15'; etc.. Likewise for the other labels `1:' through `9:'.

For instance, the first 1: is named L1^A1, the 44th 3: is named L3^A44.

The Special Dot Symbol

The special symbol `.' refers to the current address that is assembling into. Thus, the expression `melvin: .long .' defines melvin to contain its own address. Assigning a value to . is treated the same as a .org directive. Thus, the expression `.=.+4' is the same as saying `.space 4'.

Symbol Attributes

Every symbol has, as well as its name, the attributes "Value" and "Type". Depending on output format, symbols can also have auxiliary attributes.

If you use a symbol without defining it, assumes zero for all these attributes, and probably won't warn you. This makes the symbol an externally defined symbol, which is generally what you would want.

Value

The value of a symbol is (usually) 32 bits. For a symbol which labels a location in the text, data, bss or absolute sections the value is the number of addresses from the start of that section to the label. Naturally for text, data and bss sections the value of a symbol changes as changes section base addresses during linking. Absolute symbols' values do not change during linking: that is why they are called absolute.

The value of an undefined symbol is treated in a special way. If it is 0 then the symbol is not defined in this assembler source file, and tries to determine its value from other files linked into the same program. You make this kind of symbol simply by mentioning a symbol name without defining it. A non-zero value represents a .comm common declaration. The value is how much common storage to reserve, in bytes (addresses). The symbol refers to the first address of the allocated storage.

Type

The type attribute of a symbol contains relocation (section) information, any flag settings indicating that a symbol is external, and (optionally), other information for linkers and debuggers. The exact format depends on the object-code output format in use.

Symbol Attributes: a.out

Descriptor

This is an arbitrary 16-bit value. You may establish a symbol's descriptor value by using a .desc statement (@xref{Desc,,.desc}). A descriptor value means nothing to .

Other

This is an arbitrary 8-bit value. It means nothing to .

Expressions

An expression specifies an address or numeric value. Whitespace may precede and/or follow an expression.

The result of an expression must be an absolute number, or else an offset into a particular section. If an expression is not absolute, and there is not enough information when sees the expression to know its section, a second pass over the source program might be necessary to interpret the expression--but the second pass is currently not implemented. aborts with an error message in this situation.

Empty Expressions

An empty expression has no value: it is just whitespace or null. Wherever an absolute expression is required, you may omit the expression, and assumes a value of (absolute) 0. This is compatible with other assemblers.

Integer Expressions

An integer expression is one or more arguments delimited by operators.

Arguments

Arguments are symbols, numbers or subexpressions. In other contexts arguments are sometimes called "arithmetic operands". In this manual, to avoid confusing them with the "instruction operands" of the machine language, we use the term "argument" to refer to parts of expressions only, reserving the word "operand" to refer only to machine instruction operands.

Symbols are evaluated to yield {section NNN} where section is one of text, data, bss, absolute, or undefined. NNN is a signed, 2's complement 32 bit integer.

Numbers are usually integers.

A number can be a flonum or bignum. In this case, you are warned that only the low order 32 bits are used, and pretends these 32 bits are an integer. You may write integer-manipulating instructions that act on exotic constants, compatible with other assemblers.

Subexpressions are a left parenthesis `(' followed by an integer expression, followed by a right parenthesis `)'; or a prefix operator followed by an argument.

Operators

Operators are arithmetic functions, like + or %. Prefix operators are followed by an argument. Infix operators appear between their arguments. Operators may be preceded and/or followed by whitespace.

Prefix Operator

has the following prefix operators. They each take one argument, which must be absolute.

-
Negation. Two's complement negation.
~
Complementation. Bitwise not.

Infix Operators

Infix operators take two arguments, one on either side. Operators have precedence, but operations with equal precedence are performed left to right. Apart from + or -, both arguments must be absolute, and the result is absolute.

  1. Highest Precedence
    *
    Multiplication.
    /
    Division. Truncation is the same as the C operator `/'
    %
    Remainder.
    <
    <<
    Shift Left. Same as the C operator `<<'.
    >
    >>
    Shift Right. Same as the C operator `>>'.
  2. Intermediate precedence
    |
    Bitwise Inclusive Or.
    &
    Bitwise And.
    ^
    Bitwise Exclusive Or.
    !
    Bitwise Or Not.
  3. Lowest Precedence
    +
    Addition. If either argument is absolute, the result has the section of the other argument. You may not add together arguments from different sections.
    -
    Subtraction. If the right argument is absolute, the result has the section of the left argument. If both arguments are in the same section, the result is absolute. You may not subtract arguments from different sections.

In short, it's only meaningful to add or subtract the offsets in an address; you can only have a defined section in one of the two arguments.

Assembler Directives

All assembler directives have names that begin with a period (`.'). The rest of the name is letters, usually in lower case.

This chapter discusses directives that are available regardless of the target machine configuration for the GNU assembler.

.abort

This directive stops the assembly immediately. It is for compatibility with other assemblers. The original idea was that the assembly language source would be piped into the assembler. If the sender of the source quit, it could use this directive tells to quit also. One day .abort will not be supported.

.align abs-expr , abs-expr

Pad the location counter (in the current subsection) to a particular storage boundary. The first expression (which must be absolute) is the number of low-order zero bits the location counter must have after advancement. For example `.align 3' advances the location counter until it a multiple of 8. If the location counter is already a multiple of 8, no change is needed.

The second expression (also absolute) gives the value to be stored in the padding bytes. It (and the comma) may be omitted. If it is omitted, the padding bytes are zero.

.app-file string

.app-file (which may also be spelled `.file') tells that we are about to start a new logical file. string is the new file name. In general, the filename is recognized whether or not it is surrounded by quotes `"'; but if you wish to specify an empty file name is permitted, you must give the quotes--"". This statement may go away in future: it is only recognized to be compatible with old programs.

.ascii "string"...

.ascii expects zero or more string literals (see section Strings) separated by commas. It assembles each string (with no automatic trailing zero byte) into consecutive addresses.

.asciz "string"...

.asciz is just like .ascii, but each string is followed by a zero byte. The "z" in `.asciz' stands for "zero".

.byte expressions

.byte expects zero or more expressions, separated by commas. Each expression is assembled into the next byte.

.comm symbol , length

.comm declares a named common area in the bss section. Normally reserves memory addresses for it during linking, so no partial program defines the location of the symbol. Use .comm to tell that it must be at least length bytes long. allocates space for each .comm symbol that is at least as long as the longest .comm request in any of the partial programs linked. length is an absolute expression.

.data subsection

.data tells to assemble the following statements onto the end of the data subsection numbered subsection (which is an absolute expression). If subsection is omitted, it defaults to zero.

.double flonums

.double expects zero or more flonums, separated by commas. It assembles floating point numbers.

.eject

Force a page break at this point, when generating assembly listings.

.else

.else is part of the support for conditional assembly; see section .if absolute expression. It marks the beginning of a section of code to be assembled if the condition for the preceding .if was false.

.endif

.endif is part of the support for conditional assembly; it marks the end of a block of code that is only assembled conditionally. See section .if absolute expression.

.equ symbol, expression

This directive sets the value of symbol to expression. It is synonymous with `.set'; see section .set symbol, expression.

.extern

.extern is accepted in the source program--for compatibility with other assemblers--but it is ignored. treats all undefined symbols as external.

.file string

.file (which may also be spelled `.app-file') tells that we are about to start a new logical file. string is the new file name. In general, the filename is recognized whether or not it is surrounded by quotes `"'; but if you wish to specify an empty file name, you must give the quotes--"". This statement may go away in future: it is only recognized to be compatible with old programs.

.fill repeat , size , value

result, size and value are absolute expressions. This emits repeat copies of size bytes. Repeat may be zero or more. Size may be zero or more, but if it is more than 8, then it is deemed to have the value 8, compatible with other people's assemblers. The contents of each repeat bytes is taken from an 8-byte number. The highest order 4 bytes are zero. The lowest order 4 bytes are value rendered in the byte-order of an integer on the computer is assembling for. Each size bytes in a repetition is taken from the lowest order size bytes of this number. Again, this bizarre behavior is compatible with other people's assemblers.

size and value are optional. If the second comma and value are absent, value is assumed zero. If the first comma and following tokens are absent, size is assumed to be 1.

.float flonums

This directive assembles zero or more flonums, separated by commas. It has the same effect as .single.

.global symbol, .globl symbol

.global makes the symbol visible to . If you define symbol in your partial program, its value is made available to other partial programs that are linked with it. Otherwise, symbol takes its attributes from a symbol of the same name from another file linked into the same program.

Both spellings (`.globl' and `.global') are accepted, for compatibility with other assemblers.

.hword expressions

This expects zero or more expressions, and emits a 16 bit number for each.

.ident

This directive is used by some assemblers to place tags in object files. simply accepts the directive for source-file compatibility with such assemblers, but does not actually emit anything for it.

.if absolute expression

.if marks the beginning of a section of code which is only considered part of the source program being assembled if the argument (which must be an absolute expression) is non-zero. The end of the conditional section of code must be marked by .endif (see section .endif); optionally, you may include code for the alternative condition, flagged by .else (see section .else.

The following variants of .if are also supported:

.ifdef symbol
Assembles the following section of code if the specified symbol has been defined.
.ifndef symbol
ifnotdef symbol
Assembles the following section of code if the specified symbol has not been defined. Both spelling variants are equivalent.

.include "file"

This directive provides a way to include supporting files at specified points in your source program. The code from file is assembled as if it followed the point of the .include; when the end of the included file is reached, assembly of the original file continues. You can control the search paths used with the `-I' command-line option (see section Command-Line Options). Quotation marks are required around file.

.int expressions

Expect zero or more expressions, of any section, separated by commas. For each expression, emit a number that, at run time, is the value of that expression. The byte order and bit size of the number depends on what kind of target the assembly is for.

.lcomm symbol , length

Reserve length (an absolute expression) bytes for a local common denoted by symbol. The section and value of symbol are those of the new local common. The addresses are allocated in the bss section, so that at run-time the bytes start off zeroed. Symbol is not declared global (see section .global symbol, .globl symbol), so is normally not visible to .

.lflags

accepts this directive, for compatibility with other assemblers, but ignores it.

.line line-number

Even though this is a directive associated with the a.out or b.out object-code formats, still recognizes it when producing COFF output, and treats `.line' as though it were the COFF `.ln' if it is found outside a .def/.endef pair.

Inside a .def, `.line' is, instead, one of the directives used by compilers to generate auxiliary symbol information for debugging.

.ln line-number

`.ln' is a synonym for `.line'.

.list

Control (in conjunction with the .nolist directive) whether or not assembly listings are generated. These two directives maintain an internal counter (which is zero initially). .list increments the counter, and .nolist decrements it. Assembly listings are generated whenever the counter is greater than zero.

By default, listings are disabled. When you enable them (with the `-a' command line option; see section Command-Line Options), the initial value of the listing counter is one.

.long expressions

.long is the same as `.int', see section .int expressions.

.nolist

Control (in conjunction with the .list directive) whether or not assembly listings are generated. These two directives maintain an internal counter (which is zero initially). .list increments the counter, and .nolist decrements it. Assembly listings are generated whenever the counter is greater than zero.

.octa bignums

This directive expects zero or more bignums, separated by commas. For each bignum, it emits a 16-byte integer.

The term "octa" comes from contexts in which a "word" is two bytes; hence octa-word for 16 bytes.

.org new-lc , fill

Advance the location counter of the current section to new-lc. new-lc is either an absolute expression or an expression with the same section as the current subsection. That is, you can't use .org to cross sections: if new-lc has the wrong section, the .org directive is ignored. To be compatible with former assemblers, if the section of new-lc is absolute, issues a warning, then pretends the section of new-lc is the same as the current subsection.

.org may only increase the location counter, or leave it unchanged; you cannot use .org to move the location counter backwards.

Because tries to assemble programs in one pass, new-lc may not be undefined. If you really detest this restriction we eagerly await a chance to share your improved assembler.

Beware that the origin is relative to the start of the section, not to the start of the subsection. This is compatible with other people's assemblers.

When the location counter (of the current subsection) is advanced, the intervening bytes are filled with fill which should be an absolute expression. If the comma and fill are omitted, fill defaults to zero.

.psize lines , columns

Use this directive to declare the number of lines--and, optionally, the number of columns--to use for each page, when generating listings.

If you do not use .psize, listings use a default line-count of 60. You may omit the comma and columns specification; the default width is 200 columns.

generates formfeeds whenever the specified number of lines is exceeded (or whenever you explicitly request one, using .eject).

If you specify lines as 0, no formfeeds are generated save those explicitly specified with .eject.

.quad bignums

.quad expects zero or more bignums, separated by commas. For each bignum, it emits an 8-byte integer. If the bignum won't fit in 8 bytes, it prints a warning message; and just takes the lowest order 8 bytes of the bignum.

The term "quad" comes from contexts in which a "word" is two bytes; hence quad-word for 8 bytes.

.sbttl "subheading"

Use subheading as the title (third line, immediately after the title line) when generating assembly listings.

This directive affects subsequent pages, as well as the current page if it appears within ten lines of the top of a page.

.set symbol, expression

Set the value of symbol to expression. This changes symbol's value and type to conform to expression. If symbol was flagged as external, it remains flagged. (See section Symbol Attributes.)

You may .set a symbol many times in the same assembly.

If you .set a global symbol, the value stored in the object file is the last value stored into it.

.short expressions

.single flonums

This directive assembles zero or more flonums, separated by commas. It has the same effect as .float.

.space size , fill

This directive emits size bytes, each of value fill. Both size and fill are absolute expressions. If the comma and fill are omitted, fill is assumed to be zero.

.stabd, .stabn, .stabs

There are three directives that begin `.stab'. All emit symbols (see section Symbols), for use by symbolic debuggers. The symbols are not entered in the hash table: they cannot be referenced elsewhere in the source file. Up to five fields are required:

string
This is the symbol's name. It may contain any character except `\000', so is more general than ordinary symbol names. Some debuggers used to code arbitrarily complex structures into symbol names using this field.
type
An absolute expression. The symbol's type is set to the low 8 bits of this expression. Any bit pattern is permitted, but and debuggers choke on silly bit patterns.
other
An absolute expression. The symbol's "other" attribute is set to the low 8 bits of this expression.
desc
An absolute expression. The symbol's descriptor is set to the low 16 bits of this expression.
value
An absolute expression which becomes the symbol's value.

If a warning is detected while reading a .stabd, .stabn, or .stabs statement, the symbol has probably already been created; you get a half-formed symbol in your object file. This is compatible with earlier assemblers!

.stabd type , other , desc
The "name" of the symbol generated is not even an empty string. It is a null pointer, for compatibility. Older assemblers used a null pointer so they didn't waste space in object files with empty strings. The symbol's value is set to the location counter, relocatably. When your program is linked, the value of this symbol is the address of the location counter when the .stabd was assembled.
.stabn type , other , desc , value
The name of the symbol is set to the empty string "".
.stabs string , type , other , desc , value
All five fields are specified.

.string "str"

Copy the characters in str to the object file. You may specify more than one string to copy, separated by commas. Unless otherwise specified for a particular machine, the assembler marks the end of each string with a 0 byte. You can use any of the escape sequences described in section Strings.

.text subsection

Tells to assemble the following statements onto the end of the text subsection numbered subsection, which is an absolute expression. If subsection is omitted, subsection number zero is used.

.title "heading"

Use heading as the title (second line, immediately after the source file name and pagenumber) when generating assembly listings.

This directive affects subsequent pages, as well as the current page if it appears within ten lines of the top of a page.

.word expressions

This directive expects zero or more expressions, of any section, separated by commas.

In order to assemble compiler output into something that works, occasionlly does strange things to `.word' directives. Directives of the form `.word sym1-sym2' are often emitted by compilers as part of jump tables. Therefore, when assembles a directive of the form `.word sym1-sym2', and the difference between sym1 and sym2 does not fit in 16 bits, creates a secondary jump table, immediately before the next label. This secondary jump table is preceded by a short-jump to the first byte after the secondary table. This short-jump prevents the flow of control from accidentally falling into the new table. Inside the table is a long-jump to sym2. The original `.word' contains sym1 minus the address of the long-jump to sym2.

If there were several occurrences of `.word sym1-sym2' before the secondary jump table, all of them are adjusted. If there was a `.word sym3-sym4', that also did not fit in sixteen bits, a long-jump to sym4 is included in the secondary jump table, and the .word directives are adjusted to contain sym3 minus the address of the long-jump to sym4; and so on, for as many entries in the original jump table as necessary.

Deprecated Directives

One day these directives won't work. They are included for compatibility with older assemblers.

.abort
.app-file
.line

@lowersections

VAX Dependent Features

VAX Command-Line Options

The Vax version of accepts any of the following options, gives a warning message that the option was ignored and proceeds. These options are for compatibility with scripts designed for other people's assemblers.

-D (Debug)
-S (Symbol Table)
-T (Token Trace)
These are obsolete options used to debug old assemblers.
-d (Displacement size for JUMPs)
This option expects a number following the `-d'. Like options that expect filenames, the number may immediately follow the `-d' (old standard) or constitute the whole of the command line argument that follows `-d' (GNU standard).
-V (Virtualize Interpass Temporary File)
Some other assemblers use a temporary file. This option commanded them to keep the information in active memory rather than in a disk file. always does this, so this option is redundant.
-J (JUMPify Longer Branches)
Many 32-bit computers permit a variety of branch instructions to do the same job. Some of these instructions are short (and fast) but have a limited range; others are long (and slow) but can branch anywhere in virtual memory. Often there are 3 flavors of branch: short, medium and long. Some other assemblers would emit short and medium branches, unless told by this option to emit short and long branches.
-t (Temporary File Directory)
Some other assemblers may use a temporary file, and this option takes a filename being the directory to site the temporary file. Since does not use a temporary disk file, this option makes no difference. `-t' needs exactly one filename.

The Vax version of the assembler accepts two options when compiled for VMS. They are `-h', and `-+'. The `-h' option prevents from modifying the symbol-table entries for symbols that contain lowercase characters (I think). The `-+' option causes to print warning messages if the FILENAME part of the object file, or any symbol name is larger than 31 characters. The `-+' option also inserts some code following the `_main' symbol so that the object file is compatible with Vax-11 "C".

VAX Floating Point

Conversion of flonums to floating point is correct, and compatible with previous assemblers. Rounding is towards zero if the remainder is exactly half the least significant bit.

D, F, G and H floating point formats are understood.

Immediate floating literals (e.g. `S`$6.9') are rendered correctly. Again, rounding is towards zero in the boundary case.

The .float directive produces f format numbers. The .double directive produces d format numbers.

Vax Machine Directives

The Vax version of the assembler supports four directives for generating Vax floating point constants. They are described in the table below.

.dfloat
This expects zero or more flonums, separated by commas, and assembles Vax d format 64-bit floating point constants.
.ffloat
This expects zero or more flonums, separated by commas, and assembles Vax f format 32-bit floating point constants.
.gfloat
This expects zero or more flonums, separated by commas, and assembles Vax g format 64-bit floating point constants.
.hfloat
This expects zero or more flonums, separated by commas, and assembles Vax h format 128-bit floating point constants.

VAX Opcodes

All DEC mnemonics are supported. Beware that case... instructions have exactly 3 operands. The dispatch table that follows the case... instruction should be made with .word statements. This is compatible with all unix assemblers we know of.

VAX Branch Improvement

Certain pseudo opcodes are permitted. They are for branch instructions. They expand to the shortest branch instruction that reaches the target. Generally these mnemonics are made by substituting `j' for `b' at the start of a DEC mnemonic. This feature is included both for compatibility and to help compilers. If you do not need this feature, avoid these opcodes. Here are the mnemonics, and the code they can expand into.

jbsb
`Jsb' is already an instruction mnemonic, so we chose `jbsb'.
(byte displacement)
bsbb ...
(word displacement)
bsbw ...
(long displacement)
jsb ...
jbr
jr
Unconditional branch.
(byte displacement)
brb ...
(word displacement)
brw ...
(long displacement)
jmp ...
jCOND
COND may be any one of the conditional branches neq, nequ, eql, eqlu, gtr, geq, lss, gtru, lequ, vc, vs, gequ, cc, lssu, cs. COND may also be one of the bit tests bs, bc, bss, bcs, bsc, bcc, bssi, bcci, lbs, lbc. NOTCOND is the opposite condition to COND.
(byte displacement)
bCOND ...
(word displacement)
bNOTCOND foo ; brw ... ; foo:
(long displacement)
bNOTCOND foo ; jmp ... ; foo:
jacbX
X may be one of b d f g h l w.
(word displacement)
OPCODE ...
(long displacement)
OPCODE ..., foo ;
brb bar ;
foo: jmp ... ;
bar:
jaobYYY
YYY may be one of lss leq.
jsobZZZ
ZZZ may be one of geq gtr.
(byte displacement)
OPCODE ...
(word displacement)
OPCODE ..., foo ;
brb bar ;
foo: brw destination ;
bar:
(long displacement)
OPCODE ..., foo ;
brb bar ;
foo: jmp destination ;
bar:
aobleq
aoblss
sobgeq
sobgtr
(byte displacement)
OPCODE ...
(word displacement)
OPCODE ..., foo ;
brb bar ;
foo: brw destination ;
bar:
(long displacement)
OPCODE ..., foo ;
brb bar ;
foo: jmp destination ;
bar:

VAX Operands

The immediate character is `$' for Unix compatibility, not `#' as DEC writes it.

The indirect character is `*' for Unix compatibility, not `@' as DEC writes it.

The displacement sizing character is ``' (an accent grave) for Unix compatibility, not `^' as DEC writes it. The letter preceding ``' may have either case. `G' is not understood, but all other letters (b i l s w) are understood.

Register names understood are r0 r1 r2 ... r15 ap fp sp pc. Upper and lower case letters are equivalent.

For instance

tstb *w`$4(r5)

Any expression is permitted in an operand. Operands are comma separated.

Not Supported on VAX

Vax bit fields can not be assembled with . Someone can add the required code if they really need it.

AMD 29K Dependent Features

Options

has no additional command-line options for the AMD 29K family.

Syntax

Special Characters

`;' is the line comment character.

`@' can be used instead of a newline to separate statements.

The character `?' is permitted in identifiers (but may not begin an identifier).

Register Names

General-purpose registers are represented by predefined symbols of the form `GRnnn' (for global registers) or `LRnnn' (for local registers), where nnn represents a number between 0 and 127, written with no leading zeros. The leading letters may be in either upper or lower case; for example, `gr13' and `LR7' are both valid register names.

You may also refer to general-purpose registers by specifying the register number as the result of an expression (prefixed with `%%' to flag the expression as a register number):

%%expression
---where expression must be an absolute expression evaluating to a number between 0 and 255. The range [0, 127] refers to global registers, and the range [128, 255] to local registers.

In addition, understands the following protected special-purpose register names for the AMD 29K family:

  vab    chd    pc0
  ops    chc    pc1
  cps    rbp    pc2
  cfg    tmc    mmu
  cha    tmr    lru

These unprotected special-purpose register names are also recognized:

  ipc    alu    fpe
  ipa    bp     inte
  ipb    fc     fps
  q      cr     exop

Floating Point

The AMD 29K family uses IEEE floating-point numbers.

AMD 29K Machine Directives

.block size , fill
This directive emits size bytes, each of value fill. Both size and fill are absolute expressions. If the comma and fill are omitted, fill is assumed to be zero. In other versions of the GNU assembler, this directive is called `.space'.

.cputype
This directive is ignored; it is accepted for compatibility with other AMD 29K assemblers.
.file
This directive is ignored; it is accepted for compatibility with other AMD 29K assemblers.
Warning: in other versions of the GNU assembler, .file is used for the directive called .app-file in the AMD 29K support.
.line
This directive is ignored; it is accepted for compatibility with other AMD 29K assemblers.
.sect
This directive is ignored; it is accepted for compatibility with other AMD 29K assemblers.
.use section name
Establishes the section and subsection for the following code; section name may be one of .text, .data, .data1, or .lit. With one of the first three section name options, `.use' is equivalent to the machine directive section name; the remaining case, `.use .lit', is the same as `.data 200'.

Opcodes

implements all the standard AMD 29K opcodes. No additional pseudo-instructions are needed on this family.

For information on the 29K machine instruction set, see Am29000 User's Manual, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

H8/300 Dependent Features

Options

has no additional command-line options for the Hitachi H8/300 family.

Syntax

Special Characters

`;' is the line comment character.

`$' can be used instead of a newline to separate statements. Therefore you may not use `$' in symbol names on the H8/300.

Register Names

You can use predefined symbols of the form `rnh' and `rnl' to refer to the H8/300 registers as sixteen 8-bit general-purpose registers. n is a digit from `0' to `7'); for instance, both `r0h' and `r7l' are valid register names.

You can also use the eight predefined symbols `rn' to refer to the H8/300 registers as 16-bit registers (you must use this form for addressing).

On the H8/300H, you can also use the eight predefined symbols `ern' (`er0' ... `er7') to refer to the 32-bit general purpose registers.

The two control registers are called pc (program counter; a 16-bit register, except on the H8/300H where it is 24 bits) and ccr (condition code register; an 8-bit register). r7 is used as the stack pointer, and can also be called sp.

Addressing Modes

understands the following addressing modes for the H8/300:

rn
Register direct
@rn
Register indirect
@(d, rn)
@(d:16, rn)
@(d:24, rn)
Register indirect: 16-bit or 24-bit displacement d from register n. (24-bit displacements are only meaningful on the H8/300H.)
@rn+
Register indirect with post-increment
@-rn
Register indirect with pre-decrement
@aa
@aa:8
@aa:16
@aa:24
Absolute address aa. (The address size `:24' only makes sense on the H8/300H.)
#xx
#xx:8
#xx:16
#xx:32
Immediate data xx. You may specify the `:8', `:16', or `:32' for clarity, if you wish; but neither requires this nor uses it--the data size required is taken from context.
@@aa
@@aa:8
Memory indirect. You may specify the `:8' for clarity, if you wish; but neither requires this nor uses it.

Floating Point

The H8/300 family has no hardware floating point, but the .float directive generates IEEE floating-point numbers for compatibility with other development tools.

H8/300 Machine Directives

has only one machine-dependent directive for the H8/300:

.h8300h
Recognize and emit additional instructions for the H8/300H variant, and also make .int emit 32-bit numbers rather than the usual (16-bit) for the H8/300 family.

On the H8/300 family (including the H8/300H) `.word' directives generate 16-bit numbers.

Opcodes

For detailed information on the H8/300 machine instruction set, see H8/300 Series Programming Manual (Hitachi ADE--602--025). For information specific to the H8/300H, see H8/300H Series Programming Manual (Hitachi).

implements all the standard H8/300 opcodes. No additional pseudo-instructions are needed on this family.

Four H8/300 instructions (add, cmp, mov, sub) are defined with variants using the suffixes `.b', `.w', and `.l' to specify the size of a memory operand. supports these suffixes, but does not require them; since one of the operands is always a register, can deduce the correct size.

For example, since r0 refers to a 16-bit register,

mov    r0,@foo
is equivalent to
mov.w  r0,@foo

If you use the size suffixes, issues a warning when the suffix and the register size do not match.

  • .enter Not yet supported; the assembler rejects programs containing this directive.

  • .entry Mark the beginning of a procedure.

  • .exit Mark the end of a procedure.

  • .export name [ ,typ ] [ ,param=r ] Make a procedure name available to callers. typ, if present, must be one of `absolute', `code' (ELF only, not SOM), `data', `entry', `data', `entry', `millicode', `plabel', `pri_prog', or `sec_prog'.

    param, if present, provides either relocation information for the procedure arguments and result, or a privilege level. param may be `argwn' (where n ranges from 0 to 3, and indicates one of four one-word arguments); `rtnval' (the procedure's result); or `priv_lev' (privilege level). For arguments or the result, r specifies how to relocate, and must be one of `no' (not relocatable), `gr' (argument is in general register), `fr' (in floating point register), or `fu' (upper half of float register). For `priv_lev', r is an integer.

  • .half n Define a two-byte integer constant n; synonym for the portable directive .short.

  • .import name [ ,typ ] Converse of .export; make a procedure available to call. The arguments use the same conventions as the first two arguments for .export.

  • .label name Define name as a label for the current assembly location.

  • .leave Not yet supported; the assembler rejects programs containing this directive.

  • .origin lc Advance location counter to lc. Synonym for the portable directive .org.

  • .param name [ ,typ ] [ ,param=r ] Similar to .export, but used for static procedures.

  • .proc Use preceding the first statement of a procedure.

  • .procend Use following the last statement of a procedure.

  • label .reg expr Synonym for .equ; define label with the absolute expression expr as its value.

  • .space secname [ ,params ] Switch to section secname, creating a new section by that name if necessary. You may only use params when creating a new section, not when switching to an existing one. secname may identify a section by number rather than by name.

    If specified, the list params declares attributes of the section, identified by keywords. The keywords recognized are `spnum=exp' (identify this section by the number exp, an absolute expression), `sort=exp' (order sections according to this sort key when linking; exp is an absolute expression), `unloadable' (section contains no loadable data), `notdefined' (this section defined elsewhere), and `private' (data in this section not available to other programs).

  • .spnum secnam Allocate four bytes of storage, and initialize them with the section number of the section named secnam. (You can define the section number with the HPPA .space directive.)

  • .string "str" Copy the characters in the string str to the object file. See section Strings, for information on escape sequences you can use in strings.

    Warning! The HPPA version of .string differs from the usual definition: it does not write a zero byte after copying str.

  • .stringz "str" Like .string, but appends a zero byte after copying str to object file.

  • .subspa name [ ,params ] Similar to .space, but selects a subsection name within the current section. You may only specify params when you create a subsection (in the first instance of .subspa for this name).

    If specified, the list params declares attributes of the subsection, identified by keywords. The keywords recognized are `quad=expr' ("quadrant" for this subsection), `align=expr' (alignment for beginning of this subsection; a power of two), `access=expr' (value for "access rights" field), `sort=expr' (sorting order for this subspace in link), `code_only' (subsection contains only code), `unloadable' (subsection cannot be loaded into memory), `common' (subsection is common block), `dup_comm' (initialized data may have duplicate names), or `zero' (subsection is all zeros, do not write in object file).

  • .version "str" Write str as version identifier in object code.

    Opcodes

    For detailed information on the HPPA machine instruction set, see PA-RISC Architecture and Instruction Set Reference Manual (HP 09740-90039).

    Intel 80960 Dependent Features

    i960 Command-line Options

    -ACA | -ACA_A | -ACB | -ACC | -AKA | -AKB | -AKC | -AMC
    Select the 80960 architecture. Instructions or features not supported by the selected architecture cause fatal errors. `-ACA' is equivalent to `-ACA_A'; `-AKC' is equivalent to `-AMC'. Synonyms are provided for compatibility with other tools. If you do not specify any of these options, generates code for any instruction or feature that is supported by some version of the 960 (even if this means mixing architectures!). In principle, attempts to deduce the minimal sufficient processor type if none is specified; depending on the object code format, the processor type may be recorded in the object file. If it is critical that the output match a specific architecture, specify that architecture explicitly.
    -b
    Add code to collect information about conditional branches taken, for later optimization using branch prediction bits. (The conditional branch instructions have branch prediction bits in the CA, CB, and CC architectures.) If BR represents a conditional branch instruction, the following represents the code generated by the assembler when `-b' is specified:
            call    increment routine
            .word   0       # pre-counter
    Label:  BR
            call    increment routine
            .word   0       # post-counter
    
    The counter following a branch records the number of times that branch was not taken; the differenc between the two counters is the number of times the branch was taken. A table of every such Label is also generated, so that the external postprocessor gbr960 (supplied by Intel) can locate all the counters. This table is always labelled `__BRANCH_TABLE__'; this is a local symbol to permit collecting statistics for many separate object files. The table is word aligned, and begins with a two-word header. The first word, initialized to 0, is used in maintaining linked lists of branch tables. The second word is a count of the number of entries in the table, which follow immediately: each is a word, pointing to one of the labels illustrated above. The first word of the header is used to locate multiple branch tables, since each object file may contain one. Normally the links are maintained with a call to an initialization routine, placed at the beginning of each function in the file. The GNU C compiler generates these calls automatically when you give it a `-b' option. For further details, see the documentation of `gbr960'.
    -no-relax
    Normally, Compare-and-Branch instructions with targets that require displacements greater than 13 bits (or that have external targets) are replaced with the corresponding compare (or `chkbit') and branch instructions. You can use the `-no-relax' option to specify that should generate errors instead, if the target displacement is larger than 13 bits. This option does not affect the Compare-and-Jump instructions; the code emitted for them is always adjusted when necessary (depending on displacement size), regardless of whether you use `-no-relax'.

    Floating Point

    generates IEEE floating-point numbers for the directives `.float', `.double', `.extended', and `.single'.

    i960 Machine Directives

    .bss symbol, length, align
    Reserve length bytes in the bss section for a local symbol, aligned to the power of two specified by align. length and align must be positive absolute expressions. This directive differs from `.lcomm' only in that it permits you to specify an alignment. See section .lcomm symbol , length.

    .extended flonums
    .extended expects zero or more flonums, separated by commas; for each flonum, `.extended' emits an IEEE extended-format (80-bit) floating-point number.
    .leafproc call-lab, bal-lab
    You can use the `.leafproc' directive in conjunction with the optimized callj instruction to enable faster calls of leaf procedures. If a procedure is known to call no other procedures, you may define an entry point that skips procedure prolog code (and that does not depend on system-supplied saved context), and declare it as the bal-lab using `.leafproc'. If the procedure also has an entry point that goes through the normal prolog, you can specify that entry point as call-lab. A `.leafproc' declaration is meant for use in conjunction with the optimized call instruction `callj'; the directive records the data needed later to choose between converting the `callj' into a bal or a call. call-lab is optional; if only one argument is present, or if the two arguments are identical, the single argument is assumed to be the bal entry point.
    .sysproc name, index
    The `.sysproc' directive defines a name for a system procedure. After you define it using `.sysproc', you can use name to refer to the system procedure identified by index when calling procedures with the optimized call instruction `callj'. Both arguments are required; index must be between 0 and 31 (inclusive).

    i960 Opcodes

    All Intel 960 machine instructions are supported; see section i960 Command-line Options for a discussion of selecting the instruction subset for a particular 960 architecture.

    Some opcodes are processed beyond simply emitting a single corresponding instruction: `callj', and Compare-and-Branch or Compare-and-Jump instructions with target displacements larger than 13 bits.

    callj

    You can write callj to have the assembler or the linker determine the most appropriate form of subroutine call: `call', `bal', or `calls'. If the assembly source contains enough information--a `.leafproc' or `.sysproc' directive defining the operand--then translates the callj; if not, it simply emits the callj, leaving it for the linker to resolve.

    Compare-and-Branch

    The 960 architectures provide combined Compare-and-Branch instructions that permit you to store the branch target in the lower 13 bits of the instruction word itself. However, if you specify a branch target far enough away that its address won't fit in 13 bits, the assembler can either issue an error, or convert your Compare-and-Branch instruction into separate instructions to do the compare and the branch.

    Whether gives an error or expands the instruction depends on two choices you can make: whether you use the `-no-relax' option, and whether you use a "Compare and Branch" instruction or a "Compare and Jump" instruction. The "Jump" instructions are always expanded if necessary; the "Branch" instructions are expanded when necessary unless you specify -no-relax---in which case gives an error instead.

    These are the Compare-and-Branch instructions, their "Jump" variants, and the instruction pairs they may expand into:

    M680x0 Dependent Features

    M680x0 Options

    The Motorola 680x0 version of has two machine dependent options. One shortens undefined references from 32 to 16 bits, while the other is used to tell what kind of machine it is assembling for.

    You can use the `-l' option to shorten the size of references to undefined symbols. If you do not use the `-l' option, references to undefined symbols are wide enough for a full long (32 bits). (Since cannot know where these symbols end up, can only allocate space for the linker to fill in later. Since does not know how far away these symbols are, it allocates as much space as it can.) If you use this option, the references are only one word wide (16 bits). This may be useful if you want the object file to be as small as possible, and you know that the relevant symbols are always less than 17 bits away.

    The 680x0 version of is most frequently used to assemble programs for the Motorola MC68020 microprocessor. Occasionally it is used to assemble programs for the mostly similar, but slightly different MC68000 or MC68010 microprocessors. You can give the options `-m68000', `-mc68000', `-m68010', `-mc68010', `-m68020', and `-mc68020' to tell it what processor is the target.

    Syntax

    This syntax for the Motorola 680x0 was developed at MIT.

    The 680x0 version of uses syntax compatible with the Sun assembler. Intervening periods are ignored; for example, `movl' is equivalent to `move.l'.

    In the following table apc stands for any of the address registers (`a0' through `a7'), nothing, (`'), the Program Counter (`pc'), or the zero-address relative to the program counter (`zpc').

    The following addressing modes are understood:

    Immediate
    `#digits'
    Data Register
    `%d0' through `%d7'
    Address Register
    `%a0' through `%a7'
    `%a7' is also known as `%sp', i.e. the Stack Pointer. %a6 is also known as `%fp', the Frame Pointer.
    Address Register Indirect
    `%a0@' through `%a7@'
    Address Register Postincrement
    `%a0@+' through `%a7@+'
    Address Register Predecrement
    `%a0@-' through `%a7@-'
    Indirect Plus Offset
    `%apc@(digits)'
    Index
    `%apc@(digits,%register:size:scale)' or `%apc@(%register:size:scale)'
    Postindex
    `%apc@(digits)@(digits,%register:size:scale)' or `%apc@(digits)@(%register:size:scale)'
    Preindex
    `%apc@(digits,%register:size:scale)@(digits)' or `%apc@(%register:size:scale)@(digits)'
    Memory Indirect
    `%apc@(digits)@(digits)'
    Absolute
    `symbol', or `digits'

    For some configurations, especially those where the compiler normally does not prepend an underscore to the names of user variables, the assembler requires a `%' before any use of a register name. This is intended to let the assembler distinguish between C variables and registers named `a0' through `a7', and so on. The `%' is always accepted, but is not required for certain configurations, notably `sun3'.

    Motorola Syntax

    The standard Motorola syntax for this chip differs from the syntax already discussed (see section Syntax). can accept some forms of Motorola syntax for operands, even if MIT syntax is used for other operands in the same instruction. The two kinds of syntax are fully compatible; our support for Motorola syntax is simply incomplete at present.

    In particular, you may write or generate M68K assembler with the following conventions:

    (In the following table %apc stands for any of the address registers (`%a0' through `%a7'), nothing (`'), the Program Counter (`%pc'), or the zero-address relative to the program counter (`%zpc').)

    The following additional addressing modes are understood:

    Address Register Indirect
    `%a0' through `%a7'
    `%a7' is also known as `%sp', i.e. the Stack Pointer. %a6 is also known as `%fp', the Frame Pointer.
    Address Register Postincrement
    `(%a0)+' through `(%a7)+'
    Address Register Predecrement
    `-(%a0)' through `-(%a7)'
    Indirect Plus Offset
    `digits(%apc)'
    Index
    `digits(%apc,(%register.size*scale))'
    or `(%apc,%register.size*scale)'
    In either case, size and scale are optional (scale defaults to `1', size defaults to `l'). scale can be `1', `2', `4', or `8'. size can be `w' or `l'. scale is only supported on the 68020 and greater.

    Other, more complex addressing modes permitted in Motorola syntax are not handled.

    Floating Point

    The floating point code is not too well tested, and may have subtle bugs in it.

    Packed decimal (P) format floating literals are not supported. Feel free to add the code!

    The floating point formats generated by directives are these.

    .float
    Single precision floating point constants.
    .double
    Double precision floating point constants.

    There is no directive to produce regions of memory holding extended precision numbers, however they can be used as immediate operands to floating-point instructions. Adding a directive to create extended precision numbers would not be hard, but it has not yet seemed necessary.

    680x0 Machine Directives

    In order to be compatible with the Sun assembler the 680x0 assembler understands the following directives.

    .data1
    This directive is identical to a .data 1 directive.
    .data2
    This directive is identical to a .data 2 directive.
    .even
    This directive is identical to a .align 1 directive.
    .skip
    This directive is identical to a .space directive.

    Opcodes

    Branch Improvement

    Certain pseudo opcodes are permitted for branch instructions. They expand to the shortest branch instruction that reach the target. Generally these mnemonics are made by substituting `j' for `b' at the start of a Motorola mnemonic.

    The following table summarizes the pseudo-operations. A * flags cases that are more fully described after the table:

              Displacement
              +-------------------------------------------------
              |                68020   68000/10
    Pseudo-Op |BYTE    WORD    LONG    LONG      non-PC relative
              +-------------------------------------------------
         jbsr |bsrs    bsr     bsrl    jsr       jsr
          jra |bras    bra     bral    jmp       jmp
    *     jXX |bXXs    bXX     bXXl    bNXs;jmpl bNXs;jmp
    *    dbXX |dbXX    dbXX        dbXX; bra; jmpl
    *    fjXX |fbXXw   fbXXw   fbXXl             fbNXw;jmp
    
    XX: condition
    NX: negative of condition XX
    
    
    *---see full description below

    jbsr
    jra
    These are the simplest jump pseudo-operations; they always map to one particular machine instruction, depending on the displacement to the branch target.
    jXX
    Here, `jXX' stands for an entire family of pseudo-operations, where XX is a conditional branch or condition-code test. The full list of pseudo-ops in this family is:
     jhi   jls   jcc   jcs   jne   jeq   jvc
     jvs   jpl   jmi   jge   jlt   jgt   jle
    
    For the cases of non-PC relative displacements and long displacements on the 68000 or 68010, issues a longer code fragment in terms of NX, the opposite condition to XX. For example, for the non-PC relative case:
        jXX foo
    
    gives
         bNXs oof
         jmp foo
     oof:
    
    dbXX
    The full family of pseudo-operations covered here is
     dbhi   dbls   dbcc   dbcs   dbne   dbeq   dbvc
     dbvs   dbpl   dbmi   dbge   dblt   dbgt   dble
     dbf    dbra   dbt
    
    Other than for word and byte displacements, when the source reads `dbXX foo', emits
         dbXX oo1
         bra oo2
     oo1:jmpl foo
     oo2:
    
    fjXX
    This family includes
     fjne   fjeq   fjge   fjlt   fjgt   fjle   fjf
     fjt    fjgl   fjgle  fjnge  fjngl  fjngle fjngt
     fjnle  fjnlt  fjoge  fjogl  fjogt  fjole  fjolt
     fjor   fjseq  fjsf   fjsne  fjst   fjueq  fjuge
     fjugt  fjule  fjult  fjun
    
    For branch targets that are not PC relative, emits
         fbNX oof
         jmp foo
     oof:
    
    when it encounters `fjXX foo'.

    Special Characters

    The immediate character is `#' for Sun compatibility. The line-comment character is `|'. If a `#' appears at the beginning of a line, it is treated as a comment unless it looks like `# line file', in which case it is treated normally.

    SPARC Dependent Features

    Options

    The SPARC chip family includes several successive levels (or other variants) of chip, using the same core instruction set, but including a few additional instructions at each level.

    By default, assumes the core instruction set (SPARC v6), but "bumps" the architecture level as needed: it switches to successively higher architectures as it encounters instructions that only exist in the higher levels.

    -Av6 | -Av7 | -Av8 | -Av9 | -Asparclite
    Use one of the `-A' options to select one of the SPARC architectures explicitly. If you select an architecture explicitly, reports a fatal error if it encounters an instruction or feature requiring a higher level.
    -bump
    Permit the assembler to "bump" the architecture level as required, but warn whenever it is necessary to switch to another level.

    Floating Point

    The Sparc uses IEEE floating-point numbers.

    Sparc Machine Directives

    The Sparc version of supports the following additional machine directives:

    .align
    This must be followed by the desired alignment in bytes.
    .common
    This must be followed by a symbol name, a positive number, and "bss". This behaves somewhat like .comm, but the syntax is different.
    .half
    This is functionally identical to .short.
    .proc
    This directive is ignored. Any text following it on the same line is also ignored.
    .reserve
    This must be followed by a symbol name, a positive number, and "bss". This behaves somewhat like .lcomm, but the syntax is different.
    .seg
    This must be followed by "text", "data", or "data1". It behaves like .text, .data, or .data 1.
    .skip
    This is functionally identical to the .space directive.
    .word
    On the Sparc, the .word directive produces 32 bit values, instead of the 16 bit values it produces on many other machines.
    .xword
    On the Sparc V9 processor, the .xword directive produces 64 bit values.

    80386 Dependent Features

    Options

    The 80386 has no machine dependent options.

    AT&T Syntax versus Intel Syntax

    In order to maintain compatibility with the output of , supports AT&T System V/386 assembler syntax. This is quite different from Intel syntax. We mention these differences because almost all 80386 documents used only Intel syntax. Notable differences between the two syntaxes are:

    Opcode Naming

    Opcode names are suffixed with one character modifiers which specify the size of operands. The letters `b', `w', and `l' specify byte, word, and long operands. If no suffix is specified by an instruction and it contains no memory operands then tries to fill in the missing suffix based on the destination register operand (the last one by convention). Thus, `mov %ax, %bx' is equivalent to `movw %ax, %bx'; also, `mov $1, %bx' is equivalent to `movw $1, %bx'. Note that this is incompatible with the AT&T Unix assembler which assumes that a missing opcode suffix implies long operand size. (This incompatibility does not affect compiler output since compilers always explicitly specify the opcode suffix.)

    Almost all opcodes have the same names in AT&T and Intel format. There are a few exceptions. The sign extend and zero extend instructions need two sizes to specify them. They need a size to sign/zero extend from and a size to zero extend to. This is accomplished by using two opcode suffixes in AT&T syntax. Base names for sign extend and zero extend are `movs...' and `movz...' in AT&T syntax (`movsx' and `movzx' in Intel syntax). The opcode suffixes are tacked on to this base name, the from suffix before the to suffix. Thus, `movsbl %al, %edx' is AT&T syntax for "move sign extend from %al to %edx." Possible suffixes, thus, are `bl' (from byte to long), `bw' (from byte to word), and `wl' (from word to long).

    The Intel-syntax conversion instructions

    are called `cbtw', `cwtl', `cwtd', and `cltd' in AT&T naming. accepts either naming for these instructions.

    Far call/jump instructions are `lcall' and `ljmp' in AT&T syntax, but are `call far' and `jump far' in Intel convention.

    Register Naming

    Register operands are always prefixes with `%'. The 80386 registers consist of

    Opcode Prefixes

    Opcode prefixes are used to modify the following opcode. They are used to repeat string instructions, to provide section overrides, to perform bus lock operations, and to give operand and address size (16-bit operands are specified in an instruction by prefixing what would normally be 32-bit operands with a "operand size" opcode prefix). Opcode prefixes are usually given as single-line instructions with no operands, and must directly precede the instruction they act upon. For example, the `scas' (scan string) instruction is repeated with:

            repne
            scas
    

    Here is a list of opcode prefixes:

    Memory References

    An Intel syntax indirect memory reference of the form

    section:[base + index*scale + disp]
    

    is translated into the AT&T syntax

    section:disp(base, index, scale)
    

    where base and index are the optional 32-bit base and index registers, disp is the optional displacement, and scale, taking the values 1, 2, 4, and 8, multiplies index to calculate the address of the operand. If no scale is specified, scale is taken to be 1. section specifies the optional section register for the memory operand, and may override the default section register (see a 80386 manual for section register defaults). Note that section overrides in AT&T syntax must have be preceded by a `%'. If you specify a section override which coincides with the default section register, does not output any section register override prefixes to assemble the given instruction. Thus, section overrides can be specified to emphasize which section register is used for a given memory operand.

    Here are some examples of Intel and AT&T style memory references:

    AT&T: `-4(%ebp)', Intel: `[ebp - 4]'
    base is `%ebp'; disp is `-4'. section is missing, and the default section is used (`%ss' for addressing with `%ebp' as the base register). index, scale are both missing.
    AT&T: `foo(,%eax,4)', Intel: `[foo + eax*4]'
    index is `%eax' (scaled by a scale 4); disp is `foo'. All other fields are missing. The section register here defaults to `%ds'.
    AT&T: `foo(,1)'; Intel `[foo]'
    This uses the value pointed to by `foo' as a memory operand. Note that base and index are both missing, but there is only one `,'. This is a syntactic exception.
    AT&T: `%gs:foo'; Intel `gs:foo'
    This selects the contents of the variable `foo' with section register section being `%gs'.

    Absolute (as opposed to PC relative) call and jump operands must be prefixed with `*'. If no `*' is specified, always chooses PC relative addressing for jump/call labels.

    Any instruction that has a memory operand must specify its size (byte, word, or long) with an opcode suffix (`b', `w', or `l', respectively).

    Handling of Jump Instructions

    Jump instructions are always optimized to use the smallest possible displacements. This is accomplished by using byte (8-bit) displacement jumps whenever the target is sufficiently close. If a byte displacement is insufficient a long (32-bit) displacement is used. We do not support word (16-bit) displacement jumps (i.e. prefixing the jump instruction with the `addr16' opcode prefix), since the 80386 insists upon masking `%eip' to 16 bits after the word displacement is added.

    Note that the `jcxz', `jecxz', `loop', `loopz', `loope', `loopnz' and `loopne' instructions only come in byte displacements, so that if you use these instructions ( does not use them) you may get an error message (and incorrect code). The AT&T 80386 assembler tries to get around this problem by expanding `jcxz foo' to

             jcxz cx_zero
             jmp cx_nonzero
    cx_zero: jmp foo
    cx_nonzero:
    

    Floating Point

    All 80387 floating point types except packed BCD are supported. (BCD support may be added without much difficulty). These data types are 16-, 32-, and 64- bit integers, and single (32-bit), double (64-bit), and extended (80-bit) precision floating point. Each supported type has an opcode suffix and a constructor associated with it. Opcode suffixes specify operand's data types. Constructors build these data types into memory.

    Register to register operations do not require opcode suffixes, so that `fst %st, %st(1)' is equivalent to `fstl %st, %st(1)'.

    Since the 80387 automatically synchronizes with the 80386 `fwait' instructions are almost never needed (this is not the case for the 80286/80287 and 8086/8087 combinations). Therefore, suppresses the `fwait' instruction whenever it is implicitly selected by one of the `fn...' instructions. For example, `fsave' and `fnsave' are treated identically. In general, all the `fn...' instructions are made equivalent to `f...' instructions. If `fwait' is desired it must be explicitly coded.

    Writing 16-bit Code

    While GAS normally writes only "pure" 32-bit i386 code, it has limited support for writing code to run in real mode or in 16-bit protected mode code segments. To do this, insert a `.code16' directive before the assembly language instructions to be run in 16-bit mode. You can switch GAS back to writing normal 32-bit code with the `.code32' directive.

    GAS understands exactly the same assembly language syntax in 16-bit mode as in 32-bit mode. The function of any given instruction is exactly the same regardless of mode, as long as the resulting object code is executed in the mode for which GAS wrote it. So, for example, the `ret' mnemonic produces a 32-bit return instruction regardless of whether it is to be run in 16-bit or 32-bit mode. (If GAS is in 16-bit mode, it will add an operand size prefix to the instruction to force it to be a 32-bit return.)

    This means, for one thing, that you can use GNU CC to write code to be run in real mode or 16-bit protected mode. Just insert the statement `asm(".code16");' at the beginning of your C source file, and while GNU CC will still be generating 32-bit code, GAS will automatically add all the necessary size prefixes to make that code run in 16-bit mode. Of course, since GNU CC only writes small-model code (it doesn't know how to attach segment selectors to pointers like native x86 compilers do), any 16-bit code you write with GNU CC will essentially be limited to a 64K address space. Also, there will be a code size and performance penalty due to all the extra address and operand size prefixes GAS has to add to the instructions.

    Note that placing GAS in 16-bit mode does not mean that the resulting code will necessarily run on a 16-bit pre-80386 processor. To write code that runs on such a processor, you would have to refrain from using any 32-bit constructs which require GAS to output address or operand size prefixes. At the moment this would be rather difficult, because GAS currently supports only 32-bit addressing modes: when writing 16-bit code, it always outputs address size prefixes for any instruction that uses a non-register addressing mode. So you can write code that runs on 16-bit processors, but only if that code never references memory.

    Notes

    There is some trickery concerning the `mul' and `imul' instructions that deserves mention. The 16-, 32-, and 64-bit expanding multiplies (base opcode `0xf6'; extension 4 for `mul' and 5 for `imul') can be output only in the one operand form. Thus, `imul %ebx, %eax' does not select the expanding multiply; the expanding multiply would clobber the `%edx' register, and this would confuse output. Use `imul %ebx' to get the 64-bit product in `%edx:%eax'.

    We have added a two operand form of `imul' when the first operand is an immediate mode expression and the second operand is a register. This is just a shorthand, so that, multiplying `%eax' by 69, for example, can be done with `imul $69, %eax' rather than `imul $69, %eax, %eax'.

    Z8000 Dependent Features

    The Z8000 supports both members of the Z8000 family: the unsegmented Z8002, with 16 bit addresses, and the segmented Z8001 with 24 bit addresses.

    When the assembler is in unsegmented mode (specified with the unsegm directive), an address takes up one word (16 bit) sized register. When the assembler is in segmented mode (specified with the segm directive), a 24-bit address takes up a long (32 bit) register. See section Assembler Directives for the Z8000, for a list of other Z8000 specific assembler directives.

    Options

    has no additional command-line options for the Zilog Z8000 family.

    Syntax

    Special Characters

    `!' is the line comment character.

    You can use `;' instead of a newline to separate statements.

    Register Names

    The Z8000 has sixteen 16 bit registers, numbered 0 to 15. You can refer to different sized groups of registers by register number, with the prefix `r' for 16 bit registers, `rr' for 32 bit registers and `rq' for 64 bit registers. You can also refer to the contents of the first eight (of the sixteen 16 bit registers) by bytes. They are named `rnh' and `rnl'.

    byte registers
    r0l r0h r1h r1l r2h r2l r3h r3l
    r4h r4l r5h r5l r6h r6l r7h r7l
    
    word registers
    r0 r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 r7 r8 r9 r10 r11 r12 r13 r14 r15
    
    long word registers
    rr0 rr2 rr4 rr6 rr8 rr10 rr12 rr14
    
    quad word registers
    rq0 rq4 rq8 rq12
    

    Addressing Modes

    understands the following addressing modes for the Z8000:

    rn
    Register direct
    @rn
    Indirect register
    addr
    Direct: the 16 bit or 24 bit address (depending on whether the assembler is in segmented or unsegmented mode) of the operand is in the instruction.
    address(rn)
    Indexed: the 16 or 24 bit address is added to the 16 bit register to produce the final address in memory of the operand.
    rn(#imm)
    Base Address: the 16 or 24 bit register is added to the 16 bit sign extended immediate displacement to produce the final address in memory of the operand.
    rn(rm)
    Base Index: the 16 or 24 bit register rn is added to the sign extended 16 bit index register rm to produce the final address in memory of the operand.
    #xx
    Immediate data xx.

    Assembler Directives for the Z8000

    The Z8000 port of includes these additional assembler directives, for compatibility with other Z8000 assemblers. As shown, these do not begin with `.' (unlike the ordinary directives).

    segm
    Generates code for the segmented Z8001.
    unsegm
    Generates code for the unsegmented Z8002.
    name
    Synonym for .file
    global
    Synonum for .global
    wval
    Synonym for .word
    lval
    Synonym for .long
    bval
    Synonym for .byte
    sval
    Assemble a string. sval expects one string literal, delimited by single quotes. It assembles each byte of the string into consecutive addresses. You can use the escape sequence `%xx' (where xx represents a two-digit hexadecimal number) to represent the character whose ASCII value is xx. Use this feature to describe single quote and other characters that may not appear in string literals as themselves. For example, the C statement `char *a = "he said \"it's 50% off\"";' is represented in Z8000 assembly language (shown with the assembler output in hex at the left) as @begingroup @let@nonarrowing=@comment
    68652073    sval    'he said %22it%27s 50%25 off%22%00'
    61696420
    22697427
    73203530
    25206F66
    662200
    
    @endgroup
    rsect
    synonym for .section
    block
    synonym for .space
    even
    synonym for .align 1

    Opcodes

    For detailed information on the Z8000 machine instruction set, see Z8000 Technical Manual.

    MIPS Dependent Features

    GNU for MIPS architectures supports the MIPS R2000, R3000, R4000 and R6000 processors. For information about the MIPS instruction set, see MIPS RISC Architecture, by Kane and Heindrich (Prentice-Hall). For an overview of MIPS assembly conventions, see "Appendix D: Assembly Language Programming" in the same work.

    Assembler options

    The MIPS configurations of GNU support these special options:

    -G num
    This option sets the largest size of an object that can be referenced implicitly with the gp register. It is only accepted for targets that use ECOFF format. The default value is 8.
    -EB
    -EL
    Any MIPS configuration of can select big-endian or little-endian output at run time (unlike the other GNU development tools, which must be configured for one or the other). Use `-EB' to select big-endian output, and `-EL' for little-endian.
    -mips1
    -mips2
    -mips3
    Generate code for a particular MIPS Instruction Set Architecture level. `-mips1' corresponds to the R2000 and R3000 processors, `-mips2' to the R6000 processor, and `-mips3' to the R4000 processor. You can also switch instruction sets during the assembly; see section Directives to override the ISA level.
    -m4650
    -no-m4650
    Generate code for the MIPS R4650 chip. This tells the assembler to accept the `mad' and `madu' instruction, and to not schedule `nop' instructions around accesses to the `HI' and `LO' registers. `-no-m4650' turns off this option.
    -mcpu=CPU
    Generate code for a particular MIPS cpu. This has little effect on the assembler, but it is passed by .
    -nocpp
    This option is ignored. It is accepted for command-line compatibility with other assemblers, which use it to turn off C style preprocessing. With GNU , there is no need for `-nocpp', because the GNU assembler itself never runs the C preprocessor.
    --trap
    --no-break
    automatically macro expands certain division and multiplication instructions to check for overflow and division by zero. This option causes to generate code to take a trap exception rather than a break exception when an error is detected. The trap instructions are only supported at Instruction Set Architecture level 2 and higher.
    --break
    --no-trap
    Generate code to take a break exception rather than a trap exception when an error is detected. This is the default.

    MIPS ECOFF object code

    Assembling for a MIPS ECOFF target supports some additional sections besides the usual .text, .data and .bss. The additional sections are .rdata, used for read-only data, .sdata, used for small data, and .sbss, used for small common objects.

    When assembling for ECOFF, the assembler uses the $gp ($28) register to form the address of a "small object". Any object in the .sdata or .sbss sections is considered "small" in this sense. For external objects, or for objects in the .bss section, you can use the `-G' option to control the size of objects addressed via $gp; the default value is 8, meaning that a reference to any object eight bytes or smaller uses $gp. Passing `-G 0' to prevents it from using the $gp register on the basis of object size (but the assembler uses $gp for objects in .sdata or sbss in any case). The size of an object in the .bss section is set by the .comm or .lcomm directive that defines it. The size of an external object may be set with the .extern directive. For example, `.extern sym,4' declares that the object at sym is 4 bytes in length, whie leaving sym otherwise undefined.

    Using small ECOFF objects requires linker support, and assumes that the $gp register is correctly initialized (normally done automatically by the startup code). MIPS ECOFF assembly code must not modify the $gp register.

    Directives for debugging information

    MIPS ECOFF supports several directives used for generating debugging information which are not support by traditional MIPS assemblers. These are .def, .endef, .dim, .file, .scl, .size, .tag, .type, .val, .stabd, .stabn, and .stabs. The debugging information generated by the three .stab directives can only be read by GDB, not by traditional MIPS debuggers (this enhancement is required to fully support C++ debugging). These directives are primarily used by compilers, not assembly language programmers!

    Directives to override the ISA level

    GNU supports an additional directive to change the MIPS Instruction Set Architecture level on the fly: .set mipsn. n should be a number from 0 to 3. A value from 1 to 3 makes the assembler accept instructions for the corresponding ISA level, from that point on in the assembly. .set mipsn affects not only which instructions are permitted, but also how certain macros are expanded. .set mips0 restores the ISA level to its original level: either the level you selected with command line options, or the default for your configuration. You can use this feature to permit specific R4000 instructions while assembling in 32 bit mode. Use this directive with care!

    Traditional MIPS assemblers do not support this directive.

    Acknowledgements

    If you have contributed to and your name isn't listed here, it is not meant as a slight. We just don't know about it. Send mail to the maintainer, and we'll correct the situation. Currently (January 1994), the maintainer is Ken Raeburn (email address raeburn@cygnus.com).

    Dean Elsner wrote the original GNU assembler for the VAX.(1)

    Jay Fenlason maintained GAS for a while, adding support for GDB-specific debug information and the 68k series machines, most of the preprocessing pass, and extensive changes in `messages.c', `input-file.c', `write.c'.

    K. Richard Pixley maintained GAS for a while, adding various enhancements and many bug fixes, including merging support for several processors, breaking GAS up to handle multiple object file format back ends (including heavy rewrite, testing, an integration of the coff and b.out back ends), adding configuration including heavy testing and verification of cross assemblers and file splits and renaming, converted GAS to strictly ANSI C including full prototypes, added support for m680[34]0 and cpu32, did considerable work on i960 including a COFF port (including considerable amounts of reverse engineering), a SPARC opcode file rewrite, DECstation, rs6000, and hp300hpux host ports, updated "know" assertions and made them work, much other reorganization, cleanup, and lint.

    Ken Raeburn wrote the high-level BFD interface code to replace most of the code in format-specific I/O modules.

    The original VMS support was contributed by David L. Kashtan. Eric Youngdale has done much work with it since.

    The Intel 80386 machine description was written by Eliot Dresselhaus.

    Minh Tran-Le at IntelliCorp contributed some AIX 386 support.

    The Motorola 88k machine description was contributed by Devon Bowen of Buffalo University and Torbjorn Granlund of the Swedish Institute of Computer Science.

    Keith Knowles at the Open Software Foundation wrote the original MIPS back end (`tc-mips.c', `tc-mips.h'), and contributed Rose format support (which hasn't been merged in yet). Ralph Campbell worked with the MIPS code to support a.out format.

    Support for the Zilog Z8k and Hitachi H8/300 and H8/500 processors (tc-z8k, tc-h8300, tc-h8500), and IEEE 695 object file format (obj-ieee), was written by Steve Chamberlain of Cygnus Support. Steve also modified the COFF back end to use BFD for some low-level operations, for use with the H8/300 and AMD 29k targets.

    John Gilmore built the AMD 29000 support, added .include support, and simplified the configuration of which versions accept which directives. He updated the 68k machine description so that Motorola's opcodes always produced fixed-size instructions (e.g. jsr), while synthetic instructions remained shrinkable (jbsr). John fixed many bugs, including true tested cross-compilation support, and one bug in relaxation that took a week and required the proverbial one-bit fix.

    Ian Lance Taylor of Cygnus Support merged the Motorola and MIT syntax for the 68k, completed support for some COFF targets (68k, i386 SVR3, and SCO Unix), added support for MIPS ECOFF and ELF targets, and made a few other minor patches.

    Steve Chamberlain made able to generate listings.

    Hewlett-Packard contributed support for the HP9000/300.

    Jeff Law wrote GAS and BFD support for the native HPPA object format (SOM) along with a fairly extensive HPPA testsuite (for both SOM and ELF object formats). This work was supported by both the Center for Software Science at the University of Utah and Cygnus Support.

    Support for ELF format files has been worked on by Mark Eichin of Cygnus Support (original, incomplete implementation for SPARC), Pete Hoogenboom and Jeff Law at the University of Utah (HPPA mainly), Michael Meissner of the Open Software Foundation (i386 mainly), and Ken Raeburn of Cygnus Support (sparc, and some initial 64-bit support).

    Several engineers at Cygnus Support have also provided many small bug fixes and configuration enhancements.

    Many others have contributed large or small bugfixes and enhancements. If you have contributed significant work and are not mentioned on this list, and want to be, let us know. Some of the history has been lost; we are not intentionally leaving anyone out.

    Index

    #

  • #
  • #APP
  • #NO_APP
  • -

  • -+ option, VAX/VMS
  • --
  • --statistics
  • -a
  • -A options, i960
  • -ad
  • -ah
  • -al
  • -an
  • -as
  • -Asparclite
  • -Av6
  • -Av8
  • -Av9
  • -b option, i960
  • -D
  • -D, ignored on VAX
  • -d, VAX option
  • -EB option (MIPS)
  • -EL option (MIPS)
  • -f
  • -G option (MIPS)
  • -h option, VAX/VMS
  • -I path
  • -J, ignored on VAX
  • -K
  • -L
  • -l option, M680x0
  • -m68000 and related options
  • -no-relax option, i960
  • -nocpp ignored (MIPS)
  • -o
  • -R
  • -S, ignored on VAX
  • -T, ignored on VAX
  • -t, ignored on VAX
  • -v
  • -V, redundant on VAX
  • -version
  • -W
  • .

  • . (symbol)
  • .o
  • .set mipsn
  • 1

  • 16-bit code, i386
  • 2

  • 29K support
  • :

  • : (label)
  • @

  • version
  • \

  • \" (doublequote character)
  • \\ (`\' character)
  • \b (backspace character)
  • \ddd (octal character code)
  • \f (formfeed character)
  • \n (newline character)
  • \r (carriage return character)
  • \t (tab)
  • a

  • a.out
  • a.out symbol attributes
  • abort directive
  • absolute section
  • addition, permitted arguments
  • addresses
  • addresses, format of
  • addressing modes, H8/300
  • addressing modes, M680x0
  • addressing modes, Z8000
  • advancing location counter
  • align directive
  • align directive, SPARC
  • alternate syntax for the 680x0
  • AMD 29K floating point (IEEE)
  • AMD 29K identifiers
  • AMD 29K line comment character
  • AMD 29K line separator
  • AMD 29K machine directives
  • AMD 29K opcodes
  • AMD 29K options (none)
  • AMD 29K protected registers
  • AMD 29K register names
  • AMD 29K special purpose registers
  • AMD 29K statement separator
  • AMD 29K support
  • app-file directive
  • architecture options, i960
  • architecture options, M680x0
  • architectures, SPARC
  • arguments for addition
  • arguments for subtraction
  • arguments in expressions
  • arithmetic functions
  • arithmetic operands
  • ascii directive
  • asciz directive
  • assembler internal logic error
  • assembler, and linker
  • assembly listings, enabling
  • assigning values to symbols
  • attributes, symbol
  • Av7
  • b

  • backslash (\\)
  • backspace (\b)
  • big-endian output, MIPS
  • bignums
  • binary integers
  • bitfields, not supported on VAX
  • block
  • block directive, AMD 29K
  • branch improvement, M680x0
  • branch improvement, VAX
  • branch recording, i960
  • branch statistics table, i960
  • bss directive, i960
  • bss section
  • bus lock prefixes, i386
  • bval
  • byte directive
  • c

  • call instructions, i386
  • callj, i960 pseudo-opcode
  • carriage return (\r)
  • character constants
  • character escape codes
  • character, single
  • characters used in symbols
  • code16 directive, i386
  • code32 directive, i386
  • comm directive
  • command line conventions
  • command-line options ignored, VAX
  • comments
  • comments, M680x0
  • comments, removed by preprocessor
  • common directive, SPARC
  • common variable storage
  • compare and jump expansions, i960
  • compare/branch instructions, i960
  • conditional assembly
  • constant, single character
  • constants
  • constants, bignum
  • constants, character
  • constants, converted by preprocessor
  • constants, floating point
  • constants, integer
  • constants, number
  • constants, string
  • continuing statements
  • conversion instructions, i386
  • coprocessor wait, i386
  • cputype directive, AMD 29K
  • current address
  • current address, advancing
  • d

  • data and text sections, joining
  • data directive
  • data1 directive, M680x0
  • data2 directive, M680x0
  • debuggers, and symbol order
  • decimal integers
  • deprecated directives
  • descriptor, of a.out symbol
  • dfloat directive, VAX
  • directives and instructions
  • directives, M680x0
  • directives, machine independent
  • directives, Z8000
  • displacement sizing character, VAX
  • dot (symbol)
  • double directive
  • double directive, i386
  • double directive, M680x0
  • double directive, VAX
  • doublequote (\")
  • e

  • ECOFF sections
  • eight-byte integer
  • eject directive
  • else directive
  • empty expressions
  • endif directive
  • EOF, newline must precede
  • equ directive
  • error messsages
  • errors, continuing after
  • escape codes, character
  • even
  • even directive, M680x0
  • expr (internal section)
  • expression arguments
  • expressions
  • expressions, empty
  • expressions, integer
  • extended directive, i960
  • extern directive
  • f

  • faster processing (-f)
  • ffloat directive, VAX
  • file directive
  • file directive, AMD 29K
  • file name, logical
  • files, including
  • files, input
  • fill directive
  • filling memory
  • float directive
  • float directive, i386
  • float directive, M680x0
  • float directive, VAX
  • floating point numbers
  • floating point numbers (double)
  • floating point numbers (single)
  • floating point, AMD 29K (IEEE)
  • floating point, H8/300 (IEEE)
  • floating point, i386
  • floating point, i960 (IEEE)
  • floating point, M680x0
  • floating point, SPARC (IEEE)
  • floating point, VAX
  • flonums
  • format of error messages
  • format of warning messages
  • formfeed (\f)
  • functions, in expressions
  • fwait instruction, i386
  • g

  • gbr960, i960 postprocessor
  • gfloat directive, VAX
  • global
  • global directive
  • gp register, MIPS
  • grouping data
  • h

  • H8/300 addressing modes
  • H8/300 floating point (IEEE)
  • H8/300 line comment character
  • H8/300 line separator
  • H8/300 machine directives (none)
  • H8/300 opcode summary
  • H8/300 options (none)
  • H8/300 registers
  • H8/300 size suffixes
  • H8/300 support
  • H8/300H, assembling for
  • half directive, SPARC
  • hexadecimal integers
  • hfloat directive, VAX
  • hword directive
  • i

  • i386 16-bit code
  • i386 conversion instructions
  • i386 floating point
  • i386 fwait instruction
  • i386 immediate operands
  • i386 jump optimization
  • i386 jump, call, return
  • i386 jump/call operands
  • i386 memory references
  • i386 mul, imul instructions
  • i386 opcode naming
  • i386 opcode prefixes
  • i386 options (none)
  • i386 register operands
  • i386 registers
  • i386 sections
  • i386 size suffixes
  • i386 source, destination operands
  • i386 support
  • i386 syntax compatibility
  • i80306 support
  • i960 architecture options
  • i960 branch recording
  • i960 callj pseudo-opcode
  • i960 compare and jump expansions
  • i960 compare/branch instructions
  • i960 floating point (IEEE)
  • i960 machine directives
  • i960 opcodes
  • i960 options
  • i960 support
  • ident directive
  • identifiers, AMD 29K
  • if directive
  • ifdef directive
  • ifndef directive
  • ifnotdef directive
  • immediate character, M680x0
  • immediate character, VAX
  • immediate operands, i386
  • imul instruction, i386
  • include directive
  • include directive search path
  • indirect character, VAX
  • infix operators
  • inhibiting interrupts, i386
  • input
  • input file linenumbers
  • instruction set, M680x0
  • instruction summary, H8/300
  • instruction summary, Z8000
  • instructions and directives
  • int directive
  • int directive, H8/300
  • int directive, i386
  • integer expressions
  • integer, 16-byte
  • integer, 8-byte
  • integers
  • integers, 16-bit
  • integers, 32-bit
  • integers, binary
  • integers, decimal
  • integers, hexadecimal
  • integers, octal
  • integers, one byte
  • internal sections
  • invocation summary
  • j

  • joining text and data sections
  • jump instructions, i386
  • jump optimization, i386
  • jump/call operands, i386
  • l

  • label (:)
  • labels
  • lcomm directive
  • ld
  • leafproc directive, i960
  • length of symbols
  • lflags directive (ignored)
  • line comment character
  • line comment character, AMD 29K
  • line comment character, H8/300
  • line comment character, M680x0
  • line comment character, Z8000
  • line directive
  • line directive, AMD 29K
  • line numbers, in input files
  • line numbers, in warnings/errors
  • line separator character
  • line separator, AMD 29K
  • line separator, H8/300
  • line separator, Z8000
  • lines starting with #
  • linker
  • linker, and assembler
  • list directive
  • listing control, turning off
  • listing control, turning on
  • listing control: new page
  • listing control: paper size
  • listing control: subtitle
  • listing control: title line
  • listings, enabling
  • little-endian output, MIPS
  • ln directive
  • local common symbols
  • local labels, retaining in output
  • local symbol names
  • location counter
  • location counter, advancing
  • logical file name
  • logical line number
  • logical line numbers
  • long directive
  • long directive, i386
  • lval
  • m

  • M680x0 addressing modes
  • M680x0 architecture options
  • M680x0 branch improvement
  • M680x0 directives
  • M680x0 floating point
  • M680x0 immediate character
  • M680x0 line comment character
  • M680x0 opcodes
  • M680x0 options
  • M680x0 pseudo-opcodes
  • M680x0 size modifiers
  • M680x0 support
  • M680x0 syntax
  • machine directives, AMD 29K
  • machine directives, H8/300 (none)
  • machine directives, i960
  • machine directives, SPARC
  • machine directives, VAX
  • machine independent directives
  • machine instructions (not covered)
  • machine-independent syntax
  • manual, structure and purpose
  • memory references, i386
  • merging text and data sections
  • messages from
  • minus, permitted arguments
  • MIPS architecture options
  • MIPS big-endian output
  • MIPS debugging directives
  • MIPS ECOFF sections
  • MIPS ISA override
  • MIPS little-endian output
  • MIPS R2000
  • MIPS R3000
  • MIPS R4000
  • MIPS R6000
  • MIT
  • mnemonics for opcodes, VAX
  • mnemonics, H8/300
  • mnemonics, Z8000
  • Motorola syntax for the 680x0
  • mul instruction, i386
  • multi-line statements
  • n

  • name
  • names, symbol
  • naming object file
  • new page, in listings
  • newline (\n)
  • newline, required at file end
  • nolist directive
  • null-terminated strings
  • number constants
  • numbered subsections
  • numbers, 16-bit
  • numeric values
  • o

  • object file
  • object file format
  • object file name
  • object file, after errors
  • obsolescent directives
  • octa directive
  • octal character code (\ddd)
  • octal integers
  • opcode mnemonics, VAX
  • opcode naming, i386
  • opcode prefixes, i386
  • opcode suffixes, i386
  • opcode summary, H8/300
  • opcode summary, Z8000
  • opcodes for AMD 29K
  • opcodes, i960
  • opcodes, M680x0
  • operand delimiters, i386
  • operand notation, VAX
  • operands in expressions
  • operator precedence
  • operators, in expressions
  • operators, permitted arguments
  • option summary
  • options for AMD29K (none)
  • options for i386 (none)
  • options for SPARC
  • options for VAX/VMS
  • options, all versions of
  • options, command line
  • options, H8/300 (none)
  • options, i960
  • options, M680x0
  • options, Z8000
  • org directive
  • other attribute, of a.out symbol
  • output file
  • p

  • padding the location counter
  • page, in listings
  • paper size, for listings
  • paths for .include
  • patterns, writing in memory
  • plus, permitted arguments
  • precedence of operators
  • precision, floating point
  • prefix operators
  • prefixes, i386
  • preprocessing
  • preprocessing, turning on and off
  • proc directive, SPARC
  • protected registers, AMD 29K
  • pseudo-opcodes, M680x0
  • pseudo-ops for branch, VAX
  • pseudo-ops, machine independent
  • psize directive
  • purpose of GNU
  • q

  • quad directive
  • quad directive, i386
  • r

  • real-mode code, i386
  • register names, AMD 29K
  • register names, H8/300
  • register names, VAX
  • register operands, i386
  • registers, i386
  • registers, Z8000
  • relocation
  • relocation example
  • repeat prefixes, i386
  • reserve directive, SPARC
  • return instructions, i386
  • rsect
  • s

  • sbttl directive
  • search path for .include
  • sect directive, AMD 29K
  • section override prefixes, i386
  • section-relative addressing
  • sections
  • sections in messages, internal
  • sections, i386
  • seg directive, SPARC
  • segm
  • set directive
  • short directive
  • single character constant
  • single directive
  • single directive, i386
  • sixteen bit integers
  • sixteen byte integer
  • size modifiers, M680x0
  • size prefixes, i386
  • size suffixes, H8/300
  • sizes operands, i386
  • skip directive, M680x0
  • skip directive, SPARC
  • small objects, MIPS ECOFF
  • source program
  • source, destination operands; i386
  • space directive
  • space used, maximum for assembly
  • SPARC architectures
  • SPARC floating point (IEEE)
  • SPARC machine directives
  • SPARC options
  • SPARC support
  • special characters, M680x0
  • special purpose registers, AMD 29K
  • stabd directive
  • stabn directive
  • stabs directive
  • stabx directives
  • standard sections
  • standard input, as input file
  • statement on multiple lines
  • statement separator character
  • statement separator, AMD 29K
  • statement separator, H8/300
  • statement separator, Z8000
  • statements, structure of
  • statistics, about assembly
  • stopping the assembly
  • string constants
  • string directive
  • string directive on HPPA
  • string literals
  • string, copying to object file
  • subexpressions
  • subtitles for listings
  • subtraction, permitted arguments
  • summary of options
  • supporting files, including
  • suppressing warnings
  • sval
  • symbol attributes
  • symbol attributes, a.out
  • symbol names
  • symbol names, local
  • symbol names, temporary
  • symbol type
  • symbol value
  • symbol value, setting
  • symbol values, assigning
  • symbol, common
  • symbol, making visible to linker
  • symbolic debuggers, information for
  • symbols
  • symbols with lowercase, VAX/VMS
  • symbols, assigning values to
  • symbols, local common
  • syntax compatibility, i386
  • syntax, M680x0
  • syntax, machine-independent
  • sysproc directive, i960
  • t

  • tab (\t)
  • temporary symbol names
  • text and data sections, joining
  • text directive
  • tfloat directive, i386
  • time, total for assembly
  • title directive
  • trusted compiler
  • turning preprocessing on and off
  • type of a symbol
  • u

  • undefined section
  • unsegm
  • use directive, AMD 29K
  • v

  • value of a symbol
  • VAX bitfields not supported
  • VAX branch improvement
  • VAX command-line options ignored
  • VAX displacement sizing character
  • VAX floating point
  • VAX immediate character
  • VAX indirect character
  • VAX machine directives
  • VAX opcode mnemonics
  • VAX operand notation
  • VAX register names
  • VAX support
  • Vax-11 C compatibility
  • VAX/VMS options
  • version of
  • VMS (VAX) options
  • w

  • warning messages
  • warnings, suppressing
  • whitespace
  • whitespace, removed by preprocessor
  • wide floating point directives, VAX
  • word directive
  • word directive, H8/300
  • word directive, i386
  • word directive, SPARC
  • writing patterns in memory
  • wval
  • x

  • xword directive, SPARC
  • z

  • Z800 addressing modes
  • Z8000 directives
  • Z8000 line comment character
  • Z8000 line separator
  • Z8000 opcode summary
  • Z8000 options
  • Z8000 registers
  • Z8000 support
  • zero-terminated strings