asm960/gas960[c|e] Assembler

The assembler can be invoked with four invocation commands, which determine the output file format (b.out, COFF, or ELF). The invocation syntax is:

asm960 | gas960 [ c | e ] -option... file [...]

asm960 and gas960c

invoke the assembler to generate COFF output.

gas960

invokes the assembler to generate b.out output.

gas960e

invokes the assembler to generate ELF output.

Assembler options affect assembler input, operation and output. Each option must be preceded by a - character. (On DOS, you can also use a / character.) The options are listed below.

Assembler input files can contain assembly language instructions and assembler directives.

The assembler invocation options are listed below.

• A arch (Architecture)
  Assemble instructions for the specified i960 architecture. arch can be: KA, SA, KB, SB, CA, CF, JA, JD, JF, HA, HD, HT, RP and ANY. The default architecture is KB. Use the G960ARCH or I960ARCH environment variable to override the default. ANY means allow any valid i960 instruction.
  Opcode mnemonics and special function register operands that are illegal in the specified architecture are flagged as errors. Exceptions:
  • With AANY, all architecture checking is disabled.
  • With x, architecture mismatches are warnings, not errors.
  • Branch-prediction bits are always assembled, since they are ignored by architectures that don't support them.
• D symbolname [=expression] (Define symbol)
  Define the symbol symbolname and set its value to expression. If =expression is not specified, the value of symbolname is 1.
• d (Debug symbols)
  Retain symbol information about local labels beginning with L or . (dot). Such labels are typically compiler-generated for local symbols, and are normally discarded to save space.
• G (Big-endian)
  Assemble the file to run in a big-endian memory region. Not valid when assembler is invoked as gas960.
• h (Help)
  Display help information about the assembler and exit without doing anything else.
• I pathname (Include-file search path)
  Add pathname to the list of pathnames to search for source files included with the .include directive. The default is to search only the current directory for include files. You can specify any number of I pathname pairs.
• i (Interactive)
  Read source from standard input instead of from a file. For keyboard input, terminate interactive mode with a CTRL-D. (On DOS hosts, use CTRL-Z.)
• L arg (Listing)
  Generate a listing and print it on standard output. Accept all listing defaults. arg is:
  a List all the code, ignoring .nolist directives.
  e Print all machine code in the listing with target-endian byte order.
  f listfilename Create a listing file with the specified filename.
  n Do not expand include files in the listing.
  t title Use title as listing title; must be quoted if it contains embedded spaces.
  z Do not print the listing header.
• n (No compare-and-branch-replacements)
  (No relax) Normally, the assembler replaces each such instruction with two instructions: an equivalent compare instruction and an equivalent branch instruction. Note that this option has no effect on the processing of the Intel Compare-and-Jump pseudo-instructions (e.g., cmpijne).
• o objfilename (Object filename)
  Use the specified filename for the output file.
• p { c | d | b } (Position independence)
  Set a flag in the output file header to mark the file as containing position-independent code or data or both, respectively. The default is to not mark the file header in this way. The argument must be exactly one of the letters shown. Not valid when assembler is invoked as gas960.
• V (Version)
  Display version information about the assembler and continue with the assembly.
• v960 (Version)
  Display version information about the assembler and exit without doing anything else.
• W (Warnings)
  Suppress warning messages. Normally, both warnings and errors print their messages on standard error. With this option, only error messages are printed.
• x (Allow mixed architecture)
  Treat architecture mismatches (e.g., opcode not in target architecture) as warnings, not errors.
• z (Time stamp)
  (COFF format only) Suppress the time/date stamp in the output COFF file header. Normally, the time and date of the assembly is written into the file header. With this option, the time/date field is set to "Date Zero."

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