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Overview of as, the GNU Assembler

The following documentation serves as a overview to the user guide for the GNU assembler, as.

- Structure of this documentation
- as, the GNU Assembler
- Object File Formats
- Command Line
- Input Files
- Output (Object) File
- Error and Warning Messages

The following summarizes briefly how to invoke as. For details, see Command-Line Options.

as [ -a[dhlns][=file] ] [ -D ] [ --defsym sym= val ]
[ -f ] [ --help ] [ -I dir ][-J][-K ][-L ]
[ -o objfile ] [ -R ] [ --statistics ] [ -v ] [ -version ]
[ --version ] [ -W ] [ -w ] [ -x ] [ -Z ]
[ -Av6 | -Av7 | -Av8 | -Asparclite | -Av9 | -Av9a ]
[ -xarch=v8plus | -xarch=v8plusa ] [ -bump ]
[ -ACA | -ACA_A | -ACB | -ACC | -AKA | -AKB | -AKC | -AMC ]
[ -b ] [ -no-relax ]
[ -l ] [ -m68000 | -m68010 | -m68020 |...]
[ -nocpp ] [ -EL ] [ -EB ] [ -G num ] [ -mcpu=CPU ]
[ -mips1 ] [ -mips2 ] [ -mips3 ] [ -m4650 ] [ -no-m4650 ]
[ --trap ] [ --break ]
[ --emulation= name ]
[ -- | 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
=file
set the name of the listing file

You may combine these options; for example, use -aln for assembly listing without forms processing. The =file option, if used, must be the last one. 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.

--defsym sym= value
Define the symbol sym to be value before assembling the input file. value must be an integer constant. As in C, a leading 0x indicates a hexadecimal value, and a leading 0 indicates an octal value.

-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
Issue warnings when difference tables altered for long displacements.

-L
Keep (in the symbol table) local symbols, starting with L.

-o objfile
Name the object-file output from as 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.

The following options are available when as is configured for the Intel 80960 processor.

-ACA | -ACA_A | -ACB | -ACC | -AKA | -AKB | -AKC | -AMC
Specify which variant of the 960 architecture is the target. For target variant

-b
Add code to collect statistics about branches taken.

-no-relax
Do not alter compare-and-branch instructions for long displacements; error if necessary.

The following options are available when configuring as for the Motorola 68000 series.

-l
Shorten references to undefined symbols, to one word instead of two.

-m68000 | -m68008 | -m68010 | -m68020 | -m68030 | -m68040 |
-m68302 | -m68331 | -m68332 | -m68333 | -m68340 | -mcpu32
Specify what processor in the 68000 family is the target. The default is normally the 68020, but this can be changed at configuration time.

-m68881 | -m68882 | -mno-68881 | -mno-68882
The target machine does (or does not) have a floating-point coprocessor. The default is to assume a coprocessor for 68020, 68030, and cpu32. Although the basic 68000 is not compatible with the 68881, a combination of the two can be specified, since it’s possible to do emulation of the coprocessor instructions with the main processor.

-m68851 | -mno-68851
The target machine does (or does not) have a memory-management unit coprocessor. The default is to assume an MMU for 68020 and up.

The following options are available when as is configured for the SPARC architecture:

-Av6 | -Av7 | -Av8 | -Asparclite | -Av9 | -Av9a
Explicitly select a variant of the SPARC architecture.

-xarch=v8plus | -xarch=v8plusa
For compatibility with the Solaris v9 assembler. These options are equivalent to -Av9 and -Av9a, respectively.

-bump
Warn when the assembler switches to another architecture.

The following options are available when as is configured for a MIPS processor.

-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, such as a DECstation running Ultrix. The default value is 8.

-EB
Generate “big endian” format output.

-EL
Generate “little endian” format output.

-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.

-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 gcc.

--emulation=name
This option causes as to emulate as configured for some other target, in all respects, including output format (choosing between ELF and ECOFF only), handling of pseudo-opcodes which may generate debugging information or store symbol table information, and default endianness. The available configuration names are: mipsecoff, mipself, mipslecoff, mipsbecoff, mipslelf, mipsbelf. The first two do not alter the default endianness from that of the primary target for which the assembler was configured; the others change the default to little- or big-endian as indicated by the b or l in the name. Using -EB or -EL will override the endianness selection in any case.

This option is currently supported only when the primary target as is configured for is a MIPS ELF or ECOFF target. Furthermore, the primary target or others specified with --enable-targets=... at configuration time must include support for the other format, if both are to be available. For example, the Irix 5 configuration includes support for both.
Eventually, this option will support more configurations, with more fine-grained control over the assembler’s behavior, and will be supported for more processors.

-nocpp
as ignores this option. It is accepted for compatibility with the native tools.

--trap
--no-trap
--break
--no-break
Control how to deal with multiplication overflow and division by zero. --trap or --no-break (which are synonyms) take a trap exception (and only work for Instruction Set Architecture level 2 and higher); --break or --no-trap (also synonyms, and the default) take a break exception.