asl(1)asl(1)NAMEasl - cross assembler for microprocessors and -controllers
SYNTAXasl [ option(s) ] file(s) [ option(s) ] file(s) ...
DESCRIPTION
AS is a cross assembler that can be used to write assembler programs
for a variety of different microprocessors and -controllers.asl is
the UNIX/C implementation of AS. A complete description of AS is far
beyond the scope of this manual page, which is only intended as a quick
reference for AS's command line interface. For a more detailed intro‐
duction into the usage of AS, see the user's manual.
COMMAND-LINE PARAMETERS
Every argument that starts with a slash (/), plus (+) or minus (-) sign
is regarded as a command-line parameter. Some command-line parameters
take an argument as additional parameter. Every argument that is not
recognized as a command-line parameter is regarded as an assembler
source file to be assembled. A source file name that does not have an
extension is automatically extended with the default extension '.asm'.
Options are turned on with a parameter starting with a slash (/) or
minus sign (-), whereas a parameter with a leading plus sign (+) turns
an option off. In the following list, all options will be shown in the
form that is needed to change the default behaviour, which might be a
plus or minus sign, depening on wether the option is on or off by
default.
asl accepts the following command-line parameters:
-A
Change the data structure that is internally used to store the
symbol table. By default, AS uses binary trees to store macro
and symbol definitions. Turning this option on will change this
to AVL-balanced trees. Depending on the ratio of symbol entries
and lookups, this might speed up assembly. Using AVL-balanced
trees helps also reducing the stack usage, which is however
irrelevant for the C version of AS.
-a
Instruct AS to write out the shared symbol definitions in a for‐
mat suitable for including into an AS assembler program. The
file's name is constructed by replacing the source file's exten‐
sion with '.inc'. See the user manual for more information
about symbol sharing.
-cpu <name>
Set the target processor to <name>. Use this option if the
source file does not contain a CPU statement.
-alias <new name=old name>
Define a CPU alias. An alias is a name that can be used as an
argument to the CPU pseudo-instruction just like an intrinsic
CPU type. Its usage will set the same target as the old name,
however the predefined symbols MOMCPU and MOMCPUNAME will be set
to the new name. This option is primarily useful for adding a
new member to a processor family that has the same core, but is
different in its internal peripherals, thus allowing to distin‐
guish between them.
-C
Add a cross reference table to the assembler listing. A cross
reference table lists all symbols that have been referenced at
least once during assembly, including the source line number(s)
and count of every reference. This option only makes sense when
the generation of an assembly listing has been turned on via the
-L or -l parameters.
-c
Instruct AS to write out the shared symbol definitions in a for‐
mat suitable for including into a C program. The file's name is
constructed by replacing the source file's extension with '.h'.
See the user manual for more information about symbol sharing.
-D <name[=value]>[,...]
Pre-define symbols. Predefined symbols are entered into the
global symbol table prior to assembly of the source file(s). If
no value is given for a symbol, it is assigned the integer value
1. Value expressions may contain arithmetic expressions as
described in the user manual, but they may not reference any
other predefined or internal symbols.
-E [file]
Force AS to send warning and error messages to file rather than
to the standard error output. The file names !0 to !4 are used
to refer to the standard input, output, error, auxilliary, and
printer channels predefined by the operating system (on some
systems, some of these handles might not exist). If the [file]
specification is omitted, a name is constructed by replacing the
source file's extension with '.log'.
+G Supress code generation, reducing the functionality of AS to
macro preprocessing.
-g [MAP/Atmel]
Instruct AS to write an additional file containing debug infor‐
mation. This information covers the symbol table and the rela‐
tion between source line numbers and machine addresses. The
argument specifies whether debug info shall be written in AS's
own MAP format or the object format for Atmel's AVR tools. If
no argument is given, MAP will be chosen. The file's name is
constructed by replacing the source file's extension with '.map'
or '.obj' respectively.
-h
Force AS to print all hexadecimal constants with lowercase let‐
ters, rather than with uppercase letters A..F which is the
default.
-i <path[:path...]>
Add new entries to the list of paths that are searched for
include files. New entries are prepended to the current include
path list, so if multiple paths are given with one command-line
parameter, they will be entered into the path list in reverse
order.
-I
Add an include file list to the assembly listing. An include
file list contains all files that have been included while
assembling the source files, including multiple and nested
inclusion. Nesting of inclusion is identified by different
indention. This option only makes sense when the generation of
an assembly listing has been turned on via the -L or -l parame‐
ters.
-L
Turn on generation of an assembly listing and send it to a file
whose name is constructed by replacing the source file's exten‐
sion with '.lst'.
-l
Turn on generation of an assembly listing and send it to the
console.
-M
Turn on generation of a macro definition file. A macro defini‐
tion file is a file that contains all macro definitions that
have been detected during assembly, in a format suitable for an
inclusion into another file. The macro definition file's name
is constructed by replacing the source file's extension with
'.mac'.
-n
Force AS to extend all error and warning messages with their
internal error resp. warning number.
-o <name>
Tell AS to write the code output to a file <name>. By default,
the code output file's name is constructed by replacing the
source file's extension with '.p'. If multiple files are assem‐
bled with one command, this parameter may also be given multi‐
ply. If there are less output specifications than source file
names, AS will switch back to the default naming convention
after all output specifications have been used up.
-shareout <name>
Tell AS to write shared symbol definitions to a file <name>,
instead of constructing the name from the source file's name.
See the user manual for more information about symbol sharing.
-P
Turn on generation of a macro output file. A macro output file
contains the intermediate source code that remains after macro
expansion and conditional assembly. The macro output file's
name is constructed by replacing the source file's extension
with '.i'.
-p
Instruct AS to write out the shared symbol definitions in a for‐
mat suitable for including into a Pascal or Modula-2 program.
The file's name is constructed by replacing the source file's
extension with '.inc'. See the user manual for more information
about symbol sharing.
-q or -quiet
Turn on silent assembly mode. In silent compilation mode, AS
will not do any console output except for warning and error mes‐
sages.
-r [pass number]
Tell AS to output warnings when a situation appears in a source
file that forces another pass of assembly. Such situations
either take place when a symbol is undefined in the first pass
or a symbol's value has changed compared to the previous pass.
This option is useful to track down sources of excessive multi-
passing, but be aware that it might yield a fairly large number
of warnings, especially in the first pass. Optionally, a pass
number may be added to this option to inhibit output until a
certain pass is reached.
-s
Add a section list to the assembly listing. A section list con‐
tains all sections that have been defined in the source files,
marking their nesting level by different levels of indentation.
This option only makes sense when the generation of an assembly
listing has been turned on via the -L or -l parameters.
-t <mask>
Turn on or off parts of the assembly listing that have no indi‐
vidual command line parameter. AS internally keeps an integer
value whose bits represent certain components of the listing. A
positive command line parameter (-t or /t) sets the bits set in
<mask>, whereas a negated parameter (+t) resets the bits set in
<mask>. The individual bits have the following meaning: bit 0 =
source lines and generated machine code, bit 1 = symbol table,
bit 2 = macro table, bit 3 = function table, bit 4 = line num‐
bering.
-u
Tell AS to do additional bookkeeping about which address ranges
have been used by the assembled program. This option enables
the detection of overlapping memory usage. If an assembly list‐
ing has been turned on via the -L or -l parameters, it will also
contain a list of all used memory areas.
-U
Force AS to operate in case-sensitive mode. By default, names
of symbols, macros, user-defined functions and sections are
treated in a case-insensitive manner.
-w
Suppress output of warnings.
-x
Turn on extended error reporting. With extended error report‐
ing, several error and warning messages will also print the item
that created the message, e.g. the name of an unknown instruc‐
tion. When this option is given twice, the erroneous source
line is additinally printed.
PRESETTING PARAMETERS
Parameters need not neccessarily be given in the command line itself.
Before processing of command line parameters starts, AS will look if
the ASCMD environment variable is defined. If it exists, its contents
will be treated as additional command line parameters whose syntax is
absolutely equal to normal command line parameters. An exception is
made if the variable's contents start with a '@' sign; in such a case,
the string after the '@' sign is treated as the name of a file that
contains the options. Such a file (also called a 'key file') has the
advantage that it allows the options to be written in different lines,
and it does not have a size limit. Some operating systems (like MS-
DOS) have a length limit on command lines and environment variable con‐
tents, so the key file may be your only option if you have a lot of
lengthy parameters for AS.
As parameters given in the ASCMD environment variable or a key file are
processed prior to the command line itself, and can therefore be over‐
ridden by command line parameters.
NATIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT
AS supports the needs of different languages and countries in the sense
that it will try to adapt to the language and date/time formats valid
for the current environment. Upon startup, the COUNTRY setting made in
the CONFIG.SYS file is queried for DOS and OS/2 implementations of AS.
For UNIX systems, AS tries to read the LC_TIME resp. LC_MESSAGES envi‐
ronment variables to find out the correct format for date/time outputs
resp. the local language. If this fails, the LC_ALL and finally LANG
variables are probed. If none of these environment variables points to
a specific local environment resp. contains a locale specification
unknown to AS, the standard english/C locale is used.
The messages AS can output in different languages are stored in sepa‐
rate files with the extension '.msg' . AS will search for these files
in the following directories:
- The current directory
- The directory the executable of AS was loaded from (only on DOS plat‐
forms version >=3.0 or if path was explicitly specified)
- The directory specified in the AS_MSGPATH environment variable resp.
the directories listed in the PATH environment variable if AS_MSGPATH
does not exist.
- The LIBDIR directory set at compile time from the Makefile.
RETURN CODES
Depending on the assembly's turnout, asl will generate different return
codes:
0 No errors, warnings might have occured.
1 No command line parameters were given, AS printed a short list
of possible command line parameters and terminated thereafter.
2 Errors occured during assembly of at least one source file, no
code file was generated for the corresponding source file(s).
3 A fatal error occured during assembly that forced immediate pro‐
gram termination. Code files may be generated, but are probably
unusuable.
4 Program termination already occured during initialization. This
might be either due to a incorrect command line parameter or an
error during loading the program's overlay file (only possible
on MS-DOS).
255 During initialization, an internal error happened that should
not occur. If the reaction is reproducable, note down the situ‐
ation and send a bug report to the author.
EXAMPLES
To assemble a source file file1.asm without any additional bells and
whistles, use:
asl file1
which will create an output file file1.p given that there are no
errors. If you additionally want a listing and rename the output file
to a.out, use
asl-L file1 -o a.out
To make the listing as comprehensive as possible and to get more
detailed error messages, use:
asl-LuCIs -t 16 -nx file1
TIPS
calling AS without any parameters will print a short help containing
all command line parameters and implemented target processors, while
calling with command line parameters but without any source file name
will result in AS asking for a source file name on the console.
SEE ALSOplist(1), pbind(1), p2hex(1), p2bin(1)HISTORY
AS originally appeared as a DOS program in 1989, written in Borland-
Pascal, and was ported to C and UNIX in 1996.
BUGS
There are too many options.
Command line interpreters of some operating systems reserve some char‐
acters for their own use, so it might be necessary to give command line
parameters with certain tricks (e.g., with the help of escape charac‐
ters).
AUTHOR(S)
Alfred Arnold (a.arnold@kfa-juelich.de), and a few others...
asl(1)
