path: root/asl.1

.TH asl 1

.SH NAME
.B asl \- cross assembler for microprocessors and -controllers

.SH SYNTAX
.B asl 
[ option(s) ] file(s) [ option(s) ] file(s) ...

.SH DESCRIPTION

AS is a cross assembler that can be used to write assembler programs
for a variety of different microprocessors and -controllers.
.B 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
introduction into the usage of AS, see the user's manual.

.SH 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.

.B asl
accepts the following command-line parameters:
.TP
.B -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.
.TP
.B -a

Instruct AS to write out the shared symbol definitions in a format suitable
for including into an AS assembler 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.
.TP
.B -cpu <name>
Set the target processor to <name>.  Use this option if the source file does
not contain a CPU statement.
.TP
.B -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 distinguish between
them.
.TP
.B -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
.B -L
or
.B -l
parameters.
.TP
.B -c

Instruct AS to write out the shared symbol definitions in a format 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.
.TP
.B -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.
.TP
.B -E [file]
Force AS to send warning and error messages to
.B 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'.
.TP
.B +G
Supress code generation, reducing the functionality of AS to macro
preprocessing.
.TP
.B -g [MAP/Atmel]

Instruct AS to write an additional file containing debug information. This
information covers the symbol table and the relation 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.
.TP
.B -h

Force AS to print all hexadecimal constants with lowercase letters, rather
than with uppercase letters A..F which is the default.
.TP
.B -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.
.TP
.B -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
.B -L
or
.B -l
parameters.
.TP
.B -L

Turn on generation of an assembly listing and send it to a file whose name is
constructed by replacing the source file's extension with '.lst'.
.TP
.B -l

Turn on generation of an assembly listing and send it to the console.
.TP
.B -M

Turn on generation of a macro definition file.  A macro definition 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'.
.TP
.B -n

Force AS to extend all error and warning messages with their internal error
resp. warning number.
.TP
.B -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 assembled with one command, this parameter
may also be given multiply.  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.
.TP
.B -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.
.TP
.B -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'.
.TP
.B -p

Instruct AS to write out the shared symbol definitions in a format 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.
.TP
.B -q or -quiet
Turn on silent assembly mode.  In silent compilation mode, AS will not
do any console output except for warning and error messages.
.TP
.B -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.
.TP
.B -s

Add a section list to the assembly listing.  A section list contains
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
.B -L
or
.B -l
parameters.
.TP
.B -t <mask>
Turn on or off parts of the assembly listing that have no individual
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 numbering.
.TP
.B -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 listing has been turned on via the
.B -L
or
.B -l
parameters, it will also contain a list of all used memory areas.
.TP
.B -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.
.TP
.B -w

Suppress output of warnings.
.TP
.B -x

Turn on extended error reporting.  With extended error reporting, several
error and warning messages will also print the item that created the message,
e.g. the name of an unknown instruction.  When this option is given twice, 
the erroneous source line is additinally printed.

.SH 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
.B 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 contents, so the key file may be
your only option if you have a lot of lengthy parameters for AS.

As parameters given in the
.B ASCMD
environment variable or a key file are processed prior to the command line
itself, and can therefore be overridden by command line parameters.

.SH 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 environment
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 separate
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 platforms 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.


.SH RETURN CODES

Depending on the assembly's turnout, 
.B asl
will generate different return codes:
.TP
.B 0
No errors, warnings might have occured.
.TP
.B 1
No command line parameters were given, AS printed a short list
of possible command line parameters and terminated thereafter.
.TP
.B 2
Errors occured during assembly of at least one source file, no 
code file was generated for the corresponding source file(s).
.TP
.B 3
A fatal error occured during assembly that forced immediate
program termination.  Code files may be generated, but are probably
unusuable.
.TP
.B 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).
.TP
.B 255
During initialization, an internal error happened that should not
occur.  If the reaction is reproducable, note down the situation and
send a bug report to the author.

.SH EXAMPLES

To assemble a source file
.B file1.asm
without any additional bells and whistles, use:
.PP
.B asl file1
.PP
which will create an output file
.B file1.p
given that there are no errors.  If you additionally want a listing and
rename the output file to
.B a.out,
use
.PP
.B asl -L file1 -o a.out
.PP
To make the listing as comprehensive as possible and to get more detailed
error messages, use:
.PP
.B asl -LuCIs -t 16 -nx file1

.SH 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.

.SH SEE ALSO

plist(1), pbind(1), p2hex(1), p2bin(1)

.SH HISTORY

AS originally appeared as a DOS program in 1989, written in
Borland-Pascal, and was ported to C and UNIX in 1996.  

.SH BUGS

There are too many options.

Command line interpreters of some operating systems reserve some 
characters for their own use, so it might be necessary to give
command line parameters with certain tricks (e.g., with the help
of escape characters).

.SH AUTHOR(S)

Alfred Arnold (a.arnold@kfa-juelich.de), and a few others...