1 <!doctype linuxdoc system>
4 <title>ca65 Users Guide
5 <author>Ullrich von Bassewitz, <htmlurl url="mailto:uz@cc65.org" name="uz@cc65.org">
6 <date>19.07.2000, 29.11.2000, 02.10.2001
9 ca65 is a powerful macro assembler for the 6502, 65C02 and 65816 CPUs. It is
10 used as a companion assembler for the cc65 crosscompiler, but it may also be
11 used as a standalone product.
14 <!-- Table of contents -->
17 <!-- Begin the document -->
21 ca65 is a replacement for the ra65 assembler that was part of the cc65 C
22 compiler, originally developed by John R. Dunning. I had some problems with
23 ra65 and the copyright does not permit some things which I wanted to be
24 possible, so I decided to write a completely new assembler/linker/archiver
25 suite for the cc65 compiler. ca65 is part of this suite.
27 Some parts of the assembler (code generation and some routines for symbol
28 table handling) are taken from an older crossassembler named a816 written
29 by me a long time ago.
32 <sect1>Design criteria<p>
34 Here's a list of the design criteria, that I considered important for the
39 <item> The assembler must support macros. Macros are not essential, but they
40 make some things easier, especially when you use the assembler in the
41 backend of a compiler.
42 <item> The assembler must support the newer 65C02 and 65816 CPUs. I have been
43 thinking about a 65816 backend for the C compiler, and even my old
44 a816 assembler had support for these CPUs, so this wasn't really a
46 <item> The assembler must produce relocatable code. This is necessary for the
47 compiler support, and it is more convenient.
48 <item> Conditional assembly must be supported. This is a must for bigger
49 projects written in assembler (like Elite128).
50 <item> The assembler must support segments, and it must support more than
51 three segments (this is the count, most other assemblers support).
52 Having more than one code segments helps developing code for systems
53 with a divided ROM area (like the C64).
54 <item> The linker must be able to resolve arbitrary expressions. It should
55 be able to get things like
62 <item> True lexical nesting for symbols. This is very convenient for larger
64 <item> "Cheap" local symbols without lexical nesting for those quick, late
66 <item> I liked the idea of "options" as Anre Fachats .o65 format has it, so I
67 introduced the concept into the object file format use by the new cc65
69 <item> The assembler will be a one pass assembler. There was no real need for
70 this decision, but I've written several multipass assemblers, and it
71 started to get boring. A one pass assembler needs much more elaborated
72 data structures, and because of that it's much more fun:-)
73 <item> Non-GPLed code that may be used in any project without restrictions or
74 fear of "GPL infecting" other code.
82 <sect1>Command line option overview<p>
84 The assembler accepts the following options:
87 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
88 Usage: ca65 [options] file
90 -D name[=value] Define a symbol
91 -I dir Set an include directory search path
92 -U Mark unresolved symbols as import
93 -V Print the assembler version
94 -W n Set warning level n
95 -g Add debug info to object file
97 -i Ignore case of symbols
98 -l Create a listing if assembly was ok
99 -o name Name the output file
101 -t sys Set the target system
102 -v Increase verbosity
105 --auto-import Mark unresolved symbols as import
106 --cpu type Set cpu type
107 --debug-info Add debug info to object file
108 --feature name Set an emulation feature
109 --help Help (this text)
110 --ignore-case Ignore case of symbols
111 --include-dir dir Set an include directory search path
112 --listing Create a listing if assembly was ok
113 --pagelength n Set the page length for the listing
114 --smart Enable smart mode
115 --target sys Set the target system
116 --verbose Increase verbosity
117 --version Print the assembler version
118 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
122 <sect1>Command line options in detail<p>
124 Here is a description of all the command line options:
128 <label id="option--cpu">
129 <tag><tt>--cpu type</tt></tag>
131 Set the default for the CPU type. The option takes a parameter, which
134 6502, 65SC02, 65C02, 65816 and sunplus
136 The last one (sunplus) is not available in the freeware version, because the
137 instruction set of the sunplus CPU is "proprietary and confidential".
140 <label id="option--feature">
141 <tag><tt>--feature name</tt></tag>
143 Enable an emulation feature. This is identical as using <tt/.FEATURE/
144 in the source with two exceptions: Feature names must be lower case, and
145 each feature must be specified by using an extra <tt/--feature/ option,
146 comma separated lists are not allowed.
148 See the discussion of the <tt><ref id=".FEATURE" name=".FEATURE"></tt>
149 command for a list of emulation features.
152 <label id="option-g">
153 <tag><tt>-g, --debug-info</tt></tag>
155 When this option (or the equivalent control command <tt/.DEBUGINFO/) is
156 used, the assembler will add a section to the object file that contains
157 all symbols (including local ones) together with the symbol values and
158 source file positions. The linker will put these additional symbols into
159 the VICE label file, so even local symbols can be seen in the VICE
163 <tag><tt>-h, --help</tt></tag>
165 Print the short option summary shown above.
168 <tag><tt>-i, --ignore-case</tt></tag>
170 This option makes the assembler case insensitive on identifiers and labels.
171 This option will override the default, but may itself be overriden by the
172 <tt><ref id=".CASE" name=".CASE"></tt> control command.
175 <tag><tt>-l, --listing</tt></tag>
177 Generate an assembler listing. The listing file will always have the
178 name of the main input file with the extension replaced by ".lst". This
179 may change in future versions.
182 <tag><tt>-o name</tt></tag>
184 The default output name is the name of the input file with the extension
185 replaced by ".o". If you don't like that, you may give another name with
186 the -o option. The output file will be placed in the same directory as
187 the source file, or, if -o is given, the full path in this name is used.
190 <tag><tt>--pagelength n</tt></tag>
192 sets the length of a listing page in lines. See the <tt><ref
193 id=".PAGELENGTH" name=".PAGELENGTH"></tt> directive for more information.
196 <tag><tt>-s, --smart-mode</tt></tag>
198 In smart mode (enabled by -s or the <tt><ref id=".SMART" name=".SMART"></tt>
199 pseudo instruction) the assembler will track usage of the <tt/REP/ and
200 <tt/SEP/ instructions in 65816 mode and update the operand sizes
201 accordingly. If the operand of such an instruction cannot be evaluated by
202 the assembler (for example, because the operand is an imported symbol), a
205 Beware: Since the assembler cannot trace the execution flow this may
206 lead to false results in some cases. If in doubt, use the .ixx and .axx
207 instructions to tell the assembler about the current settings. Smart
208 mode is off by default.
211 <label id="option-t">
212 <tag><tt>-t sys, --target sys</tt></tag>
214 Set the target system. This will enable translation of character strings
215 and character constants into the character set of the target platform.
216 The default for the target system is "none", which means that no translation
217 will take place. The assembler supports the same target systems as the
218 compiler, see there for a list.
221 <tag><tt>-v, --verbose</tt></tag>
223 Increase the assembler verbosity. Usually only needed for debugging
224 purposes. You may use this option more than one time for even more
228 <tag><tt>-D</tt></tag>
230 This option allows you to define symbols on the command line. Without a
231 value, the symbol is defined with the value zero. When giving a value,
232 you may use the '$' prefix for hexadecimal symbols. Please note
233 that for some operating systems, '$' has a special meaning, so
234 you may have to quote the expression.
237 <tag><tt>-I dir, --include-dir dir</tt></tag>
239 Name a directory which is searched for include files. The option may be
240 used more than once to specify more than one directory to search. The
241 current directory is always searched first before considering any
242 additional directores.
245 <tag><tt>-U, --auto-import</tt></tag>
247 Mark symbols that are not defined in the sources as imported symbols. This
248 should be used with care since it delays error messages about typos and such
249 until the linker is run. The compiler uses the equivalent of this switch
250 (<tt><ref id=".AUTOIMPORT" name=".AUTOIMPORT"></tt>) to enable auto imported
251 symbols for the runtime library. However, the compiler is supposed to
252 generate code that runs through the assembler without problems, something
253 which is not always true for assembler programmers.
256 <tag><tt>-V, --version</tt></tag>
258 Print the version number of the assembler. If you send any suggestions
259 or bugfixes, please include the version number.
262 <label id="option-W">
263 <tag><tt>-Wn</tt></tag>
265 Set the warning level for the assembler. Using -W2 the assembler will
266 even warn about such things like unused imported symbols. The default
267 warning level is 1, and it would probably be silly to set it to
274 <sect>Input format<p>
276 The assembler accepts the standard 6502/65816 assembler syntax. One line may
277 contain a label (which is identified by a colon), and, in addition to the
278 label, an assembler mnemonic, a macro, or a control command (see section <ref
279 id="control-commands" name="Control Commands"> for supported control
280 commands). Alternatively, the line may contain a symbol definition using the
281 '=' token. Everything after a semicolon is handled as a comment (that is, it
284 Here are some examples for valid input lines:
287 Label: ; A label and a comment
288 lda #$20 ; A 6502 instruction plus comment
289 L1: ldx #$20 ; Same with label
290 L2: .byte "Hello world" ; Label plus control command
291 mymac $20 ; Macro expansion
292 MySym = 3*L1 ; Symbol definition
293 MaSym = Label ; Another symbol
296 The assembler accepts
299 <item>all valid 6502 mnemonics when in 6502 mode (the default or after the
300 <tt><ref id=".P02" name=".P02"></tt> command was given).
301 <item>all valid 65SC02 mnemonics when in 65SC02 mode (after the
302 <tt><ref id=".PSC02" name=".PSC02"></tt> command was given).
303 <item>all valid 65C02 mnemonics when in 65C02 mode (after the
304 <tt><ref id=".PC02" name=".PC02"></tt> command was given).
305 <item>all valid 65618 mnemonics when in 65816 mode (after the
306 <tt><ref id=".P816" name=".P816"></tt> command was given).
307 <item>all valid SunPlus mnemonics when in SunPlus mode (after the
308 <tt><ref id=".SUNPLUS" name=".SUNPLUS"></tt> command was given).
311 In 65816 mode several aliases are accepted in addition to the official
315 BGE is an alias for BCS
316 BLT is an alias for BCC
317 CPA is an alias for CMP
318 DEA is an alias for DEC A
319 INA is an alias for INC A
320 SWA is an alias for XBA
321 TAD is an alias for TCD
322 TAS is an alias for TCS
323 TDA is an alias for TDC
324 TSA is an alias for TSC
327 Evaluation of banked expressions in 65816 mode differs slightly from the
330 Instead of accepting a 24 bit address (something that is difficult for
331 the assembler to determine and would have required one more special
332 .import command), the bank and the absolute address in that bank are
336 jsl 3.$1234 ; Call subroutine at $1234 in bank 3
339 For literal values, the assembler accepts the widely used number formats:
340 A preceeding '$' denotes a hex value, a preceeding '%' denotes a
341 binary value, and a bare number is interpeted as a decimal. There are
342 currently no octal values and no floats.
349 <sect1>Expression evaluation<p>
351 All expressions are evaluated with (at least) 32 bit precision. An
352 expression may contain constant values and any combination of internal and
353 external symbols. Expressions that cannot be evaluated at assembly time
354 are stored inside the object file for evaluation by the linker.
355 Expressions referencing imported symbols must always be evaluated by the
359 <sect1>Size of an expressions result<p>
361 Sometimes, the assembler must know about the size of the value that is the
362 result of an expression. This is usually the case, if a decision has to be
363 made, to generate a zero page or an absolute memory references. In this
364 case, the assembler has to make some assumptions about the result of an
368 <item> If the result of an expression is constant, the actual value is
369 checked to see if it's a byte sized expression or not.
370 <item> If the expression is explicitly casted to a byte sized expression by
371 one of the '>'/'<' operators, it is a byte expression.
372 <item> If this is not the case, and the expression contains a symbol,
373 explicitly declared as zero page symbol (by one of the .importzp or
374 .exportzp instructions), then the whole expression is assumed to be
376 <item> If the expression contains symbols that are not defined, and these
377 symbols are local symbols, the enclosing scopes are searched for a
378 symbol with the same name. If one exists and this symbol is defined,
379 it's attributes are used to determine the result size.
380 <item> In all other cases the expression is assumed to be word sized.
383 Note: If the assembler is not able to evaluate the expression at assembly
384 time, the linker will evaluate it and check for range errors as soon as
388 <sect1>Boolean expressions<p>
390 In the context of a boolean expression, any non zero value is evaluated as
391 true, any other value to false. The result of a boolean expression is 1 if
392 it's true, and zero if it's false. There are boolean operators with extrem
393 low precedence with version 2.x (where x > 0). The <tt/.AND/ and <tt/.OR/
394 operators are shortcut operators. That is, if the result of the expression is
395 already known, after evaluating the left hand side, the right hand side is
399 <sect1>Available operators<p>
401 Available operators sorted by precedence:
404 Op Description Precedence
405 -------------------------------------------------------------------
406 .CONCAT Builtin function 0
407 .LEFT Builtin function 0
408 .MID Builtin function 0
409 .RIGHT Builtin function 0
410 .STRING Builtin function 0
412 * Builtin pseudo variable (r/o) 1
413 .BLANK Builtin function 1
414 .CONST Builtin function 1
415 .CPU Builtin pseudo variable (r/o) 1
416 .DEFINED Builtin function 1
417 .MATCH Builtin function 1
418 .TCOUNT Builtin function 1
419 .TIME Builtin function 1
420 .XMATCH Builtin function 1
421 .PARAMCOUNT Builtin pseudo variable (r/o) 1
422 .REFERENCED Builtin function 1
423 :: Global namespace override 1
426 ~ Unary bitwise not 1
427 .BITNOT Unary bitwise not 1
428 < Low byte operator 1
429 > High byte operator 1
433 .MOD Modulo operation 2
435 .BITAND Bitwise and 2
437 .BITXOR Bitwise xor 2
438 << Shift left operator 2
439 .SHL Shift left operator 2
440 >> Shift right operator
441 .SHR Shift right operator 2
448 = Compare operation (equal) 4
449 <> Compare operation (not equal) 4
450 < Compare operation (less) 4
451 > Compare operation (greater) 4
452 <= Compare operation (less or equal) 4
453 >= Compare operation (greater or equal) 4
455 && Boolean and 5
467 To force a specific order of evaluation, braces may be used as usual.
469 Some of the pseudo variables mentioned above need some more explanation:
472 * This symbol is replaced by the value of the program
473 counter at start of the current instruction. Note, that
474 '*' yields a rvalue, that means, you cannot assign to it.
475 Use <tt/.ORG/ to set the program counter in sections with
482 <sect>Symbols and labels<p>
484 The assembler allows you to use symbols instead of naked values to make
485 the source more readable. There are a lot of different ways to define and
486 use symbols and labels, giving a lot of flexibility.
489 <sect1>Numeric constants<p>
491 Numeric constants are defined using the equal sign. After doing
497 may use the symbol "two" in every place where a number is expected, and it is
498 evaluated to the value 2 in this context. An example would be
505 <sect1>Standard labels<p>
507 A label is defined by writing the name of the label at the start of the line
508 (before any instruction mnemonic, macro or pseudo directive), followed by a
509 colon. This will declare a symbol with the given name and the value of the
510 current program counter.
513 <sect1>Local labels and symbols<p>
515 Using the <tt><ref id=".PROC" name=".PROC"></tt> directive, it is possible to
516 create regions of code where the names of labels and symbols are local to this
517 region. They are not known outside of this region and cannot be accessed from
518 there. Such regions may be nested like PROCEDUREs in Pascal.
520 See the description of the <tt><ref id=".PROC" name=".PROC"></tt>
521 directive for more information.
524 <sect1>Cheap local labels<p>
526 Cheap local labels are defined like standard labels, but the name of the
527 label must begin with a special symbol (usually '@', but this can be
528 changed by the <tt><ref id=".LOCALCHAR" name=".LOCALCHAR"></tt>
531 Cheap local labels are visible only between two non cheap labels. As soon as a
532 standard symbol is encountered (this may also be a local symbol if inside a
533 region defined with the <tt><ref id=".PROC" name=".PROC"></tt> directive), the
534 cheap local symbol goes out of scope.
536 You may use cheap local labels as an easy way to reuse common label
537 names like "Loop". Here is an example:
540 Clear: lda #$00 ; Global label
542 @Loop: sta Mem,y ; Local label
546 Sub: ... ; New global label
547 bne @Loop ; ERROR: Unknown identifier!
550 <sect1>Unnamed labels<p>
552 If you really want to write messy code, there are also unnamed
553 labels. These labels do not have a name (you guessed that already,
554 didn't you?). A colon is used to mark the absence of the name.
556 Unnamed labels may be accessed by using the colon plus several minus
557 or plus characters as a label designator. Using the '-' characters
558 will create a back reference (use the n'th label backwards), using
559 '+' will create a forward reference (use the n'th label in forward
560 direction). An example will help to understand this:
582 As you can see from the example, unnamed labels will make even short
583 sections of code hard to understand, because you have to count labels
584 to find branch targets (this is the reason why I for my part do
585 prefer the "cheap" local labels). Nevertheless, unnamed labels are
586 convenient in some situations, so it's your decision.
589 <sect1>Using macros to define labels and constants<p>
591 While there are drawbacks with this approach, it may be handy in some
592 situations. Using <tt><ref id=".DEFINE" name=".DEFINE"></tt>, it is
593 possible to define symbols or constants that may be used elsewhere. Since
594 the macro facility works on a very low level, there is no scoping. On the
595 other side, you may also define string constants this way (this is not
596 possible with the other symbol types).
602 .DEFINE version "SOS V2.3"
604 four = two * two ; Ok
607 .PROC ; Start local scope
608 two = 3 ; Will give "2 = 3" - invalid!
613 <sect1>Symbols and <tt>.DEBUGINFO</tt><p>
615 If <tt><ref id=".DEBUGINFO" name=".DEBUGINFO"></tt> is enabled (or <ref
616 id="option-g" name="-g"> is given on the command line), global, local and
617 cheap local labels are written to the object file and will be available in the
618 symbol file via the linker. Unnamed labels are not written to the object file,
619 because they don't have a name which would allow to access them.
623 <sect>Control commands<label id="control-commands">
626 Here's a list of all control commands and a description, what they do:
629 <sect1><tt>.A16</tt><label id=".A16"><p>
631 Valid only in 65816 mode. Switch the accumulator to 16 bit.
633 Note: This command will not emit any code, it will tell the assembler to
634 create 16 bit operands for immediate accumulator adressing mode.
636 See also: <tt><ref id=".SMART" name=".SMART"></tt>
639 <sect1><tt>.A8</tt><label id=".A8"><p>
641 Valid only in 65816 mode. Switch the accumulator to 8 bit.
643 Note: This command will not emit any code, it will tell the assembler to
644 create 8 bit operands for immediate accu adressing mode.
646 See also: <tt><ref id=".SMART" name=".SMART"></tt>
649 <sect1><tt>.ADDR</tt><label id=".ADDR"><p>
651 Define word sized data. In 6502 mode, this is an alias for <tt/.WORD/ and
652 may be used for better readability if the data words are address values. In
653 65816 mode, the address is forced to be 16 bit wide to fit into the current
654 segment. See also <tt><ref id=".FARADDR" name=".FARADDR"></tt>. The command
655 must be followed by a sequence of (not necessarily constant) expressions.
660 .addr $0D00, $AF13, _Clear
663 See: <tt><ref id=".FARADDR" name=".FARADDR"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".WORD"
667 <sect1><tt>.ALIGN</tt><label id=".ALIGN"><p>
669 Align data to a given boundary. The command expects a constant integer
670 argument that must be a power of two, plus an optional second argument
671 in byte range. If there is a second argument, it is used as fill value,
672 otherwise the value defined in the linker configuration file is used
673 (the default for this value is zero).
675 Since alignment depends on the base address of the module, you must
676 give the same (or a greater) alignment for the segment when linking.
677 The linker will give you a warning, if you don't do that.
686 <sect1><tt>.ASCIIZ</tt><label id=".ASCIIZ"><p>
688 Define a string with a trailing zero.
693 Msg: .asciiz "Hello world"
696 This will put the string "Hello world" followed by a binary zero into
697 the current segment. There may be more strings separated by commas, but
698 the binary zero is only appended once (after the last one).
701 <sect1><tt>.ASSERT</tt><label id=".ASSERT"><p>
703 Add an assertion. The command is followed by an expression, an action
704 specifier and a message that is output in case the assertion fails. The
705 action specifier may be one of <tt/warning/ or <tt/error/. The assertion
706 is passed to the linker and will be evaluated when segment placement has
712 .assert * = $8000, error, "Code not at $8000"
715 The example assertion will check that the current location is at $8000,
716 when the output file is written, and abort with an error if this is not
717 the case. More complex expressions are possible. The action specifier
718 <tt/warning/ outputs a warning, while the <tt/error/ specifier outputs
719 an error message. In the latter case, generation if the output file is
723 <sect1><tt>.AUTOIMPORT</tt><label id=".AUTOIMPORT"><p>
725 Is followed by a plus or a minus character. When switched on (using a
726 +), undefined symbols are automatically marked as import instead of
727 giving errors. When switched off (which is the default so this does not
728 make much sense), this does not happen and an error message is
729 displayed. The state of the autoimport flag is evaluated when the
730 complete source was translated, before outputing actual code, so it is
731 <em/not/ possible to switch this feature on or off for separate sections
732 of code. The last setting is used for all symbols.
734 You should probably not use this switch because it delays error
735 messages about undefined symbols until the link stage. The cc65
736 compiler (which is supposed to produce correct assembler code in all
737 circumstances, something which is not true for most assembler
738 programmers) will insert this command to avoid importing each and every
739 routine from the runtime library.
744 .autoimport + ; Switch on auto import
748 <sect1><tt>.BLANK</tt><label id=".BLANK"><p>
750 Builtin function. The function evaluates its argument in braces and
751 yields "false" if the argument is non blank (there is an argument), and
752 "true" if there is no argument. As an example, the <tt/.IFBLANK/ statement
760 <sect1><tt>.BSS</tt><label id=".BSS"><p>
762 Switch to the BSS segment. The name of the BSS segment is always "BSS",
763 so this is a shortcut for
769 See also the <tt><ref id=".SEGMENT" name=".SEGMENT"></tt> command.
772 <sect1><tt>.BYT, .BYTE</tt><label id=".BYTE"><p>
774 Define byte sized data. Must be followed by a sequence of (byte ranged)
775 expressions or strings.
781 .byt "world", $0D, $00
785 <sect1><tt>.CASE</tt><label id=".CASE"><p>
787 Switch on or off case sensitivity on identifiers. The default is off
788 (that is, identifiers are case sensitive), but may be changed by the
789 -i switch on the command line.
790 The command must be followed by a '+' or '-' character to switch the
791 option on or off respectively.
796 .case - ; Identifiers are not case sensitive
800 <sect1><tt>.CHARMAP</tt><label id=".CHARMAP"><p>
802 Apply a custom mapping for characters. The command is followed by two
803 numbers in the range 1..255. The first one is the index of the source
804 character, the second one is the mapping. The mapping applies to all
805 character and string constants when they generate output, and overrides
806 a mapping table specified with the <tt><ref id="option-t" name="-t"></tt>
812 .charmap $41, $61 ; Map 'A' to 'a'
816 <sect1><tt>.CODE</tt><label id=".CODE"><p>
818 Switch to the CODE segment. The name of the CODE segment is always
819 "CODE", so this is a shortcut for
825 See also the <tt><ref id=".SEGMENT" name=".SEGMENT"></tt> command.
828 <sect1><tt>.CONDES</tt><label id=".CONDES"><p>
830 Export a symbol and mark it in a special way. The linker is able to build
831 tables of all such symbols. This may be used to automatically create a list
832 of functions needed to initialize linked library modules.
834 Note: The linker has a feature to build a table of marked routines, but it
835 is your code that must call these routines, so just declaring a symbol with
836 <tt/.CONDES/ does nothing by itself.
838 All symbols are exported as an absolute (16 bit) symbol. You don't need to
839 use an additional <tt><ref id=".EXPORT" name=".EXPORT"></tt> statement, this
840 is implied by <tt/.CONDES/.
842 <tt/.CONDES/ is followed by the type, which may be <tt/constructor/,
843 <tt/destructor/ or a numeric value between 0 and 6 (where 0 is the same as
844 specifiying <tt/constructor/ and 1 is equal to specifying <tt/destructor/).
845 The <tt><ref id=".CONSTRUCTOR" name=".CONSTRUCTOR"></tt> and <tt><ref
846 id=".DESTRUCTOR" name=".DESTRUCTOR"></tt> commands are actually shortcuts
847 for <tt/.CONDES/ with a type of <tt/constructor/ resp. <tt/destructor/.
849 After the type, an optional priority may be specified. If no priority is
850 given, the default priority of 7 is used. Be careful when assigning
851 priorities to your own module constructors so they won't interfere with the
852 ones in the cc65 library.
857 .condes ModuleInit, constructor
858 .condes ModInit, 0, 16
861 See the <tt><ref id=".CONSTRUCTOR" name=".CONSTRUCTOR"></tt> and <tt><ref
862 id=".DESTRUCTOR" name=".DESTRUCTOR"></tt> commands and the separate section
863 <ref id="condes" name="Module constructors/destructors"> explaining the
864 feature in more detail.
867 <sect1><tt>.CONCAT</tt><label id=".CONCAT"><p>
869 Builtin function. The function allows to concatenate a list of string
870 constants separated by commas. The result is a string constant that
871 is the concatentation of all arguments. This function is most useful
872 in macros and when used together with the <tt/.STRING/ builtin function.
873 The function may be used in any case where a string constant is
879 .include .concat ("myheader", ".", "inc")
882 This is the same as the command
885 .include "myheader.inc"
889 <sect1><tt>.CONST</tt><label id=".CONST"><p>
891 Builtin function. The function evaluates its argument in braces and
892 yields "true" if the argument is a constant expression (that is, an
893 expression that yields a constant value at assembly time) and "false"
894 otherwise. As an example, the .IFCONST statement may be replaced by
901 <sect1><tt>.CONSTRUCTOR</tt><label id=".CONSTRUCTOR"><p>
903 Export a symbol and mark it as a module constructor. This may be used
904 together with the linker to build a table of constructor subroutines that
905 are called by the startup code.
907 Note: The linker has a feature to build a table of marked routines, but it
908 is your code that must call these routines, so just declaring a symbol as
909 constructor does nothing by itself.
911 A constructor is always exported as an absolute (16 bit) symbol. You don't
912 need to use an additional <tt/.export/ statement, this is implied by
913 <tt/.constructor/. It may have an optional priority that is separated by a
914 comma. If no priority is given, the default priority of 7 is used. Be
915 careful when assigning priorities to your own module constructors so they
916 won't interfere with the ones in the cc65 library.
921 .constructor ModuleInit
922 .constructor ModInit, 16
925 See the <tt><ref id=".CONDES" name=".CONDES"></tt> and <tt><ref
926 id=".DESTRUCTOR" name=".DESTRUCTOR"></tt> commands and the separate section
927 <ref id="condes" name="Module constructors/destructors"> explaining the
928 feature in more detail.
931 <sect1><tt>.CPU</tt><label id=".CPU"><p>
933 Reading this pseudo variable will give a constant integer value that
934 tells which instruction set is currently enabled. Possible values are:
944 It may be used to replace the .IFPxx pseudo instructions or to construct
945 even more complex expressions.
950 .if (.cpu = 0) .or (.cpu = 1) .or (.cpu = 2)
962 <sect1><tt>.DATA</tt><label id=".DATA"><p>
964 Switch to the DATA segment. The name of the DATA segment is always
965 "DATA", so this is a shortcut for
971 See also the <tt><ref id=".SEGMENT" name=".SEGMENT"></tt> command.
974 <sect1><tt>.DBYT</tt><label id=".DBYT"><p>
976 Define word sized data with the hi and lo bytes swapped (use <tt/.WORD/ to
977 create word sized data in native 65XX format). Must be followed by a
978 sequence of (word ranged) expressions.
986 This will emit the bytes
992 into the current segment in that order.
995 <sect1><tt>.DEBUGINFO</tt><label id=".DEBUGINFO"><p>
997 Switch on or off debug info generation. The default is off (that is,
998 the object file will not contain debug infos), but may be changed by the
999 -g switch on the command line.
1000 The command must be followed by a '+' or '-' character to switch the
1001 option on or off respectively.
1006 .debuginfo + ; Generate debug info
1010 <sect1><tt>.DEFINE</tt><label id=".DEFINE"><p>
1012 Start a define style macro definition. The command is followed by an
1013 identifier (the macro name) and optionally by a list of formal arguments
1015 See section <ref id="macros" name="Macros">.
1018 <sect1><tt>.DEF, .DEFINED</tt><label id=".DEFINED"><p>
1020 Builtin function. The function expects an identifier as argument in braces.
1021 The argument is evaluated, and the function yields "true" if the identifier
1022 is a symbol that is already defined somewhere in the source file up to the
1023 current position. Otherwise the function yields false. As an example, the
1024 <tt><ref id=".IFDEF" name=".IFDEF"></tt> statement may be replaced by
1031 <sect1><tt>.DESTRUCTOR</tt><label id=".DESTRUCTOR"><p>
1033 Export a symbol and mark it as a module destructor. This may be used
1034 together with the linker to build a table of destructor subroutines that
1035 are called by the startup code.
1037 Note: The linker has a feature to build a table of marked routines, but it
1038 is your code that must call these routines, so just declaring a symbol as
1039 constructor does nothing by itself.
1041 A destructor is always exported as an absolute (16 bit) symbol. You don't
1042 need to use an additional <tt/.export/ statement, this is implied by
1043 <tt/.destructor/. It may have an optional priority that is separated by a
1044 comma. If no priority is given, the default priority of 7 is used. Be
1045 careful when assigning priorities to your own module destructors so they
1046 won't interfere with the ones in the cc65 library.
1051 .destructor ModuleDone
1052 .destructor ModDone, 16
1055 See the <tt><ref id=".CONDES" name=".CONDES"></tt> and <tt><ref
1056 id=".CONSTRUCTOR" name=".CONSTRUCTOR"></tt> commands and the separate
1057 section <ref id="condes" name="Module constructors/destructors"> explaining
1058 the feature in more detail.
1061 <sect1><tt>.DWORD</tt><label id=".DWORD"><p>
1063 Define dword sized data (4 bytes) Must be followed by a sequence of
1069 .dword $12344512, $12FA489
1073 <sect1><tt>.ELSE</tt><label id=".ELSE"><p>
1075 Conditional assembly: Reverse the current condition.
1078 <sect1><tt>.ELSEIF</tt><label id=".ELSEIF"><p>
1080 Conditional assembly: Reverse current condition and test a new one.
1083 <sect1><tt>.END</tt><label id=".END"><p>
1085 Forced end of assembly. Assembly stops at this point, even if the command
1086 is read from an include file.
1089 <sect1><tt>.ENDIF</tt><label id=".ENDIF"><p>
1091 Conditional assembly: Close a <tt><ref id=".IF" name=".IF..."></tt> or
1092 <tt><ref id=".ELSE" name=".ELSE"></tt> branch.
1095 <sect1><tt>.ENDMAC, .ENDMACRO</tt><label id=".ENDMACRO"><p>
1097 End of macro definition (see section <ref id="macros" name="Macros">).
1100 <sect1><tt>.ENDPROC</tt><label id=".ENDPROC"><p>
1102 End of local lexical level (see <tt><ref id=".PROC" name=".PROC"></tt>).
1105 <sect1><tt>.ENDREP, .ENDREPEAT</tt><label id=".ENDREPEAT"><p>
1107 End a <tt><ref id=".REPEAT" name=".REPEAT"></tt> block.
1110 <sect1><tt>.ERROR</tt><label id=".ERROR"><p>
1112 Force an assembly error. The assembler will output an error message
1113 preceeded by "User error" and will <em/not/ produce an object file.
1115 This command may be used to check for initial conditions that must be
1116 set before assembling a source file.
1126 .error "Must define foo or bar!"
1130 See also the <tt><ref id=".WARNING" name=".WARNING"></tt> and <tt><ref
1131 id=".OUT" name=".OUT"></tt> directives.
1134 <sect1><tt>.EXITMAC, .EXITMACRO</tt><label id=".EXITMACRO"><p>
1136 Abort a macro expansion immidiately. This command is often useful in
1137 recursive macros. See separate section <ref id="macros" name="Macros">.
1140 <sect1><tt>.EXPORT</tt><label id=".EXPORT"><p>
1142 Make symbols accessible from other modules. Must be followed by a comma
1143 separated list of symbols to export.
1151 See: <tt><ref id=".EXPORTZP" name=".EXPORTZP"></tt>
1154 <sect1><tt>.EXPORTZP</tt><label id=".EXPORTZP"><p>
1156 Make symbols accessible from other modules. Must be followed by a comma
1157 separated list of symbols to export. The exported symbols are explicitly
1158 marked as zero page symols.
1166 See: <tt><ref id=".EXPORT" name=".EXPORT"></tt>
1169 <sect1><tt>.FARADDR</tt><label id=".FARADDR"><p>
1171 Define far (24 bit) address data. The command must be followed by a
1172 sequence of (not necessarily constant) expressions.
1177 .faraddr DrawCircle, DrawRectangle, DrawHexagon
1180 See: <tt><ref id=".ADDR" name=".ADDR"></tt>
1183 <sect1><tt>.FEATURE</tt><label id=".FEATURE"><p>
1185 This directive may be used to enable one or more compatibility features
1186 of the assembler. While the use of <tt/.FEATURE/ should be avoided when
1187 possible, it may be useful when porting sources written for other
1188 assemblers. There is no way to switch a feature off, once you have
1189 enabled it, so using
1195 will enable the feature until end of assembly is reached.
1197 The following features are available:
1201 <tag><tt>dollar_is_pc</tt></tag>
1203 The dollar sign may be used as an alias for the star (`*'), which
1204 gives the value of the current PC in expressions.
1205 Note: Assignment to the pseudo variable is not allowed.
1207 <tag><tt>labels_without_colons</tt></tag>
1209 Allow labels without a trailing colon. These labels are only accepted,
1210 if they start at the beginning of a line (no leading white space).
1212 <tag><tt>loose_string_term</tt></tag>
1214 Accept single quotes as well as double quotes as terminators for string
1217 <tag><tt>loose_char_term</tt></tag>
1219 Accept single quotes as well as double quotes as terminators for char
1222 <tag><tt>at_in_identifiers</tt></tag>
1224 Accept the at character (`@') as a valid character in identifiers. The
1225 at character is not allowed to start an identifier, even with this
1228 <tag><tt>dollar_in_identifiers</tt></tag>
1230 Accept the dollar sign (`$') as a valid character in identifiers. The
1231 at character is not allowed to start an identifier, even with this
1234 <tag><tt>leading_dot_in_identifiers</tt></tag>
1236 Accept the dot (`.') as the first character of an identifier. This may be
1237 used for example to create macro names that start with a dot emulating
1238 control directives of other assemblers. Note however, that none of the
1239 reserved keywords built into the assembler, that starts with a dot, may be
1240 overridden. When using this feature, you may also get into trouble if
1241 later versions of the assembler define new keywords starting with a dot.
1243 <tag><tt>pc_assignment</tt></tag>
1245 Allow assignments to the PC symbol (`*' or `$' if <tt/dollar_is_pc/
1246 is enabled). Such an assignment is handled identical to the <tt><ref
1247 id=".ORG" name=".ORG"></tt> command (which is usually not needed, so just
1248 removing the lines with the assignments may also be an option when porting
1249 code written for older assemblers).
1253 It is also possible to specify features on the command line using the
1254 <tt><ref id="option--feature" name="--feature"></tt> command line option.
1255 This is useful when translating sources written for older assemblers, when
1256 you don't want to change the source code.
1258 As an example, to translate sources written for Andre Fachats xa65
1259 assembler, the features
1262 labels_without_colons, pc_assignment, loose_char_term
1265 may be helpful. They do not make ca65 completely compatible, so you may not
1266 be able to translate the sources without changes, even when enabling these
1267 features. However, I have found several sources that translate without
1268 problems when enabling these features on the command line.
1271 <sect1><tt>.FILEOPT, .FOPT</tt><label id=".FOPT"><p>
1273 Insert an option string into the object file. There are two forms of
1274 this command, one specifies the option by a keyword, the second
1275 specifies it as a number. Since usage of the second one needs knowledge
1276 of the internal encoding, its use is not recommended and I will only
1277 describe the first form here.
1279 The command is followed by one of the keywords
1287 a comma and a string. The option is written into the object file
1288 together with the string value. This is currently unidirectional and
1289 there is no way to actually use these options once they are in the
1295 .fileopt comment, "Code stolen from my brother"
1296 .fileopt compiler, "BASIC 2.0"
1297 .fopt author, "J. R. User"
1301 <sect1><tt>.FORCEIMPORT</tt><label id=".FORCEIMPORT"><p>
1303 Import an absolute symbol from another module. The command is followed by a
1304 comma separated list of symbols to import. The command is similar to <tt>
1305 <ref id=".IMPORT" name=".IMPORT"></tt>, but the import reference is always
1306 written to the generated object file, even if the symbol is never referenced
1307 (<tt><ref id=".IMPORT" name=".IMPORT"></tt> will not generate import
1308 references for unused symbols).
1313 .forceimport needthisone, needthistoo
1316 See: <tt><ref id=".IMPORT" name=".IMPORT"></tt>
1319 <sect1><tt>.GLOBAL</tt><label id=".GLOBAL"><p>
1321 Declare symbols as global. Must be followed by a comma separated list of
1322 symbols to declare. Symbols from the list, that are defined somewhere in the
1323 source, are exported, all others are imported. Additional <tt><ref
1324 id=".IMPORT" name=".IMPORT"></tt> or <tt><ref id=".EXPORT"
1325 name=".EXPORT"></tt> commands for the same symbol are allowed.
1334 <sect1><tt>.GLOBALZP</tt><label id=".GLOBALZP"><p>
1336 Declare symbols as global. Must be followed by a comma separated list of
1337 symbols to declare. Symbols from the list, that are defined somewhere in the
1338 source, are exported, all others are imported. Additional <tt><ref
1339 id=".IMPORTZP" name=".IMPORTZP"></tt> or <tt><ref id=".EXPORTZP"
1340 name=".EXPORTZP"></tt> commands for the same symbol are allowed. The symbols
1341 in the list are explicitly marked as zero page symols.
1350 <sect1><tt>.I16</tt><label id=".I16"><p>
1352 Valid only in 65816 mode. Switch the index registers to 16 bit.
1354 Note: This command will not emit any code, it will tell the assembler to
1355 create 16 bit operands for immediate operands.
1357 See also the <tt><ref id=".I8" name=".I8"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".SMART"
1358 name=".SMART"></tt> commands.
1361 <sect1><tt>.I8</tt><label id=".I8"><p>
1363 Valid only in 65816 mode. Switch the index registers to 8 bit.
1365 Note: This command will not emit any code, it will tell the assembler to
1366 create 8 bit operands for immediate operands.
1368 See also the <tt><ref id=".I16" name=".I16"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".SMART"
1369 name=".SMART"></tt> commands.
1372 <sect1><tt>.IF</tt><label id=".IF"><p>
1374 Conditional assembly: Evalute an expression and switch assembler output
1375 on or off depending on the expression. The expression must be a constant
1376 expression, that is, all operands must be defined.
1378 A expression value of zero evaluates to FALSE, any other value evaluates
1382 <sect1><tt>.IFBLANK</tt><label id=".IFBLANK"><p>
1384 Conditional assembly: Check if there are any remaining tokens in this line,
1385 and evaluate to FALSE if this is the case, and to TRUE otherwise. If the
1386 condition is not true, further lines are not assembled until an <tt><ref
1387 id=".ELSE" name=".ESLE"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".ELSEIF" name=".ELSEIF"></tt> or
1388 <tt><ref id=".ENDIF" name=".ENDIF"></tt> directive.
1390 This command is often used to check if a macro parameter was given. Since an
1391 empty macro parameter will evaluate to nothing, the condition will evaluate
1392 to FALSE if an empty parameter was given.
1406 See also: <tt><ref id=".BLANK" name=".BLANK"></tt>
1409 <sect1><tt>.IFCONST</tt><label id=".IFCONST"><p>
1411 Conditional assembly: Evaluate an expression and switch assembler output
1412 on or off depending on the constness of the expression.
1414 A const expression evaluates to to TRUE, a non const expression (one
1415 containing an imported or currently undefined symbol) evaluates to
1418 See also: <tt><ref id=".CONST" name=".CONST"></tt>
1421 <sect1><tt>.IFDEF</tt><label id=".IFDEF"><p>
1423 Conditional assembly: Check if a symbol is defined. Must be followed by
1424 a symbol name. The condition is true if the the given symbol is already
1425 defined, and false otherwise.
1427 See also: <tt><ref id=".DEFINED" name=".DEFINED"></tt>
1430 <sect1><tt>.IFNBLANK</tt><label id=".IFNBLANK"><p>
1432 Conditional assembly: Check if there are any remaining tokens in this line,
1433 and evaluate to TRUE if this is the case, and to FALSE otherwise. If the
1434 condition is not true, further lines are not assembled until an <tt><ref
1435 id=".ELSE" name=".ELSE"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".ELSEIF" name=".ELSEIF"></tt> or
1436 <tt><ref id=".ENDIF" name=".ENDIF"></tt> directive.
1438 This command is often used to check if a macro parameter was given.
1439 Since an empty macro parameter will evaluate to nothing, the condition
1440 will evaluate to FALSE if an empty parameter was given.
1453 See also: <tt><ref id=".BLANK" name=".BLANK"></tt>
1456 <sect1><tt>.IFNDEF</tt><label id=".IFNDEF"><p>
1458 Conditional assembly: Check if a symbol is defined. Must be followed by
1459 a symbol name. The condition is true if the the given symbol is not
1460 defined, and false otherwise.
1462 See also: <tt><ref id=".DEFINED" name=".DEFINED"></tt>
1465 <sect1><tt>.IFNREF</tt><label id=".IFNREF"><p>
1467 Conditional assembly: Check if a symbol is referenced. Must be followed
1468 by a symbol name. The condition is true if if the the given symbol was
1469 not referenced before, and false otherwise.
1471 See also: <tt><ref id=".REFERENCED" name=".REFERENCED"></tt>
1474 <sect1><tt>.IFP02</tt><label id=".IFP02"><p>
1476 Conditional assembly: Check if the assembler is currently in 6502 mode
1477 (see <tt><ref id=".P02" name=".P02"></tt> command).
1480 <sect1><tt>.IFP816</tt><label id=".IFP816"><p>
1482 Conditional assembly: Check if the assembler is currently in 65816 mode
1483 (see <tt><ref id=".P816" name=".P816"></tt> command).
1486 <sect1><tt>.IFPC02</tt><label id=".IFPC02"><p>
1488 Conditional assembly: Check if the assembler is currently in 65C02 mode
1489 (see <tt><ref id=".PC02" name=".PC02"></tt> command).
1492 <sect1><tt>.IFPSC02</tt><label id=".IFPSC02"><p>
1494 Conditional assembly: Check if the assembler is currently in 65SC02 mode
1495 (see <tt><ref id=".PSC02" name=".PSC02"></tt> command).
1498 <sect1><tt>.IFREF</tt><label id=".IFREF"><p>
1500 Conditional assembly: Check if a symbol is referenced. Must be followed
1501 by a symbol name. The condition is true if if the the given symbol was
1502 referenced before, and false otherwise.
1504 This command may be used to build subroutine libraries in include files
1505 (you may use separate object modules for this purpose too).
1510 .ifref ToHex ; If someone used this subroutine
1511 ToHex: tay ; Define subroutine
1517 See also: <tt><ref id=".REFERENCED" name=".REFERENCED"></tt>
1520 <sect1><tt>.IMPORT</tt><label id=".IMPORT"><p>
1522 Import a symbol from another module. The command is followed by a comma
1523 separated list of symbols to import.
1531 See: <tt><ref id=".IMPORTZP" name=".IMPORTZP"></tt>
1534 <sect1><tt>.IMPORTZP</tt><label id=".IMPORTZP"><p>
1536 Import a symbol from another module. The command is followed by a comma
1537 separated list of symbols to import. The symbols are explicitly imported
1538 as zero page symbols (that is, symbols with values in byte range).
1546 See: <tt><ref id=".IMPORT" name=".IMPORT"></tt>
1549 <sect1><tt>.INCBIN</tt><label id=".INCBIN"><p>
1551 Include a file as binary data. The command expects a string argument
1552 that is the name of a file to include literally in the current segment.
1553 In addition to that, a start offset and a size value may be specified,
1554 separated by commas. If no size is specified, all of the file from the
1555 start offset to end-of-file is used. If no start position is specified
1556 either, zero is assume (which means that the whole file is inserted).
1561 ; Include whole file
1562 .incbin "sprites.dat"
1564 ; Include file starting at offset 256
1565 .incbin "music.dat", $100
1567 ; Read 100 bytes starting at offset 200
1568 .incbin "graphics.dat", 200, 100
1572 <sect1><tt>.INCLUDE</tt><label id=".INCLUDE"><p>
1574 Include another file. Include files may be nested up to a depth of 16.
1583 <sect1><tt>.LEFT</tt><label id=".LEFT"><p>
1585 Builtin function. Extracts the left part of a given token list.
1590 .LEFT (<int expr>, <token list>)
1593 The first integer expression gives the number of tokens to extract from
1594 the token list. The second argument is the token list itself.
1598 To check in a macro if the given argument has a '#' as first token
1599 (immidiate addressing mode), use something like this:
1604 .if (.match (.left (1, arg), #))
1606 ; ldax called with immidiate operand
1614 See also the <tt><ref id=".MID" name=".MID"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".RIGHT"
1615 name=".RIGHT"></tt> builtin functions.
1618 <sect1><tt>.LINECONT</tt><label id=".LINECONT"><p>
1620 Switch on or off line continuations using the backslash character
1621 before a newline. The option is off by default.
1622 Note: Line continuations do not work in a comment. A backslash at the
1623 end of a comment is treated as part of the comment and does not trigger
1625 The command must be followed by a '+' or '-' character to switch the
1626 option on or off respectively.
1631 .linecont + ; Allow line continuations
1634 #$20 ; This is legal now
1638 <sect1><tt>.LIST</tt><label id=".LIST"><p>
1640 Enable output to the listing. The command must be followed by a boolean
1641 switch ("on", "off", "+" or "-") and will enable or disable listing
1643 The option has no effect if the listing is not enabled by the command line
1644 switch -l. If -l is used, an internal counter is set to 1. Lines are output
1645 to the listing file, if the counter is greater than zero, and suppressed if
1646 the counter is zero. Each use of <tt/.LIST/ will increment or decrement the
1652 .list on ; Enable listing output
1656 <sect1><tt>.LISTBYTES</tt><label id=".LISTBYTES"><p>
1658 Set, how many bytes are shown in the listing for one source line. The
1659 default is 12, so the listing will show only the first 12 bytes for any
1660 source line that generates more than 12 bytes of code or data.
1661 The directive needs an argument, which is either "unlimited", or an
1662 integer constant in the range 4..255.
1667 .listbytes unlimited ; List all bytes
1668 .listbytes 12 ; List the first 12 bytes
1669 .incbin "data.bin" ; Include large binary file
1673 <sect1><tt>.LOCAL</tt><label id=".LOCAL"><p>
1675 This command may only be used inside a macro definition. It declares a
1676 list of identifiers as local to the macro expansion.
1678 A problem when using macros are labels: Since they don't change their name,
1679 you get a "duplicate symbol" error if the macro is expanded the second time.
1680 Labels declared with <tt><ref id=".LOCAL" name=".LOCAL"></tt> have their
1681 name mapped to an internal unique name (<tt/___ABCD__/) with each macro
1684 Some other assemblers start a new lexical block inside a macro expansion.
1685 This has some drawbacks however, since that will not allow <em/any/ symbol
1686 to be visible outside a macro, a feature that is sometimes useful. The
1687 <tt><ref id=".LOCAL" name=".LOCAL"></tt> command is in my eyes a better way
1688 to address the problem.
1690 You get an error when using <tt><ref id=".LOCAL" name=".LOCAL"></tt> outside
1694 <sect1><tt>.LOCALCHAR</tt><label id=".LOCALCHAR"><p>
1696 Defines the character that start "cheap" local labels. You may use one
1697 of '@' and '?' as start character. The default is '@'.
1699 Cheap local labels are labels that are visible only between two non
1700 cheap labels. This way you can reuse identifiers like "<tt/loop/" without
1701 using explicit lexical nesting.
1708 Clear: lda #$00 ; Global label
1709 ?Loop: sta Mem,y ; Local label
1713 Sub: ... ; New global label
1714 bne ?Loop ; ERROR: Unknown identifier!
1718 <sect1><tt>.MACPACK</tt><label id=".MACPACK"><p>
1720 Insert a predefined macro package. The command is followed by an
1721 identifier specifying the macro package to insert. Available macro
1725 generic Defines generic macros like add and sub.
1726 longbranch Defines conditional long jump macros.
1729 Including a macro package twice, or including a macro package that
1730 redefines already existing macros will lead to an error.
1735 .macpack longbranch ; Include macro package
1737 cmp #$20 ; Set condition codes
1738 jne Label ; Jump long on condition
1741 Macro packages are explained in more detail in section <ref
1742 id="macropackages" name="Macro packages">.
1745 <sect1><tt>.MAC, .MACRO</tt><label id=".MAC"><p>
1747 Start a classic macro definition. The command is followed by an identifier
1748 (the macro name) and optionally by a comma separated list of identifiers
1749 that are macro parameters.
1751 See section <ref id="macros" name="Macros">.
1754 <sect1><tt>.MATCH</tt><label id=".MATCH"><p>
1756 Builtin function. Matches two token lists against each other. This is
1757 most useful within macros, since macros are not stored as strings, but
1763 .MATCH(<token list #1>, <token list #2>)
1766 Both token list may contain arbitrary tokens with the exception of the
1767 terminator token (comma resp. right parenthesis) and
1774 Often a macro parameter is used for any of the token lists.
1776 Please note that the function does only compare tokens, not token
1777 attributes. So any number is equal to any other number, regardless of the
1778 actual value. The same is true for strings. If you need to compare tokens
1779 <em/and/ token attributes, use the <tt><ref id=".XMATCH"
1780 name=".XMATCH"></tt> function.
1784 Assume the macro <tt/ASR/, that will shift right the accumulator by one,
1785 while honoring the sign bit. The builtin processor instructions will allow
1786 an optional "A" for accu addressing for instructions like <tt/ROL/ and
1787 <tt/ROR/. We will use the <tt><ref id=".MATCH" name=".MATCH"></tt> function
1788 to check for this and print and error for invalid calls.
1793 .if (.not .blank(arg)) .and (.not .match (arg, a))
1794 .error "Syntax error"
1797 cmp #$80 ; Bit 7 into carry
1798 lsr a ; Shift carry into bit 7
1803 The macro will only accept no arguments, or one argument that must be the
1804 reserved keyword "A".
1806 See: <tt><ref id=".XMATCH" name=".XMATCH"></tt>
1809 <sect1><tt>.MID</tt><label id=".MID"><p>
1811 Builtin function. Takes a starting index, a count and a token list as
1812 arguments. Will return part of the token list.
1817 .MID (<int expr>, <int expr>, <token list>)
1820 The first integer expression gives the starting token in the list (the
1821 first token has index 0). The second integer expression gives the number
1822 of tokens to extract from the token list. The third argument is the
1827 To check in a macro if the given argument has a '<tt/#/' as first token
1828 (immidiate addressing mode), use something like this:
1833 .if (.match (.mid (0, 1, arg), #))
1835 ; ldax called with immidiate operand
1843 See also the <tt><ref id=".LEFT" name=".LEFT"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".RIGHT"
1844 name=".RIGHT"></tt> builtin functions.
1847 <sect1><tt>.ORG</tt><label id=".ORG"><p>
1849 Start a section of absolute code. The command is followed by a constant
1850 expression that gives the new PC counter location for which the code is
1851 assembled. Use <tt><ref id=".RELOC" name=".RELOC"></tt> to switch back to
1854 Please note that you <em/do not need/ this command in most cases. Placing
1855 code at a specific address is the job of the linker, not the assembler, so
1856 there is usually no reason to assemble code to a specific address.
1858 You may not switch segments while inside a section of absolute code.
1863 .org $7FF ; Emit code starting at $7FF
1867 <sect1><tt>.OUT</tt><label id=".OUT"><p>
1869 Output a string to the console without producing an error. This command
1870 is similiar to <tt/.ERROR/, however, it does not force an assembler error
1871 that prevents the creation of an object file.
1876 .out "This code was written by the codebuster(tm)"
1879 See also the <tt><ref id=".WARNING" name=".WARNING"></tt> and <tt><ref
1880 id=".ERROR" name=".ERROR"></tt> directives.
1883 <sect1><tt>.P02</tt><label id=".P02"><p>
1885 Enable the 6502 instruction set, disable 65SC02, 65C02 and 65816
1886 instructions. This is the default if not overridden by the
1887 <tt><ref id="option--cpu" name="--cpu"></tt> command line option.
1889 See: <tt><ref id=".PC02" name=".PC02"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".PSC02"
1890 name=".PSC02"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".P816" name=".P816"></tt>
1893 <sect1><tt>.P816</tt><label id=".P816"><p>
1895 Enable the 65816 instruction set. This is a superset of the 65SC02 and
1896 6502 instruction sets.
1898 See: <tt><ref id=".P02" name=".P02"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".PSC02"
1899 name=".PSC02"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".PC02" name=".PC02"></tt>
1902 <sect1><tt>.PAGELEN, .PAGELENGTH</tt><label id=".PAGELENGTH"><p>
1904 Set the page length for the listing. Must be followed by an integer
1905 constant. The value may be "unlimited", or in the range 32 to 127. The
1906 statement has no effect if no listing is generated. The default value is -1
1907 (unlimited) but may be overridden by the <tt/--pagelength/ command line
1908 option. Beware: Since ca65 is a one pass assembler, the listing is generated
1909 after assembly is complete, you cannot use multiple line lengths with one
1910 source. Instead, the value set with the last <tt/.PAGELENGTH/ is used.
1915 .pagelength 66 ; Use 66 lines per listing page
1917 .pagelength unlimited ; Unlimited page length
1921 <sect1><tt>.PARAMCOUNT</tt><label id=".PARAMCOUNT"><p>
1923 This builtin pseudo variable is only available in macros. It is replaced by
1924 the actual number of parameters that were given in the macro invocation.
1929 .macro foo arg1, arg2, arg3
1930 .if .paramcount <> 3
1931 .error "Too few parameters for macro foo"
1937 See section <ref id="macros" name="Macros">.
1940 <sect1><tt>.PC02</tt><label id=".PC02"><p>
1942 Enable the 65C02 instructions set. This instruction set includes all
1943 6502 and 65SC02 instructions.
1945 See: <tt><ref id=".P02" name=".P02"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".PSC02"
1946 name=".PSC02"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".P816" name=".P816"></tt>
1949 <sect1><tt>.POPSEG</tt><label id=".POPSEG"><p>
1951 Pop the last pushed segment from the stack, and set it.
1953 This command will switch back to the segment that was last pushed onto the
1954 segment stack using the <tt><ref id=".PUSHSEG" name=".PUSHSEG"></tt>
1955 command, and remove this entry from the stack.
1957 The assembler will print an error message if the segment stack is empty
1958 when this command is issued.
1960 See: <tt><ref id=".PUSHSEG" name=".PUSHSEG"></tt>
1963 <sect1><tt>.PROC</tt><label id=".PROC"><p>
1965 Start a nested lexical level. All new symbols from now on are in the local
1966 lexical level and are not accessible from outside. Symbols defined outside
1967 this local level may be accessed as long as their names are not used for new
1968 symbols inside the level. Symbols names in other lexical levels do not
1969 clash, so you may use the same names for identifiers. The lexical level ends
1970 when the <tt><ref id=".ENDPROC" name=".ENDPROC"></tt> command is read.
1971 Lexical levels may be nested up to a depth of 16.
1973 The command may be followed by an identifier, in this case the
1974 identifier is declared in the outer level as a label having the value of
1975 the program counter at the start of the lexical level.
1977 Note: Macro names are always in the global level and in a separate name
1978 space. There is no special reason for this, it's just that I've never
1979 had any need for local macro definitions.
1984 .proc Clear ; Define Clear subroutine, start new level
1986 L1: sta Mem,y ; L1 is local and does not cause a
1987 ; duplicate symbol error if used in other
1990 bne L1 ; Reference local symbol
1992 .endproc ; Leave lexical level
1995 See: <tt><ref id=".ENDPROC" name=".ENDPROC"></tt>
1998 <sect1><tt>.PSC02</tt><label id=".PSC02"><p>
2000 Enable the 65SC02 instructions set. This instruction set includes all
2003 See: <tt><ref id=".P02" name=".P02"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".PC02"
2004 name=".PC02"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".P816" name=".P816"></tt>
2007 <sect1><tt>.PUSHSEG</tt><label id=".PUSHSEG"><p>
2009 Push the currently active segment onto a stack. The entries on the stack
2010 include the name of the segment and the segment type. The stack has a size
2013 <tt/.PUSHSEG/ allows together with <tt><ref id=".POPSEG" name=".POPSEG"></tt>
2014 to switch to another segment and to restore the old segment later, without
2015 even knowing the name and type of the current segment.
2017 The assembler will print an error message if the segment stack is already
2018 full, when this command is issued.
2020 See: <tt><ref id=".POPSEG" name=".POPSEG"></tt>
2023 <sect1><tt>.REF, .REFERENCED</tt><label id=".REFERENCED"><p>
2025 Builtin function. The function expects an identifier as argument in braces.
2026 The argument is evaluated, and the function yields "true" if the identifier
2027 is a symbol that has already been referenced somewhere in the source file up
2028 to the current position. Otherwise the function yields false. As an example,
2029 the <tt><ref id=".IFREF" name=".IFREF"></tt> statement may be replaced by
2035 See: <tt><ref id=".DEFINED" name=".DEFINED"></tt>
2038 <sect1><tt>.REPEAT</tt><label id=".REPEAT"><p>
2040 Repeat all commands between <tt/.REPEAT/ and <tt><ref id=".ENDREPEAT"
2041 name=".ENDREPEAT"></tt> constant number of times. The command is followed by
2042 a constant expression that tells how many times the commands in the body
2043 should get repeated. Optionally, a comma and an identifier may be specified.
2044 If this identifier is found in the body of the repeat statement, it is
2045 replaced by the current repeat count (starting with zero for the first time
2046 the body is repeated).
2048 <tt/.REPEAT/ statements may be nested. If you use the same repeat count
2049 identifier for a nested <tt/.REPEAT/ statement, the one from the inner
2050 level will be used, not the one from the outer level.
2054 The following macro will emit a string that is "encrypted" in that all
2055 characters of the string are XORed by the value $55.
2059 .repeat .strlen(Arg), I
2060 .byte .strat(Arg, I) .xor $55
2065 See: <tt><ref id=".ENDREPEAT" name=".ENDREPEAT"></tt>
2068 <sect1><tt>.RELOC</tt><label id=".RELOC"><p>
2070 Switch back to relocatable mode. See the <tt><ref id=".ORG"
2071 name=".ORG"></tt> command.
2074 <sect1><tt>.RES</tt><label id=".RES"><p>
2076 Reserve storage. The command is followed by one or two constant
2077 expressions. The first one is mandatory and defines, how many bytes of
2078 storage should be defined. The second, optional expression must by a
2079 constant byte value that will be used as value of the data. If there
2080 is no fill value given, the linker will use the value defined in the
2081 linker configuration file (default: zero).
2086 ; Reserve 12 bytes of memory with value $AA
2091 <sect1><tt>.RIGHT</tt><label id=".RIGHT"><p>
2093 Builtin function. Extracts the right part of a given token list.
2098 .RIGHT (<int expr>, <token list>)
2101 The first integer expression gives the number of tokens to extract from
2102 the token list. The second argument is the token list itself.
2104 See also the <tt><ref id=".LEFT" name=".LEFT"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".MID"
2105 name=".MID"></tt> builtin functions.
2108 <sect1><tt>.RODATA</tt><label id=".RODATA"><p>
2110 Switch to the RODATA segment. The name of the RODATA segment is always
2111 "RODATA", so this is a shortcut for
2117 The RODATA segment is a segment that is used by the compiler for
2118 readonly data like string constants.
2120 See also the <tt><ref id=".SEGMENT" name=".SEGMENT"></tt> command.
2123 <sect1><tt>.SEGMENT</tt><label id=".SEGMENT"><p>
2125 Switch to another segment. Code and data is always emitted into a
2126 segment, that is, a named section of data. The default segment is
2127 "CODE". There may be up to 254 different segments per object file
2128 (and up to 65534 per executable). There are shortcut commands for
2129 the most common segments ("CODE", "DATA" and "BSS").
2131 The command is followed by a string containing the segment name (there
2132 are some constraints for the name - as a rule of thumb use only those
2133 segment names that would also be valid identifiers). There may also be
2134 an optional attribute separated by a comma. Valid attributes are
2135 "<tt/zeropage/" and "<tt/absolute/".
2137 When specifying a segment for the first time, "absolute" is the
2138 default. For all other uses, the attribute specified the first time
2141 "absolute" means that this is a segment with absolute addressing. That
2142 is, the segment will reside somewhere in core memory outside the zero
2143 page. "zeropage" means the opposite: The segment will be placed in the
2144 zero page and direct (short) addressing is possible for data in this
2147 Beware: Only labels in a segment with the zeropage attribute are marked
2148 as reachable by short addressing. The `*' (PC counter) operator will
2149 work as in other segments and will create absolute variable values.
2154 .segment "ROM2" ; Switch to ROM2 segment
2155 .segment "ZP2", zeropage ; New direct segment
2156 .segment "ZP2" ; Ok, will use last attribute
2157 .segment "ZP2", absolute ; Error, redecl mismatch
2160 See: <tt><ref id=".BSS" name=".BSS"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".CODE"
2161 name=".CODE"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".DATA" name=".DATA"></tt> and <tt><ref
2162 id=".RODATA" name=".RODATA"></tt>
2165 <sect1><tt>.SETCPU</tt><label id=".SETCPU"><p>
2167 Switch the CPU instruction set. The command is followed by a string that
2168 specifies the CPU. Possible values are those that can also be supplied to
2169 the <tt><ref id="option--cpu" name="--cpu"></tt> command line option,
2170 namely: 6502, 65SC02, 65C02, 65816 and sunplus. Please note that support
2171 for the sunplus CPU is not available in the freeware version, because the
2172 instruction set of the sunplus CPU is "proprietary and confidential".
2174 See: <tt><ref id=".CPU" name=".CPU"></tt>,
2175 <tt><ref id=".IFP02" name=".IFP02"></tt>,
2176 <tt><ref id=".IFP816" name=".IFP816"></tt>,
2177 <tt><ref id=".IFPC02" name=".IFPC02"></tt>,
2178 <tt><ref id=".IFPSC02" name=".IFPSC02"></tt>,
2179 <tt><ref id=".P02" name=".P02"></tt>,
2180 <tt><ref id=".P816" name=".P816"></tt>,
2181 <tt><ref id=".PC02" name=".PC02"></tt>,
2182 <tt><ref id=".PSC02" name=".PSC02"></tt>
2185 <sect1><tt>.SMART</tt><label id=".SMART"><p>
2187 Switch on or off smart mode. The command must be followed by a '+' or
2188 '-' character to switch the option on or off respectively. The default
2189 is off (that is, the assembler doesn't try to be smart), but this
2190 default may be changed by the -s switch on the command line.
2192 In smart mode the assembler will track usage of the <tt/REP/ and <tt/SEP/
2193 instructions in 65816 mode and update the operand sizes accordingly. If
2194 the operand of such an instruction cannot be evaluated by the assembler
2195 (for example, because the operand is an imported symbol), a warning is
2196 issued. Beware: Since the assembler cannot trace the execution flow this
2197 may lead to false results in some cases. If in doubt, use the <tt/.Inn/ and
2198 <tt/.Ann/ instructions to tell the assembler about the current settings.
2204 .smart - ; Stop being smart
2208 <sect1><tt>.STRAT</tt><label id=".STRAT"><p>
2210 Builtin function. The function accepts a string and an index as
2211 arguments and returns the value of the character at the given position
2212 as an integer value. The index is zero based.
2218 ; Check if the argument string starts with '#'
2219 .if (.strat (Arg, 0) = '#')
2226 <sect1><tt>.STRING</tt><label id=".STRING"><p>
2228 Builtin function. The function accepts an argument in braces and converts
2229 this argument into a string constant. The argument may be an identifier, or
2230 a constant numeric value.
2232 Since you can use a string in the first place, the use of the function may
2233 not be obvious. However, it is useful in macros, or more complex setups.
2238 ; Emulate other assemblers:
2240 .segment .string(name)
2245 <sect1><tt>.STRLEN</tt><label id=".STRLEN"><p>
2247 Builtin function. The function accepts a string argument in braces and
2248 eveluates to the length of the string.
2252 The following macro encodes a string as a pascal style string with
2253 a leading length byte.
2257 .byte .strlen(Arg), Arg
2262 <sect1><tt>.SUNPLUS</tt><label id=".SUNPLUS"><p>
2264 Enable the SunPlus instructions set. This command will not work in the
2265 freeware version of the assembler, because the instruction set is
2266 "proprietary and confidential".
2268 See: <tt><ref id=".P02" name=".P02"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".PSC02"
2269 name=".PSC02"></tt>, <tt><ref id=".PC02" name=".PC02"></tt>, and
2270 <tt><ref id=".P816" name=".P816"></tt>
2273 <sect1><tt>.TCOUNT</tt><label id=".TCOUNT"><p>
2275 Builtin function. The function accepts a token list in braces. The
2276 function result is the number of tokens given as argument.
2280 The <tt/ldax/ macro accepts the '#' token to denote immidiate addressing (as
2281 with the normal 6502 instructions). To translate it into two separate 8 bit
2282 load instructions, the '#' token has to get stripped from the argument:
2286 .if (.match (.mid (0, 1, arg), #))
2287 ; ldax called with immidiate operand
2288 lda #<(.right (.tcount (arg)-1, arg))
2289 ldx #>(.right (.tcount (arg)-1, arg))
2297 <sect1><tt>.TIME</tt><label id=".TIME"><p>
2299 Reading this pseudo variable will give a constant integer value that
2300 represents the current time in POSIX standard (as seconds since the
2303 It may be used to encode the time of translation somewhere in the created
2309 .dword .time ; Place time here
2313 <sect1><tt>.WARNING</tt><label id=".WARNING"><p>
2315 Force an assembly warning. The assembler will output a warning message
2316 preceeded by "User warning". This warning will always be output, even if
2317 other warnings are disabled with the <tt><ref id="option-W" name="-W0"></tt>
2318 command line option.
2320 This command may be used to output possible problems when assembling
2329 .warning "Forward jump in jne, cannot optimize!"
2339 See also the <tt><ref id=".ERROR" name=".ERROR"></tt> and <tt><ref id=".OUT"
2340 name=".OUT"></tt> directives.
2343 <sect1><tt>.WORD</tt><label id=".WORD"><p>
2345 Define word sized data. Must be followed by a sequence of (word ranged,
2346 but not necessarily constant) expressions.
2351 .word $0D00, $AF13, _Clear
2355 <sect1><tt>.XMATCH</tt><label id=".XMATCH"><p>
2357 Builtin function. Matches two token lists against each other. This is
2358 most useful within macros, since macros are not stored as strings, but
2364 .XMATCH(<token list #1>, <token list #2>)
2367 Both token list may contain arbitrary tokens with the exception of the
2368 terminator token (comma resp. right parenthesis) and
2375 Often a macro parameter is used for any of the token lists.
2377 The function compares tokens <em/and/ token values. If you need a function
2378 that just compares the type of tokens, have a look at the <tt><ref
2379 id=".MATCH" name=".MATCH"></tt> function.
2381 See: <tt><ref id=".MATCH" name=".MATCH"></tt>
2384 <sect1><tt>.ZEROPAGE</tt><label id=".ZEROPAGE"><p>
2386 Switch to the ZEROPAGE segment and mark it as direct (zeropage) segment.
2387 The name of the ZEROPAGE segment is always "ZEROPAGE", so this is a
2391 .segment "ZEROPAGE", zeropage
2394 Because of the "zeropage" attribute, labels declared in this segment are
2395 addressed using direct addressing mode if possible. You <em/must/ instruct
2396 the linker to place this segment somewhere in the address range 0..$FF
2397 otherwise you will get errors.
2399 See: <tt><ref id=".SEGMENT" name=".SEGMENT"></tt>
2403 <sect>Macros<label id="macros"><p>
2406 <sect1>Introduction<p>
2408 Macros may be thought of as "parametrized super instructions". Macros are
2409 sequences of tokens that have a name. If that name is used in the source
2410 file, the macro is "expanded", that is, it is replaced by the tokens that
2411 were specified when the macro was defined.
2414 <sect1>Macros without parameters<p>
2416 In it's simplest form, a macro does not have parameters. Here's an
2420 .macro asr ; Arithmetic shift right
2421 cmp #$80 ; Put bit 7 into carry
2422 ror ; Rotate right with carry
2426 The macro above consists of two real instructions, that are inserted into
2427 the code, whenever the macro is expanded. Macro expansion is simply done
2428 by using the name, like this:
2437 <sect1>Parametrized macros<p>
2439 When using macro parameters, macros can be even more useful:
2453 When calling the macro, you may give a parameter, and each occurence of
2454 the name "addr" in the macro definition will be replaced by the given
2473 A macro may have more than one parameter, in this case, the parameters
2474 are separated by commas. You are free to give less parameters than the
2475 macro actually takes in the definition. You may also leave intermediate
2476 parameters empty. Empty parameters are replaced by empty space (that is,
2477 they are removed when the macro is exanded). If you have a look at our
2478 macro definition above, you will see, that replacing the "addr" parameter
2479 by nothing will lead to wrong code in most lines. To help you, writing
2480 macros with a variable parameter list, there are some control commands:
2482 <tt><ref id=".IFBLANK" name=".IFBLANK"></tt> tests the rest of the line and
2483 returns true, if there are any tokens on the remainder of the line. Since
2484 empty parameters are replaced by nothing, this may be used to test if a given
2485 parameter is empty. <tt><ref id=".IFNBLANK" name=".IFNBLANK"></tt> tests the
2488 Look at this example:
2491 .macro ldaxy a, x, y
2504 This macro may be called as follows:
2507 ldaxy 1, 2, 3 ; Load all three registers
2509 ldaxy 1, , 3 ; Load only a and y
2511 ldaxy , , 3 ; Load y only
2514 There's another helper command for determining, which macro parameters are
2515 valid: <tt><ref id=".PARAMCOUNT" name=".PARAMCOUNT"></tt> This command is
2516 replaced by the parameter count given, <em/including/ intermediate empty macro
2520 ldaxy 1 ; .PARAMCOUNT = 1
2521 ldaxy 1,,3 ; .PARAMCOUNT = 3
2522 ldaxy 1,2 ; .PARAMCOUNT = 2
2523 ldaxy 1, ; .PARAMCOUNT = 2
2524 ldaxy 1,2,3 ; .PARAMCOUNT = 3
2528 <sect1>Recursive macros<p>
2530 Macros may be used recursively:
2533 .macro push r1, r2, r3
2542 There's also a special macro to help writing recursive macros: <tt><ref
2543 id=".EXITMACRO" name=".EXITMACRO"></tt> This command will stop macro expansion
2547 .macro push r1, r2, r3, r4, r5, r6, r7
2549 ; First parameter is empty
2555 push r2, r3, r4, r5, r6, r7
2559 When expanding this macro, the expansion will push all given parameters
2560 until an empty one is encountered. The macro may be called like this:
2563 push $20, $21, $32 ; Push 3 ZP locations
2564 push $21 ; Push one ZP location
2568 <sect1>Local symbols inside macros<p>
2570 Now, with recursive macros, <tt><ref id=".IFBLANK" name=".IFBLANK"></tt> and
2571 <tt><ref id=".PARAMCOUNT" name=".PARAMCOUNT"></tt>, what else do you need?
2572 Have a look at the inc16 macro above. Here is it again:
2586 If you have a closer look at the code, you will notice, that it could be
2587 written more efficiently, like this:
2598 But imagine what happens, if you use this macro twice? Since the label
2599 "Skip" has the same name both times, you get a "duplicate symbol" error.
2600 Without a way to circumvent this problem, macros are not as useful, as
2601 they could be. One solution is, to start a new lexical block inside the
2615 Now the label is local to the block and not visible outside. However,
2616 sometimes you want a label inside the macro to be visible outside. To make
2617 that possible, there's a new command that's only usable inside a macro
2618 definition: <tt><ref id=".LOCAL" name=".LOCAL"></tt>. <tt/.LOCAL/ declares one
2619 or more symbols as local to the macro expansion. The names of local variables
2620 are replaced by a unique name in each separate macro expansion. So we could
2621 also solve the problem above by using <tt/.LOCAL/:
2625 .local Skip ; Make Skip a local symbol
2632 Skip: ; Not visible outside
2637 <sect1>C style macros<p>
2639 Starting with version 2.5 of the assembler, there is a second macro type
2640 available: C style macros using the <tt/.DEFINE/ directive. These macros are
2641 similar to the classic macro type described above, but behaviour is sometimes
2646 <item> Macros defined with <tt><ref id=".DEFINE" name=".DEFINE"></tt> may not
2647 span more than a line. You may use line continuation (see <tt><ref
2648 id=".LINECONT" name=".LINECONT"></tt>) to spread the definition over
2649 more than one line for increased readability, but the macro itself
2650 may not contain an end-of-line token.
2652 <item> Macros defined with <tt><ref id=".DEFINE" name=".DEFINE"></tt> share
2653 the name space with classic macros, but they are detected and replaced
2654 at the scanner level. While classic macros may be used in every place,
2655 where a mnemonic or other directive is allowed, <tt><ref id=".DEFINE"
2656 name=".DEFINE"></tt> style macros are allowed anywhere in a line. So
2657 they are more versatile in some situations.
2659 <item> <tt><ref id=".DEFINE" name=".DEFINE"></tt> style macros may take
2660 parameters. While classic macros may have empty parameters, this is
2661 not true for <tt><ref id=".DEFINE" name=".DEFINE"></tt> style macros.
2662 For this macro type, the number of actual parameters must match
2663 exactly the number of formal parameters.
2665 To make this possible, formal parameters are enclosed in braces when
2666 defining the macro. If there are no parameters, the empty braces may
2669 <item> Since <tt><ref id=".DEFINE" name=".DEFINE"></tt> style macros may not
2670 contain end-of-line tokens, there are things that cannot be done. They
2671 may not contain several processor instructions for example. So, while
2672 some things may be done with both macro types, each type has special
2673 usages. The types complement each other.
2677 Let's look at a few examples to make the advantages and disadvantages
2680 To emulate assemblers that use "<tt/EQU/" instead of "<tt/=/" you may use the
2681 following <tt/.DEFINE/:
2686 foo EQU $1234 ; This is accepted now
2689 You may use the directive to define string constants used elsewhere:
2692 ; Define the version number
2693 .define VERSION "12.3a"
2699 Macros with parameters may also be useful:
2702 .define DEBUG(message) .out message
2704 DEBUG "Assembling include file #3"
2707 Note that, while formal parameters have to be placed in braces, this is
2708 not true for the actual parameters. Beware: Since the assembler cannot
2709 detect the end of one parameter, only the first token is used. If you
2710 don't like that, use classic macros instead:
2718 (This is an example where a problem can be solved with both macro types).
2721 <sect1>Characters in macros<p>
2723 When using the <ref id="option-t" name="-t"> option, characters are translated
2724 into the target character set of the specific machine. However, this happens
2725 as late as possible. This means that strings are translated if they are part
2726 of a <tt><ref id=".BYTE" name=".BYTE"></tt> or <tt><ref id=".ASCIIZ"
2727 name=".ASCIIZ"></tt> command. Characters are translated as soon as they are
2728 used as part of an expression.
2730 This behaviour is very intuitive outside of macros but may be confusing when
2731 doing more complex macros. If you compare characters against numeric values,
2732 be sure to take the translation into account.
2737 <sect>Macro packages<label id="macropackages"><p>
2739 Using the <tt><ref id=".MACPACK" name=".MACPACK"></tt> directive, predefined
2740 macro packages may be included with just one command. Available macro packages
2744 <sect1><tt>.MACPACK generic</tt><p>
2746 This macro package defines macros that are useful in almost any program.
2747 Currently, two macros are defined:
2762 <sect1><tt>.MACPACK longbranch</tt><p>
2764 This macro package defines long conditional jumps. They are named like the
2765 short counterpart but with the 'b' replaced by a 'j'. Here is a sample
2766 definition for the "<tt/jeq/" macro, the other macros are built using the same
2771 .if .def(Target) .and ((*+2)-(Target) <= 127)
2780 All macros expand to a short branch, if the label is already defined (back
2781 jump) and is reachable with a short jump. Otherwise the macro expands to a
2782 conditional branch with the branch condition inverted, followed by an absolute
2783 jump to the actual branch target.
2785 The package defines the following macros:
2788 jeq, jne, jmi, jpl, jcs, jcc, jvs, jvc
2793 <sect>Module constructors/destructors<label id="condes"><p>
2795 <em>Note:</em> This section applies mostly to C programs, so the explanation
2796 below uses examples from the C libraries. However, the feature may also be
2797 useful for assembler programs.
2800 <sect1>Module overview<p>
2802 Using the <tt><ref id=".CONSTRUCTOR" name=".CONSTRUCTOR"></tt> and <tt><ref
2803 id=".DESTRUCTOR" name=".DESTRUCTOR"></tt> keywords it it possible to export
2804 functions in a special way. The linker is able to generate tables with all
2805 functions of a specific type. Such a table will <em>only</em> include symbols
2806 from object files that are linked into a specific executable. This may be used
2807 to add initialization and cleanup code for library modules.
2809 The C heap functions are an example where module initialization code is used.
2810 All heap functions (<tt>malloc</tt>, <tt>free</tt>, ...) work with a few
2811 variables that contain the start and the end of the heap, pointers to the free
2812 list and so on. Since the end of the heap depends on the size and start of the
2813 stack, it must be initialized at runtime. However, initializing these
2814 variables for programs that do not use the heap are a waste of time and
2817 So the central module defines a function that contains initialization code and
2818 exports this function using the <tt/.CONSTRUCTOR/ statement. If (and only if)
2819 this module is added to an executable by the linker, the initialization
2820 function will be placed into the table of constructors by the linker. The C
2821 startup code will call all constructors before <tt/main/ and all destructors
2822 after <tt/main/, so without any further work, the heap initialization code is
2823 called once the module is linked in.
2825 While it would be possible to add explicit calls to initialization functions
2826 in the startup code, the new approach has several advantages:
2830 If a module is not included, the initialization code is not linked in and not
2831 called. So you don't pay for things you don't need.
2834 Adding another library that needs initialization does not mean that the
2835 startup code has to be changed. Before we had module constructors and
2836 destructors, the startup code for all systems had to be adjusted to call the
2837 new initialization code.
2840 The feature saves memory: Each additional initialization function needs just
2841 two bytes in the table (a pointer to the function).
2848 When creating and using module constructors and destructors, please take care
2854 The linker will only generate function tables, it will not generate code to
2855 call these functions. If you're using the feature in some other than the
2856 existing C environments, you have to write code to call all functions in a
2857 linker generated table yourself. See the <tt>condes</tt> module in the C
2858 runtime for an example on how to do this.
2861 The linker will only add addresses of functions that are in modules linked to
2862 the executable. This means that you have to be careful where to place the
2863 condes functions. If initialization is needed for a group of functions, be
2864 sure to place the initialization function into a module that is linked in
2865 regardless of which function is called by the user.
2868 The linker will generate the tables only when requested to do so by the
2869 <tt/FEATURE CONDES/ statement in the linker config file. Each table has to
2870 be requested separately.
2873 Constructors and destructors may have priorities. These priorities determine
2874 the order of the functions in the table. If your intialization or cleanup code
2875 does depend on other initialization or cleanup code, you have to choose the
2876 priority for the functions accordingly.
2879 Besides the <tt><ref id=".CONSTRUCTOR" name=".CONSTRUCTOR"></tt> and <tt><ref
2880 id=".DESTRUCTOR" name=".DESTRUCTOR"></tt> statements, there is also a more
2881 generic command: <tt><ref id=".CONDES" name=".CONDES"></tt>. This allows to
2882 specify an additional type. Predefined types are 0 (constructor) and 1
2883 (destructor). The linker generates a separate table for each type on request.
2891 <sect>Bugs/Feedback<p>
2893 If you have problems using the assembler, if you find any bugs, or if
2894 you're doing something interesting with the assembler, I would be glad to
2895 hear from you. Feel free to contact me by email
2896 (<htmlurl url="mailto:uz@cc65.org" name="uz@cc65.org">).
2902 ca65 (and all cc65 binutils) are (C) Copyright 1998-2001 Ullrich von
2903 Bassewitz. For usage of the binaries and/or sources the following
2904 conditions do apply:
2906 This software is provided 'as-is', without any expressed or implied
2907 warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
2908 arising from the use of this software.
2910 Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
2911 including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
2912 freely, subject to the following restrictions:
2915 <item> The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
2916 claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
2917 in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
2918 appreciated but is not required.
2919 <item> Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not
2920 be misrepresented as being the original software.
2921 <item> This notice may not be removed or altered from any source