windows nasm gcc gives error "Createprocess: no such file or directory."

Question

Unfortunately, I have been forced to switch to windows for now to program assembly code, instead of using Linux. But when trying to link my .obj file produced by NASM, it gives the error `gcc: Createprocess: No such file or directory."

My code:

GLOBAL _main
EXTERN _printf

_main:
    push message 
    call _printf
    add esp, 4
    ret
message:
    db 'Hello, world',10,0

I have tried moving my .obj file to the same directory as GCC. I have also tried compiling the entire thing in the same directory as GCC. I am not using any environment variables when compiling with my batch file, instead changing directory by hand. I also have GCC installed in the same directory as G++ and all the other compilers that come with MinGW.

Why does it give this error?

Thanks in advance

So what command(s) are you using to build this? Giving us the error message is only half the problem. — Greg Hewgill
Don't let 'em force ya, Riley! Stand firm! But if you must, see if this is relevant stackoverflow.com/questions/3848357/… — Frank Kotler
Btw, MinGW appears to put some stuff of its own into main(), specifically call ___main. I recommend not to implement main() in assembly as that call or whatever, when missing, may break things. — Alexey Frunze

Alexey Frunze Alexey Frunze · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-15T02:16:53

This is what's worked for me:

ASM file:

; file: blahasm.asm
; assemble with nasm (v 2.10, Mar 12 2012): nasm -f elf32 blahasm.asm -o blahasm.o
bits 32

global _blah

_blah:
  mov eax, 42
  ret

C file:

// file: blahc.c
// compile with MinGW x86 (gcc v 4.6.2): gcc -Wall -O2 blahc.c blahasm.o -o blah.exe
#include <stdio.h>

extern int blah(void);

int main(void)
{
  printf("blah():%d\n", blah());
  return 0;
}

Output:

blah():42

I'm surprised that the only format that's worked is elf32 and that it's supported in a Windows port of gcc, which MinGW is.

UPDATE:

I've created an assembly-only program with NASM and MinGW.

ASM file:

; file: nsm.asm
; assemble with NASM (v 2.10, Mar 12 2012): nasm -f elf32 nsm.asm -o nsm.o
; compile (link) with MinGW x86 (gcc v 4.6.2): gcc -Wall -O2 nsm.o -o nsm.exe
bits 32

extern ___main
extern _printf

global _main

    section .rdata

textstr:
    db "Hello World!", 10, 0

    section .text.startup

_main:
    call    ___main
    push    textstr
    call    _printf
    add     esp, 4
    ret

Output:

Hello World!

I'm running gcc from the "MinGW Shell" (MSYS) and I don't need to specify any additional command line parameters to make the program successfully link with the standard library. And I did not need to do anything special about MinGW and MSYS installation, I think I used all default setup parameters.

windows nasm gcc gives error "Createprocess: no such file or directory."

1 Answers