So I have a simple C program that loops through the args passed to main then returns:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int i;
for(i = 0; i < argc; ++i) {
fprintf(stdout, "%s\n", argv[i]);
}
return 0;
}
I wanted to see how gcc wrote out the assembly in NASM format. I was looking over the output in the .asm file and noticed that the syntax was TASM. Below is the make file and the output from gcc. Am I doing something wrong or is it that gcc does not output true NASM syntax?
all: main
main: main.o
ld -o main main.o
main.o : main.c
gcc -S -masm=intel -o main.asm main.c
nasm -f elf -g -F stabs main.asm -l main.lst
AND
.file "main.c"
.intel_syntax noprefix
.section .rodata
.LC0:
.string "%s\n"
.text
.globl main
.type main, @function
main:
push ebp
mov ebp, esp
and esp, -16
sub esp, 32
mov DWORD PTR [esp+28], 0
jmp .L2
.L3:
mov eax, DWORD PTR [esp+28]
sal eax, 2
add eax, DWORD PTR [ebp+12]
mov ecx, DWORD PTR [eax]
mov edx, OFFSET FLAT:.LC0
mov eax, DWORD PTR stdout
mov DWORD PTR [esp+8], ecx
mov DWORD PTR [esp+4], edx
mov DWORD PTR [esp], eax
call fprintf
add DWORD PTR [esp+28], 1
.L2:
mov eax, DWORD PTR [esp+28]
cmp eax, DWORD PTR [ebp+8]
jl .L3
mov eax, 0
leave
ret
.size main, .-main
.ident "GCC: (GNU) 4.5.1 20100924 (Red Hat 4.5.1-4)"
.section .note.GNU-stack,"",@progbits
The errors on the command line are:
[mehoggan@fedora sandbox-print_args]$ make
gcc -S -masm=intel -o main.asm main.c
nasm -f elf -g -F stabs main.asm -l main.lst
main.asm:1: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:1: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:2: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:2: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:3: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:3: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:4: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:5: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:5: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:6: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:7: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:7: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:8: error: attempt to define a local label before any non-local labels
main.asm:8: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:14: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:17: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:19: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:20: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:21: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:22: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:23: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:24: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:25: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:27: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:29: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:30: error: comma, colon or end of line expected
main.asm:35: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:36: error: parser: instruction expected
main.asm:37: error: parser: instruction expected
make: *** [main.o] Error 1
What lead me to believe that this is TASM syntax was information posted at this link: http://rs1.szif.hu/~tomcat/win32/intro.txt
TASM coders usually have lexical difficulties with NASM because it lacks the "ptr" keyword used extensively in TASM.
TASM uses this:
mov al, byte ptr [ds:si] or mov ax, word ptr [ds:si] or mov eax, dword ptr [ds:si]
For NASM This simply translates into:
mov al, byte [ds:si] or mov ax, word [ds:si] or mov eax, dword [ds:si]
NASM allows these size keywords in many places, and thus gives you a lot of control over the generated opcodes in a unifrom way, for example These are all valid:
push dword 123 jmp [ds: word 1234] ; these both specify the size of the offset jmp [ds: dword 1234] ; for tricky code when interfacing 32bit and ; 16bit segments
it can get pretty hairy, but the important thing to remember is you can have all the control you need, when you want it.
