MMIX-Opts - Using as
Description: Using as

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#### 9.28.1 Command-line Options

The MMIX version of `as` has some machine-dependent options.

When ‘`--fixed-special-register-names`’ is specified, only the register names specified in MMIX-Regs are recognized in the instructions `PUT` and `GET`.

You can use the ‘`--globalize-symbols`’ to make all symbols global. This option is useful when splitting up a `mmixal` program into several files.

The ‘`--gnu-syntax`’ turns off most syntax compatibility with `mmixal`. Its usability is currently doubtful.

The ‘`--relax`’ option is not fully supported, but will eventually make the object file prepared for linker relaxation.

If you want to avoid inadvertently calling a predefined symbol and would rather get an error, for example when using `as` with a compiler or other machine-generated code, specify ‘`--no-predefined-syms`’. This turns off built-in predefined definitions of all such symbols, including rounding-mode symbols, segment symbols, ‘`BIT`’ symbols, and `TRAP` symbols used in `mmix` “system calls”. It also turns off predefined special-register names, except when used in `PUT` and `GET` instructions.

By default, some instructions are expanded to fit the size of the operand or an external symbol (see MMIX-Expand). By passing ‘`--no-expand`’, no such expansion will be done, instead causing errors at link time if the operand does not fit.

The `mmixal` documentation (see mmixsite) specifies that global registers allocated with the ‘`GREG`’ directive (see MMIX-greg) and initialized to the same non-zero value, will refer to the same global register. This isn't strictly enforceable in `as` since the final addresses aren't known until link-time, but it will do an effort unless the ‘`--no-merge-gregs`’ option is specified. (Register merging isn't yet implemented in `ld`.)

`as` will warn every time it expands an instruction to fit an operand unless the option ‘`-x`’ is specified. It is believed that this behaviour is more useful than just mimicking `mmixal`'s behaviour, in which instructions are only expanded if the ‘`-x`’ option is specified, and assembly fails otherwise, when an instruction needs to be expanded. It needs to be kept in mind that `mmixal` is both an assembler and linker, while `as` will expand instructions that at link stage can be contracted. (Though linker relaxation isn't yet implemented in `ld`.) The option ‘`-x`’ also imples ‘`--linker-allocated-gregs`’.

If instruction expansion is enabled, `as` can expand a ‘`PUSHJ`’ instruction into a series of instructions. The shortest expansion is to not expand it, but just mark the call as redirectable to a stub, which `ld` creates at link-time, but only if the original ‘`PUSHJ`’ instruction is found not to reach the target. The stub consists of the necessary instructions to form a jump to the target. This happens if `as` can assert that the ‘`PUSHJ`’ instruction can reach such a stub. The option ‘`--no-pushj-stubs`’ disables this shorter expansion, and the longer series of instructions is then created at assembly-time. The option ‘`--no-stubs`’ is a synonym, intended for compatibility with future releases, where generation of stubs for other instructions may be implemented.

Usually a two-operand-expression (see GREG-base) without a matching ‘`GREG`’ directive is treated as an error by `as`. When the option ‘`--linker-allocated-gregs`’ is in effect, they are instead passed through to the linker, which will allocate as many global registers as is needed.