as(1)                                                          as(1)


       NAME
             as - assembler

       SYNOPSIS
             as [-VTm] [-Q yn] [-Y key,dir] [-o objfile] [-t cpu] file . . .

       DESCRIPTION
             The as command produces an object file from the concatenation
             of the specified assembly language input files.  At least one
             source file must be specified, except when the -V option is
             given.  The name ``-'' designates the standard input, and may
             be specified anywhere within the list of files.

             The recognized assembly language does not include a general
             macro processing capability.  Instead, as provides for
             optional preprocessing of the input by the m4 command.  [See
             m4(1).]

             The following options may be specified in any order:

             -V        Writes the assembler's packaging, release, and
                       version information on the standard error output.
                       As a special case, the assembler does no other
                       processing if no input files are specified.

             -T        Accepts input that contains old-style (COFF)
                       directives.  Nevertheless, most such directives are
                       still ineffective, as the assembler generates an ELF
                       object file.

             -m        Sends the input through the m4 macro processing
                       command prior to assembly.  All file operands are
                       passed unmodified to the m4 command.  (By using the
                       ``--'' option-terminator, m4 options can be
                       preserved and passed through to the m4 command; see
                       the EXAMPLES section, below.)  If present, the
                       predefined macros file, LIBDIR/cm4defs, will be
                       given to the m4 command as the initial input file.

             -Q yn     Appends the assembler's release information to the
                       ``.comment'' section of the generated output object
                       file if yn is y; otherwise (if yn is n or if no -Q
                       option is specified), nothing is added.





                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1

      as(1)                                                          as(1)


            -Y key,dir
                      Uses the directory dir to find the files specified
                      by key: the m4 macro processing command (m), the
                      predefined macros file (d), or both.

            -o objfile
                      Causes objfile to be the name of the generated
                      output object file.  If no -o is specified, then the
                      output object file is created in the current
                      directory with a name that depends on the specified
                      input files.  If an input file with a name that ends
                      with ``.s'' is present, the output file name is
                      formed by replacing the suffix of the first such
                      name with ``.o''; otherwise, the output file is
                      ``a.out''.

            -t cpu    Specifies the target processor to be cpu, which may
                      be 486 (the default), 386, or pentium.  This option
                      causes code generation specifically tuned to the
                      selected processor.

      EXAMPLES
            Send, in order, ./cm4defs (if it exists) and mydefs and
            sys/file.s through m4 with the macro K predefined to be 7,
            assemble the output of m4, and generate the ELF object file
            output in ./file.o:
                  as -m -Yd,. -- -DK=7 mydefs sys/file.s

      FILES
            BINDIR/m4

            LIBDIR/cm4defs

            /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxcds
                  language-specific message file [See LANG on environ(5).]

      REFERENCES
            a.out(4), cc(1), elf(3E), ld(1), m4(1), nm(1), strip(1)

      NOTICES
            The m4 macro processor is not line-oriented and recognizes
            many regular identifiers as its keywords (index and len, for
            example).  Thus, preprocessing compiler-generated assembly
            language with m4 requires care.




                          Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 2

       as(1)                                                          as(1)


             Whenever possible, you should access the assembler through a
             compilation system interface program such as cc.














































                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 3