Types of Assembler Options

The Assembler offers a number of assembler options that you can use to control the Assembler's operation. Options are composed of a hyphen(-) followed by one or more letters or digits. Anything not starting with a hyphen is supposed to be the name of a source file to be assembled. Assembler options may be specified on the command line or in the ASMOPTIONS: Default assembler options (refer to the table listed below) environment variable. Typically, each Assembler option is specified only once per assembling session.

Command-line options are not case-sensitive. For example, -Li is the same as -li. It is possible to combine options in the same group, i.e., one might write -Lci instead of -Lc -Li. However such a usage is not recommended as it makes the command line less readable and it does also create the danger of name conflicts. For example -Li -Lc is not the same as -Lic because this is recognized as a separate, independent option on its own.

Note: It is not possible to combine options in different groups, e.g., -Lc -W1cannot be abbreviated by the terms -LC1 or -LCW1.
Table 1. ASMOPTIONS environment variable
ASMOPTIONS If this environment variable is set, the Assembler appends its contents to its command line each time a file is assembled. It can be used to globally specify certain options that should always be set, so you do not have to specify them each time a file is assembled.
Assembler options (refer to the table listed below) are grouped by:
  • Output,
  • Input,
  • Language,
  • Host,
  • Code Generation,
  • Messages, and
  • Various.
Table 2. Assembler option categories
Group Description
Output Lists options related to the output files generation (which kind of file should be generated).
Input Lists options related to the input files.
Language Lists options related to the programming language (ANSI-C, C++, etc.)
Host Lists options related to the host.
Code Generation Lists options related to code generation (memory models, etc.).
Messages Lists options controlling the generation of error messages.
Various Lists various options.

The group corresponds to the property sheets of the graphical option settings.

Each option has also a scope. The following table lists the scopes for assembler oprions.

Table 3. Scopes for assembler options
Scope Description
Application This option has to be set for all files (assembly units) of an application. A typical example is an option to set the memory model. Mixing object files will have unpredictable results.
Assembly Unit This option can be set for each assembling unit for an application differently. Mixing objects in an application is possible.
None The scope option is not related to a specific code part. A typical example are options for the message management.

The options available are arranged into different groups, and a tab selection is available for each of these groups. The content of the list box depends upon the tab that is selected.