blob: fee9414927b090fdd90522cd67a1edb583a3984c [file] [log] [blame]
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Object - Using as</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html">
<meta name="description" content="Using as">
<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13">
<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top">
<link rel="up" href="Overview.html#Overview" title="Overview">
<link rel="prev" href="Input-Files.html#Input-Files" title="Input Files">
<link rel="next" href="Errors.html#Errors" title="Errors">
<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage">
<!--
This file documents the GNU Assembler "as".
Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the
section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
-->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
pre.display { font-family:inherit }
pre.format { font-family:inherit }
pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller }
pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller }
span.sc { font-variant:small-caps }
span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; }
span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; }
--></style>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="node">
<a name="Object"></a>
<p>
Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Errors.html#Errors">Errors</a>,
Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Input-Files.html#Input-Files">Input Files</a>,
Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Overview.html#Overview">Overview</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h3 class="section">1.6 Output (Object) File</h3>
<p><a name="index-object-file-34"></a><a name="index-output-file-35"></a><a name="index-a_002eout-36"></a><a name="index-g_t_002eo-37"></a>Every time you run <samp><span class="command">as</span></samp> it produces an output file, which is
your assembly language program translated into numbers. This file
is the object file. Its default name is
<code>a.out</code>.
You can give it another name by using the <samp><span class="option">-o</span></samp> option. Conventionally,
object file names end with <samp><span class="file">.o</span></samp>. The default name is used for historical
reasons: older assemblers were capable of assembling self-contained programs
directly into a runnable program. (For some formats, this isn't currently
possible, but it can be done for the <code>a.out</code> format.)
<p><a name="index-linker-38"></a><a name="index-ld-39"></a>The object file is meant for input to the linker <code>ld</code>. It contains
assembled program code, information to help <code>ld</code> integrate
the assembled program into a runnable file, and (optionally) symbolic
information for the debugger.
<!-- link above to some info file(s) like the description of a.out. -->
<!-- don't forget to describe @sc{gnu} info as well as Unix lossage. -->
</body></html>