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NAME

       gasp - a preprocessor for assembly programs

SYNOPSIS

       gasp   [-a|--alternate] [-c CHAR | --commentchar CHAR] [-d|--debug]
              [-h|--help] [-M|--mri] [-o OUTFILE | --output OUTFILE]
              [-p|--print] [-s|--copysource] [-u|--unreasonable]
              [-v|--version] INFILE ...

DESCRIPTION

       The primary purpose of the GNU assembler is to assemble the  output  of
       other   programs--notably   compilers.   When  you  have  to  hand-code
       specialized routines in assembly, that means the GNU  assembler  is  an
       unfriendly processor: it has no directives for macros, conditionals, or
       many other conveniences that you might expect.

       In some cases you can simply use the C preprocessor, or  a  generalized
       preprocessor  like  M4;  but  this  can be awkward, since none of these
       things are designed with assembly in mind.

       gasp fills  this  need.   It  is  expressly  designed  to  provide  the
       facilities  you need with hand-coded assembly code.  Implementing it as
       a preprocessor, rather than part of the assembler, allows  the  maximum
       flexibility:  you can use it with hand-coded assembly, without paying a
       penalty of added complexity in  the  assembler  you  use  for  compiler
       output.

       INFILE...  are the files to be preprocessed.

OPTIONS

       The  simplest way to use GASP is to run it as a filter and assemble its
       output.  In Unix and its ilk, you can do this, for example:

            $ gasp prog.asm | as -o prog.o

       Naturally, there are also a few command-line options to  allow  you  to
       request  variations  on  this  basic  theme.   Here  is the full set of
       possibilities for the GASP command line.

       -a

       --alternate
              Use alternative macro syntax.   *Note  Alternate  macro  syntax:
              Alternate,  for a discussion of how this syntax differs from the
              default GASP syntax.

       -c CHAR

       --commentchar CHAR
              Use  CHAR  as  the  comment  character.   The  default   comment
              character  is  `!'.   For  example,  to  use  a semicolon as the
              comment character, specify `-c ';'' on the  GASP  command  line.
              Since   assembler   command   characters   often   have  special
              significance to command shells, it is a good idea  to  quote  or
              escape CHAR when you specify a comment character.

              For  the sake of simplicity, all examples in this manual use the
              default comment character `!'.

       -d

       --debug
              Show debugging statistics.  In this version of GASP, this option
              produces statistics about the string buffers that GASP allocates
              internally.  For each  defined  buffersize  S,  GASP  shows  the
              number of strings N that it allocated, with a line like this:

                   strings size S : N

              GASP  displays  these  statistics  on the standard error stream,
              when done preprocessing.

       -h

       --help Display a summary of the GASP command line options.

       -M

       --mri  Use MRI compatibility mode.  Using this option  causes  GASP  to
              accept  the  syntax and pseudo-ops used by the Microtec Research
              `ASM68K' assembler.

       -o OUTFILE

       --output OUTFILE
              `-o OUTFILE' `--output OUTFILE'  Write  the  output  in  a  file
              called  OUTFILE.  If you do not use the `-o' option, GASP writes
              its output on the standard output stream.

       -p

       --print
              Print line numbers.  GASP obeys this option _only_ if  you  also
              specify  `-s' to copy source lines to its output.  With `-s -p',
              GASP displays  the  line  number  of  each  source  line  copied
              (immediately after the comment character at the beginning of the
              line).

       -s

       --copysource
              Copy the source lines to the output file.  Use  this  option  to
              see  the  effect  of  each preprocessor line on the GASP output.
              GASP  places  a  comment  character  (`!'  by  default)  at  the
              beginning  of  each  source  line it copies, so that you can use
              this option and still assemble the result.

       -u

       --unreasonable
              Bypass "unreasonable expansion" limit.   Since  you  can  define
              GASP  macros  inside  other  macro definitions, the preprocessor
              normally includes a sanity check.  If your program requires more
              than  1,000 nested expansions, GASP normally exits with an error
              message.  Use this option  to  turn  off  this  check,  allowing
              unlimited nested expansions.

       -v

       --version
              Display the GASP version number.

       INFILE ...
              The input file names.  You must specify at least one input file;
              if you specify more, GASP preprocesses them  all,  concatenating
              the output in the order you list the INFILE arguments.

              Mark  the  end  of each input file with the preprocessor command
              `.END'.

SEE ALSO

       `gasp' entry in  info;  The  GNU  Binary  Utilities,  Roland  H.  Pesch
       (October 1991); gasp(1).