NAME

64tass - A multi pass optimizing macro assembler for the 65xx series of processors

SYNOPSIS

64tass [ OPTION]... [SOURCES]...

DESCRIPTION

64tass is cross assembler targeting the 65xx series of micro processors. This manual is only describing the command line options. The many features are described in the HTML manual.

OPTIONS

Output options

-o filename, --output filename
Place output into filename. The default output filename is 'a.out', this option changes it. May be used multiple times. The format is remembered but section and memory map file reverts to global after each file.
--output-append filename
Append to output file instead of overwriting it.
--no-output
Same as output but no file will be written.
--map filename
Place memory map into filename instead of displaying it.
--map-append filename
Append memory map to a file instead of displaying it.
--no-map
The memory map won't be displayed or recorded.
--output-section sectionname
Output this section instead of everything
-X, --long-address
Use 3 byte address/length for CBM and nonlinear output instead of 2 bytes. Also increases the size of raw output to 16 MiB.
--cbm-prg
Generate CBM format binaries (default). The first 2 bytes are the little endian address of the first valid byte (start address). Overlapping blocks are flattened and uninitialized memory is filled up with zeros. Uninitialized memory before the first and after the last valid bytes are not saved. Up to 64 KiB or 16 MiB with long address.
-b, --nostart
Output raw data only without start address. Overlapping blocks are flattened and uninitialized memory is filled up with zeros. Uninitialized memory before the first and after the last valid bytes are not saved. Up to 64 KiB or 16 MiB with long address.
-f, --flat
Flat address space output mode. Overlapping blocks are flattened and uninitialized memory is filled up with zeros. Uninitialized memory after the last valid byte is not saved. Up to 4 GiB.
-n, --nonlinear
Generate nonlinear output file. Overlapping blocks are flattened. Blocks are saved in sorted order and uninitialized memory is skipped. Up to 64 KiB or 16 MiB with long address.
--atari-xex
Generate a Atari XEX output file. Overlapping blocks are kept, continuing blocks are concatenated. Saving happens in the definition order without sorting, and uninitialized memory is skipped in the output. Up to 64 KiB.
--apple2
Generate a Apple II output file (DOS 3.3). Overlapping blocks are flattened and uninitialized memory is filled up with zeros. Uninitialized memory before the first and after the last valid bytes are not saved. Up to 64 KiB.
--intel-hex
Use Intel HEX output file format. Overlapping blocks are kept, data is stored in the definition order, and uninitialized areas are skipped. I8HEX up to 64 KiB, I32HEX up to 4 GiB.
--s-record
Use Motorola S-record output file format. Overlapping blocks are kept, data is stored in the definition order, and uninitialized memory areas are skipped. S19 up to 64 KiB, S28 up to 16 MiB and S37 up to 4 GiB.

Operation options

-a, --ascii
Use ASCII/Unicode text encoding instead of raw 8-bit. Normally no conversion takes place, this is for backwards compatibility with a DOS based Turbo Assembler editor, which could create PETSCII files for 6502tass. (including control characters of course) Using this option will change the default 'none' and 'screen' encodings to map 'a'-'z' and 'A'-'Z' into the correct PETSCII range of $41-$5A and $C1-$DA, which is more suitable for an ASCII editor. It also adds predefined petcat style PETSCII literals to the default encodings, and enables Unicode letters in symbol names. For writing sources in UTF-8/UTF-16 encodings this option is required!
-B, --long-branch
Automatic BXX *+5 JMP xxx. Branch too long messages can be annoying sometimes, usually they'll need to be rewritten to BXX *+5 JMP xxx. 64tass can do this automatically if this option is used. But BRA is not converted.
-C, --case-sensitive
Make all symbols (variables, opcodes, directives, operators, etc.) case sensitive. Otherwise everything is case insensitive by default.
-D label=value
Defines a label to a value. Same syntax is allowed as in source files. Be careful with string quoting, the shell might eat some of the characters.
-q, --quiet
Suppress messages. Disables header and summary messages.
-T, --tasm-compatible
Enable TASM compatible operators and precedence Switches the expression evaluator into compatibility mode. This enables '.', ':' and '!' operators and disables 64tass specific extensions, disables precedence handling and forces 16 bit unsigned evaluation (see 'differences to original Turbo Assembler' below)
-I path
Specify include search path. If an included source or binary file can't be found in the directory of the source file then this path is tried. More than one directories can be specified by repeating this option. If multiple matches exist the first one is used.
-M file, --dependencies file
Specify make rule output file. Writes a dependency rule suitable for 'make' from the list of files used during compilation.
--make-phony
Enable phony target generation for dependencies.

Diagnostic options

-E file, --error file
Specify error output file. Normally compilation errors a written to the standard error output. It's possible to redirect them to a file or to the standard output by using '-' as the file name.
--error-append file
Append to error file instead of overwriting it.
--no-error
Do not output any errors, just count them.
-w, --no-warn
Suppress warnings. Disables warnings during compile. Finer grained warning control is available by using the -W options.
--no-caret-diag
Suppress displaying of faulty source line and fault position after fault messages.
--macro-caret-diag
Restrict source line and fault position display to macro expansions only.
-Wall
Enable most diagnostic warnings, except those individually disabled. Or with the 'no-' prefix disable all except those enabled.
-Werror
Make all diagnostic warnings to an error, except those individually set to a warning.
-Werror=<name>
Change a diagnostic warning to an error. For example '-Werror=implied-reg' makes this check an error. The '-Wno-error=' variant is useful with '-Werror' to set some to warnings.
-Walias
Warns about alias opcodes.
-Waltmode
Warn about alternative address modes. Sometimes alternative addressing modes are used as the fitting one is not available. For example there's no lda direct page y so instead data bank y is used with a warning.
-Wbranch-page
Warns if a branch is crossing a page. Page crossing branches execute with a penalty cycle. This option helps to locate them.
-Wcase-symbol
Warn if symbol letter case is used inconsistently.
-Wimmediate
Warns for cases where immediate addressing is more likely. -Wimplied-reg Warns if implied addressing is used instead of register. Some instructions have implied aliases like 'asl' for 'asl a' for compatibility reasons, but this shorthand not the preferred form.
-Wleading-zeros
Warns if about leading zeros. A leading zero could be a prefix for an octal number but as octals are not supported so the result will be decimal.
-Wlong-branch
Warns when a long branch is used. This option gives a warning for instructions which were modified by the long branch function. Less intrusive than disabling long branches and see where it fails.
-Wmacro-prefix
Warn about macro call without prefix. Such macro calls can easily be mistaken to be labels if invoked without parameters. Also it's hard to notice that an unchanged call turned into label after the definition got renamed. This warning helps to find such calls so that prefixes can be added.
-Wno-deprecated
Don't warn about deprecated features. Unfortunately there were some features added previously which shouldn't have been included. This option disables warnings about their uses.
-Wno-float-compare
Don't warn if floating point comparisons are only approximate. Floating point numbers have a finite precision and comparing them might give unexpected results.
-Wno-float-round
Don't warn when floating point numbers are implicitly rounded. A lot of parameters are expecting integers but floating point numbers are accepted as well. The style of rounding used may or may not be what you wanted.
-Wno-ignored
Don't warn about ignored directives.
-Wno-jmp-bug
Don't warn about the jmp ($xxff) bug. It's fine that the high byte is read from the 'wrong' address on 6502, NMOS 6502 and 65DTV02.
-Wno-label-left
Don't warn about certain labels not being on left side. You may disable this if you use labels which look like mistyped versions of implied addressing mode instructions and you don't want to put them in the first column.
-Wno-page
Don't do an error for page crossing.
-Wno-pitfalls
Don't note on common pitfalls. Experts don't need notes about how to fix things ;)
-Wno-portable
Don't warn about source portability problems.
-Wno-size-larger
Don't warn if size is larger due to negative offset Negative offsets add space in front of memory area that's out of bound. Sometimes this may be fine.
-Wno-star-assign
Don't warn about ignored compound multiply.
-Wno-wrap-addr
Don't warn about address space calculation wrap around. If a memory location ends up outside of the processors address space then just wrap it around.
-Wno-wrap-bank0
Don't warn for bank 0 address calculation wrap around.
-Wno-wrap-dpage
Don't warn for direct page address calculation wrap around.
-Wno-wrap-mem
Don't warn for compile offset wrap around. Continue from the beginning of image file once it's end was reached.
-Wno-wrap-pbank
Don't warn for program bank address calculation wrap around.
-Wno-wrap-pc
Don't warn for program counter bank crossing. If it's data only and the programmer deals with it then this might be ok.
-Wold-equal
Warn about old equal operator. The single '=' operator is only there for compatibility reasons and should be written as '==' normally.
-Woptimize
Warn about optimizable code. Warns on things that could be optimized, at least according to the limited analysis done.
-Wshadow
Warn about symbol shadowing. Checks if local variables 'shadow' other variables of same name in upper scopes in ambiguous ways.
-Wstrict-bool
Warn about implicit boolean conversions. Boolean values can be interpreted as numeric 0/1 and other types as booleans. This is convenient but may cause mistakes.
-Wunused
Warn about unused constant symbols, any type.
-Wunused-const
Warn about unused constants.
-Wunused-label
Warn about unused labels.
-Wunused-macro
Warn about unused macros.
-Wunused-variable
Warn about unused variables.

Target selection options

--m65xx
Standard 65xx (default). For writing compatible code, no extra codes. This is the default.
-c, --m65c02
CMOS 65C02. Enables extra opcodes and addressing modes specific to this CPU.
--m65ce02
CSG 65CE02. Enables extra opcodes and addressing modes specific to this CPU.
-i, --m6502
NMOS 65xx. Enables extra illegal opcodes. Useful for demo coding for C64, disk drive code, etc.
-t, --m65dtv02
65DTV02. Enables extra opcodes specific to DTV.
-x, --m65816
W65C816. Enables extra opcodes. Useful for SuperCPU projects.
-e, --m65el02
65EL02. Enables extra opcodes, useful RedPower CPU projects. Probably you'll need '--nostart' as well.
--mr65c02
R65C02. Enables extra opcodes and addressing modes specific to this CPU.
--mw65c02
W65C02. Enables extra opcodes and addressing modes specific to this CPU.
--m4510
CSG 4510. Enables extra opcodes and addressing modes specific to this CPU. Useful for C65 projects.

Symbol listing options

-l file, --labels=file
List labels into file. May be used multiple times. The format is remembered but root reverts to global after each file.
--labels-append=file
Append labels to file instead of overwriting it.
--labels-root=<path>
Specify the scope to list labels from.
--normal-labels
Lists labels in a 64tass readable format. (default)
--export-labels
List labels for include in a 64tass readable format. This will always compile exported .proc/.pend blocks assuming they're needed externally.
--vice-labels
List labels in a VICE readable format.
--vice-labels-numeric
List labels in a VICE readable format, including numeric constants.
--dump-labels
List labels for debugging.

Assembly listing options

-L file, --list=file
List into file. Dumps source code and compiled code into file. Useful for debugging, it's much easier to identify the code in memory within the source files.
--list-append=file
Append list to file instead of overwriting it.
-m, --no-monitor
Don't put monitor code into listing. There won't be any monitor listing in the list file.
-s, --no-source
Don't put source code into listing. There won't be any source listing in the list file.
--line-numbers
This option creates a new column for showing line numbers for easier identification of source origin.
--tab-size=number
By default the listing file is using a tab size of 8 to align the disassembly. This can be changed to other more favorable values like 4. Only spaces are used if 1 is selected. Please note that this has no effect on the source code on the right hand side.
--verbose-list
Normally the assembler tries to minimize listing output by omitting 'unimportant' lines. But sometimes it's better to just list everything including comments and empty lines.

Other options

-?, --help
Give this help list. Prints help about command line options.
--usage
Give a short usage message. Prints short help about command line options.
-V, --version
Print program version.

EXIT STATUS

Normally the exit status is 0 if no error occurred.

AUTHOR

Written by Zsolt Kajtar.

REPORTING BUGS

Online bug tracker: <https://sourceforge.net/p/tass64/bugs/> Copyright © 2023 Zsolt Kajtar. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
 
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

Full documentation at: <http://tass64.sourceforge.net/>