The following flags are common to both SPARC and IA. They may be specified in any order:

-b

Generates extra symbol table information for the Sun SourceBrowser.

-K PIC

Generates position-independent code.

-L

Saves all symbols, including temporary labels that are normally discarded to save space, in the ELF symbol table.

-m

Runs the m4(1) macro processor on the input to the assembler.

-n

Suppresses all the warnings while assembling.

-o outfile

Puts the output of the assembly in outfile. By default, the output file name is formed by removing the .s suffix, if there is one, from the input file name and appending a .o suffix.

-P

Runs cpp(1), the C preprocessor, on the files being assembled. The preprocessor is run separately on each input file, not on their concatenation. The preprocessor output is passed to the assembler.

-Dname

-Dname=def

When the -P option is in effect, these options are passed to the cpp(1) preprocessor without interpretation by the as command; otherwise, they are ignored.

-Ipath

When the -P option is in effect, this option is passed to the cpp(1) preprocessor without interpretation by the as command; otherwise, it is ignored.

-Uname

When the -P option is in effect, this option is passed to the cpp(1) preprocessor without interpretation by the as command; otherwise, it is ignored.

-Qy | n

If y is specified, this option produces the "assembler version" information in the comment section of the output object file. If n is specified, the information is suppressed.

-s

Places all stabs in the .stabs section. By default, stabs are placed in stabs.excl sections, which are stripped out by the static linker, ld(1), during final execution. When the -s option is used, stabs remain in the final executable because .stab sections are not stripped by the static linker.

-S[a|b|c|l|A|B|C|L]

Produces a disassembly of the emitted code to the standard output. Adding each of the following characters to the -S option produces:

a

disassembling with address

b

disassembling with ".bof"

c

disassembling with comments

l

disassembling with line numbers

Capital letters turn the switch off for the corresponding option.

-T

This is a migration option for 4.x assembly files to be assembled on 5.x systems. With this option, the symbol names in 4.x assembly files will be interpreted as 5.x symbol names.

-V

Writes the version number of the assembler being run on the standard error output.

-xF

Generates additional information for performance analysis of the executable using Sun WorkShop analyzer. If the input file does not contain any stabs (debugging directives), then the assembler will generate some default stabs which are needed by the Sun WorkShop analyzer. Also see the dbx manual page available with Sun Workshop.

-q

Performs a quick assembly. When the -q option is used, many error checks are not performed. Note: This option disables many error checks. Use of this option to assemble handwritten assembly language is not recommended.

-xarch=v7

This option instructs the assembler to accept instructions defined in the SPARC version 7 (V7) architecture. The resulting object code is in ELF format.

-xarch=v8

This option instructs the assembler to accept instructions defined in the SPARC-V8 architecture, less the quad-precision floating-point instructions. The resulting object code is in ELF format.

-xarch=v8a

This option instructs the assembler to accept instructions defined in the SPARC-V8 architecture, less the quad-precision floating-point instructions and less the fsmuld instruction. The resulting object code is in ELF format. This is the default choice of the -xarch=options.

-xarch=v8plus

This option instructs the assembler to accept instructions defined in the SPARC-V9 architecture, less the quad-precision floating-point instructions. The resulting object code is in ELF format. It will not execute on a Solaris V8 system (a machine with a V8 processor). It will execute on a Solaris V8+ system. This combination is a SPARC 64-bit processor and a 32-bit OS.

-xarch=v8plusa

This option instructs the assembler to accept instructions defined in the SPARC-V9 architecture, less the quad-precision floating-point instructions, plus the instructions in the Visual Instruction Set (VIS). The resulting object code is in V8+ ELF format. It will not execute on a Solaris V8 system (a machine with a V8 processor). It will execute on a Solaris V8+ system

-xarch=v9

This option limits the instruction set to the SPARC-V9 architecture. The resulting .o object files are in 64-bit ELF format and can only be linked with other object files in the same format. The resulting executable can only be run on a 64-bit SPARC processor running 64-bit Solaris with the 64-bit kernel.

-xarch=v9a

This option limits the instruction set to the SPARC-V9 architecture, adding the Visual Instruction Set (VIS) and extensions specific to UltraSPARC processors. The resulting .o object files are in 64-bit ELF format and can only be linked with other object files in the same format. The resulting executable can only be run on a 64-bit SPARC processor running 64-bit Solaris with the 64-bit kernel.