ava - Algebraical Virtual Assembler for Atmel's AVR MCUs

ava [ -pLv ] [ -Adevice ] [ -lIfilename ] [ -Idirname ] [ -Tfilename ] [ -Dmacro=val ] [ -fmacro=val ] [ -o outfile ] [ --version ] [ --multiple-output-files ] [ --motorola ] [ --intel ] files libraries

AVA is an advanced assembler and linker for Atmel's family of 8 bit and 16 bit AVR microcontrollers, but can be extended to 32 bit families also. It offers a C-like preprocessor, powerful segments, and virtual symbols. These two features improve modular programming and allow objects to be completely independent from each other.

The assembler is not compatible with Atmel's assembler syntax.

AVA integrates two functions: assembler and linker. Depending on the command line it executes either the first or the second one. Libraries are supported by the ordinary objects where each function can be declared in its own segment which is removed if not needed.

AVA is a console application running in batch mode. It reads input either from a file or from the standard input (stdin). Output is written to another file or to the standard output (stdout). By default, error messages are printed to the standard error (stderr).

Assembler and linker are integrated, which of them is invoked is identified by the source filename extension. If stdin or stdout are specified, AVA automatically invokes the assembler, since the linker cannot used these two streams as input or output. See the FILES section for a description of the supported formats.

Assembler can only assemble one file at a time.

The order of the options (beginning with -) does not matter. The order of the filenames, however, is very important: files are linked in exactly the same sequence as listed in the command line. This has a strong effect on virtual symbols.

Examples

ava -o project main.o print.o

This command links the files main.o and print.o into one project"file.

ava -p < file.s | gzip > file.o.gz

This command assemblies file.s. The assembled code is directed towards stdout, where the gzip command processes it.

ava -v -v -o example example.o mylib

This command links the file example.o with the libraries contained in mylib, into the example file, with extra verbose level.

Many options can be specified, regarding the assembler and linker, the report format or the output format. A summary of the options supported by AVA is included below.

General Options

-h, --help

Show summary of options.

--version

output version information and exit

-o file

Redirect the output to file, if you want to redirect it to standard output, use -o stdout .

-p

Use stdin for input and stdout for output, if -o is not set.

Assembler and linker options

-Dmacro=val

Define macro with value val, if val is not given 1 is assumed.

Examples:

ava -DVER=2 main.s

ava -DSTR="string" main.s

-f macro=val

Define public macro of the form __macro{=val}

Example:

ava -favr_noskipbug main.s

-Tfile

Auto-include the file, if no filename is given, then target.inc is included. The file specifed by this option is always first in the queue, before those specified by the -I option. It is searched in the default directory and then on the predefined list.

-Adevice

Declare target device; same as: -Ddevice -Tarch.inc

-Iname

Add the directory name to the search list or include the file name to the source.

Report Options

-v

Verbose output. More than one -v can be specified to increase the verbose level.

-L

Generate listing report for the file being assembled.

-llogfile

Append segment tree information and status reports to the logfile. Errors and warnings are reported both to stderr and logfile.

Output Formats

--multiple-output-files

Saves each segment in a separate file. File name is extended with the name base segment. For example: a.out.flash, a.out.eeprom, ...

--intel

Set Intel standard 16 bit output format (sets -- multiple-output-files by default).

--motorola

Set Motorola S-record S1/S2 (16/24) bit output format. Address is limited to 24 bits.

--uasm

Set Micro Assembler output format (default)

AVR specific options

-favr_noskipbug

Do not check bad return address.

-favr_noendianbug

Do not swap bytes in the flash segment. (this will be the default in future releases)

The files types that AVA understands are:

file.s

Assembler source. This is an input file, that will cause AVA to work as assembler.

file.o

Object. This is an input/output file, that will cause AVA to work as linker.

a.out

Linker default output file name. This is an output file to be used when linking.

a.out.name

Linker extended file name if --multiple-output-files is given. The extension name is replaced with segment name.

file.lst

Listing report. This is an output file, generated when using the -L parameter.

libraries

A library is a directory of object files. It may also contain other files as long as they do not have the suffix of the object file.

Each function should be placed in separate removable segments. Only in this case can the linker check function dependencies and remove unused pieces of code.

0.3b

uisp(1), avra(1), avrp(1), and the AVA's User Manual.

Uros Platise <uros.platise@ijs.si>

This man-page was written by Margarita Manterola <debian@marga.com.ar> for the Version 0.3b of the ava program.