2 \# NASM revision history in nasmdoc format
5 \H{cl-2.xx} NASM 2 Series
7 The NASM 2 series support x86-64, and is the production version of NASM
11 \S{cl-2.08} Version 2.08
13 \b A number of enhancements/fixes in macros area.
15 \#\b Support for arbitrarily terminating macro expansions \c{%exitmacro}.
18 \#\b Support for recursive macro expansion \c{%rmacro}/\c{%irmacro}.
21 \b Support for converting strings to tokens. See \k{deftok}.
23 \b Fuzzy operand size logic introduced.
25 \b Fix COFF stack overrun on too long export identifiers.
27 \b Fix Macho-O alignment bug.
29 \b Fix crashes with -fwin32 on file with many exports.
31 \b Fix stack overrun for too long [DEBUG id].
33 \b Fix incorrect sbyte usage in IMUL (hit only if optimization
36 \b Append ending token for \c{.stabs} records in the ELF output format.
38 \b New NSIS script which uses ModernUI and MultiUser approach.
40 \b Visual Studio 2008 NASM integration (rules file).
42 \b Warn a user if a constant is too long (and as result will be stripped).
44 \b The obsoleted pre-XOP AMD SSE5 instruction set which was never actualized
47 \b Fix stack overrun on too long error file name passed from the command line.
49 \b Bind symbols to the .text section by default (ie in case if SECTION
50 directive was omitted) in the ELF output format.
52 \b Fix sync points array index wrapping.
54 \b A few fixes for FMA4 and XOP instruction templates.
56 \b Add AMD Lightweight Profiling (LWP) instructions.
58 \b Fix the offset for \c{%arg} in 64-bit mode.
60 \b An undefined local macro (\c{%$}) no longer matches a global macro
63 \b Fix NULL dereference on too long local labels.
65 \S{cl-2.07} Version 2.07
67 \b NASM is now under the 2-clause BSD license. See \k{legal}.
69 \b Fix the section type for the \c{.strtab} section in the \c{elf64}
72 \b Fix the handling of \c{COMMON} directives in the \c{obj} output format.
74 \b New \c{ith} and \c{srec} output formats; these are variants of the
75 \c{bin} output format which output Intel hex and Motorola S-records,
76 respectively. See \k{ithfmt} and \k{srecfmt}.
78 \b \c{rdf2ihx} replaced with an enhanced \c{rdf2bin}, which can output
79 binary, COM, Intel hex or Motorola S-records.
81 \b The Windows installer now puts the NASM directory first in the
82 \c{PATH} of the "NASM Shell".
84 \b Revert the early expansion behavior of \c{%+} to pre-2.06 behavior:
85 \c{%+} is only expanded late.
87 \b Yet another Mach-O alignment fix.
89 \b Don't delete the list file on errors. Also, include error and
90 warning information in the list file.
92 \b Support for 64-bit Mach-O output, see \k{machofmt}.
94 \b Fix assert failure on certain operations that involve strings with
98 \S{cl-2.06} Version 2.06
100 \b This release is dedicated to the memory of Charles A. Crayne, long
101 time NASM developer as well as moderator of \c{comp.lang.asm.x86} and
102 author of the book \e{Serious Assembler}. We miss you, Chuck.
104 \b Support for indirect macro expansion (\c{%[...]}). See \k{indmacro}.
106 \b \c{%pop} can now take an argument, see \k{pushpop}.
108 \b The argument to \c{%use} is no longer macro-expanded. Use
109 \c{%[...]} if macro expansion is desired.
111 \b Support for thread-local storage in ELF32 and ELF64. See \k{elftls}.
113 \b Fix crash on \c{%ifmacro} without an argument.
115 \b Correct the arguments to the \c{POPCNT} instruction.
117 \b Fix section alignment in the Mach-O format.
119 \b Update AVX support to version 5 of the Intel specification.
121 \b Fix the handling of accesses to context-local macros from higher
122 levels in the context stack.
124 \b Treat \c{WAIT} as a prefix rather than as an instruction, thereby
125 allowing constructs like \c{O16 FSAVE} to work correctly.
127 \b Support for structures with a non-zero base offset. See \k{struc}.
129 \b Correctly handle preprocessor token concatenation (see \k{concat})
130 involving floating-point numbers.
132 \b The \c{PINSR} series of instructions have been corrected and
135 \b Removed AMD SSE5, replaced with the new XOP/FMA4/CVT16 (rev 3.03)
138 \b The ELF backends no longer automatically generate a \c{.comment} section.
140 \b Add additional "well-known" ELF sections with default attributes. See
144 \S{cl-2.05.01} Version 2.05.01
146 \b Fix the \c{-w}/\c{-W} option parsing, which was broken in NASM 2.05.
149 \S{cl-2.05} Version 2.05
151 \b Fix redundant REX.W prefix on \c{JMP reg64}.
153 \b Make the behaviour of \c{-O0} match NASM 0.98 legacy behavior.
156 \b \c{-w-user} can be used to suppress the output of \c{%warning} directives.
159 \b Fix bug where \c{ALIGN} would issue a full alignment datum instead of
162 \b Fix offsets in list files.
164 \b Fix \c{%include} inside multi-line macros or loops.
166 \b Fix error where NASM would generate a spurious warning on valid
167 optimizations of immediate values.
169 \b Fix arguments to a number of the \c{CVT} SSE instructions.
171 \b Fix RIP-relative offsets when the instruction carries an immediate.
173 \b Massive overhaul of the ELF64 backend for spec compliance.
175 \b Fix the Geode \c{PFRCPV} and \c{PFRSQRTV} instruction.
177 \b Fix the SSE 4.2 \c{CRC32} instruction.
180 \S{cl-2.04} Version 2.04
182 \b Sanitize macro handing in the \c{%error} directive.
184 \b New \c{%warning} directive to issue user-controlled warnings.
186 \b \c{%error} directives are now deferred to the final assembly phase.
188 \b New \c{%fatal} directive to immediately terminate assembly.
190 \b New \c{%strcat} directive to join quoted strings together.
192 \b New \c{%use} macro directive to support standard macro directives. See
195 \b Excess default parameters to \c{%macro} now issues a warning by default.
198 \b Fix \c{%ifn} and \c{%elifn}.
200 \b Fix nested \c{%else} clauses.
202 \b Correct the handling of nested \c{%rep}s.
204 \b New \c{%unmacro} directive to undeclare a multi-line macro.
207 \b Builtin macro \c{__PASS__} which expands to the current assembly pass.
210 \b \c{__utf16__} and \c{__utf32__} operators to generate UTF-16 and UTF-32
211 strings. See \k{unicode}.
213 \b Fix bug in case-insensitive matching when compiled on platforms that
214 don't use the \c{configure} script. Of the official release binaries,
215 that only affected the OS/2 binary.
217 \b Support for x87 packed BCD constants. See \k{bcdconst}.
219 \b Correct the \c{LTR} and \c{SLDT} instructions in 64-bit mode.
221 \b Fix unnecessary REX.W prefix on indirect jumps in 64-bit mode.
223 \b Add AVX versions of the AES instructions (\c{VAES}...).
225 \b Fix the 256-bit FMA instructions.
227 \b Add 256-bit AVX stores per the latest AVX spec.
229 \b VIA XCRYPT instructions can now be written either with or without
230 \c{REP}, apparently different versions of the VIA spec wrote them
233 \b Add missing 64-bit \c{MOVNTI} instruction.
235 \b Fix the operand size of \c{VMREAD} and \c{VMWRITE}.
237 \b Numerous bug fixes, especially to the AES, AVX and VTX instructions.
239 \b The optimizer now always runs until it converges. It also runs even
240 when disabled, but doesn't optimize. This allows most forward references
241 to be resolved properly.
243 \b \c{%push} no longer needs a context identifier; omitting the context
244 identifier results in an anonymous context.
247 \S{cl-2.03.01} Version 2.03.01
249 \b Fix buffer overflow in the listing module.
251 \b Fix the handling of hexadecimal escape codes in `...` strings.
253 \b The Postscript/PDF documentation has been reformatted.
255 \b The \c{-F} option now implies \c{-g}.
258 \S{cl-2.03} Version 2.03
260 \b Add support for Intel AVX, CLMUL and FMA instructions,
261 including YMM registers.
263 \b \c{dy}, \c{resy} and \c{yword} for 32-byte operands.
265 \b Fix some SSE5 instructions.
267 \b Intel \c{INVEPT}, \c{INVVPID} and \c{MOVBE} instructions.
269 \b Fix checking for critical expressions when the optimizer is enabled.
271 \b Support the DWARF debugging format for ELF targets.
273 \b Fix optimizations of signed bytes.
275 \b Fix operation on bigendian machines.
277 \b Fix buffer overflow in the preprocessor.
279 \b \c{SAFESEH} support for Win32, \c{IMAGEREL} for Win64 (SEH).
281 \b \c{%?} and \c{%??} to refer to the name of a macro itself. In particular,
282 \c{%idefine keyword $%?} can be used to make a keyword "disappear".
284 \b New options for dependency generation: \c{-MD}, \c{-MF},
285 \c{-MP}, \c{-MT}, \c{-MQ}.
287 \b New preprocessor directives \c{%pathsearch} and \c{%depend}; INCBIN
288 reimplemented as a macro.
290 \b \c{%include} now resolves macros in a sane manner.
292 \b \c{%substr} can now be used to get other than one-character substrings.
294 \b New type of character/string constants, using backquotes (\c{`...`}),
295 which support C-style escape sequences.
297 \b \c{%defstr} and \c{%idefstr} to stringize macro definitions before
300 \b Fix forward references used in \c{EQU} statements.
303 \S{cl-2.02} Version 2.02
305 \b Additional fixes for MMX operands with explicit \c{qword}, as well as
306 (hopefully) SSE operands with \c{oword}.
308 \b Fix handling of truncated strings with \c{DO}.
310 \b Fix segfaults due to memory overwrites when floating-point constants
313 \b Fix segfaults due to missing include files.
315 \b Fix OpenWatcom Makefiles for DOS and OS/2.
317 \b Add autogenerated instruction list back into the documentation.
319 \b ELF: Fix segfault when generating stabs, and no symbols have been
322 \b ELF: Experimental support for DWARF debugging information.
324 \b New compile date and time standard macros.
326 \b \c{%ifnum} now returns true for negative numbers.
328 \b New \c{%iftoken} test for a single token.
330 \b New \c{%ifempty} test for empty expansion.
332 \b Add support for the \c{XSAVE} instruction group.
334 \b Makefile for Netware/gcc.
336 \b Fix issue with some warnings getting emitted way too many times.
338 \b Autogenerated instruction list added to the documentation.
341 \S{cl-2.01} Version 2.01
343 \b Fix the handling of MMX registers with explicit \c{qword} tags on
344 memory (broken in 2.00 due to 64-bit changes.)
346 \b Fix the PREFETCH instructions.
348 \b Fix the documentation.
350 \b Fix debugging info when using \c{-f elf}
351 (backwards compatibility alias for \c{-f elf32}).
353 \b Man pages for rdoff tools (from the Debian project.)
355 \b ELF: handle large numbers of sections.
357 \b Fix corrupt output when the optimizer runs out of passes.
360 \S{cl-2.00} Version 2.00
362 \b Added c99 data-type compliance.
364 \b Added general x86-64 support.
366 \b Added win64 (x86-64 COFF) output format.
368 \b Added \c{__BITS__} standard macro.
370 \b Renamed the \c{elf} output format to \c{elf32} for clarity.
372 \b Added \c{elf64} and \c{macho} (MacOS X) output formats.
374 \b Added Numeric constants in \c{dq} directive.
376 \b Added \c{oword}, \c{do} and \c{reso} pseudo operands.
378 \b Allow underscores in numbers.
380 \b Added 8-, 16- and 128-bit floating-point formats.
382 \b Added binary, octal and hexadecimal floating-point.
384 \b Correct the generation of floating-point constants.
386 \b Added floating-point option control.
388 \b Added Infinity and NaN floating point support.
390 \b Added ELF Symbol Visibility support.
392 \b Added setting OSABI value in ELF header directive.
394 \b Added Generate Makefile Dependencies option.
396 \b Added Unlimited Optimization Passes option.
398 \b Added \c{%IFN} and \c{%ELIFN} support.
400 \b Added Logical Negation Operator.
402 \b Enhanced Stack Relative Preprocessor Directives.
404 \b Enhanced ELF Debug Formats.
406 \b Enhanced Send Errors to a File option.
408 \b Added SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE5 support.
410 \b Added a large number of additional instructions.
412 \b Significant performance improvements.
414 \b \c{-w+warning} and \c{-w-warning} can now be written as -Wwarning and
415 -Wno-warning, respectively. See \k{opt-w}.
417 \b Add \c{-w+error} to treat warnings as errors. See \k{opt-w}.
419 \b Add \c{-w+all} and \c{-w-all} to enable or disable all suppressible
420 warnings. See \k{opt-w}.
423 \H{cl-0.98.xx} NASM 0.98 Series
425 The 0.98 series was the production versions of NASM from 1999 to 2007.
428 \S{cl-0.98.39} Version 0.98.39
430 \b fix buffer overflow
432 \b fix outas86's \c{.bss} handling
434 \b "make spotless" no longer deletes config.h.in.
436 \b \c{%(el)if(n)idn} insensitivity to string quotes difference (#809300).
438 \b (nasm.c)\c{__OUTPUT_FORMAT__} changed to string value instead of symbol.
440 \S{cl-0.98.38} Version 0.98.38
443 \b Add Makefile for 16-bit DOS binaries under OpenWatcom, and modify
444 \c{mkdep.pl} to be able to generate completely pathless dependencies, as
445 required by OpenWatcom wmake (it supports path searches, but not
448 \b Fix the \c{STR} instruction.
450 \b Fix the ELF output format, which was broken under certain
451 circumstances due to the addition of stabs support.
453 \b Quick-fix Borland format debug-info for \c{-f obj}
455 \b Fix for \c{%rep} with no arguments (#560568)
457 \b Fix concatenation of preprocessor function call (#794686)
459 \b Fix long label causes coredump (#677841)
461 \b Use autoheader as well as autoconf to keep configure from generating
462 ridiculously long command lines.
464 \b Make sure that all of the formats which support debugging output
465 actually will suppress debugging output when \c{-g} not specified.
467 \S{cl-0.98.37} Version 0.98.37
470 \b Paths given in \c{-I} switch searched for \c{incbin}-ed as
471 well as \c{%include}-ed files.
473 \b Added stabs debugging for the ELF output format, patch from
476 \b Fix \c{output/outbin.c} to allow origin > 80000000h.
478 \b Make \c{-U} switch work.
480 \b Fix the use of relative offsets with explicit prefixes, e.g.
483 \b Remove \c{backslash()}.
485 \b Fix the \c{SMSW} and \c{SLDT} instructions.
487 \b \c{-O2} and \c{-O3} are no longer aliases for \c{-O10} and \c{-O15}.
488 If you mean the latter, please say so! :)
490 \S{cl-0.98.36} Version 0.98.36
493 \b Update rdoff - librarian/archiver - common rec - docs!
495 \b Fix signed/unsigned problems.
497 \b Fix \c{JMP FAR label} and \c{CALL FAR label}.
499 \b Add new multisection support - map files - fix align bug
501 \b Fix sysexit, movhps/movlps reg,reg bugs in insns.dat
503 \b \c{Q} or \c{O} suffixes indicate octal
505 \b Support Prescott new instructions (PNI).
507 \b Cyrix \c{XSTORE} instruction.
510 \S{cl-0.98.35} Version 0.98.35
512 \b Fix build failure on 16-bit DOS (Makefile.bc3 workaround for compiler bug.)
514 \b Fix dependencies and compiler warnings.
516 \b Add "const" in a number of places.
518 \b Add -X option to specify error reporting format (use -Xvc to
519 integrate with Microsoft Visual Studio.)
521 \b Minor changes for code legibility.
523 \b Drop use of tmpnam() in rdoff (security fix.)
526 \S{cl-0.98.34} Version 0.98.34
528 \b Correct additional address-size vs. operand-size confusions.
530 \b Generate dependencies for all Makefiles automatically.
532 \b Add support for unimplemented (but theoretically available)
533 registers such as tr0 and cr5. Segment registers 6 and 7 are called
534 segr6 and segr7 for the operations which they can be represented.
536 \b Correct some disassembler bugs related to redundant address-size prefixes.
537 Some work still remains in this area.
539 \b Correctly generate an error for things like "SEG eax".
541 \b Add the JMPE instruction, enabled by "CPU IA64".
543 \b Correct compilation on newer gcc/glibc platforms.
545 \b Issue an error on things like "jmp far eax".
548 \S{cl-0.98.33} Version 0.98.33
550 \b New __NASM_PATCHLEVEL__ and __NASM_VERSION_ID__ standard macros to
551 round out the version-query macros. version.pl now understands
552 X.YYplWW or X.YY.ZZplWW as a version number, equivalent to
553 X.YY.ZZ.WW (or X.YY.0.WW, as appropriate).
555 \b New keyword "strict" to disable the optimization of specific
558 \b Fix the handing of size overrides with JMP instructions
559 (instructions such as "jmp dword foo".)
561 \b Fix the handling of "ABSOLUTE label", where "label" points into a
564 \b Fix OBJ output format with lots of externs.
566 \b More documentation updates.
568 \b Add -Ov option to get verbose information about optimizations.
570 \b Undo a braindead change which broke \c{%elif} directives.
575 \S{cl-0.98.32} Version 0.98.32
577 \b Fix NASM crashing when \c{%macro} directives were left unterminated.
579 \b Lots of documentation updates.
581 \b Complete rewrite of the PostScript/PDF documentation generator.
583 \b The MS Visual C++ Makefile was updated and corrected.
585 \b Recognize .rodata as a standard section name in ELF.
587 \b Fix some obsolete Perl4-isms in Perl scripts.
589 \b Fix configure.in to work with autoconf 2.5x.
591 \b Fix a couple of "make cleaner" misses.
593 \b Make the normal "./configure && make" work with Cygwin.
596 \S{cl-0.98.31} Version 0.98.31
598 \b Correctly build in a separate object directory again.
600 \b Derive all references to the version number from the version file.
602 \b New standard macros __NASM_SUBMINOR__ and __NASM_VER__ macros.
604 \b Lots of Makefile updates and bug fixes.
606 \b New \c{%ifmacro} directive to test for multiline macros.
608 \b Documentation updates.
610 \b Fixes for 16-bit OBJ format output.
612 \b Changed the NASM environment variable to NASMENV.
615 \S{cl-0.98.30} Version 0.98.30
617 \b Changed doc files a lot: completely removed old READMExx and
618 Wishlist files, incorporating all information in CHANGES and TODO.
620 \b I waited a long time to rename zoutieee.c to (original) outieee.c
622 \b moved all output modules to output/ subdirectory.
624 \b Added 'make strip' target to strip debug info from nasm & ndisasm.
626 \b Added INSTALL file with installation instructions.
628 \b Added -v option description to nasm man.
630 \b Added dist makefile target to produce source distributions.
632 \b 16-bit support for ELF output format (GNU extension, but useful.)
635 \S{cl-0.98.28} Version 0.98.28
637 \b Fastcooked this for Debian's Woody release:
638 Frank applied the INCBIN bug patch to 0.98.25alt and called
639 it 0.98.28 to not confuse poor little apt-get.
642 \S{cl-0.98.26} Version 0.98.26
644 \b Reorganised files even better from 0.98.25alt
647 \S{cl-0.98.25alt} Version 0.98.25alt
649 \b Prettified the source tree. Moved files to more reasonable places.
651 \b Added findleak.pl script to misc/ directory.
653 \b Attempted to fix doc.
656 \S{cl-0.98.25} Version 0.98.25
658 \b Line continuation character \c{\\}.
660 \b Docs inadvertantly reverted - "dos packaging".
663 \S{cl-0.98.24p1} Version 0.98.24p1
665 \b FIXME: Someone, document this please.
668 \S{cl-0.98.24} Version 0.98.24
670 \b Documentation - Ndisasm doc added to Nasm.doc.
673 \S{cl-0.98.23} Version 0.98.23
675 \b Attempted to remove rdoff version1
677 \b Lino Mastrodomenico's patches to preproc.c (%$$ bug?).
680 \S{cl-0.98.22} Version 0.98.22
682 \b Update rdoff2 - attempt to remove v1.
685 \S{cl-0.98.21} Version 0.98.21
687 \b Optimization fixes.
690 \S{cl-0.98.20} Version 0.98.20
692 \b Optimization fixes.
695 \S{cl-0.98.19} Version 0.98.19
697 \b H. J. Lu's patch back out.
700 \S{cl-0.98.18} Version 0.98.18
702 \b Added ".rdata" to "-f win32".
705 \S{cl-0.98.17} Version 0.98.17
707 \b H. J. Lu's "bogus elf" patch. (Red Hat problem?)
710 \S{cl-0.98.16} Version 0.98.16
712 \b Fix whitespace before "[section ..." bug.
715 \S{cl-0.98.15} Version 0.98.15
717 \b Rdoff changes (?).
719 \b Fix fixes to memory leaks.
722 \S{cl-0.98.14} Version 0.98.14
727 \S{cl-0.98.13} Version 0.98.13
729 \b There was no 0.98.13
732 \S{cl-0.98.12} Version 0.98.12
734 \b Update optimization (new function of "-O1")
736 \b Changes to test/bintest.asm (?).
739 \S{cl-0.98.11} Version 0.98.11
741 \b Optimization changes.
746 \S{cl-0.98.10} Version 0.98.10
748 \b There was no 0.98.10
751 \S{cl-0.98.09} Version 0.98.09
753 \b Add multiple sections support to "-f bin".
755 \b Changed GLOBAL_TEMP_BASE in outelf.c from 6 to 15.
757 \b Add "-v" as an alias to the "-r" switch.
759 \b Remove "#ifdef" from Tasm compatibility options.
761 \b Remove redundant size-overrides on "mov ds, ex", etc.
763 \b Fixes to SSE2, other insns.dat (?).
765 \b Enable uppercase "I" and "P" switches.
767 \b Case insinsitive "seg" and "wrt".
769 \b Update install.sh (?).
771 \b Allocate tokens in blocks.
773 \b Improve "invalid effective address" messages.
776 \S{cl-0.98.08} Version 0.98.08
778 \b Add "\c{%strlen}" and "\c{%substr}" macro operators
780 \b Fixed broken c16.mac.
782 \b Unterminated string error reported.
784 \b Fixed bugs as per 0.98bf
787 \S{cl-0.98.09b with John Coffman patches released 28-Oct-2001} Version 0.98.09b with John Coffman patches released 28-Oct-2001
789 Changes from 0.98.07 release to 98.09b as of 28-Oct-2001
791 \b More closely compatible with 0.98 when -O0 is implied
792 or specified. Not strictly identical, since backward
793 branches in range of short offsets are recognized, and signed
794 byte values with no explicit size specification will be
795 assembled as a single byte.
797 \b More forgiving with the PUSH instruction. 0.98 requires
798 a size to be specified always. 0.98.09b will imply the size
799 from the current BITS setting (16 or 32).
801 \b Changed definition of the optimization flag:
803 -O0 strict two-pass assembly, JMP and Jcc are
804 handled more like 0.98, except that back-
805 ward JMPs are short, if possible.
807 -O1 strict two-pass assembly, but forward
808 branches are assembled with code guaranteed
809 to reach; may produce larger code than
810 -O0, but will produce successful assembly
811 more often if branch offset sizes are not
814 -O2 multi-pass optimization, minimize branch
815 offsets; also will minimize signed immed-
816 iate bytes, overriding size specification.
818 -O3 like -O2, but more passes taken, if needed
821 \S{cl-0.98.07 released 01/28/01} Version 0.98.07 released 01/28/01
823 \b Added Stepane Denis' SSE2 instructions to a *working*
824 version of the code - some earlier versions were based on
825 broken code - sorry 'bout that. version "0.98.07"
831 \b Cosmetic modifications to nasm.c, nasm.h,
835 \S{cl-0.98.06f released 01/18/01} Version 0.98.06f released 01/18/01
838 \b - Add "metalbrain"s jecxz bug fix in insns.dat
839 - alter nasmdoc.src to match - version "0.98.06f"
842 \S{cl-0.98.06e released 01/09/01} Version 0.98.06e released 01/09/01
845 \b Removed the "outforms.h" file - it appears to be
846 someone's old backup of "outform.h". version "0.98.06e"
850 \b fbk - finally added the fix for the "multiple %includes bug",
851 known since 7/27/99 - reported originally (?) and sent to
852 us by Austin Lunnen - he reports that John Fine had a fix
853 within the day. Here it is...
855 \b Nelson Rush resigns from the group. Big thanks to Nelson for
856 his leadership and enthusiasm in getting these changes
857 incorporated into Nasm!
859 \b fbk - [list +], [list -] directives - ineptly implemented, should
860 be re-written or removed, perhaps.
862 \b Brian Raiter / fbk - "elfso bug" fix - applied to aoutb format
863 as well - testing might be desirable...
867 \b James Seter - -postfix, -prefix command line switches.
869 \b Yuri Zaporogets - rdoff utility changes.
872 \S{cl-0.98p1} Version 0.98p1
874 \b GAS-like palign (Panos Minos)
876 \b FIXME: Someone, fill this in with details
879 \S{cl-0.98bf (bug-fixed)} Version 0.98bf (bug-fixed)
881 \b Fixed - elf and aoutb bug - shared libraries
882 - multiple "%include" bug in "-f obj"
884 - unrecognized option bug in ndisasm
886 \S{cl-0.98.03 with John Coffman's changes released 27-Jul-2000} Version 0.98.03 with John Coffman's changes released 27-Jul-2000
888 \b Added signed byte optimizations for the 0x81/0x83 class
889 of instructions: ADC, ADD, AND, CMP, OR, SBB, SUB, XOR:
890 when used as 'ADD reg16,imm' or 'ADD reg32,imm.' Also
891 optimization of signed byte form of 'PUSH imm' and 'IMUL
892 reg,imm'/'IMUL reg,reg,imm.' No size specification is needed.
894 \b Added multi-pass JMP and Jcc offset optimization. Offsets
895 on forward references will preferentially use the short form,
896 without the need to code a specific size (short or near) for
897 the branch. Added instructions for 'Jcc label' to use the
898 form 'Jnotcc $+3/JMP label', in cases where a short offset
899 is out of bounds. If compiling for a 386 or higher CPU, then
900 the 386 form of Jcc will be used instead.
902 This feature is controlled by a new command-line switch: "O",
903 (upper case letter O). "-O0" reverts the assembler to no
904 extra optimization passes, "-O1" allows up to 5 extra passes,
905 and "-O2"(default), allows up to 10 extra optimization passes.
907 \b Added a new directive: 'cpu XXX', where XXX is any of:
908 8086, 186, 286, 386, 486, 586, pentium, 686, PPro, P2, P3 or
909 Katmai. All are case insensitive. All instructions will
910 be selected only if they apply to the selected cpu or lower.
911 Corrected a couple of bugs in cpu-dependence in 'insns.dat'.
913 \b Added to 'standard.mac', the "use16" and "use32" forms of
914 the "bits 16/32" directive. This is nothing new, just conforms
915 to a lot of other assemblers. (minor)
917 \b Changed label allocation from 320/32 (10000 labels @ 200K+)
918 to 32/37 (1000 labels); makes running under DOS much easier.
919 Since additional label space is allocated dynamically, this
920 should have no effect on large programs with lots of labels.
921 The 37 is a prime, believed to be better for hashing. (minor)
924 \S{cl-0.98.03} Version 0.98.03
926 "Integrated patchfile 0.98-0.98.01. I call this version 0.98.03 for
927 historical reasons: 0.98.02 was trashed." --John Coffman
928 <johninsd@san.rr.com>, 27-Jul-2000
930 \b Kendall Bennett's SciTech MGL changes
932 \b Note that you must define "TASM_COMPAT" at compile-time
933 to get the Tasm Ideal Mode compatibility.
935 \b All changes can be compiled in and out using the TASM_COMPAT macros,
936 and when compiled without TASM_COMPAT defined we get the exact same
937 binary as the unmodified 0.98 sources.
939 \b standard.mac, macros.c: Added macros to ignore TASM directives before
942 \b nasm.h: Added extern declaration for tasm_compatible_mode
944 \b nasm.c: Added global variable tasm_compatible_mode
946 \b Added command line switch for TASM compatible mode (-t)
948 \b Changed version command line to reflect when compiled with TASM additions
950 \b Added response file processing to allow all arguments on a single
951 line (response file is @resp rather than -@resp for NASM format).
953 \b labels.c: Changes islocal() macro to support TASM style @@local labels.
955 \b Added islocalchar() macro to support TASM style @@local labels.
957 \b parser.c: Added support for TASM style memory references (ie: mov
958 [DWORD eax],10 rather than the NASM style mov DWORD [eax],10).
960 \b preproc.c: Added new directives, \c{%arg}, \c{%local}, \c{%stacksize} to directives
963 \b Added support for TASM style directives without a leading % symbol.
965 \b Integrated a block of changes from Andrew Zabolotny <bit@eltech.ru>:
967 \b A new keyword \c{%xdefine} and its case-insensitive counterpart \c{%ixdefine}.
968 They work almost the same way as \c{%define} and \c{%idefine} but expand
969 the definition immediately, not on the invocation. Something like a cross
970 between \c{%define} and \c{%assign}. The "x" suffix stands for "eXpand", so
971 "xdefine" can be deciphered as "expand-and-define". Thus you can do
977 \c %xdefine %1 dword [esp+ofs]
981 \b Changed the place where the expansion of %$name macros are expanded.
982 Now they are converted into ..@ctxnum.name form when detokenizing, so
983 there are no quirks as before when using %$name arguments to macros,
984 in macros etc. For example:
993 Now last line will be expanded into "hello" as expected. This also allows
994 for lots of goodies, a good example are extended "proc" macros included
997 \b Added a check for "cstk" in smacro_defined() before calling get_ctx() -
998 this allows for things like:
1003 to work without warnings even in no context.
1005 \b Added a check for "cstk" in %if*ctx and %elif*ctx directives -
1006 this allows to use \c{%ifctx} without excessive warnings. If there is
1007 no active context, \c{%ifctx} goes through "false" branch.
1009 \b Removed "user error: " prefix with \c{%error} directive: it just clobbers the
1010 output and has absolutely no functionality. Besides, this allows to write
1011 macros that does not differ from built-in functions in any way.
1013 \b Added expansion of string that is output by \c{%error} directive. Now you
1016 \c %define hello(x) Hello, x!
1018 \c %define %$name andy
1019 \c %error "hello(%$name)"
1021 Same happened with \c{%include} directive.
1023 \b Now all directives that expect an identifier will try to expand and
1024 concatenate everything without whitespaces in between before usage.
1025 For example, with "unfixed" nasm the commands
1027 \c %define %$abc hello
1028 \c %define __%$abc goodbye
1031 would produce "incorrect" output: last line will expand to
1033 \c hello goodbyehello
1035 Not quite what you expected, eh? :-) The answer is that preprocessor
1036 treats the \c{%define} construct as if it would be
1038 \c %define __ %$abc goodbye
1040 (note the white space between __ and %$abc). After my "fix" it
1041 will "correctly" expand into
1045 as expected. Note that I use quotes around words "correct", "incorrect"
1046 etc because this is rather a feature not a bug; however current behaviour
1047 is more logical (and allows more advanced macro usage :-).
1049 Same change was applied to:
1050 \c{%push},\c{%macro},\c{%imacro},\c{%define},\c{%idefine},\c{%xdefine},\c{%ixdefine},
1051 \c{%assign},\c{%iassign},\c{%undef}
1053 \b A new directive [WARNING {+|-}warning-id] have been added. It works only
1054 if the assembly phase is enabled (i.e. it doesn't work with nasm -e).
1056 \b A new warning type: macro-selfref. By default this warning is disabled;
1057 when enabled NASM warns when a macro self-references itself; for example
1058 the following source:
1060 \c [WARNING macro-selfref]
1071 will produce a warning, but if we remove the first line we won't see it
1072 anymore (which is The Right Thing To Do {tm} IMHO since C preprocessor
1073 eats such constructs without warnings at all).
1075 \b Added a "error" routine to preprocessor which always will set ERR_PASS1
1076 bit in severity_code. This removes annoying repeated errors on first
1077 and second passes from preprocessor.
1079 \b Added the %+ operator in single-line macros for concatenating two
1080 identifiers. Usage example:
1082 \c %define _myfunc _otherfunc
1083 \c %define cextern(x) _ %+ x
1086 After first expansion, third line will become "_myfunc". After this
1087 expansion is performed again so it becomes "_otherunc".
1089 \b Now if preprocessor is in a non-emitting state, no warning or error
1090 will be emitted. Example:
1095 \c put anything you want between these two brackets,
1096 \c even macro-parameter references %1 or local
1097 \c labels %$zz or macro-local labels %%zz - no
1098 \c warning will be emitted.
1101 \b Context-local variables on expansion as a last resort are looked up
1102 in outer contexts. For example, the following piece:
1105 \c %define %$a [esp]
1112 will expand correctly the fourth line to [esp]; if we'll define another
1113 %$a inside the "inner" context, it will take precedence over outer
1114 definition. However, this modification has been applied only to
1115 expand_smacro and not to smacro_define: as a consequence expansion
1116 looks in outer contexts, but \c{%ifdef} won't look in outer contexts.
1118 This behaviour is needed because we don't want nested contexts to
1119 act on already defined local macros. Example:
1121 \c %define %$arg1 [esp+4]
1127 In this example the "if" mmacro enters into the "if" context, so %$arg1
1128 is not valid anymore inside "if". Of course it could be worked around
1129 by using explicitely %$$arg1 but this is ugly IMHO.
1131 \b Fixed memory leak in \c{%undef}. The origline wasn't freed before
1134 \b Fixed trap in preprocessor when line expanded to empty set of tokens.
1135 This happens, for example, in the following case:
1137 \c #define SOMETHING
1141 \S{cl-0.98} Version 0.98
1143 All changes since NASM 0.98p3 have been produced by H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>.
1145 \b The documentation comment delimiter is \# not #.
1147 \b Allow EQU definitions to refer to external labels; reported by
1150 \b Re-enable support for RDOFF v1; reported by Pedro Gimeno.
1152 \b Updated License file per OK from Simon and Julian.
1155 \S{cl-0.98p9} Version 0.98p9
1157 \b Update documentation (although the instruction set reference will
1158 have to wait; I don't want to hold up the 0.98 release for it.)
1160 \b Verified that the NASM implementation of the PEXTRW and PMOVMSKB
1161 instructions is correct. The encoding differs from what the Intel
1162 manuals document, but the Pentium III behaviour matches NASM, not
1165 \b Fix handling of implicit sizes in PSHUFW and PINSRW, reported by
1168 \b Resurrect the -s option, which was removed when changing the
1169 diagnostic output to stdout.
1172 \S{cl-0.98p8} Version 0.98p8
1174 \b Fix for "DB" when NASM is running on a bigendian machine.
1176 \b Invoke insns.pl once for each output script, making Makefile.in
1177 legal for "make -j".
1179 \b Improve the Unix configure-based makefiles to make package
1182 \b Included an RPM .spec file for building RPM (RedHat Package Manager)
1183 packages on Linux or Unix systems.
1185 \b Fix Makefile dependency problems.
1187 \b Change src/rdsrc.pl to include sectioning information in info
1188 output; required for install-info to work.
1190 \b Updated the RDOFF distribution to version 2 from Jules; minor
1191 massaging to make it compile in my environment.
1193 \b Split doc files that can be built by anyone with a Perl interpreter off
1194 into a separate archive.
1196 \b "Dress rehearsal" release!
1199 \S{cl-0.98p7} Version 0.98p7
1201 \b Fixed opcodes with a third byte-sized immediate argument to not
1202 complain if given "byte" on the immediate.
1204 \b Allow \c{%undef} to remove single-line macros with arguments. This
1205 matches the behaviour of #undef in the C preprocessor.
1207 \b Allow -d, -u, -i and -p to be specified as -D, -U, -I and -P for
1208 compatibility with most C compilers and preprocessors. This allows
1209 Makefile options to be shared between cc and nasm, for example.
1213 \b Went through the list of Katmai instructions and hopefully fixed the
1214 (rather few) mistakes in it.
1216 \b (Hopefully) fixed a number of disassembler bugs related to ambiguous
1217 instructions (disambiguated by -p) and SSE instructions with REP.
1219 \b Fix for bug reported by Mark Junger: "call dword 0x12345678" should
1220 work and may add an OSP (affected CALL, JMP, Jcc).
1222 \b Fix for environments when "stderr" isn't a compile-time constant.
1225 \S{cl-0.98p6} Version 0.98p6
1228 \b Took officially over coordination of the 0.98 release; so drop
1229 the p3.x notation. Skipped p4 and p5 to avoid confusion with John
1230 Fine's J4 and J5 releases.
1232 \b Update the documentation; however, it still doesn't include
1233 documentation for the various new instructions. I somehow wonder if
1234 it makes sense to have an instruction set reference in the assembler
1235 manual when Intel et al have PDF versions of their manuals online.
1237 \b Recognize "idt" or "centaur" for the -p option to ndisasm.
1239 \b Changed error messages back to stderr where they belong, but add an
1240 -E option to redirect them elsewhere (the DOS shell cannot redirect
1243 \b -M option to generate Makefile dependencies (based on code from Alex
1246 \b \c{%undef} preprocessor directive, and -u option, that undefines a
1249 \b OS/2 Makefile (Mkfiles/Makefile.os2) for Borland under OS/2; from
1252 \b Various minor bugfixes (reported by):
1253 - Dangling \c{%s} in preproc.c (Martin Junker)
1255 \b THERE ARE KNOWN BUGS IN SSE AND THE OTHER KATMAI INSTRUCTIONS. I am
1256 on a trip and didn't bring the Katmai instruction reference, so I
1257 can't work on them right now.
1259 \b Updated the License file per agreement with Simon and Jules to
1260 include a GPL distribution clause.
1263 \S{cl-0.98p3.7} Version 0.98p3.7
1265 \b (Hopefully) fixed the canned Makefiles to include the outrdf2 and
1268 \b Renamed changes.asm to changed.asm.
1271 \S{cl-0.98p3.6} Version 0.98p3.6
1273 \b Fixed a bunch of instructions that were added in 0.98p3.5 which had
1274 memory operands, and the address-size prefix was missing from the
1275 instruction pattern.
1278 \S{cl-0.98p3.5} Version 0.98p3.5
1280 \b Merged in changes from John S. Fine's 0.98-J5 release. John's based
1281 0.98-J5 on my 0.98p3.3 release; this merges the changes.
1283 \b Expanded the instructions flag field to a long so we can fit more
1284 flags; mark SSE (KNI) and AMD or Katmai-specific instructions as
1287 \b Fix the "PRIV" flag on a bunch of instructions, and create new
1288 "PROT" flag for protected-mode-only instructions (orthogonal to if
1289 the instruction is privileged!) and new "SMM" flag for SMM-only
1292 \b Added AMD-only SYSCALL and SYSRET instructions.
1294 \b Make SSE actually work, and add new Katmai MMX instructions.
1296 \b Added a -p (preferred vendor) option to ndisasm so that it can
1297 distinguish e.g. Cyrix opcodes also used in SSE. For example:
1299 \c ndisasm -p cyrix aliased.bin
1300 \c 00000000 670F514310 paddsiw mm0,[ebx+0x10]
1301 \c 00000005 670F514320 paddsiw mm0,[ebx+0x20]
1302 \c ndisasm -p intel aliased.bin
1303 \c 00000000 670F514310 sqrtps xmm0,[ebx+0x10]
1304 \c 00000005 670F514320 sqrtps xmm0,[ebx+0x20]
1306 \b Added a bunch of Cyrix-specific instructions.
1309 \S{cl-0.98p3.4} Version 0.98p3.4
1311 \b Made at least an attempt to modify all the additional Makefiles (in
1312 the Mkfiles directory). I can't test it, but this was the best I
1315 \b DOS DJGPP+"Opus Make" Makefile from John S. Fine.
1317 \b changes.asm changes from John S. Fine.
1320 \S{cl-0.98p3.3} Version 0.98p3.3
1322 \b Patch from Conan Brink to allow nesting of \c{%rep} directives.
1324 \b If we're going to allow INT01 as an alias for INT1/ICEBP (one of
1325 Jules 0.98p3 changes), then we should allow INT03 as an alias for INT3
1328 \b Updated changes.asm to include the latest changes.
1330 \b Tried to clean up the <CR>s that had snuck in from a DOS/Windows
1331 environment into my Unix environment, and try to make sure than
1332 DOS/Windows users get them back.
1334 \b We would silently generate broken tools if insns.dat wasn't sorted
1335 properly. Change insns.pl so that the order doesn't matter.
1337 \b Fix bug in insns.pl (introduced by me) which would cause conditional
1338 instructions to have an extra "cc" in disassembly, e.g. "jnz"
1339 disassembled as "jccnz".
1342 \S{cl-0.98p3.2} Version 0.98p3.2
1344 \b Merged in John S. Fine's changes from his 0.98-J4 prerelease; see
1345 http://www.csoft.net/cz/johnfine/
1347 \b Changed previous "spotless" Makefile target (appropriate for distribution)
1348 to "distclean", and added "cleaner" target which is same as "clean"
1349 except deletes files generated by Perl scripts; "spotless" is union.
1351 \b Removed BASIC programs from distribution. Get a Perl interpreter
1352 instead (see below.)
1354 \b Calling this "pre-release 3.2" rather than "p3-hpa2" because of
1355 John's contributions.
1357 \b Actually link in the IEEE output format (zoutieee.c); fix a bunch of
1358 compiler warnings in that file. Note I don't know what IEEE output
1359 is supposed to look like, so these changes were made "blind".
1362 \S{cl-0.98p3-hpa} Version 0.98p3-hpa
1364 \b Merged nasm098p3.zip with nasm-0.97.tar.gz to create a fully
1365 buildable version for Unix systems (Makefile.in updates, etc.)
1367 \b Changed insns.pl to create the instruction tables in nasm.h and
1368 names.c, so that a new instruction can be added by adding it *only*
1371 \b Added the following new instructions: SYSENTER, SYSEXIT, FXSAVE,
1372 FXRSTOR, UD1, UD2 (the latter two are two opcodes that Intel
1373 guarantee will never be used; one of them is documented as UD2 in
1374 Intel documentation, the other one just as "Undefined Opcode" --
1375 calling it UD1 seemed to make sense.)
1377 \b MAX_SYMBOL was defined to be 9, but LOADALL286 and LOADALL386 are 10
1378 characters long. Now MAX_SYMBOL is derived from insns.dat.
1380 \b A note on the BASIC programs included: forget them. insns.bas is
1381 already out of date. Get yourself a Perl interpreter for your
1382 platform of choice at
1383 \W{http://www.cpan.org/ports/index.html}{http://www.cpan.org/ports/index.html}.
1386 \S{cl-0.98p3} Version 0.98 pre-release 3
1388 \b added response file support, improved command line handling, new layout
1391 \b fixed limit checking bug, 'OUT byte nn, reg' bug, and a couple of rdoff
1392 related bugs, updated Wishlist; 0.98 Prerelease 3.
1395 \S{cl-0.98p2} Version 0.98 pre-release 2
1397 \b fixed bug in outcoff.c to do with truncating section names longer
1398 than 8 characters, referencing beyond end of string; 0.98 pre-release 2
1401 \S{cl-0.98p1} Version 0.98 pre-release 1
1403 \b Fixed a bug whereby STRUC didn't work at all in RDF.
1405 \b Fixed a problem with group specification in PUBDEFs in OBJ.
1407 \b Improved ease of adding new output formats. Contribution due to
1410 \b Fixed a bug in relocations in the `bin' format: was showing up when
1411 a relocatable reference crossed an 8192-byte boundary in any output
1414 \b Fixed a bug in local labels: local-label lookups were inconsistent
1415 between passes one and two if an EQU occurred between the definition
1416 of a global label and the subsequent use of a local label local to
1419 \b Fixed a seg-fault in the preprocessor (again) which happened when
1420 you use a blank line as the first line of a multi-line macro
1421 definition and then defined a label on the same line as a call to
1424 \b Fixed a stale-pointer bug in the handling of the NASM environment
1425 variable. Thanks to Thomas McWilliams.
1427 \b ELF had a hard limit on the number of sections which caused
1428 segfaults when transgressed. Fixed.
1430 \b Added ability for ndisasm to read from stdin by using `-' as the
1433 \b ndisasm wasn't outputting the TO keyword. Fixed.
1435 \b Fixed error cascade on bogus expression in \c{%if} - an error in
1436 evaluation was causing the entire \c{%if} to be discarded, thus creating
1437 trouble later when the \c{%else} or \c{%endif} was encountered.
1439 \b Forward reference tracking was instruction-granular not operand-
1440 granular, which was causing 286-specific code to be generated
1441 needlessly on code of the form `shr word [forwardref],1'. Thanks to
1442 Jim Hague for sending a patch.
1444 \b All messages now appear on stdout, as sending them to stderr serves
1445 no useful purpose other than to make redirection difficult.
1447 \b Fixed the problem with EQUs pointing to an external symbol - this
1448 now generates an error message.
1450 \b Allowed multiple size prefixes to an operand, of which only the first
1451 is taken into account.
1453 \b Incorporated John Fine's changes, including fixes of a large number
1454 of preprocessor bugs, some small problems in OBJ, and a reworking of
1455 label handling to define labels before their line is assembled, rather
1458 \b Reformatted a lot of the source code to be more readable. Included
1459 'coding.txt' as a guideline for how to format code for contributors.
1461 \b Stopped nested \c{%reps} causing a panic - they now cause a slightly more
1462 friendly error message instead.
1464 \b Fixed floating point constant problems (patch by Pedro Gimeno)
1466 \b Fixed the return value of insn_size() not being checked for -1, indicating
1469 \b Incorporated 3Dnow! instructions.
1471 \b Fixed the 'mov eax, eax + ebx' bug.
1473 \b Fixed the GLOBAL EQU bug in ELF. Released developers release 3.
1475 \b Incorporated John Fine's command line parsing changes
1477 \b Incorporated David Lindauer's OMF debug support
1479 \b Made changes for LCC 4.0 support (\c{__NASM_CDecl__}, removed register size
1480 specification warning when sizes agree).
1483 \H{cl-0.9x} NASM 0.9 Series
1485 Revisions before 0.98.
1488 \S{cl-0.97} Version 0.97 released December 1997
1490 \b This was entirely a bug-fix release to 0.96, which seems to have got
1493 \b Fixed stupid mistake in OBJ which caused `MOV EAX,<constant>' to
1494 fail. Caused by an error in the `MOV EAX,<segment>' support.
1496 \b ndisasm hung at EOF when compiled with lcc on Linux because lcc on
1497 Linux somehow breaks feof(). ndisasm now does not rely on feof().
1499 \b A heading in the documentation was missing due to a markup error in
1500 the indexing. Fixed.
1502 \b Fixed failure to update all pointers on realloc() within extended-
1503 operand code in parser.c. Was causing wrong behaviour and seg faults
1504 on lines such as `dd 0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,...'
1506 \b Fixed a subtle preprocessor bug whereby invoking one multi-line
1507 macro on the first line of the expansion of another, when the second
1508 had been invoked with a label defined before it, didn't expand the
1511 \b Added internal.doc back in to the distribution archives - it was
1512 missing in 0.96 *blush*
1514 \b Fixed bug causing 0.96 to be unable to assemble its own test files,
1515 specifically objtest.asm. *blush again*
1517 \b Fixed seg-faults and bogus error messages caused by mismatching
1518 \c{%rep} and \c{%endrep} within multi-line macro definitions.
1520 \b Fixed a problem with buffer overrun in OBJ, which was causing
1521 corruption at ends of long PUBDEF records.
1523 \b Separated DOS archives into main-program and documentation to reduce
1527 \S{cl-0.96} Version 0.96 released November 1997
1529 \b Fixed a bug whereby, if `nasm sourcefile' would cause a filename
1530 collision warning and put output into `nasm.out', then `nasm
1531 sourcefile -o outputfile' still gave the warning even though the
1533 Fixed name pollution under Digital UNIX: one of its header files
1534 defined R_SP, which broke the enum in nasm.h.
1536 \b Fixed minor instruction table problems: FUCOM and FUCOMP didn't have
1537 two-operand forms; NDISASM didn't recognise the longer register
1538 forms of PUSH and POP (eg FF F3 for PUSH BX); TEST mem,imm32 was
1539 flagged as undocumented; the 32-bit forms of CMOV had 16-bit operand
1540 size prefixes; `AAD imm' and `AAM imm' are no longer flagged as
1541 undocumented because the Intel Architecture reference documents
1544 \b Fixed a problem with the local-label mechanism, whereby strange
1545 types of symbol (EQUs, auto-defined OBJ segment base symbols)
1546 interfered with the `previous global label' value and screwed up
1549 \b Fixed a bug whereby the stub preprocessor didn't communicate with
1550 the listing file generator, so that the -a and -l options in
1551 conjunction would produce a useless listing file.
1553 \b Merged `os2' object file format back into `obj', after discovering
1554 that `obj' _also_ shouldn't have a link pass separator in a module
1555 containing a non-trivial MODEND. Flat segments are now declared
1556 using the FLAT attribute. `os2' is no longer a valid object format
1559 \b Removed the fixed-size temporary storage in the evaluator. Very very
1560 long expressions (like `mov ax,1+1+1+1+...' for two hundred 1s or
1561 so) should now no longer crash NASM.
1563 \b Fixed a bug involving segfaults on disassembly of MMX instructions,
1564 by changing the meaning of one of the operand-type flags in nasm.h.
1565 This may cause other apparently unrelated MMX problems; it needs to
1566 be tested thoroughly.
1568 \b Fixed some buffer overrun problems with large OBJ output files.
1569 Thanks to DJ Delorie for the bug report and fix.
1571 \b Made preprocess-only mode actually listen to the \c{%line} markers as it
1572 prints them, so that it can report errors more sanely.
1574 \b Re-designed the evaluator to keep more sensible track of expressions
1575 involving forward references: can now cope with previously-nightmare
1582 \b Added the ALIGN and ALIGNB standard macros.
1584 \b Added PIC support in ELF: use of WRT to obtain the four extra
1585 relocation types needed.
1587 \b Added the ability for output file formats to define their own
1588 extensions to the GLOBAL, COMMON and EXTERN directives.
1590 \b Implemented common-variable alignment, and global-symbol type and
1591 size declarations, in ELF.
1593 \b Implemented NEAR and FAR keywords for common variables, plus
1594 far-common element size specification, in OBJ.
1596 \b Added a feature whereby EXTERNs and COMMONs in OBJ can be given a
1597 default WRT specification (either a segment or a group).
1599 \b Transformed the Unix NASM archive into an auto-configuring package.
1601 \b Added a sanity-check for people applying SEG to things which are
1602 already segment bases: this previously went unnoticed by the SEG
1603 processing and caused OBJ-driver panics later.
1605 \b Added the ability, in OBJ format, to deal with `MOV EAX,<segment>'
1606 type references: OBJ doesn't directly support dword-size segment
1607 base fixups, but as long as the low two bytes of the constant term
1608 are zero, a word-size fixup can be generated instead and it will
1611 \b Added the ability to specify sections' alignment requirements in
1612 Win32 object files and pure binary files.
1614 \b Added preprocess-time expression evaluation: the \c{%assign} (and
1615 \c{%iassign}) directive and the bare \c{%if} (and \c{%elif}) conditional. Added
1616 relational operators to the evaluator, for use only in \c{%if}
1617 constructs: the standard relationals = < > <= >= <> (and C-like
1618 synonyms == and !=) plus low-precedence logical operators &&, ^^ and
1621 \b Added a preprocessor repeat construct: \c{%rep} / \c{%exitrep} / \c{%endrep}.
1623 \b Added the __FILE__ and __LINE__ standard macros.
1625 \b Added a sanity check for number constants being greater than
1626 0xFFFFFFFF. The warning can be disabled.
1628 \b Added the %0 token whereby a variadic multi-line macro can tell how
1629 many parameters it's been given in a specific invocation.
1631 \b Added \c{%rotate}, allowing multi-line macro parameters to be cycled.
1633 \b Added the `*' option for the maximum parameter count on multi-line
1634 macros, allowing them to take arbitrarily many parameters.
1636 \b Added the ability for the user-level forms of EXTERN, GLOBAL and
1637 COMMON to take more than one argument.
1639 \b Added the IMPORT and EXPORT directives in OBJ format, to deal with
1642 \b Added some more preprocessor \c{%if} constructs: \c{%ifidn} / \c{%ifidni} (exact
1643 textual identity), and \c{%ifid} / \c{%ifnum} / \c{%ifstr} (token type testing).
1645 \b Added the ability to distinguish SHL AX,1 (the 8086 version) from
1646 SHL AX,BYTE 1 (the 286-and-upwards version whose constant happens to
1649 \b Added NetBSD/FreeBSD/OpenBSD's variant of a.out format, complete
1650 with PIC shared library features.
1652 \b Changed NASM's idiosyncratic handling of FCLEX, FDISI, FENI, FINIT,
1653 FSAVE, FSTCW, FSTENV, and FSTSW to bring it into line with the
1654 otherwise accepted standard. The previous behaviour, though it was a
1655 deliberate feature, was a deliberate feature based on a
1656 misunderstanding. Apologies for the inconvenience.
1658 \b Improved the flexibility of ABSOLUTE: you can now give it an
1659 expression rather than being restricted to a constant, and it can
1660 take relocatable arguments as well.
1662 \b Added the ability for a variable to be declared as EXTERN multiple
1663 times, and the subsequent definitions are just ignored.
1665 \b We now allow instruction prefixes (CS, DS, LOCK, REPZ etc) to be
1666 alone on a line (without a following instruction).
1668 \b Improved sanity checks on whether the arguments to EXTERN, GLOBAL
1669 and COMMON are valid identifiers.
1671 \b Added misc/exebin.mac to allow direct generation of .EXE files by
1672 hacking up an EXE header using DB and DW; also added test/binexe.asm
1673 to demonstrate the use of this. Thanks to Yann Guidon for
1674 contributing the EXE header code.
1676 \b ndisasm forgot to check whether the input file had been successfully
1677 opened. Now it does. Doh!
1679 \b Added the Cyrix extensions to the MMX instruction set.
1681 \b Added a hinting mechanism to allow [EAX+EBX] and [EBX+EAX] to be
1682 assembled differently. This is important since [ESI+EBP] and
1683 [EBP+ESI] have different default base segment registers.
1685 \b Added support for the PharLap OMF extension for 4096-byte segment
1689 \S{cl-0.95 released July 1997} Version 0.95 released July 1997
1691 \b Fixed yet another ELF bug. This one manifested if the user relied on
1692 the default segment, and attempted to define global symbols without
1693 first explicitly declaring the target segment.
1695 \b Added makefiles (for NASM and the RDF tools) to build Win32 console
1696 apps under Symantec C++. Donated by Mark Junker.
1698 \b Added `macros.bas' and `insns.bas', QBasic versions of the Perl
1699 scripts that convert `standard.mac' to `macros.c' and convert
1700 `insns.dat' to `insnsa.c' and `insnsd.c'. Also thanks to Mark
1703 \b Changed the diassembled forms of the conditional instructions so
1704 that JB is now emitted as JC, and other similar changes. Suggested
1705 list by Ulrich Doewich.
1707 \b Added `@' to the list of valid characters to begin an identifier
1710 \b Documentary changes, notably the addition of the `Common Problems'
1711 section in nasm.doc.
1713 \b Fixed a bug relating to 32-bit PC-relative fixups in OBJ.
1715 \b Fixed a bug in perm_copy() in labels.c which was causing exceptions
1716 in cleanup_labels() on some systems.
1718 \b Positivity sanity check in TIMES argument changed from a warning to
1719 an error following a further complaint.
1721 \b Changed the acceptable limits on byte and word operands to allow
1722 things like `~10111001b' to work.
1724 \b Fixed a major problem in the preprocessor which caused seg-faults if
1725 macro definitions contained blank lines or comment-only lines.
1727 \b Fixed inadequate error checking on the commas separating the
1728 arguments to `db', `dw' etc.
1730 \b Fixed a crippling bug in the handling of macros with operand counts
1731 defined with a `+' modifier.
1733 \b Fixed a bug whereby object file formats which stored the input file
1734 name in the output file (such as OBJ and COFF) weren't doing so
1735 correctly when the output file name was specified on the command
1738 \b Removed [INC] and [INCLUDE] support for good, since they were
1741 \b Fixed a bug in OBJ which caused all fixups to be output in 16-bit
1742 (old-format) FIXUPP records, rather than putting the 32-bit ones in
1743 FIXUPP32 (new-format) records.
1745 \b Added, tentatively, OS/2 object file support (as a minor variant on
1748 \b Updates to Fox Cutter's Borland C makefile, Makefile.bc2.
1750 \b Removed a spurious second fclose() on the output file.
1752 \b Added the `-s' command line option to redirect all messages which
1753 would go to stderr (errors, help text) to stdout instead.
1755 \b Added the `-w' command line option to selectively suppress some
1756 classes of assembly warning messages.
1758 \b Added the `-p' pre-include and `-d' pre-define command-line options.
1760 \b Added an include file search path: the `-i' command line option.
1762 \b Fixed a silly little preprocessor bug whereby starting a line with a
1763 `%!' environment-variable reference caused an `unknown directive'
1766 \b Added the long-awaited listing file support: the `-l' command line
1769 \b Fixed a problem with OBJ format whereby, in the absence of any
1770 explicit segment definition, non-global symbols declared in the
1771 implicit default segment generated spurious EXTDEF records in the
1774 \b Added the NASM environment variable.
1776 \b From this version forward, Win32 console-mode binaries will be
1777 included in the DOS distribution in addition to the 16-bit binaries.
1778 Added Makefile.vc for this purpose.
1780 \b Added `return 0;' to test/objlink.c to prevent compiler warnings.
1782 \b Added the __NASM_MAJOR__ and __NASM_MINOR__ standard defines.
1784 \b Added an alternative memory-reference syntax in which prefixing an
1785 operand with `&' is equivalent to enclosing it in square brackets,
1786 at the request of Fox Cutter.
1788 \b Errors in pass two now cause the program to return a non-zero error
1789 code, which they didn't before.
1791 \b Fixed the single-line macro cycle detection, which didn't work at
1792 all on macros with no parameters (caused an infinite loop). Also
1793 changed the behaviour of single-line macro cycle detection to work
1794 like cpp, so that macros like `extrn' as given in the documentation
1797 \b Fixed the implementation of WRT, which was too restrictive in that
1798 you couldn't do `mov ax,[di+abc wrt dgroup]' because (di+abc) wasn't
1799 a relocatable reference.
1802 \S{cl-0.94 released April 1997} Version 0.94 released April 1997
1805 \b Major item: added the macro processor.
1807 \b Added undocumented instructions SMI, IBTS, XBTS and LOADALL286. Also
1808 reorganised CMPXCHG instruction into early-486 and Pentium forms.
1809 Thanks to Thobias Jones for the information.
1811 \b Fixed two more stupid bugs in ELF, which were causing `ld' to
1812 continue to seg-fault in a lot of non-trivial cases.
1814 \b Fixed a seg-fault in the label manager.
1816 \b Stopped FBLD and FBSTP from _requiring_ the TWORD keyword, which is
1817 the only option for BCD loads/stores in any case.
1819 \b Ensured FLDCW, FSTCW and FSTSW can cope with the WORD keyword, if
1820 anyone bothers to provide it. Previously they complained unless no
1821 keyword at all was present.
1823 \b Some forms of FDIV/FDIVR and FSUB/FSUBR were still inverted: a
1824 vestige of a bug that I thought had been fixed in 0.92. This was
1825 fixed, hopefully for good this time...
1827 \b Another minor phase error (insofar as a phase error can _ever_ be
1828 minor) fixed, this one occurring in code of the form
1830 \c rol ax,forward_reference
1831 \c forward_reference equ 1
1833 \b The number supplied to TIMES is now sanity-checked for positivity,
1834 and also may be greater than 64K (which previously didn't work on
1837 \b Added Watcom C makefiles, and misc/pmw.bat, donated by Dominik Behr.
1839 \b Added the INCBIN pseudo-opcode.
1841 \b Due to the advent of the preprocessor, the [INCLUDE] and [INC]
1842 directives have become obsolete. They are still supported in this
1843 version, with a warning, but won't be in the next.
1845 \b Fixed a bug in OBJ format, which caused incorrect object records to
1846 be output when absolute labels were made global.
1848 \b Updates to RDOFF subdirectory, and changes to outrdf.c.
1851 \S{cl-0.93 released January 1997} Version 0.93 released January 1997
1853 This release went out in a great hurry after semi-crippling bugs
1856 \b Really \e{did} fix the stack overflows this time. *blush*
1858 \b Had problems with EA instruction sizes changing between passes, when
1859 an offset contained a forward reference and so 4 bytes were
1860 allocated for the offset in pass one; by pass two the symbol had
1861 been defined and happened to be a small absolute value, so only 1
1862 byte got allocated, causing instruction size mismatch between passes
1863 and hence incorrect address calculations. Fixed.
1865 \b Stupid bug in the revised ELF section generation fixed (associated
1866 string-table section for .symtab was hard-coded as 7, even when this
1867 didn't fit with the real section table). Was causing `ld' to
1868 seg-fault under Linux.
1870 \b Included a new Borland C makefile, Makefile.bc2, donated by Fox
1871 Cutter <lmb@comtch.iea.com>.
1874 \S{cl-0.92 released January 1997} Version 0.92 released January 1997
1876 \b The FDIVP/FDIVRP and FSUBP/FSUBRP pairs had been inverted: this was
1877 fixed. This also affected the LCC driver.
1879 \b Fixed a bug regarding 32-bit effective addresses of the form
1880 \c{[other_register+ESP]}.
1882 \b Documentary changes, notably documentation of the fact that Borland
1883 Win32 compilers use `obj' rather than `win32' object format.
1885 \b Fixed the COMENT record in OBJ files, which was formatted
1888 \b Fixed a bug causing segfaults in large RDF files.
1890 \b OBJ format now strips initial periods from segment and group
1891 definitions, in order to avoid complications with the local label
1894 \b Fixed a bug in disassembling far calls and jumps in NDISASM.
1896 \b Added support for user-defined sections in COFF and ELF files.
1898 \b Compiled the DOS binaries with a sensible amount of stack, to
1899 prevent stack overflows on any arithmetic expression containing
1902 \b Fixed a bug in handling of files that do not terminate in a newline.
1905 \S{cl-0.91 released November 1996} Version 0.91 released November 1996
1907 \b Loads of bug fixes.
1909 \b Support for RDF added.
1911 \b Support for DBG debugging format added.
1913 \b Support for 32-bit extensions to Microsoft OBJ format added.
1915 \b Revised for Borland C: some variable names changed, makefile added.
1917 \b LCC support revised to actually work.
1919 \b JMP/CALL NEAR/FAR notation added.
1921 \b `a16', `o16', `a32' and `o32' prefixes added.
1923 \b Range checking on short jumps implemented.
1925 \b MMX instruction support added.
1927 \b Negative floating point constant support added.
1929 \b Memory handling improved to bypass 64K barrier under DOS.
1931 \b \c{$} prefix to force treatment of reserved words as identifiers added.
1933 \b Default-size mechanism for object formats added.
1935 \b Compile-time configurability added.
1937 \b \c{#}, \c{@}, \c{~} and c\{?} are now valid characters in labels.
1939 \b \c{-e} and \c{-k} options in NDISASM added.
1942 \S{cl-0.90 released October 1996} Version 0.90 released October 1996
1944 First release version. First support for object file output. Other
1945 changes from previous version (0.3x) too numerous to document.