nasm-2.16

[Bruce Dubbs]

New minor version.

[thomas]

Version 2.16

• Support for the rdf format has been discontinued and all the RDOFF utilities has been removed.

• The --reproducible option now leaves the filename field in the COFF object format blank. This was always rather useless since it is only 18 characters long; as such debug formats have to carry their own filename information anyway.

• Fix handling of MASM-syntax reserved memory (e.g. dw ?) when used in structure definitions.

• The preprocessor now supports functions, which can be less verbose and more convenient than the equivalent code implemented using directives. See section 4.4.

• Fix the handling of %00 in the preprocessor.

• Fix incorrect handling of path names affecting error messages, dependency generation, and debug format output.

• Support for the RDOFF output format and the RDOFF tools have been removed. The RDOFF tools had already been broken since at least NASM 2.14. For flat code the ELF output format recommended; for segmented code the obj (OMF) output format.

• New facility: preprocessor functions. Preprocessor functions, which are expanded similarly to single-line macros, can greatly simplify code that in the past would have required a lengthy list of directives and intermediate macros. See section 4.4.

• Single-line macros can now declare parameters (using a && prefix) that creates a quoted string, but does not requote an already quoted string. See section 4.2.1.

• Instruction table updated per public information available as of November 2022.

• All warnings in the preprocessor have now been assigned warning classes. See appendix A.

• Fix the invalid use of RELA–type relocations instead of REL–type relocations when generating DWARF debug information for the elf32 output format.

• Fix the handling at in istruc when the structure contains local labels. See section 5.9.2.

• When assembling with --reproducible, don't encode the filename in the COFF header for the coff, win32 or win64 output formats. The COFF header only has space for an 18-character filename, which makes this field rather useless in the first place. Debug output data, if enabled, is not affected.

• Fix incorrect size calculation when using MASM syntax for non-byte reservations (e.g. dw ?.)

• Allow forcing an instruction in 64-bit mode to have a (possibly redundant) REX prefix, using the syntax {rex} as a prefix.

• Add a {vex} prefix to enforce VEX (AVX) encoding of an instruction, either using the 2- or 3-byte VEX prefixes.

• The CPU directive has been augmented to allow control of generation of VEX (AVX) versus EVEX (AVX-512) instruction formats, see section 7.11.

• Some recent instructions that previously have been only available using EVEX encodings are now also encodable using VEX (AVX) encodings. For backwards compatibility these encodings are not enabled by default, but can be generated either via an explicit {vex} prefix or by specifying either CPU LATEVEX or CPU NOEVEX; see section 7.11.

• Document the already existing %unimacro directive. See section 4.5.12.

• Fix a code range generation bug in the DWARF debug format (incorrect information in the DW_AT_high_pc field) for the ELF output formats. This bug happened to cancel out with a bug in older versions of the GNU binutils linker, but breaks with other linkers and updated or other linkers that expect the spec to be followed.

• Fix segment symbols with addends, e.g. jmp _TEXT+10h:0 in output formats that support segment relocations, e.g. the obj format.

• Fix various crashes and hangs on invalid input.

[thomas]

Fixed in [15babcc08f]