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ASSEMBLER DIRECTIVES->Assembly Options->Introducing Assembly Options

A particular class of assembler directives is here referred to as assembly options.  Assembly options are distinguished from other assembler directives in that they, in general, control the output from the assembler.  They are also different in that they can be specified in a number of different ways.  They can be specified:

(a)    in the source code statements as operands to the OPT directive
(b)    in the source code statements as commands in the operation field
(c)    in the command line.

Alternative (a) allows a list of directives separated by commas to be included in a single line.

With alternative (b), each directive must be on a separated line but the OPT directive is not required.  

Alternative (c) will over-ride the same directive included in the source code and so can be used to change the output requirements without the need to modify the source code.  

Thus for example the SYM and NOPAGE directives can be included in the source code as either:

 OPT SYM,NOPAGE

or

 SYM
 NOPAGE

or can be included in the command line as for example:

XASM test /SYM /NOPAGE

With /SYM and /NOPAGE included in the command line the directives NOSYM and PAGE in the source code will have no effect.

Details of the allowable assembly options are given in the following paragraphs.