7.61 .macro

The commands .macro and .endm allow you to define macros that generate assembly output. For example, this definition specifies a macro sum that puts a sequence of numbers into memory:

             .macro  sum from=0, to=5
             .long   \from
             .if     \to-\from
             sum     "(\from+1)",\to
             .endif
             .endm

With that definition, SUM 0,5 is equivalent to this assembly input:

             .long   0
             .long   1
             .long   2
             .long   3
             .long   4
             .long   5

.macro macname

.macro macname macargs ...

Begin the definition of a macro called macname. If your macro definition requires arguments, specify their names after the macro name, separated by commas or spaces. You can supply a default value for any macro argument by following the name with =deflt. You cannot define two macros with the same macname unless it has been subject to the .purgem directive (See Purgem.) between the two definitions. For example, these are all valid .macro statements:

.macro comm

Begin the definition of a macro called comm, which takes no arguments.

.macro plus1 p, p1

.macro plus1 p p1

Either statement begins the definition of a macro called plus1, which takes two arguments; within the macro definition, write \p or \p1 to evaluate the arguments.

.macro reserve_str p1=0 p2

Begin the definition of a macro called reserve_str, with two arguments. The first argument has a default value, but not the second. After the definition is complete, you can call the macro either as reserve_str a,b (with \p1 evaluating to a and \p2 evaluating to b), or as reserve_str ,b (with \p1 evaluating as the default, in this case 0, and \p2 evaluating to b).

When you call a macro, you can specify the argument values either by position, or by keyword. For example, sum 9,17 is equivalent to sum to=17, from=9.

.endm

Mark the end of a macro definition.

.exitm

Exit early from the current macro definition.

\@

as maintains a counter of how many macros it has executed in this pseudo-variable; you can copy that number to your output with \@, but only within a macro definition.

LOCAL name [ , ... ]

Warning: LOCAL is only available if you select “alternate macro syntax” with --alternate or .altmacro. See .altmacro.