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AREA

The AREA directive instructs the assembler to assemble a new code or data section.

Syntax

AREA sectionname{,attr}{,attr}...

where:

sectionname

is the name to give to the section. Sections are independent, named, indivisible chunks of code or data that are manipulated by the linker.

You can choose any name for your sections. However, names starting with a non-alphabetic character must be enclosed in bars or a missing section name error is generated. For example, |1_DataArea|.

Certain names are conventional. For example, |.text| is used for code sections produced by the C compiler, or for code sections otherwise associated with the C library.

attr

are one or more comma-delimited section attributes. Valid attributes are:

ALIGN=expression

By default, ELF sections are aligned on a four-byte boundary. expression can have any integer value from 0 to 31. The section is aligned on a 2expression-byte boundary. For example, if expression is 10, the section is aligned on a 1KB boundary.

This is not the same as the way that the ALIGN directive is specified.

Note

Do not use ALIGN=0 or ALIGN=1 for ARM code sections.

Do not use ALIGN=0 for Thumb code sections.

ASSOC=section

section specifies an associated ELF section. sectionname must be included in any link that includes section

CODE

Contains machine instructions. READONLY is the default.

CODEALIGN

Causes armasm to insert NOP instructions when the ALIGN directive is used after ARM or Thumb instructions within the section, unless the ALIGN directive specifies a different padding. CODEALIGN is the default for execute-only sections.

COMDEF

Is a common section definition. This ELF section can contain code or data. It must be identical to any other section of the same name in other source files.

Identical ELF sections with the same name are overlaid in the same section of memory by the linker. If any are different, the linker generates a warning and does not overlay the sections.

COMGROUP=symbol_name

Is the signature that makes the AREA part of the named ELF section group. See the GROUP=symbol_name for more information. The COMGROUP attribute marks the ELF section group with the GRP_COMDAT flag.

COMMON

Is a common data section. You must not define any code or data in it. It is initialized to zeros by the linker. All common sections with the same name are overlaid in the same section of memory by the linker. They do not all have to be the same size. The linker allocates as much space as is required by the largest common section of each name.

DATA

Contains data, not instructions. READWRITE is the default.

EXECONLY

Indicates that the section is execute-only. Execute-only sections must also have the CODE attribute, and must not have any of the following attributes:

  • READONLY.
  • READWRITE.
  • DATA.
  • ZEROALIGN.

armasm faults if any of the following occur in an execute-only section:

  • Explicit data definitions, for example DCD and DCB.
  • Implicit data definitions, for example LDR r0, =0xaabbccdd.
  • Literal pool directives, for example LTORG, if there is literal data to be emitted.
  • INCBIN or SPACE directives.
  • ALIGN directives, if the required alignment cannot be accomplished by padding with NOP instructions. armasm implicitly applies the CODEALIGN attribute to sections with the EXECONLY attribute.
FINI_ARRAY

Sets the ELF type of the current area to SHT_FINI_ARRAY.

GROUP=symbol_name

Is the signature that makes the AREA part of the named ELF section group. It must be defined by the source file, or a file included by the source file. All AREAS with the same symbol_name signature are part of the same group. Sections within a group are kept or discarded together.

INIT_ARRAY

Sets the ELF type of the current area to SHT_INIT_ARRAY.

LINKORDER=section

Specifies a relative location for the current section in the image. It ensures that the order of all the sections with the LINKORDER attribute, with respect to each other, is the same as the order of the corresponding named sections in the image.

MERGE=n

Indicates that the linker can merge the current section with other sections with the MERGE=n attribute. n is the size of the elements in the section, for example n is 1 for characters. You must not assume that the section is merged, because the attribute does not force the linker to merge the sections.

NOALLOC

Indicates that no memory on the target system is allocated to this area.

NOINIT

Indicates that the data section is uninitialized, or initialized to zero. It contains only space reservation directives SPACE or DCB, DCD, DCDU, DCQ, DCQU, DCW, or DCWU with initialized values of zero. You can decide at link time whether an area is uninitialized or zero-initialized.

Note

ARM® Compiler does not support systems with ECC or parity protection where the memory is not initialized.
PREINIT_ARRAY

Sets the ELF type of the current area to SHT_PREINIT_ARRAY.

READONLY

Indicates that this section must not be written to. This is the default for Code areas.

READWRITE

Indicates that this section can be read from and written to. This is the default for Data areas.

SECFLAGS=n

Adds one or more ELF flags, denoted by n, to the current section.

SECTYPE=n

Sets the ELF type of the current section to n.

STRINGS

Adds the SHF_STRINGS flag to the current section. To use the STRINGS attribute, you must also use the MERGE=1 attribute. The contents of the section must be strings that are nul-terminated using the DCB directive.

ZEROALIGN

Causes armasm to insert zeros when the ALIGN directive is used after ARM or Thumb instructions within the section, unless the ALIGN directive specifies a different padding. ZEROALIGN is the default for sections that are not execute-only.

Usage

Use the AREA directive to subdivide your source file into ELF sections. You can use the same name in more than one AREA directive. All areas with the same name are placed in the same ELF section. Only the attributes of the first AREA directive of a particular name are applied.

In general, ARM recommends that you use separate ELF sections for code and data. However, you can put data in code sections. Large programs can usually be conveniently divided into several code sections. Large independent data sets are also usually best placed in separate sections.

The scope of numeric local labels is defined by AREA directives, optionally subdivided by ROUT directives.

There must be at least one AREA directive for an assembly.

Note

armasm emits R_ARM_TARGET1 relocations for the DCD and DCDU directives if the directive uses PC-relative expressions and is in any of the PREINIT_ARRAY, FINI_ARRAY, or INIT_ARRAY ELF sections. You can override the relocation using the RELOC directive after each DCD or DCDU directive. If this relocation is used, read-write sections might become read-only sections at link time if the platform ABI permits this.

Example

The following example defines a read-only code section named Example:

    AREA    Example,CODE,READONLY   ; An example code section.
            ; code
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