Building YASM with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (C/C++ v10)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This note describes how to build YASM using Microsoft Visual
Studio 2010 (C/C++ v10 - currently releasxed as beta 2).
1. The Compiler
---------------
If you want to build the 64-bit version of YASM you will need
to install the Visual Studio 2010 64-bit tools, which may not
be installed by default. If using Visual C++ Express 2010,
you will need to install the Windows SDK to obtain the 64-bit
build tools.
2. YASM Download
----------------
First YASM needs to be downloaded and the files placed within
a suitable directory, which will be called <yasm> here but can
be named and located as you wish.
3. Building YASM with Microsoft 2010 (VC10)
-------------------------------------------
Now locate and double click on the yasm.sln solution file in
the 'Mkfiles/vc10' subdirectory to open the build project in
the Visual Studio 2010 IDE and then select:
win32 or x64 build
release or debug build
as appropriate to build the YASM binaries that you need.
4. Using YASM with Visual Sudio 2010 and VC++ version 10
--------------------------------------------------------
The YASM version vsyasm.exe is designed specifically for use
with Visual Studio 2010. To tell Visual Studio where to find
vsyasm.exe, the environment variable YASMPATH can be set to
the absolute path of the directory in which vsyasm.exe is
located (this path should include the final backslash).
Alternatively you can find the directory (or directories)
where the VC++ compiler binaries are located and put copies
of the vsyasm.exe binary in these directories. A typical
location is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\bin
Depending on your system you can use either the win32 or the
x64 version of vsyasm.exe, which must be named vsyasm.exe.
To use the new custom tools facility in Visual Studio 2010, you
need to place a copy of three files - yasm.props, yasm.targets
and yasm.xml - into a location where they can be found by the
Visual Studio build customisation processes. There are several
ways to do this:
a. put these files in the MSBUILD customisation directory,
which is typically at:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\BuildCustomizations
b. put them in a convenient location and set this path in the
'Build Customisations Search Path' in the Visual Studio
'Projects and Solutions|VC++ Project Settings' item in
the 'Tools|Options' menu;
c. put them in a convenient location and set this path in the
'Build Customisation dialogue (discussed later).
To use YASM in a project, right click on the project in the Solution
Explorer and select 'Build Customisations..'. This will give you a
dialog box that allows you to select YASM as an assembler (note that
your assembler files need to have the extension '.asm'). If you have
used option c. above, you will need to let the dialogue find them
using the 'Find Existing' button below the dialogue.
To assemble a file with YASM, select the Property Page for the
file and the select 'Yasm Assembler' in the Tool dialog entry.
Then click 'Apply' and an additional property page entry will
appear and enable YASM settings to be established.
5. A Linker Issue
-----------------
There appears to be a linker bug in the VC++ linker that
prevents symbols with absolute addresses being linked in DLL
builds. This means, for example, that LEA instructions of
the general form:
lea, rax,[rax+symbol]
cannot be used for DLL builds. The following general form
has to be used instead:
lea rcx,[symbol wrt rip]
lea rax,[rax+rcx]
This limitation may also cause problems with other instruction
that use absolute addresses.
6. Acknowledgements
-------------------
I am most grateful for the fantastic support that Peter Johnson,
YASM's creator, has given me in tracking down issues in using
YASM for the production of Windows x64 code.
Brian Gladman, 10th June 2010