Building YASM with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (C/C++ v9)
----------------------------------------------------------
This note describes how to build YASM using Microsoft Visual
Studio 2008 (C/C++ v9). It also provides a way of using
these files to build YASM with Visual Studio 2005 (C/C++ v8).
1. The Compiler
---------------
If you want to build the 64-bit version of YASM you will need
to install the Visual Studio 2008 64-bit tools, which may not
be installed by default.
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 VC9
-----------------------------------
Now locate and double click on the yasm.sln solution file in
the 'Mkfiles/vc9' subdirectory to open the build project in
the Visual Studio 2008 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 2008 and VC++ version 9
-------------------------------------------------------
1. Firstly you need to locate the directory (or directories)
where the VC++ compiler binaries are located and put copies
of the appropriate yasm.exe binary in these directories. A
typical location is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin
Depending on your system you can use either the win32 or the
x64 version of YASM.
2. To use the new custom tools facility in Visual Studio 2008,
you need to place a copy of the yasm.rules file in the Visual
Studio 2008 VC project defaults directory, which is typically
located at:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC
\VCProjectDefaults
This allows you to configure YASM as an assembler within the VC++
IDE. To use YASM in a project, right click on the project in the
Solution Explorer and select 'Custom Build Rules..'. 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').
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.
As alternative to placing the yasm.rules files as described
above is to set the rules file path in the Visual Studio 2008
settings dialogue.
5. A Linker Issue
-----------------
There appears to be a linker bug in the VC++ v9 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. Building with Visual Studio 2005
-----------------------------------
The Python program vc98_swap.py will convert VC9 build projects
into those needed for Visual Studio 2005 (VC8). It will also
convert files that have been converted in this way back into their
original form. It does this conversion by looking for *.vcproj
and *.sln files in the current working directory and its sub-directories and changing the following line in each *.vcproj
file:
Version="9.00"
to:
Version="8.00"
or vice versa.
The lines
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
# Visual Studio 2008
in *.sln files are changed to:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00
# Visual Studio 2005
or vice versa.
Because it acts recursively on all sub-directories of this
directory it is important not to run it at a directory level
in which not all projects are to be converted.
7. 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 October 2008
