as: Object
1.6 Output (Object) File
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Every time you run 'as' it produces an output file, which is your
assembly language program translated into numbers. This file is the
object file. Its default name is 'a.out'. You can give it another name
by using the '-o' option. Conventionally, object file names end with
'.o'. The default name is used for historical reasons: older assemblers
were capable of assembling self-contained programs directly into a
runnable program. (For some formats, this isn't currently possible, but
it can be done for the 'a.out' format.)
The object file is meant for input to the linker 'ld'. It contains
assembled program code, information to help 'ld' integrate the assembled
program into a runnable file, and (optionally) symbolic information for
the debugger.
Info Catalog
as: Input Files
as: Overview
as: Errors