My program is DOS EXE(only 16bit).

3 step for building
1) main.asm assembled by "ml /c main.asm" (omf/obj)
2) subcode.asm assembled by "fasm subcode.asm" (coff format)
3) alink -m main.obj subcode.obj -o main.exe (dos exe)


1. main.asm
PUBLIC maindata
EXTRN subdata:WORD

maindata db 34h


2. subcode.asm
format COFF

PUBLIC subdata
EXTRN maindata :BYTE

USE16

subdata dw 89h




3. alink problem
subcode.asm
mov al, BYTE [maindata]
=> assemble OK, but link error
It says,
Error: target address out of frame
Base=00000AF0,target=00000670

Alink outputs only map file and fails to make EXE.


4. Strangely
main.asm
mov ax, subdata
=> assemble OK & alink OK
Alink produces EXE well.




Alink is only what I found to support both OMF/OBJ(MASM) and COFF(FASM).
I have to use FASM to assmble 64bit code.

Any Idea?

Hello! I resolved it by myself.

Here is a orginal map file created by alink.

SEGMENT MAINCODE PUBLIC USE16 PARA 'CODE'
at 00000200, length 000003D4

SEGMENT MAINDATA PUBLIC USE16 PARA 'DATA'
at 00000690, length 000004B7

SEGMENT SUBCODE PUBLIC USE32 PARA
at 00000B00, length 00000047

SEGMENT SUBDATA PUBLIC USE32 PARA
at 00000B50, length 00000008


I think SUBCODE couldn't pointer the data of the lower address(MAINDATA).

I made a simple 32bit segment in main.asm having the same name of 'SUBCODE'.

Alink combines MAINCODE32(32bit) and SUBCODE(32bit).

So SUBCODE locates in lower address than MAINDATA.


Here is a final map file.

SEGMENT MAINCODE PUBLIC USE16 PARA 'CODE'
at 00000200, length 000003D4

SEGMENT SUBCODE PUBLIC USE32 PARA 'CODE'
at 000005E0, length 000000A7

SEGMENT MAINDATA PUBLIC USE16 PARA 'DATA'
at 00000690, length 000004B7

SEGMENT SUBDATA PUBLIC USE32 PARA
at 00000B50, length 00000008



link OK. Alink generates EXE well.

You know this is not a complete solution.

But Alink did a job anyway.