Section naming question

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SokilOff

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 15

SokilOff 30 Jun 2013, 19:24

Hello all.

I started porting one of my projects from tasm to fasm and have a question about %subj%

In tasm sources I had main .asm and few .inc files, each of them had .code and .data sections. It looked like this:

main.asm

include code1.inc

.code
<some code from main.asm>
.data
<some data from main.asm>

code1.inc

.code
<some code from code1.inc>
.data
<some data from code1.inc>

etc.

And at the end compiled exe had the following structure:

.code
<some code from code1.inc>
...
<some code from main.asm>

.data
<some data from code1.inc>
...
<some data from main.asm>

All code parts from .code sections were merged into one code segment during compiling/linking, all data sections were merged together as well. When I do the same in fasm, I get obviously incorrect exe with few .code and few .data sections.

So here's the question: is there a way to tell fasm just to merge sections with the same names from different files ?

30 Jun 2013, 19:24

bitRAKE

Joined: 21 Jul 2003
Posts: 3887
Location: vpcmipstrm

bitRAKE 30 Jun 2013, 19:30

Short answer is, No.

Long answer is that these sections can be wrapped in a macro, which the main source file instances in the proper section. Okay, it's not that long of an answer because I didn't include an example.

30 Jun 2013, 19:30

bitRAKE

Joined: 21 Jul 2003
Posts: 3887
Location: vpcmipstrm

bitRAKE 30 Jun 2013, 19:39

All the auxiliary files would have something like:

Code:

macro code1.inc section {
  match =CODE,section \{
    <some code>
  \}
  match =DATA,section \{
    <some data>
  \}
}

...and the in the main file:

Code:

FILES fix code1.inc,code2.inc,...
irp T,FILES { include `T } 

.code
  irp T,FILES { T CODE }

.data
  irp T,FILES { T DATA }

...I know it looks complicated, but it's extremely flexible.

Last edited by bitRAKE on 02 Jul 2013, 02:02; edited 1 time in total

30 Jun 2013, 19:39

typedef

Joined: 25 Jul 2010
Posts: 2909
Location: 0x77760000

typedef 30 Jun 2013, 21:16

"Flat" Assembler Exclamation

30 Jun 2013, 21:16

revolution
When all else fails, read the source

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 19871
Location: In your JS exploiting you and your system

revolution 30 Jun 2013, 23:57

SokilOff wrote:

So here's the question: is there a way to tell fasm just to merge sections with the same names from different files ?

fasm itself can't do that without macros like bitRAKE suggested. But fasm can do what tasm/masm do by creating a COFF file and then you use a linker to merge the section together. If you want fasm to create the exe directly (without using a linker) then use a macro.

30 Jun 2013, 23:57

SokilOff

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 15

SokilOff 01 Jul 2013, 15:09

bitRAKE wrote:

All the auxiliary files would have something like:
...
I know it looks complicated, but it's extremely flexible.

Thank you for your answer ! Atm I'm trying to create simple example using your suggestion. The problem is it cannot see external procedure from .inc
It looks like this:

main.asm

Code:

format PE GUI 4.0
entry start

include 'win32ax.inc'
include 'code1.inc'
IDD_MainDlg = 1

FILES fix code1.inc

.code
  irp T,FILES { T CODE }

  start:

        invoke  GetModuleHandle, 0
        invoke  DialogBoxParam, eax,IDD_MainDlg, HWND_DESKTOP, DialogProc, 0
        invoke  ExitProcess,0

proc    DialogProc hwnddlg, msg, wParam, lParam

        push    ebx  esi  edi
        cmp     [msg], WM_COMMAND
        je      .wmcmd
        cmp     [msg], WM_CLOSE
        je      .wmclose
        xor     eax, eax
        jmp     .finish

  .wmcmd:
        cmp     [wParam], BN_CLICKED shl 16 + IDOK
        jne     @f
        invoke  MessageBox,HWND_DESKTOP, msg_ok, caption_ok, MB_ICONINFORMATION
        jmp     .done
    @@:
        cmp     [wParam], BN_CLICKED shl 16 + IDCANCEL
        jne     .done
        stdcall ExternalProc      ; <--- procedure call from code1.inc
        jmp     .done

  .wmclose:
        invoke  EndDialog,[hwnddlg],0
  .done:
        mov     eax, 1
  .finish:
        pop     edi esi ebx
        ret
endp

.data
  irp T,FILES { T DATA }

  msg_ok      db 'Message from OK button', 0
  caption_ok  db 'Caption from OK button', 0


section '.idata' import data readable writeable

  library kernel,'KERNEL32.DLL',\
          user,'USER32.DLL'

  import  kernel,\
          GetModuleHandle,'GetModuleHandleA',\
          ExitProcess,'ExitProcess'

  import user,\
         DialogBoxParam,'DialogBoxParamA',\
         MessageBox,'MessageBoxA',\
         EndDialog,'EndDialog'

section '.rsrc' resource data readable

  directory RT_DIALOG,dialogs

  resource dialogs,\
           IDD_MainDlg,LANG_ENGLISH+SUBLANG_DEFAULT,demo

  dialog demo,'Create message box',70,70,140,35,WS_CAPTION+WS_POPUP+WS_SYSMENU+DS_MODALFRAME
    dialogitem 'BUTTON','OK',IDOK,15,10,45,15,WS_VISIBLE+WS_TABSTOP+BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON
    dialogitem 'BUTTON','C&ancel',IDCANCEL,75,10,45,15,WS_VISIBLE+WS_TABSTOP+BS_PUSHBUTTON
  enddialog

code1.inc

Code:

macro code1.inc section {

  match =code,section \{
         proc   ExternalProc
                invoke  MessageBox, HWND_DESKTOP, msg_cancel, caption_cancel, MB_ICONINFORMATION
                ret
         endp
  \}

  match =data,section \{
         msg_cancel      db 'Message from Cancel button', 0
         caption_cancel  db 'Caption from Cancel button', 0
  \}
}

01 Jul 2013, 15:09

bitRAKE

Joined: 21 Jul 2003
Posts: 3887
Location: vpcmipstrm

bitRAKE 01 Jul 2013, 16:53

MATCH is case sensitive. "=code" will not work if you use "CODE" in the main file.

_________________
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01 Jul 2013, 16:53

SokilOff

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 15

SokilOff 01 Jul 2013, 17:40

bitRAKE wrote:

MATCH is case sensitive.

Indeed, it did the trick. I should have read manual without skipping some parts Smile

Quote:

It's important to note that all macroinstructions, as opposed to internal directives of flat assembler, are case sensitive

Thanks a lot, bitRAKE ! Hopefully it will help to someone else in the future.

01 Jul 2013, 17:40

SokilOff

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 15

SokilOff 02 Oct 2013, 11:58

Another small question.

If I add any local variable to procedure from auxiliary .inc like this:

Code:

match =code,section \{
         proc   ExternalProc 

                local var_1:DWORD  ; <------

                invoke  MessageBox, HWND_DESKTOP, msg_cancel, caption_cancel, MB_ICONINFORMATION
                ret
         endp
  \}

I get "Error: extra characters on line". Why ? And how to fix it ?

02 Oct 2013, 11:58

Tomasz Grysztar

Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 8265
Location: Kraków, Poland

Tomasz Grysztar 02 Oct 2013, 13:17

The "local" inside a macro (and "match" block is also a kind of macro) has a different meaning, it is a directive that defines local symbols inside a macro, and it expects the parameters to be a simple list of comma-separated names - that's why it signalizes an error when it enounters ":".

To avoid "local" being interpreted by macro processor you have to escape it, in this case twice - once for the outer macro, and once for the inner "match":

Code:

match =code,section \{ 
         proc   ExternalProc  

                \\local var_1:DWORD

                invoke  MessageBox, HWND_DESKTOP, msg_cancel, caption_cancel, MB_ICONINFORMATION 
                ret 
         endp 
  \}

The other solution would be to use the "fix" directive to redefine the "local" keyword, to get rid of the conflict at all.

02 Oct 2013, 13:17

SokilOff

Joined: 20 Sep 2010
Posts: 15

SokilOff 02 Oct 2013, 16:30

Thank you, Tomasz, for detailed explanation. Those nested macro are tricky sometimes.

Do you have any plans for FASM 2.0 to simplify code merging/separation in cases like this ?

02 Oct 2013, 16:30

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