Hi there,
I'd like to know if there is a clean way of producing a single bin file from two or more source files.

Let's assume we have the following two files:

_____file1.asm_____
org 0
code1:
mov eax, ebx
mov ecx, eax

org 0
data1:
d1 dw ?

_____file2.asm_____
code2:
cmp eax, ecx
je @f
@@:
xor eax, eax
data2:
d2 dw ?

What I need is the binary file generated by
_____file.asm_____
org 0
code1:
mov eax, ebx
mov ecx, eax
code2:
cmp eax, ecx
je @f
@@:
xor eax, eax

org 0
data1:
d1 dw ?
data2:
d2 dw ?
---------------------

For now, what I do is make use of some conditional compilation and include my asm source files in a single main source file.
I include my files twice: the first time the code is taken, while the second time the data is taken.

1) You can use a linker. Put all the various bits of your code into sections, and then use the linker to merge the sections together in the order you specify.

2) Use macros. Enclose each of the sections within a macro definition, and then at the end instantiate the macros in the order that you need.

Which free linker would you recommend?

I don't use linkers. So I can't recommend any. I leave the question open for others to make suggestions.

The problem is that I need binary files (for an OS-like project) and AFAIK fasm doesn't support sections in binary format (how could it?)
I would need to make fasm produce a, say, MS COFF file, link it and then convert it into a binary file, or something like that.
Developing my own ad-hoc linker would probably be simpler than figuring out how to make all this work out.

Wouldn't the use of macros make the error reporting less readable?
I think I'll get rid of conditional comp... assembling and create separate code and data asm files:
list_c.asm
list_d.asm
tree_c.asm
tree_d.asm
BTW, having code and data on different files is even more convenient because you can keep them in two different edit windows and switch between them instantly.

For windows I would suggest MS linker (link.exe + DLLs, available in any compiler package). Then you need to separately compile both files to MS COFF .obj files, and use linker to merge them.


Yeah, somewhat. But nothing extremely hard.

Wait, doesn't NASM / YASM support multi-section binary??

And as for making COFF into flat binary, can't GNU BinUtils OBJCOPY do that??