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69<a name="g_t_002estabd_002c-_002estabn_002c-_002estabs"></a>
70<h3 class="section">7.92 <code>.stabd, .stabn, .stabs</code></h3>
71
72<a name="index-symbolic-debuggers_002c-information-for"></a>
73<a name="index-stabx-directives"></a>
74<p>There are three directives that begin &lsquo;<samp>.stab</samp>&rsquo;.
75All emit symbols (see <a href="Symbols.html#Symbols">Symbols</a>), for use by symbolic debuggers.
76The symbols are not entered in the <code>as</code> hash table: they
77cannot be referenced elsewhere in the source file.
78Up to five fields are required:
79</p>
80<dl compact="compact">
81<dt><var>string</var></dt>
82<dd><p>This is the symbol&rsquo;s name.  It may contain any character except
83&lsquo;<samp>\000</samp>&rsquo;, so is more general than ordinary symbol names.  Some
84debuggers used to code arbitrarily complex structures into symbol names
85using this field.
86</p>
87</dd>
88<dt><var>type</var></dt>
89<dd><p>An absolute expression.  The symbol&rsquo;s type is set to the low 8 bits of
90this expression.  Any bit pattern is permitted, but <code>ld</code>
91and debuggers choke on silly bit patterns.
92</p>
93</dd>
94<dt><var>other</var></dt>
95<dd><p>An absolute expression.  The symbol&rsquo;s &ldquo;other&rdquo; attribute is set to the
96low 8 bits of this expression.
97</p>
98</dd>
99<dt><var>desc</var></dt>
100<dd><p>An absolute expression.  The symbol&rsquo;s descriptor is set to the low 16
101bits of this expression.
102</p>
103</dd>
104<dt><var>value</var></dt>
105<dd><p>An absolute expression which becomes the symbol&rsquo;s value.
106</p></dd>
107</dl>
108
109<p>If a warning is detected while reading a <code>.stabd</code>, <code>.stabn</code>,
110or <code>.stabs</code> statement, the symbol has probably already been created;
111you get a half-formed symbol in your object file.  This is
112compatible with earlier assemblers!
113</p>
114<dl compact="compact">
115<dd><a name="index-stabd-directive"></a>
116</dd>
117<dt><code>.stabd <var>type</var> , <var>other</var> , <var>desc</var></code></dt>
118<dd>
119<p>The &ldquo;name&rdquo; of the symbol generated is not even an empty string.
120It is a null pointer, for compatibility.  Older assemblers used a
121null pointer so they didn&rsquo;t waste space in object files with empty
122strings.
123</p>
124<p>The symbol&rsquo;s value is set to the location counter,
125relocatably.  When your program is linked, the value of this symbol
126is the address of the location counter when the <code>.stabd</code> was
127assembled.
128</p>
129<a name="index-stabn-directive"></a>
130</dd>
131<dt><code>.stabn <var>type</var> , <var>other</var> , <var>desc</var> , <var>value</var></code></dt>
132<dd><p>The name of the symbol is set to the empty string <code>&quot;&quot;</code>.
133</p>
134<a name="index-stabs-directive"></a>
135</dd>
136<dt><code>.stabs <var>string</var> ,  <var>type</var> , <var>other</var> , <var>desc</var> , <var>value</var></code></dt>
137<dd><p>All five fields are specified.
138</p></dd>
139</dl>
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