Appendix A — Directive Reference

All AZM directives in canonical lowercase dotted form. Directives are case-sensitive; only the forms below are accepted by the parser. See Chapter 7 for the alias layer that normalises legacy undotted forms.

Directive	Syntax	What it does	Ch.
`.org`	`.org expr`	Sets the assembly address counter to `expr`; emits nothing	3
`.equ`	`NAME .equ expr`	Binds `NAME` to the constant value of `expr`; emits nothing	3
`.db`	`.db expr[,expr…]`	Emits one or more 8-bit values; accepts string literals	4
`.dw`	`.dw expr[,expr…]`	Emits one or more 16-bit little-endian values	4
`.ds`	`.ds count[,fill]`	Reserves `count` bytes; optional `fill` byte; accepts type expressions	4, 5
`.include`	`.include "path"`	Inserts the named source file at this point	7
`.import`	`.import "path"`	Loads a source unit and exposes declarations marked with `@`	7
`.routine`	`.routine [in ...] [out ...] [maybe-out ...] [clobbers ...] [preserves ...]`	Starts a routine and declares its register contract	6
`.contracts`	`.contracts strict\|audit\|off`	Sets register-contract policy for the containing source file	6
`.rcignore`	`.rcignore finding "reason"`	Suppresses one local finding with required reason text	6
`.expectout`	`.expectout carriers`	Marks outputs intentionally consumed from the next emitted instruction in the same file	6
`.align`	`.align n`	Advances the address to the next multiple of `n`, inserting zero bytes	3
`.cstr`	`.cstr "text"`	Emits string bytes followed by a `$00` terminator (C-style)	4
`.pstr`	`.pstr "text"`	Emits a length byte followed by string bytes (Pascal-style)	4
`.istr`	`.istr "text"`	Emits string bytes with bit 7 set on the final byte	4
`.binfrom`	`.binfrom addr`	Marks the start address of the flat binary output range	3
`.binto`	`.binto addr`	Marks the end address of the flat binary output range	3
`.end`	`.end`	Marks the end of source; AZM stops assembling at this point	—
`.type`	`Name .type` … `.endtype`	Opens a record layout declaration block	5
`.endtype`	`.endtype`	Closes a `.type` block	5
`.union`	`Name .union` … `.endunion`	Opens a union layout declaration block	5
`.endunion`	`.endunion`	Closes a `.union` block	5
`.field`	`name .field TypeExpr`	Declares a field of any type inside a `.type` or `.union` block	5
`.typealias`	`Name .typealias TypeExpr`	Transparent assembler-time alias for a layout type expression	5
`.enum`	`Name .enum Member[,…]`	Declares a group of integer constants with qualified names (`Name.Member`)	3
`op` / `end`	`op name(params)` … `end`	Declares an inline instruction-expansion op	7

Directive aliases

Common forms such as DB, DW, ORG and EQU are handled by the built-in alias layer automatically. Project-specific forms such as DEFB, DEFW and RMB require a project alias file loaded with --aliases. See Chapter 7.

Built-in aliases (normalized before parsing):

Alias	Canonical
`ORG`	`.org`
`EQU`	`.equ`
`DB`	`.db`
`DW`	`.dw`
`DS`	`.ds`
`INCLUDE`	`.include`
`END`	`.end`
`ALIGN`	`.align`
`CSTR`	`.cstr`
`PSTR`	`.pstr`
`ISTR`	`.istr`
`BINFROM`	`.binfrom`
`BINTO`	`.binto`

Register contract carrier notation

Carriers in a .routine directive are comma-separated register names, flag names or register pair names. Register pairs expand to their constituent 8-bit registers during analysis:

Pair notation	Expands to
`BC`	`B,C`
`DE`	`D,E`
`HL`	`H,L`
`IX`	`IXH,IXL`
`IY`	`IYH,IYL`
`SP`	`SPH,SPL`

Individual flag names are carry, zero, sign, parity and halfCarry. C names register C. Chapter 6 describes the complete contract format.

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Manual

Appendix B — Expression Operators →