assemblyx86attimmediate-operand

What's difference between number with $ or without $ symbol in at&t assembly syntax?


Let's say .data section has following item:

0x1234 00010203 04050607 08090a0b 0c0d0e0f
0x1238 10000000

And in code,

mov $0x1234, %eax
mov 0x1238, %ebx

I believe with $ symbol, it would be constant number, so %eax will have memory address, but what about %ebx?

What exactly different between two instruction?


Solution

  • The difference is that with $ it's the numeric value while without $ it's the contents of memory at that address

    If argument of instruction is without any special marker (such as % for register or $ for numeric constant), then it is memory access. So following:

    movl 10, %eax
    movl foo, %eax
    

    Corresponds to intel syntax:

    mov eax, [10]
    mov eax, [foo]
    

    To use numeric constant, or use address of label, there is $ operator:

    movl $10, %eax
    movl $foo, %eax
    

    In Intel syntax:

    mov eax, 10
    mov eax, offset foo
    

    http://x86asm.net/articles/what-i-dislike-about-gas/