Re: assembler

[Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>]

Hi David,

> I'd like to expand the gnu assembler to work with a (currently)
> unsupported chip/ISA.  Can anyone direct me to information or
> documentation relating to how I should go about this?

The best documentation are the sources themselves.

Before attempting to create your own port of GAS, you should consider
the CGEN tool which allows the creation of the assembler, disassembler
and simulator, all from one unified set of files describing the ISA:

        http://sources.redhat.com/cgen/

There is some documentation on the internals of GAS in the
gas/doc/internals.texi file, although it can be out of date in
places.

The easiest method for creating a new port is to base it on an already
existing port.  Pick an architecture with which you are familiar and
to which GAS has already been ported.  Look in the include/ opcodes/
gas/ and bfd/ directories (and subdirectories) for files related to
this familiar port and use them as templates for creating your own
port.

Cheers
        Nick