Question

Pretty self explanatory code. Why doesn’t it work!

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    __asm__("number dw 0"); // declare number?
    printf("%d",number);
    __asm__("mov %eax,number"
            "inc %eax"
            "mov number,%eax");
    printf("%d",number);
    return 0;
}

cc     ex1.c   -o ex1
ex1.c: In function ‘main’:
ex1.c:22:17: error: ‘number’ undeclared (first use in this function)
ex1.c:22:17: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
make: *** [ex1] Error 1

Thanks.

I have a lot of knowledge gaps to fill… the gcc manual was confusing me with regards to inline assembly as was google results for tutorials…

working on an intel i7 processor

Answer 1

Use this syntax, you can access variables declared in C from the inline assembly

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int number = 0;
    printf("%d\n",number);
    asm(
        "mov %[number],%%eax\n"
        "inc %%eax\n"
        "mov %%eax,%[number]\n"
        : [number] "=m" (number) : "m" (number) : "eax", "cc" );
    printf("%d\n",number);
    return 0;
}

You can let the compiler load number into the eax register for you by specifying the "a" constraint on the input

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int number = 0;
    printf("%d\n",number);
    asm(
        "inc %%eax\n"
        "mov %%eax,%[number]\n"
        : [number] "=m" (number) : "a" (number) : "cc" );
    printf("%d\n",number);
    return 0;
}

And since x86 inc instruction can operate on memory directly you could reduce it to this

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int number = 0;
    printf("%d\n",number);
    asm(
        "incl %[number]\n" /* incl -> "long" (32-bits) */
        : [number] "=m" (number) : "m" (number) : "cc" );
    printf("%d\n",number);
    return 0;
}

For more information see gcc documentation:

6.41 Assembler Instructions with C Expression Operands