8.5.11.3 Assignment Expressions

These rules apply to linker expressions:

• Expressions can contain global symbols, constants, and the C language operators listed in Table 8-11.
• All numbers are treated as long (32-bit) integers.
• Constants are identified by the linker in the same way as by the assembler. That is, numbers are recognized as decimal unless they have a suffix (H or h for hexadecimal and Q or q for octal). C language prefixes are also recognized (0 for octal and 0x for hex). Hexadecimal constants must begin with a digit. No binary constants are allowed.
• Symbols within an expression have only the value of the symbol's address. No type-checking is performed.
• Linker expressions can be absolute or relocatable. If an expression contains any relocatable symbols (and 0 or more constants or absolute symbols), it is relocatable. Otherwise, the expression is absolute. If a symbol is assigned the value of a relocatable expression, it is relocatable; if it is assigned the value of an absolute expression, it is absolute.

The linker supports the C language operators listed inTable 8-11 in order of precedence. Operators in the same group have the same precedence. Besides the operators listed in Table 8-11, the linker also has an align operator that allows a symbol to be aligned on an n-byte boundary within an output section (n is a power of 2). For example, the following expression aligns the SPC within the current section on the next 16-byte boundary. Because the align operator is a function of the current SPC, it can be used only in the same context as . —that is, within a SECTIONS directive.

. = align(16);