Linux Assembly Tutorial Step-by-Step Guide

Mainly, the reason for this tutorial is to make assembly programming easier, better and more practical by doing it in Linux instead of DOS. Also, it may teach you a bit of Linux while you're at it (unless you're already at home with it).

This tutorial is an introduction to coding assembly in Linux. There are two "versions" to accommodate various people:

The Step-by-Step Guide: This version explains everything in detail. It assumes that you have done at least a little bit of DOS assembly, and that you have Linux on your computer (although you may not have used it much yet). Since not everyone may know how to use Linux, there are links to sections where I explain how to do basic things like use the terminal and the DOS-equivalent commands.

The Quickstart: If you're in a hurry and just want to see a Linux assembly program, compile it and run it, this is for you. It assumes that you understand basic DOS assembly, and that you know how to use the terminal. Basically, it just points out the differences between a Linux and DOS assembly program with just enough explanation not to confuse you.

The assembler I'll be using is NASM (Netwide Assembler). Lots of the stuff in this tutorial came from other tuts and the NASM documentation – see the References section for more info.

Download as zip File

Quickstart

1. Introduction
2. Why this Tutorial?
3. The Netwide Assembler (NASM)
    3.1 A Note on Assemblers
    3.2 Where do I get NASM?
4. Introduction to Linux Assembly
    4.1 Main Differences Between DOS and Linux Assembly
    4.2 The Parts of an Assembly Program
    4.3 Linux System Calls
        4.3.1 Reading the Manpages
    4.4 "Hello World!" in Linux Assembly
    4.5 Compiling and Linking
5. More Advanced Concepts
    5.1 Command Line Arguments and the Stack
    5.2 "Procedures" and Jumping
6. Conclusion

Appendix A. The terminal is your friend - how to use it
Appendix B. Installing NASM (and other stuff) on Linux
Appendix C. References

A book that covers both these topics and is a useful assembly reference is:

The Revolutionary Guide to Assembly Language
Vitaly Maljugin, Jacov Izrailevich et al
Wrox Press
ISBN: 1-874416-12-5

Table of Contents

Part I - Introduction to the hardware
    Overview of the 80x86 Family
    Representation of numbers in binary
    Registers
    Segments and offsets
    The Stack

Part II - An Introduction to Assembly Instructions
    Push and Pop: Two Instructions to use the Stack
    Types of Operand
    Some Instructions that you will need to know
    Your first assembly program
    Compilation Instructions

Part III - Input and Control Flow
    Making things easier
    Keyboard Input
    Printing a Character
    Control Flow
    Jump on Condition Instructions
    Example Program

Part IV - Procedures and Macros
    Some instructions that you need to know
    Introduction to Procedures
    Procedures that pass parameters
    What are "Memory Models"?
    Macros
    Macros with parameters

Part V - Files
    File Functions
    How to save the file handle
    Using the FindFirst and FindNext Functions

Part VI - Strings, Shifts and Debuggers
    String Instructions
    How to find out the DOS Version
    Multiple Pushes and Pops
    The PUSHA/PUSHAD and POPA/POPAD Instructions
    Using Shifts for faster Multiplication and Division
    Loops
    How to use a debugger

Part VII - Writing to the Screen
    More output in text modes
    Mode 13h
    First check that mode 13h is possible
    Setting the Video Mode
    Some Optimizations