5.39 Controlling Names Used in Assembler Code

You can specify the name to be used in the assembler code for a C function or variable by writing the asm (or __asm__) keyword after the declarator as follows:

     int foo asm ("myfoo") = 2;

This specifies that the name to be used for the variable foo in the assembler code should be myfoo rather than the usual _foo.

On systems where an underscore is normally prepended to the name of a C function or variable, this feature allows you to define names for the linker that do not start with an underscore.

It does not make sense to use this feature with a non-static local variable since such variables do not have assembler names. If you are trying to put the variable in a particular register, see Explicit Reg Vars. GCC presently accepts such code with a warning, but will probably be changed to issue an error, rather than a warning, in the future.

You cannot use asm in this way in a function definition; but you can get the same effect by writing a declaration for the function before its definition and putting asm there, like this:

     extern func () asm ("FUNC");
     
     func (x, y)
          int x, y;
     /* ... */

It is up to you to make sure that the assembler names you choose do not conflict with any other assembler symbols. Also, you must not use a register name; that would produce completely invalid assembler code. GCC does not as yet have the ability to store static variables in registers. Perhaps that will be added.