Command-Line Options of LINK.EXE and TLINK32.

EXE
Descriptions of the command-line options of the MASM linker (LINK.EXE) are provided in Table 5.3.
Table 5.3: Command-line parameters of the LINK.EXE (32-bit) program
Parameter

Description

/ALIGN: number

Define the section alignment for the flat memory model. The
default value is 4096.

/BASE : {address
@filename, key}

Define the base address (loading address). For an EXE file, the
default value is 0x400000; for a DLL file, it is 0x10000000.

/COMMENT: [] COMMENT []

Define the comment placed into headers of EXE and DLL files.

/DEBUG

Create debug information for EXE and DLL files. The debug
information is placed into a PDB file.

/DEBUGTYPE: {CV COFF

BOTH]

CV indicates the debug information in the Microsoft

format,COFF indicates the debug information in
COFF. BOTH means that both types of debug information are
created.

/DEF: filename

Define the DEF file.

/DEFAULTLIB: library

Add one library to the list of used libraries.

/DLL

Create a DLL file.

/DRIVER [: {UPONLYWDM}]

Used for building an NT driver (kernel mode driver).

/ENTRY: symbol

Define the starting address for EXE and DLL files.

/EXETYPE : DYNAMIC

This option is used when creating VXD drivers.

/EXPORT: ENTRYNAME
[=INTERNALNAME]
[,@ORDINAL [, NONAME]][,
DATA]

This option allows you to export a function from your program,

making it available to other programs. In this case,
an import library will be created.

/FIXED [: NO]

Fix the base address specified in the /BASE option.

/FORCE [: {MULTIPLE
UNRESOLVED}]

This option allows you to create an executable file even if the

external name is not found or several definitions are available.

/GPSIZE: number

Define the size of general variables for MIPS and Alpha platforms.

/HEAP: reserve [, commit]

Define the heap ( HEAP ) size in bytes. The default value is 1 MB.

/IMPLIB: filename

Define the name of the import library. It is necessary to create

one.

/INCLUDE: symbol

Add a name to the name table.

/INCREMENTAL: {YES NO}

If the /INCREMENTAL:YES option is set, then additional

information will be added to the EXE file, allowing you to quickly
recompile that file. By default, this information will not be added
into the file.

/LARGEADDRESSAWARE[:NO]

Specify that the application operates with addresses larger than 2

GB.

/LIBPATH:dir

Define the library that will be sought first by the compiler.

/MACHINE: {ALPHA ARM

IX86MIPS
MIPS16MIPSR41XXPPCSH3SH4}

Define the target platform. In most cases, there is no need to do so.

/MAP [: filename]

Instruct the linker to create a MAP file.

/MAPINFO : { EXPORTS
FIXUPSLINES}

Instruct the linker to include appropriate information in the MAP

file.

/MERGE: from=to

Instruct the linker to merge the from section to the tosection

and assign it the name to .

/NODEFAULTLIB[:library]

Ignore all libraries or a specific library.

/NONENTRY

This is required to create a DLL file.

/NOLOGO

Do not display the linker's logo message.

/OPT : {ICF[, iterations]

NOICF
NOREFNOWIN98REFWIN98}

Define the linker's optimization method.

/ORDER:@filename

Optimize the program by inserting specific initialized data

(COMDAT).

/OUT: filename

Define the output file.

/PDB: {filename NONE}

Define the name of the file containing debug information.

/PDBTYPE:{CON [SOLI DATE]

SEPT [YPE S]}

Define the type of the PDB file.

/PROFILE

This is used for working with the profiler.

/RELEASE

Place the checksum into the output file.

/SECTION:name, [E] [R]

[w] [s] [D] [K] [L] [P]
[X]

This option allows you to change the section attribute.

/STACK: reserve [,
commit]

Define the size of the allocated stack. Commit defines the

memory size interpreted by the operating system.

/STUB: filename

Define the STUB file that starts under MS-DOS.

/SUBSYSTEM:{NATIVE
WINDOWS CONSOLE
WINDOWSCEPOSIX}[,#[.##]]

Set the method of starting the resulting EXE file: CONSOLEstarts

using console application, WINDOWS uses the normal Windows
application, NATIVE uses Windows NT applications,
and POSIX uses the application for the Windows NT POSIX
subsystem.

/SWAPRUN:{CDNET}

Instruct the operating system to copy the output file into the swap
file (Windows NT).

/VERBOSE[:LIB]

This indicates the verbose mode of the linking process.

/VERSION :#[.#]

Place version information into the EXE header.

/VXD

Create a VXD driver.

/WARN[:warninglevel]

Specify the number of possible linker warnings.

/WS: AGGRESSIVE

Decrease the execution speed of the target application (Windows

NT). The operating systern removes this application from the
memory when it runs idle.

In Borland C software products, starting from 1997, there were two programs for linking object files:
TLINK32.EXE (Table 5.4) and ILINK32.EXE. Command-line options of these programs were practically the
same. ILINK32.EXE is an incremental linker. It saves information about the preceding linking operations, which
allows you to considerably speed up the entire process of repeated compiling operations. Recently, the
TLINK32.EXE program was removed from the distribution set. Later in this book, I won't note the difference
between these two programs. Options marked with the plus sign (+) have appeared in the newer versions of
ILINK32.EXE, and options marked by the minus sign ( ) have been removed. In newer versions, the slash (/)
is used instead of the dash (-) to separate an option.
Table 5.4: Command-line parameters of the TLINK32.EXE program

Table 5.4: Command-line parameters of the TLINK32.EXE program

Parameter

Description

-m

Create a MAP file with information about the segments and two listings
with PUBLIC names (in alphabetic and sequential order).

-s

Include detailed information about the segments in the MAP file.

-M

Include abbreviated identifier names in the MAP file.

-c

Distinguish uppercase and lowercase letters in PUBLIC and EXTERNALnames.

-Enn

Specify the maximum number of errors. If this number is exceeded, the linking
process stops.

-P-

Do not pack segments. This makes sense for 16-bit applications only ( -P =
allow).

-B: xxxx

Specify the base address. The default value is 400000H (+).

-B: xxxx

This is similar to the -b option but doesn't create a tuning table. Using the b and -B keys may somewhat improve program performance.

-wxxx

This indicates possible warnings. For example, -w-stk warns you to ignore the
lack of stack segment.

-Txx

Type of the output file may be as follows :

-Tpx PE image
(x: e=EXE,
d=DLL)

-Tpe Create an EXE file.

-ax

-ap Create a console application.

-Tpd Create a DLL file.

-Tpp Create a batch file (+).

-aa Create a standard Windows application (GUI).

-ad Create a 32-bit Windows driver (+).

-r

Instruct the compiler to display information about the linking progress.

-Vd. d

Place the expected Windows version into the EXE header.

-ud. d

Place the program version into the EXE file header (+).

-o

Import by function number (-).

-Ao: nnnn

Define the alignment value (multiple of 2 and minimum value of 16).

-Af: nnnn

This is the alignment file.

-Sc:xxxx

Define the stack size.

-s: xxxx

Define the reserve stack size. The minimum value is 4 KB.

-Hc: xxxx

Define the special heap size.

-H : xxxx

Define the reserve heap size.

-n

This means that there is no default library (-).

-v

Include full debug information in the executable file. For the selective inclusion of
debug information in individual files, use -v+ and -v- .

-j

Define the search path for OBJ files.

-L

Define the path to the LIB library.

-x

Do not create a MAP file.

-Rr

This allows you to replace or delete resources (+).

-d

Set the DLL loading delay. It will be loaded only when the main procedure is
called (+).

-Dxxxx

Place a special descriptor into the PE header.

-GC

Place a string or strings into the PE headerfor example, -GC Hello! (+).

-GD

Generate a Delphi-compatible resource file (+).

-GF

Set one of the following flags for the loadable module:

SWAPNET Instruct the operating system to place a loadable module into the
swap file and load it from there if the swap file resides on a network drive.
SWAPCD This is similar to the previous flag but is intended for removable
devices.
UNIPROCESSOR This application mustn't start in the multiprocessor
system.
LARGEADDRESSAWARE This application uses addresses larger than 4 GB.
AGGRESSIVE The operating system removes any idle application from the
memory (+).

-Gk

In case of error, this instructs the linker to leave the files that otherwise would be
deleted (+).

-Gl

Generate a LIB file (+).

-Gpr

Create a run-time package (+).

-Gpd

Create a compile-time package (+).

-Gn

Disable incremental compiling (+).

-GS: string

-GS:string = [ECIRWSDKP] . This adds flags to the existing section

flags (+).

-Gz

Place the executable module checksum into the PE header.

Similar to assemblers, UNK.EXE and TLINK32.EXE can work with batch files. For example, assume that your
command line appears as follows:
link /windows:console mt.obj

Instead of this command line, you can create a text file named MTL.CMD containing the following:
/subsystem:console Mt.obj

Having completed this, issue the following command:

link @mtl.cmd

TLINK32.EXE works in a similar way.

At first glance, it is difficult to detect any differences that would make you prefer MASM32 or TASM32.
However, consider the following:
MASM32 has slightly more reach capabilities. In this case, I mean command-line options.
TASM32 is no longer supported as a standalone product. Because of this, MASM has beaten its competitor in the number
of examples, the extent of its libraries, the amount of documentation, etc.
TASM32 carries out a more complicated algorithm for calling API functions, which makes the executable modules built
using TASM32 larger than those built using MASM32.

To conclude this chapter, I'd like to provide some easy examples.