Assembler Language Reference

.function Pseudo-op

Purpose

Identifies a function and provides additional information specific to the function.

Syntax

.function

Name, Expression1, Expression2, Expression3,[ Expression4]

Description

The .function pseudo-op identifies a function and provides symbol table information necessary for the use of the symbolic debugger.

The .function pseudo-op has no other effect on assembly and is customarily inserted by a compiler.

Parameters

Name	Represents the function Name and should be defined as a symbol or control section (csect) Qualname in the current assembly. (A Qualname specifies a Name and StorageMappingClass for the control section.)
Expression1	Represents the top of the function.
Expression2	Represents the storage mapping class of the function.
Expression3	Represents the type of the function.

The third and fourth parameters to the .function pseudo-op serve only as place holders. These parameters are retained for downward compatibility with previous systems (RT, System V).

Expression4

Represents the size of the function (in bytes). This parameter must be an absolute expression. This parameter is optional.

Note: If the Expression4 parameter is omitted, the function size is set to the size of the csect to which the function belongs. A csect size is equal to the function size only if the csect contains one function and the beginning and end of the csect are the same as the beginning and end of the function.

Examples

The following example illustrates the use of the .function pseudo-op:

.globl   .hello[pr]
.csect   .hello[pr]
.function   .hello[pr],L.1B,16,044,0x86
L.1B:

Related Information

Pseudo-ops Overview.

The .bf pseudo-op, .ef pseudo-op, .file pseudo-op.