Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!asgard.ai.mit.edu!amante
From: amante@asgard.ai.mit.edu
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc.bug
Subject: what does the -a option do ?
Message-ID: <8908042346.AA18438@hub.ucsb.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 89 23:43:13 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 29

In the file gcc.c (in the gcc and g++ distributions) it is  mentioned
that the `-a' spec is an assembler spec which is passed by the 
compiler to the assembler (Lines 77 and 78 in the gcc distribution,
78 and 79 in the g++ distribution). To wit

 %a     process ASM_SPEC as a spec.
	This allows config.h to specify part of the spec for running as.

I looked further down the file and found the following:

              %{!S:as %{R} %{j} %{J} %{h} %{d2} %a %{gg:-G %g.sym}\
       -----------------------------------------^^-----------------
                      %{c:%{o*}%{!o*:-o %w%b.o}}%{!c:-o %d%w%b.o}\
                      %{!pipe:%g.s}\n }}}"},

This is just one of several occurrences of %a for as.

Because, I've used the the option `-a' before for this latter purpose,
I'm wondering whether this option letter has been changed.

Now, Using the `-a' option in gcc and g++ (both version 1.35) gives
the following error messages, respectively:

cc1: warning: `-a' option (basic block profile) not supported

c++: `-a' profiling not yet supported in GNU C++

I would greatly appreciate it if this issue is resolved soon.
Thanks in advance ... Amante