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(as.info)Preprocessing

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Preprocessing
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   The `as' internal preprocessor:
   * adjusts and removes extra whitespace.  It leaves one space or tab
     before the keywords on a line, and turns any other whitespace on
     the line into a single space.

   * removes all comments, replacing them with a single space, or an
     appropriate number of newlines.

   * converts character constants into the appropriate numeric values.

   It does not do macro processing, include file handling, or anything
else you may get from your C compiler's preprocessor.  You can do
include file processing with the `.include' directive (Note:
`.include'.).  You can use the GNU C compiler driver to get
other "CPP" style preprocessing, by giving the input file a `.S'
suffix.  *Note Options Controlling the Kind of Output:
(gcc.info)Overall Options.

   Excess whitespace, comments, and character constants cannot be used
in the portions of the input text that are not preprocessed.

   If the first line of an input file is `#NO_APP' or if you use the
`-f' option, whitespace and comments are not removed from the input
file.  Within an input file, you can ask for whitespace and comment
removal in specific portions of the by putting a line that says `#APP'
before the text that may contain whitespace or comments, and putting a
line that says `#NO_APP' after this text.  This feature is mainly
intend to support `asm' statements in compilers whose output is
otherwise free of comments and whitespace.