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GNU Info (as.info)StatementsStatements ========== A "statement" ends at a newline character (`\n') or line separator character. (The line separator is usually `;', unless this conflicts with the comment character; Note: Machine Dependencies.) The newline or separator character is considered part of the preceding statement. Newlines and separators within character constants are an exception: they do not end statements. It is an error to end any statement with end-of-file: the last character of any input file should be a newline. An empty statement is allowed, and may include whitespace. It is ignored. A statement begins with zero or more labels, optionally followed by a key symbol which determines what kind of statement it is. The key symbol determines the syntax of the rest of the statement. If the symbol begins with a dot `.' then the statement is an assembler directive: typically valid for any computer. If the symbol begins with a letter the statement is an assembly language "instruction": it assembles into a machine language instruction. Different versions of `as' for different computers recognize different instructions. In fact, the same symbol may represent a different instruction in a different computer's assembly language. A label is a symbol immediately followed by a colon (`:'). Whitespace before a label or after a colon is permitted, but you may not have whitespace between a label's symbol and its colon. Note: Labels. For HPPA targets, labels need not be immediately followed by a colon, but the definition of a label must begin in column zero. This also implies that only one label may be defined on each line. label: .directive followed by something another_label: # This is an empty statement. instruction operand_1, operand_2, ... |