SAS/C Utilities¶

Beyond the compiler (sc), linker (slink), and debugger (cdbg), the SAS/C Development System v6.58 ships a suite of utilities for building, maintaining, and inspecting code. Source: Vol 2 Ch.10 (Utility Reference, pp. 207–306).

smake — build coordinator¶

smake is the SAS/C equivalent of make. It reads an smakefile (or makefile if s is not found), computes dependencies, and re-invokes sc/slink for any out-of-date targets.

smake                        # build using smakefile in current dir
smake -f myproject.mk        # use a custom file
smake target                 # build a specific target
smake -n                     # dry run, print commands without executing
smake -d                     # debug output (very verbose)

smakefile syntax¶

CC = sc
CFLAGS = optimize=2 structureequivalence debug=line

all: myapp

myapp: myapp.c utils.o
    $(CC) link $(CFLAGS) myapp.c utils.o

utils.o: utils.c utils.h
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) utils.c

clean:
    delete myapp utils.o

smake understands standard make syntax plus AmigaOS-specific extensions. Automatic variables work as in GNU make: $@ (target), $< (first dependency), $^ (all dependencies), $* (stem of pattern rule).

Special targets¶

Target	Effect
`.PHONY`	Mark a target as not producing a file with the same name
`.PRECIOUS`	Don't delete intermediate files on error
`.SILENT`	Suppress command echo
`.IGNORE`	Ignore command errors

Gotchas¶

smake uses tabs for command lines, not spaces. If you copy a Makefile from a Linux project, convert indentation.
The delete command is the AmigaOS equivalent of rm. smake will use it for cleanup rules.
File timestamps come from the filesystem, which on the Amiga has a 1-second resolution (FSTime()). make may rebuild a target unnecessarily if two files were created within the same second.

slink — linker¶

sLink (capital L; command name slink) is the SAS/C linker, distinct from Amiga's slink (no caps) which is a different tool.

slink FROM lib:c.o prog.o utils.o lib:sc.lib lib:amiga.lib TO prog
slink FROM c.o prog.o lib:sc.lib TO prog ND                  # no debug
slink FROM c.o prog.o lib:sc.lib TO prog ADDSYM             # add sym table

Library search order¶

sLink searches libraries in the order given, pulling in any object module that satisfies an unresolved symbol. Once a library is opened, later modules in that library are not scanned unless another unresolved symbol appears.

A common pattern:

slink FROM c.o prog.o utils.o lib:sc.lib lib:amiga.lib TO prog

Here sc.lib (the SAS/C runtime) is searched first because it provides common runtime helpers; amiga.lib (the NDK stub library) is searched next.

Library file formats¶

sLink reads both:

OMF-style libraries: sc.lib, amiga.lib — built with oml.
Hunk-format libraries: produced by slink lib from a list of object files.

Mixing them in the same link line is allowed but order matters: the linker scans each library completely and resolves all possible references before moving on.

oml — object module librarian¶

oml builds and maintains libraries in OMF (relocatable) format. sc.lib and amiga.lib are in this format.

oml -r lib:sc.lib + c.o stdio.o string.o      # add modules (replace if present)
oml lib:sc.lib - c.o                            # remove c.o
oml lib:sc.lib -L                              # list contents
oml lib:sc.lib -X                              # extract all

oml is to sc.lib what ar is to a Unix .a file.

bum — BSD UNIX maintainer¶

bum is the SAS/C equivalent of ar/ranlib for hunk-format libraries (LVO-style AmigaOS libraries).

bum lib:my.lib + my.o        # add
bum lib:my.lib - my.o        # remove
bum lib:my.lib                # list
bum lib:my.lib -r             # rebuild index

Use bum for libraries that will be opened with OpenLibrary() (i.e., shared libraries, not static link libs).

blazemgr — compiler accelerator¶

blazemgr keeps the SAS/C compiler in memory between invocations, eliminating the seconds-long startup of the cross-compilation tools. It is the AmigaOS equivalent of ccache on Linux.

blazemgr                     # run as a background daemon
sc foo.c                     # compiles faster; blazemgr intercepts
blazemgr -kill               # shut down

The daemon keeps a parsed copy of compiler state in RAM, so subsequent invocations skip the load-and-parse phase. On a 7 MHz Amiga 500, the gain is significant; on a 68030/50, it's still measurable for large compiles.

blazemgr is configured by S:blazemgr.config (if present) and respects the BLAZEMGR_PORT environment variable for the IPC port name.

mkmk — Makefile generator¶

mkmk generates an smakefile from a list of source files. It guesses dependencies based on #include directives.

mkmk myproject                # creates smakefile in current dir
mkmk -o makefile myproject    # alternative output name

Generated smakefile is a starting point — review before committing.

fpsp — floating-point support package¶

fpsp is the floating-point emulator for 68000/68010 systems without an FPU. It provides IEEE-format arithmetic in software.

fpsp                         # load as a library or device
sc math=ffp myprog.c         # use FFP (fast) instead of IEEE
sc math=ieee myprog.c        # use IEEE with fpsp

For new code, prefer math=ieee for portability and to match <math.h> semantics. math=ffp is faster but uses the legacy Amiga FFP format and does not match IEEE.

cdbg / cdbg-stub — debugger (covered in Debugger — CodeProbe)¶

The debugger is documented separately. The cdbg-stub is the small target-side program that enables cross-debugging (see Debugger — Advanced).

resdent — resident command compiler¶

resdent builds resident commands — commands that are pre-loaded into RAM and run without disk access. Resident commands are how Workbench's C: assign worked in early AmigaOS.

resdent mycmd                # produces a resident command in current dir
resdent -o ram:mycmd mycmd    # place directly in RAM:

A modern AmigaOS doesn't need resident commands the way 1.x did, but resdent is still useful for time-critical tools.

Commodore — command-line starter¶

Commodore is the SAS/C Shell environment bundled with the compiler. It is a TCsh-style command interpreter with history, completion, and aliases.

Commodore                    # start interactive Commodore
Commodore -c "sc foo.c"      # run a single command and exit

Many of the NDK example projects are designed to be built under Commodore, not the stock AmigaOS Shell.

tr — transliterator¶

tr does character-by-character translation:

tr a-z A-Z < input > output  # uppercase conversion
tr -d '\r' < dos.txt > unix.txt  # strip CRs

Useful for cleaning up text files transferred from foreign systems.

Keys	Action
`?`	Open this help
`n`	Next page
`p`	Previous page
`s`	Search