Single-Pass Assembly & Binary Layout

The final stage of the AzLang compiler pipeline turns the emitted assembly into a finished, standalone bare-metal executable — in one invocation, with no linker.

1. Pipeline Execution Flow

AzLang produces machine code through a deterministic two-step lowering pipeline:

1. Assembly Emission: the validated AST is lowered into one .asm file — header, include directives for every invoked @link source, the program’s code, and its string data.
2. Single-Pass Assembly: fasm assembles that file directly into the final ELF executable. Assembly and linking happen in the same pass, so no intermediate object files ever exist.

fasm main.asm main

Because @link targets are fasm assembly sources (not pre-built .o files), there is nothing to pre-compile: the symbols write, exit, etc. are defined in the same translation unit and resolved statically at assembly time.

2. Resulting Binary

AzLang emits format ELF64 executable with entry _start and a single readable executable segment (a 120-byte program header). Because the program targets the system entry point _start and inlines its syscall stubs, no C runtime or dynamic linker is involved:

• No dynamic interpreter (/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 is not required)
• No section headers, no relocations — a minimal static image
• Tiny footprint: the Hello World program measures 180 bytes; a comprehensive 60-line multi-module program stays around 2 KB
• Instantaneous startup: execution begins at _start with direct syscalls

$ file main
main: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, no section header
$ ./main
Hello World from AzLang!