Location counter alignment directive

    Format

      .ALIGN  integer [,fill-specifier]

      .ALIGN  keyword [,fill-specifier]

1  –  Parameters

 integer

    An integer in the range 0 to 9. The location counter is aligned
    at an address that is the value of 2 raised to the power of the
    integer.

 keyword

    One of five keywords that specify the alignment boundary. The
    location counter is aligned to an address that is the next
    multiple of the following values:

    Keyword  Size (in Bytes)

    BYTE     20= 1
    WORD     21= 2
    LONG     22= 4
    QUAD     23= 8
    OCTA     24= 16

 [,fill-specifier]

    Any expression that resolves to an assembly-time integer value
    containing no forward references. The filling is done per byte,
    regardless of the alignment. If the value you specify is not in
    the range of 0 to 255, the assembler issues a diagnostic message
    and truncates the value.

2  –  Description

    .ALIGN aligns the location counter to the boundary specified by
    either an integer or a keyword.

3  –  Notes

    o  If .ALIGN is specified in a psect with the EXE and NOMIX
       attributes, the fill-specifier is ignored. The assembler
       aligns the psect to the requested boundary padding with NOP
       or FNOP instructions.

    o  If .ALIGN is specified in a psect that does not have the EXE
       attribute and a fill-specifier is specified, the assembler
       aligns the psect to the requested boundary padding, with byte
       locations using the fill-specifier as the initial value for
       the generated byte padding.

    o  If the fill-specifier expression encounters a value that is
       too large to fit in a boundary specified by the keyword, the
       data is truncated and an informational message is displayed.

    o  The alignment that you specify in .ALIGN cannot exceed the
       alignment of the psect in which the alignment is attempted
       (see the description of .PSECT). For example, if you are using
       the BYTE psect alignment and you specify .ALIGN with a word or
       larger alignment, the assembler displays an error message.

4  –  Examples

      Example 1

           .PSECT A,QUAD  ; Begin at quadword
        B::.BYTE 4        ; Data is byte
           .ALIGN QUAD    ; Next data is
        C::.WORD 6        ; also quadword aligned
      Example 2

           .PSECT A,EXE,NOMIX,OCTA
        L1::TRAPB:        ; offset 0
           .ALIGN OCTA    ; NOP padding bytes 4..15
            TRAPB:         ; offset 16
      Example 3

           .PSECT A,NOEXE,NOMIX,OCTA
        L1:.WORD 5        ; byte offset 0..1
           .ALIGN QUAD,2  ; fill specifier initial value
                          ; of 2 for bytes 2..7
           .WORD 6        ; byte offsets 8..9