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4. Linker configurations

The ld65 linker comes with a builtin config file for the Commodore 64, which is used via -t c64 (and displayed via --dump-config c64). The c64 package comes with additional secondary linker config files, which are used via -C <configfile>.

4.1 builtin config file

The builtin configuration is tailored to C programs. It supplies the load address and a small BASIC stub that starts the compiled program using a SYS command.

4.2 c64-asm.cfg

This configuration is made for assembler programmers who don't need a special setup. The default start address is $801. It can be changed with the linker command line option --start-addr. All standard segments with the exception of zeropage are written to the output file and a two byte load address is prepended.

To use this config file, assemble with -t c64 and link with -C c64-asm.cfg. The former will make sure that correct character translation is in effect, while the latter supplies the actual config. When using cl65, use both command line options.

Sample command line for cl65:

cl65 -o file.prg -t c64 -C c64-asm.cfg source.s

To generate code that loads to $C000:

cl65 -o file.prg --start-addr $C000 -t c64 -C c64-asm.cfg source.s

It is also possible to add a small BASIC header to the program, that uses SYS to jump to the program entry point (which is the start of the code segment). The advantage is that the program can be started using RUN.

To generate a program with a BASIC SYS header, use

cl65 -o file.prg -u __EXEHDR__ -t c64 -C c64-asm.cfg source.s

Please note that in this case a changed start address doesn't make sense, since the program must be loaded to the BASIC start address.


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