Compiling 32 bit assembly on 64bit system (Ubuntu)

Question

I'm trying to learn about assembly with the book "Programming from the ground up". The book covers only 32 bit instructions. Is there a way to run the example codes on 64 bit Ubuntu system? I can't understand the stuff on the man page of the GNU assembler but I heard the `-m32` flag should do it. But it's not a recognized option. How do I get the examples on the book to work with ease?

Accepted Answer

When your assembler and linker are x86_64 versions, the options to produce i386 (32-bit) output are

```
as --32
ld -m elf_i386
```

You don't have to use `as` and `ld` just because you're working with assembly code. `gcc` can be used, and in that case you would use `-m32`.

```
gcc -m32 -nostdlib myprog.s -o myprog
```

Compiling 32 bit assembly on 64bit system (Ubuntu)

Solution

Problem