What do the brackets mean in NASM syntax for x86 asm?
assembly, nasm, x86
Solution
`[L1]` means the memory contents at address L1. After running `mov al, [L1]` here, The `al` register will receive the byte at address L1 (the letter 'w').
Problem
Given the following code: ``` L1 db "word", 0 mov al, [L1] mov eax, L1 ``` What do the brackets in `[L1]` represent? This question is specifically about NASM. The other major flavour of Intel-syntax assembly is MASM style, where brackets work differently when there's no register involved: See Confusing brackets in MASM32