jas - a JVM bytecode assembler

Note: this project is still far from complete, and may not implement all of the classfile specification correctly.

jas is a simple assembler for the JVM classfile format. Classes are specified in "Sun syntax" (a pun on Intel syntax) described below.

To build, simply clone and run cargo build (this assumes you have a valid Rust installation).

Sun syntax

An assembly file (prefixed with .j, but jas doesn't actually care). consists of zero or more "source lines", of the form

label: instruction arg0, arg1, ... ; comment

The label is optional, as is the comma on the last argument. Comments start with a semicolon (;).

There are four kinds of instructions: item, meta, constant, and code instructons:

• An item instruction indicates the beginning of a class, field, or method.
• A meta instruction declares metadata attached to the most recently declared item.
• A constant instruction declares an element of the constant pool of the most recently declared class.
• A code instruction declares an opcode and arguments inside a method.

Instructions may take zero or more arguments, which may be a label, a literal string, a numeric expression, or an address expression of the form [instruction arg0, arg1, ...], where instruction is (for now) limited to constant instructions.

Many instructions will interpret string literals differently, often automatically generating constants. For example,

; the following pairs are equivalent
ldc     "Hello, World!"
ldc     [string "Hello, World!"]
 
new     "java/lang/String"
new     [class_ref "java/lang/String"]

Item instructions

• class this, super - declares a new class named this, with superclass super.
• field desc, name - declares a new field name with signature desc (given in classfile style, e.g. Ljava/lang/Object;). Name may instead be given by a label: name: field desc.
• method desc, name - declares a new method name with signature desc (given in classfile style, e.g. (Ljava/lang/Object;)V). Name may instead be given by a label: name: method desc.

Meta instructions

• impl interface - specifies that a class implements interface.
• verson minor, major - specifies the classfile version.
• flags args... - specifies flags, such as public, final, and synthetic.
• stack num - specifies the max stack size for a method.
• locals num - specifies the number of local variables used in a method.
• catch start, end, handler, ty - specifies an exception handler for a method, active from start to end, and jumping to handler in the event of a thrown ty. Order is important.
• const_val const - specifies the initial value of a field.
• source file - specifies the source file the class was supposedly compiled from.
• attr name, bytes - specifies a custom attribute named name with data contents given by the base64 string bytes.

Constant instructions

• class_ref class - specifies a reference to a class
• field_ref field - specifies a reference to a field
• method_ref method - specifies a reference to a method
• imethod_ref method - specifies a reference to an interface method
• string val - specifies a java.lang.String literal.
• int val - specifies an int literal.
• long val - specifies a long literal.
• float val - specifies a float literal.
• double val - specifies a double literal.
• name_and_type name, desc - specifies a name/descriptor pair, for use in *_ref constants.
• method_handle type, method - specifies a java.lang.invoke.MethodHandle literal
• method_type desc - specifies a method descriptor.
• dynamic_target boostrap, name, desc - specifies a target for an invokedynamic instruction.

Code instructions

Most instructions are code instructions. We use the same mnemonics for them as Sun did, which can be found here.