Failure to assemble ARM64 code with MSVC's ARMASM64

[hmartinez82]

Boost 1.84
CMake 3.28.3
Visual Studio 2022 17.9.2
Ninja 1.11.1

This is building Boost Context on a ARM64 machine. Not x-compiling.

Description

Failure to assemble ARM64 code:

[0/2] Re-checking globbed directories...
[1/2] Building ASM_ARMASM object libs\context\CMakeFiles\boost_context.dir\src\asm\ontop_arm64_aapcs_pe_armasm.asm.obj
FAILED: libs/context/CMakeFiles/boost_context.dir/src/asm/ontop_arm64_aapcs_pe_armasm.asm.obj
C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\2022\PROFES~1\VC\Tools\MSVC\1439~1.335\bin\HOSTAR~1\arm64\armasm64.exe -DBOOST_CONTEXT_EXPORT="" -DBOOST_CONTEXT_NO_LIB="" -DBOOST_CONTEXT_SOURCE="" -DBOOST_CONTEXT_STATIC_LINK="" -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\context\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\assert\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\config\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\core\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\static_assert\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\throw_exception\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\mp11\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\pool\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\integer\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\type_traits\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\winapi\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\predef\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\smart_ptr\include -IC:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\move\include  -o libs\context\CMakeFiles\boost_context.dir\src\asm\ontop_arm64_aapcs_pe_armasm.asm.obj C:\Dev\Github\PrusaSlicer\deps\build\dep_Boost-prefix\src\dep_Boost\libs\context\src\asm\ontop_arm64_aapcs_pe_armasm.asm
Microsoft (R) ARM Macro Assembler Version 14.39.33521.0 for 64 bits
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

error A2029: unknown command-line argument or argument value -DBOOST_CONTEXT_EXPORT=

 Usage:      armasm [<options>] sourcefile objectfile
             armasm [<options>] -o objectfile sourcefile
             armasm -h              for help

ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

Possible explanation

It seems that the Microsoft ARM Assembler is very poor of command line options:

Microsoft (R) ARM Macro Assembler Version 14.39.33521.0 for 64 bits
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

 Usage:      armasm [<options>] sourcefile objectfile
             armasm [<options>] -o objectfile sourcefile
             armasm -h              for help

<options>:            (Upper case shows allowable abbreviation)
  -Errors     errorsfile       redirect stderr diagnostics to errorsfile
  -I          dir[;dir]        add dirs to include search path
  -PreDefine  directive        pre-execute a SET{L,A,S} directive
  -NOWarn                      turn off warning messages
  -ignore <warning-num>        don't report warning-num
  -help                        help (this information)
  -via <file>                  read further arguments from <file>
  -machine <machine>           set the PE machine type field
  -g                           generate debugging info
  -gh:SHA1                     use SHA1 for file checksum in debug info
  -gh:SHA_256                  use SHA256 for file checksum in debug info (default)
  -funcOverride:<func>         emit function overriding support for <func>
  -errorReport:<option>        deprecated. Report internal assembler errors to Microsoft
      none - do not send report
      prompt - prompt to immediately send report
      queue - at next admin logon, prompt to send report (default)
      send - send report automatically

<machine>:  ARM64 | ARM64EC

I manually edited the build.ninja file to remove all the DEFINES section for the three targets that run ARMASM64 and that got me to the finish line.

I unfortunately don't know CMake enough to be able to tell the build to not emit any DEFINE for the assembler calls :(

[olk]

maybe this is an issue for boost.build because boost.context does not handle assembler arguments directly (abstracted away by boost.build)

[dixyes]

cmake (itself and boost's cmakelists) needs some work to take use of armasm, I've only tried to build context with b2

[magnushakansson]

Is it the same issue as this https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/24639?