STABS

Node:Register Variables, Next:Common Blocks, Previous:Global Variables, Up:Variables

### Register Variables

Register variables have their own stab type, `N_RSYM` (`C_RSYM` for XCOFF), and their own symbol descriptor, `r`. The stab's value is the number of the register where the variable data will be stored.

AIX defines a separate symbol descriptor `d` for floating point registers. This seems unnecessary; why not just just give floating point registers different register numbers? I have not verified whether the compiler actually uses `d`.

If the register is explicitly allocated to a global variable, but not initialized, as in:

         register int g_bar asm ("%g5");

then the stab may be emitted at the end of the object file, with the other bss symbols.