What does BSS stand for???

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5 total messages Started by barry Fri, 18 Nov 1983 15:50

Author: barry
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1983 15:50

9 lines
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Can anyone one tell me what the letters in 'BSS' stand for??? I know that
it refers to the unitialized data area of any exectuable program, but
in several years I have yet to meet someone who can tell me what the
characters actually represent!

					Thanks --
					    Barry Holroyd
					    (213) 417-8859
					    decvax!sytek!barry

Re: What does BSS stand for???

Author: jhv
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1983 01:15

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When I was learning assembly language programming,
BSS stood for "Block Starting with Symbol", where the label, if any, on the BSS
line is assigned to the first location reserved for the block.
There was also a BES "Block Ending with Symbol", where the optional label
was assigned to the last location reserved for the block.

Re: What does BSS stand for???

Author: guidi
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1983 20:53

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BSS: Be Sure to Save (at least that's what we told each other in the 60's)

Re: What does BSS stand for???

Author: John Crown
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1983 20:39

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"The BSS directive [Block Starting with Symbol] reserves a block of storage
with a label attached to the first address of the block ..."


John Crown, Tektronix
...[decvax|ucbvax]!teklabs!tekecs!johnc

Re: What does BSS stand for???

Author: R.CONNAGHAN
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 1983 14:38

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Funny, I've asked what "BSS" stands for too.
I came across an answer in an "IBM" manual of some sort.
Best I can recall:

	BSS == "Backword Storage Space"

		(could have been "Backword Secondary Storage")

As always with with IBM, an answer that's no answer.


Robert Connaghan
AT&T Bell Labs
houxw!rbc

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