FIX: MASM 5.1/5.1a Will Not Allow .STACK to Exceed 32K

MS-DOS     | OS/2

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Macro Assembler for MS-DOS, versions 5.1 and 5.1a
• Microsoft Macro Assembler for OS/2, versions 5.1 and 5.1a

SYMPTOMS

In the Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) versions 5.1 and 5.1a, the following error message may be generated if a stack segment is declared larger than 32K:

   error A2102: Segment near (or at) 64K limit

RESOLUTION

You can work around this by either of the following:

1. Use a full segment declaration to declare the stack.

   -or-

2. Use multiple .STACK directives to declare the total stack space required by your program.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in MASM versions 5.1 and 5.1a. This problem was corrected in MASM version 6.0.

MORE INFORMATION

Sample Code

; Assemble options needed: none

.MODEL small       ; Use any memory model

.STACK 8000h       ; Open and allocate STACK segment
                   ; STACK segment automatically closed
END