Are directives/instructions executed at runtime or assembly time?

Question

I'm pretty new to assembly, and I'm wondering when directives and instructions are executed respectively?

Directives = assembly time, instructions = runtime (of course). — Jester, Mar 29 '16 at 18:10

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 29 '16 at 18:11

1

Instructions are executed at run-time.

Directives are instructions for the assembler and thus are not really executed at all.

answered Mar 29 '16 at 18:11

1

Although correct, directives are instructions for the assembler that **may** emit instructions that get assembled/linked and then executed at runtime. I have a suspicion you probably meant something like that when you said **not really**. – Michael Petch Mar 30 '16 at 18:38

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