Accepting user input in assembly? Simple program (On macOS)

Question

I'm having some trouble with this simple program that accepts a name from the user and prints "Hello, name here"

This is my code so far...

%define SYSCALL_WRITE 0x2000004
%define SYSCALL_EXIT  0x2000001
%define SYSCALL_READ  0x2000003

SECTION .data
  prompt db "Enter name "
  text2 db "Hello, "

SECTION .bss
  name resb 16

SECTION .text
  global _start

_start:
  call _printText1
  call _getInput
  call _printText2
  call _printName
  mov rax, SYSCALL_EXIT
  mov rdi, 0
  syscall

_printText1:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_WRITE
  mov rdi, 1
  mov rsi, prompt
  mov rdx, 11
  syscall
  ret

_getInput:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_READ
  mov rdi, 0
  mov rsi, name
  mov rdx, 1
  syscall
  ret

_printText2:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_WRITE
  mov rdi, 1
  mov rsi, text2
  mov rdx, 7  
  syscall
  ret

_printName:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_WRITE
  mov rdi, 1
  mov rsi, name
  mov rdx, 16
  syscall
  ret

When I execute it, the output doesn't print "Hello, ". The first letter of the name entered is printed before the next commandline...

nMy-MacBook:Assembly username$ ame

and the rest of the name is accepted as a command argument, for which the system replies

-bash: ame: command not found

What exactly am I doing wrong? I deleted the _getInput and _printName functions and it still only prints "Enter name " without printing "Hello, ".

Thank you.

Answer 1

In Assembly you have to account for every bit; especially when doing input and output.

Below is your partial code with edits for RDX wherein I chose some arbitrary length.

The last line shows the command line program execution, prompt, user input, then final output.

; reference:
; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47889972/accepting-user-input-in-assembly-simple-program-on-macos

; lsb_release -a
; Distributor ID: Ubuntu
; Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
; Release:        16.04
; Codename:       xenial

; assemble and link
; nasm -f elf64 -g -F dwarf srsrso_001.s -o srsrso_001.o  && ld srsrso_001.o -o srsrso_001

;%define SYSCALL_WRITE 0x2000004
;%define SYSCALL_EXIT  0x2000001
;%define SYSCALL_READ  0x2000003

SECTION .data
  prompt db "Enter name "
  text2 db "Hello, ",0xa,0

        SYSCALL_WRITE equ       1
        SYSCALL_EXIT  equ       60
        SYSCALL_READ  equ       0

SECTION .bss
  name resb 0xff                ; some length

SECTION .text
  global _start

_start:
 call _printText1
 call _getInput
 call _printText2
 call _printName

  mov rax, 60
  mov rdi, 0
  syscall

_printText1:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_WRITE
  mov rdi, 1
  mov rsi, prompt
  mov rdx, 11
  syscall
  ret

_getInput:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_READ
  mov rdi, 0
  mov rsi, name
  mov rdx, 0xff ; some length
  syscall
  ret

_printText2:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_WRITE
  mov rdi, 1
  mov rsi, text2
  mov rdx, 7
  syscall
  ret

_printName:
  mov rax, SYSCALL_WRITE
  mov rdi, 1
  mov rsi, name
  mov rdx, 0xff ; some length
  syscall
  ret

Example output:

$ ./srsrso_001
Enter name David John Lewis Benjamen Kyle Smith-Wenson
Hello, David John Lewis Benjamen Kyle Smith-Wenson