FE GBA Function Library

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This project is to doc functions in Fire Emblem Series on Gameboy Advance:

• FE6: 封印の剣 / Binding Blade
• FE7J: 烈火の剣
• FE7U: Blazing Sword
• FE8J: 聖魔の光石
• FE8U: The Sacred Stones

It is obvious that they share some source code. Here is my analysis result:

It can help hackers who does ASM/C hacking and make it easier to port engine hack between different games.

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This library is powered by debug-info ELF builds from the GBAFE decompilation projects:

• FE6: The Binding Blade - update.sh reads fireemblem6j/fe6.elf with nm -l for declarations and source-line links.
• FE8U: The Sacred Stones - update.sh reads fireemblem8u/fireemblem8.elf for FE8U declarations and links.
• FE8J: 聖魔の光石 / Seima no Kouseki - update.sh reads fireemblem8j/fireemblem8.elf for FE8J declarations and links.

Updating from decomp projects

update.sh refreshes the FE6, FE8U and FE8J decomp-derived function information from local ELF builds. By default it reads:

• ../fireemblem6j/fe6.elf
• ../fireemblem8u/fireemblem8.elf
• ../fireemblem8j/fireemblem8.elf

Override those paths when needed:

FE6_ELF=/path/to/fe6.elf FE8U_ELF=/path/to/fireemblem8.elf FE8J_ELF=/path/to/fireemblem8.elf ./update.sh

For a checkpointed serial refresh, extract one game at a time and finalize only after all intended symbol lists are ready:

./update.sh extract fe6
./update.sh extract fe8u
./update.sh extract fe8j
./update.sh finalize

An extract command runs nm exactly once for that game and does not generate or validate the library. finalize performs generation, tests, and validation without reading an ELF or invoking nm. Running ./update.sh without arguments retains the original behavior in strict FE6, FE8U, FE8J, finalize order.

Each ELF must retain debug info so nm -l can map symbols back to source files and line numbers. If an ELF has no source-line symbols (for example a debug-stripped build), that game's list is left untouched instead of being overwritten with an empty file.

The update is atomic per symbol list and runs validate_library.py after generation. The validator rejects malformed or ambiguous global symbols, confirms same-address aliases are resolved deterministically, reports duplicate cross-game mappings, and verifies that index.md is current.

Address and alias normalization

• Decomp function symbols must be in the canonical GBA ROM window 0x08000000..0x09FFFFFF. Their Thumb bit is cleared only after that range check, so an invalid value such as 0x18000001 is rejected rather than coerced to 0x08000000.
• multisym.txt may also describe valid RAM, I/O, palette, VRAM, OAM, and SRAM addresses. Non-ROM odd addresses are data addresses and are never rounded down.
• Multiple multisym.txt records that identify the same normalized ROM address are merged in file order. Alias order is stable, duplicate spellings are removed, and no earlier aliases are overwritten.

Cross-game matching confidence

functions.md contains legacy binary-match candidates. The generated index.md rejects an entire candidate row when a per-game address occurs in multiple rows, or when a pinned decomp identifies one of its symbols only with an address-derived placeholder (func_*, sub_*, FUN_*, nullsub_*, and equivalent compiler labels). Rejected addresses are retained exactly once as standalone rows; the generator never leaves the unverified remainder paired or chooses an arbitrary duplicate.

The only automatic merge evidence is an exact, non-placeholder global name in the pinned FE6J, FE8U, or FE8J decomps. The final-output validator checks every generated row for balanced declaration links, unique names and per-game addresses, unique mappings, complete source links, placeholder-free cross-game mappings, and represented multisym aliases.

Generated source paths are not accepted implicitly. The sole approved fallback is FE8U src/data/chapter_settings.h to its tracked Inja template src/data/chapter_settings.json.txt, which uniquely defines gChapterDataTable. SOURCE_ROOT inputs are authoritative, and every other missing path remains an error.

For generated linker scripts, lyn reference assembly, and Event Assembler symbol include files, use laqieer/FE-Clib-Decomp. This repository stays focused on cross-game function documentation.

Feel free to contribute

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