# PSECT

General Compiler Directive: Modifies characteristics of a common block.

## Syntax

!DIR$ PSECT /common-name/ a[,a] ...

common-name | Is the name of the common block. The slashes ( / ) are required.
- a | Is one of the following: ALIGN= val or ALIGN= keyword Specifies minimum alignment for the common block. ALIGN only has an effect when specified on Windows* and Linux* systems. The val is a constant ranging from 0 through 6 on Windows* systems and 0 through 4 on Linux* systems. The specified number is interpreted as a power of 2. The value of the expression is the alignment in bytes. The keyword is one of the following:
  Keyword | Equivalent to val
  --- | ---
  BYTE | 0
  WORD | 1
  LONG | 2
  QUAD | 3
  OCTA | 4
  PAGE | On IA-32 architecture: range is 0 through 13 for Windows*; 0 through 12 for Linux*
[NO]WRT Determines whether the contents of a common block can be modified during program execution.

If one program unit changes one or more characteristics of a common block, all other units that reference that common block must also change those characteristics in the same way.

The defaults are ALIGN=OCTA and WRT.

Parent topic: O to P

## See Also

General Compiler Directives
Syntax Rules for Compiler Directives