Call to Interrupt Procedure (int, into)

int 3
int	imm8
into

Operation

interrupt 3 -- trap to debugger

interrupt numbered by immediate byte

interrupt 4 -- if overflow flag is 1

Description

The int instruction generates a software call to an interrupt handler. The imm8 (0 to 255) operand specifies an index number into the IDT (Interrupt Descriptor Table) of the interrupt routine to be called. In Protect Mode, the IDT consists of an array of 8-byte descriptors; the descriptor for the interrupt invoked must indicate an interrupt, trap, or task gate. In Real Address Mode, the IDT is an array of four byte-long pointers. In Protected and Real Address Modes, the base linear address of the IDT is defined by the contents of the IDTR.

The into form of the int instruction implies interrupt 4. The interrupt occurs only if the overflow flag is set.

The first 32 interrupts are reserved for system use. Some of these interrupts are used for internally generated exceptions.

The int imm8 form of the interrupt instruction behaves like a far call except that the flags register is pushed onto the stack before the return address. Interrupt procedures return via the iret instruction, which pops the flags and return address from the stack.

In Real Address Mode, the int imm8 pushes the flags, CS, and the return IP onto the stack, in that order, then jumps to the long pointer indexed by the interrupt number.

Example

Trap to debugger:

int $3

Trap to interrupt 0xff:

int $0xff

Trap to interrupt 4:

into