1 ========================
2 Building LLVM with CMake
3 ========================
11 `CMake <http://www.cmake.org/>`_ is a cross-platform build-generator tool. CMake
12 does not build the project, it generates the files needed by your build tool
13 (GNU make, Visual Studio, etc) for building LLVM.
15 If you are really anxious about getting a functional LLVM build, go to the
16 `Quick start`_ section. If you are a CMake novice, start on `Basic CMake usage`_
17 and then go back to the `Quick start`_ once you know what you are doing. The
18 `Options and variables`_ section is a reference for customizing your build. If
19 you already have experience with CMake, this is the recommended starting point.
26 We use here the command-line, non-interactive CMake interface.
28 #. `Download <http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html>`_ and install
29 CMake. Version 2.8 is the minimum required.
31 #. Open a shell. Your development tools must be reachable from this shell
32 through the PATH environment variable.
34 #. Create a directory for containing the build. It is not supported to build
35 LLVM on the source directory. cd to this directory:
37 .. code-block:: console
42 #. Execute this command on the shell replacing `path/to/llvm/source/root` with
43 the path to the root of your LLVM source tree:
45 .. code-block:: console
47 $ cmake path/to/llvm/source/root
49 CMake will detect your development environment, perform a series of test and
50 generate the files required for building LLVM. CMake will use default values
51 for all build parameters. See the `Options and variables`_ section for
52 fine-tuning your build
54 This can fail if CMake can't detect your toolset, or if it thinks that the
55 environment is not sane enough. On this case make sure that the toolset that
56 you intend to use is the only one reachable from the shell and that the shell
57 itself is the correct one for you development environment. CMake will refuse
58 to build MinGW makefiles if you have a POSIX shell reachable through the PATH
59 environment variable, for instance. You can force CMake to use a given build
60 tool, see the `Usage`_ section.
62 .. _Basic CMake usage:
68 This section explains basic aspects of CMake, mostly for explaining those
69 options which you may need on your day-to-day usage.
71 CMake comes with extensive documentation in the form of html files and on the
72 cmake executable itself. Execute ``cmake --help`` for further help options.
74 CMake requires to know for which build tool it shall generate files (GNU make,
75 Visual Studio, Xcode, etc). If not specified on the command line, it tries to
76 guess it based on you environment. Once identified the build tool, CMake uses
77 the corresponding *Generator* for creating files for your build tool. You can
78 explicitly specify the generator with the command line option ``-G "Name of the
79 generator"``. For knowing the available generators on your platform, execute
81 .. code-block:: console
85 This will list the generator's names at the end of the help text. Generator's
86 names are case-sensitive. Example:
88 .. code-block:: console
90 $ cmake -G "Visual Studio 11" path/to/llvm/source/root
92 For a given development platform there can be more than one adequate
93 generator. If you use Visual Studio "NMake Makefiles" is a generator you can use
94 for building with NMake. By default, CMake chooses the more specific generator
95 supported by your development environment. If you want an alternative generator,
96 you must tell this to CMake with the ``-G`` option.
100 Explain variables and cache. Move explanation here from #options section.
102 .. _Options and variables:
104 Options and variables
105 =====================
107 Variables customize how the build will be generated. Options are boolean
108 variables, with possible values ON/OFF. Options and variables are defined on the
109 CMake command line like this:
111 .. code-block:: console
113 $ cmake -DVARIABLE=value path/to/llvm/source
115 You can set a variable after the initial CMake invocation for changing its
116 value. You can also undefine a variable:
118 .. code-block:: console
120 $ cmake -UVARIABLE path/to/llvm/source
122 Variables are stored on the CMake cache. This is a file named ``CMakeCache.txt``
123 on the root of the build directory. Do not hand-edit it.
125 Variables are listed here appending its type after a colon. It is correct to
126 write the variable and the type on the CMake command line:
128 .. code-block:: console
130 $ cmake -DVARIABLE:TYPE=value path/to/llvm/source
132 Frequently-used CMake variables
133 -------------------------------
135 Here are some of the CMake variables that are used often, along with a
136 brief explanation and LLVM-specific notes. For full documentation, check the
137 CMake docs or execute ``cmake --help-variable VARIABLE_NAME``.
139 **CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE**:STRING
140 Sets the build type for ``make`` based generators. Possible values are
141 Release, Debug, RelWithDebInfo and MinSizeRel. On systems like Visual Studio
142 the user sets the build type with the IDE settings.
144 **CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX**:PATH
145 Path where LLVM will be installed if "make install" is invoked or the
146 "INSTALL" target is built.
148 **LLVM_LIBDIR_SUFFIX**:STRING
149 Extra suffix to append to the directory where libraries are to be
150 installed. On a 64-bit architecture, one could use ``-DLLVM_LIBDIR_SUFFIX=64``
151 to install libraries to ``/usr/lib64``.
153 **CMAKE_C_FLAGS**:STRING
154 Extra flags to use when compiling C source files.
156 **CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS**:STRING
157 Extra flags to use when compiling C++ source files.
159 **BUILD_SHARED_LIBS**:BOOL
160 Flag indicating if shared libraries will be built. Its default value is
161 OFF. Shared libraries are not supported on Windows and not recommended on the
164 .. _LLVM-specific variables:
166 LLVM-specific variables
167 -----------------------
169 **LLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD**:STRING
170 Semicolon-separated list of targets to build, or *all* for building all
171 targets. Case-sensitive. Defaults to *all*. Example:
172 ``-DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD="X86;PowerPC"``.
174 **LLVM_BUILD_TOOLS**:BOOL
175 Build LLVM tools. Defaults to ON. Targets for building each tool are generated
176 in any case. You can build an tool separately by invoking its target. For
177 example, you can build *llvm-as* with a makefile-based system executing *make
178 llvm-as* on the root of your build directory.
180 **LLVM_INCLUDE_TOOLS**:BOOL
181 Generate build targets for the LLVM tools. Defaults to ON. You can use that
182 option for disabling the generation of build targets for the LLVM tools.
184 **LLVM_BUILD_EXAMPLES**:BOOL
185 Build LLVM examples. Defaults to OFF. Targets for building each example are
186 generated in any case. See documentation for *LLVM_BUILD_TOOLS* above for more
189 **LLVM_INCLUDE_EXAMPLES**:BOOL
190 Generate build targets for the LLVM examples. Defaults to ON. You can use that
191 option for disabling the generation of build targets for the LLVM examples.
193 **LLVM_BUILD_TESTS**:BOOL
194 Build LLVM unit tests. Defaults to OFF. Targets for building each unit test
195 are generated in any case. You can build a specific unit test with the target
196 *UnitTestNameTests* (where at this time *UnitTestName* can be ADT, Analysis,
197 ExecutionEngine, JIT, Support, Transform, VMCore; see the subdirectories of
198 *unittests* for an updated list.) It is possible to build all unit tests with
199 the target *UnitTests*.
201 **LLVM_INCLUDE_TESTS**:BOOL
202 Generate build targets for the LLVM unit tests. Defaults to ON. You can use
203 that option for disabling the generation of build targets for the LLVM unit
206 **LLVM_APPEND_VC_REV**:BOOL
207 Append version control revision info (svn revision number or Git revision id)
208 to LLVM version string (stored in the PACKAGE_VERSION macro). For this to work
209 cmake must be invoked before the build. Defaults to OFF.
211 **LLVM_ENABLE_THREADS**:BOOL
212 Build with threads support, if available. Defaults to ON.
214 **LLVM_ENABLE_CXX1Y**:BOOL
215 Build in C++1y mode, if available. Defaults to OFF.
217 **LLVM_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS**:BOOL
218 Enables code assertions. Defaults to OFF if and only if ``CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE``
221 **LLVM_ENABLE_EH**:BOOL
222 Build LLVM with exception handling support. This is necessary if you wish to
223 link against LLVM libraries and make use of C++ exceptions in your own code
224 that need to propagate through LLVM code. Defaults to OFF.
226 **LLVM_ENABLE_PIC**:BOOL
227 Add the ``-fPIC`` flag for the compiler command-line, if the compiler supports
228 this flag. Some systems, like Windows, do not need this flag. Defaults to ON.
230 **LLVM_ENABLE_RTTI**:BOOL
231 Build LLVM with run time type information. Defaults to OFF.
233 **LLVM_ENABLE_WARNINGS**:BOOL
234 Enable all compiler warnings. Defaults to ON.
236 **LLVM_ENABLE_PEDANTIC**:BOOL
237 Enable pedantic mode. This disables compiler specific extensions, if
238 possible. Defaults to ON.
240 **LLVM_ENABLE_WERROR**:BOOL
241 Stop and fail build, if a compiler warning is triggered. Defaults to OFF.
243 **LLVM_BUILD_32_BITS**:BOOL
244 Build 32-bits executables and libraries on 64-bits systems. This option is
245 available only on some 64-bits unix systems. Defaults to OFF.
247 **LLVM_TARGET_ARCH**:STRING
248 LLVM target to use for native code generation. This is required for JIT
249 generation. It defaults to "host", meaning that it shall pick the architecture
250 of the machine where LLVM is being built. If you are cross-compiling, set it
251 to the target architecture name.
253 **LLVM_TABLEGEN**:STRING
254 Full path to a native TableGen executable (usually named ``tblgen``). This is
255 intended for cross-compiling: if the user sets this variable, no native
256 TableGen will be created.
258 **LLVM_LIT_ARGS**:STRING
259 Arguments given to lit. ``make check`` and ``make clang-test`` are affected.
260 By default, ``'-sv --no-progress-bar'`` on Visual C++ and Xcode, ``'-sv'`` on
263 **LLVM_LIT_TOOLS_DIR**:PATH
264 The path to GnuWin32 tools for tests. Valid on Windows host. Defaults to "",
265 then Lit seeks tools according to %PATH%. Lit can find tools(eg. grep, sort,
266 &c) on LLVM_LIT_TOOLS_DIR at first, without specifying GnuWin32 to %PATH%.
268 **LLVM_ENABLE_FFI**:BOOL
269 Indicates whether LLVM Interpreter will be linked with Foreign Function
270 Interface library. If the library or its headers are installed on a custom
271 location, you can set the variables FFI_INCLUDE_DIR and
272 FFI_LIBRARY_DIR. Defaults to OFF.
274 **LLVM_EXTERNAL_{CLANG,LLD,POLLY}_SOURCE_DIR**:PATH
275 Path to ``{Clang,lld,Polly}``\'s source directory. Defaults to
276 ``tools/{clang,lld,polly}``. ``{Clang,lld,Polly}`` will not be built when it
277 is empty or it does not point to a valid path.
279 **LLVM_USE_OPROFILE**:BOOL
280 Enable building OProfile JIT support. Defaults to OFF
282 **LLVM_USE_INTEL_JITEVENTS**:BOOL
283 Enable building support for Intel JIT Events API. Defaults to OFF
285 **LLVM_ENABLE_ZLIB**:BOOL
286 Build with zlib to support compression/uncompression in LLVM tools.
289 **LLVM_USE_SANITIZER**:STRING
290 Define the sanitizer used to build LLVM binaries and tests. Possible values
291 are ``Address``, ``Memory``, ``MemoryWithOrigins`` and ``Undefined``.
292 Defaults to empty string.
294 **LLVM_PARALLEL_COMPILE_JOBS**:STRING
295 Define the maximum number of concurrent compilation jobs.
297 **LLVM_PARALLEL_LINK_JOBS**:STRING
298 Define the maximum number of concurrent link jobs.
300 **LLVM_BUILD_DOCS**:BOOL
301 Enables all enabled documentation targets (i.e. Doxgyen and Sphinx targets) to
302 be built as part of the normal build. If the ``install`` target is run then
303 this also enables all built documentation targets to be installed. Defaults to
306 **LLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN**:BOOL
307 Enables the generation of browsable HTML documentation using doxygen.
310 **LLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_QT_HELP**:BOOL
311 Enables the generation of a Qt Compressed Help file. Defaults to OFF.
312 This affects the make target ``doxygen-llvm``. When enabled, apart from
313 the normal HTML output generated by doxygen, this will produce a QCH file
314 named ``org.llvm.qch``. You can then load this file into Qt Creator.
315 This option is only useful in combination with ``-DLLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN=ON``;
316 otherwise this has no effect.
318 **LLVM_DOXYGEN_QCH_FILENAME**:STRING
319 The filename of the Qt Compressed Help file that will be genrated when
320 ``-DLLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN=ON`` and
321 ``-DLLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_QT_HELP=ON`` are given. Defaults to
323 This option is only useful in combination with
324 ``-DLLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_QT_HELP=ON``;
325 otherwise this has no effect.
327 **LLVM_DOXYGEN_QHP_NAMESPACE**:STRING
328 Namespace under which the intermediate Qt Help Project file lives. See `Qt
330 for more information. Defaults to "org.llvm". This option is only useful in
331 combination with ``-DLLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_QT_HELP=ON``; otherwise
334 **LLVM_DOXYGEN_QHP_CUST_FILTER_NAME**:STRING
335 See `Qt Help Project`_ for
336 more information. Defaults to the CMake variable ``${PACKAGE_STRING}`` which
337 is a combination of the package name and version string. This filter can then
338 be used in Qt Creator to select only documentation from LLVM when browsing
339 through all the help files that you might have loaded. This option is only
340 useful in combination with ``-DLLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_QT_HELP=ON``;
341 otherwise this has no effect.
343 .. _Qt Help Project: http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/qthelpproject.html#custom-filters
345 **LLVM_DOXYGEN_QHELPGENERATOR_PATH**:STRING
346 The path to the ``qhelpgenerator`` executable. Defaults to whatever CMake's
347 ``find_program()`` can find. This option is only useful in combination with
348 ``-DLLVM_ENABLE_DOXYGEN_QT_HELP=ON``; otherwise this has no
351 **LLVM_ENABLE_SPHINX**:BOOL
352 If enabled CMake will search for the ``sphinx-build`` executable and will make
353 the ``SPHINX_OUTPUT_HTML`` and ``SPHINX_OUTPUT_MAN`` CMake options available.
356 **SPHINX_EXECUTABLE**:STRING
357 The path to the ``sphinx-build`` executable detected by CMake.
359 **SPHINX_OUTPUT_HTML**:BOOL
360 If enabled (and ``LLVM_ENABLE_SPHINX`` is enabled) then the targets for
361 building the documentation as html are added (but not built by default unless
362 ``LLVM_BUILD_DOCS`` is enabled). There is a target for each project in the
363 source tree that uses sphinx (e.g. ``docs-llvm-html``, ``docs-clang-html``
364 and ``docs-lld-html``). Defaults to ON.
366 **SPHINX_OUTPUT_MAN**:BOOL
367 If enabled (and ``LLVM_ENABLE_SPHINX`` is enabled) the targets for building
368 the man pages are added (but not built by default unless ``LLVM_BUILD_DOCS``
369 is enabled). Currently the only target added is ``docs-llvm-man``. Defaults
372 **SPHINX_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS**:BOOL
373 If enabled then sphinx documentation warnings will be treated as
374 errors. Defaults to ON.
376 Executing the test suite
377 ========================
379 Testing is performed when the *check* target is built. For instance, if you are
380 using makefiles, execute this command while on the top level of your build
383 .. code-block:: console
387 On Visual Studio, you may run tests to build the project "check".
392 See `this wiki page <http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/CMake_Cross_Compiling>`_ for
393 generic instructions on how to cross-compile with CMake. It goes into detailed
394 explanations and may seem daunting, but it is not. On the wiki page there are
395 several examples including toolchain files. Go directly to `this section
396 <http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/CMake_Cross_Compiling#Information_how_to_set_up_various_cross_compiling_toolchains>`_
397 for a quick solution.
399 Also see the `LLVM-specific variables`_ section for variables used when
402 Embedding LLVM in your project
403 ==============================
405 From LLVM 3.5 onwards both the CMake and autoconf/Makefile build systems export
406 LLVM libraries as importable CMake targets. This means that clients of LLVM can
407 now reliably use CMake to develop their own LLVM based projects against an
408 installed version of LLVM regardless of how it was built.
410 Here is a simple example of CMakeLists.txt file that imports the LLVM libraries
411 and uses them to build a simple application ``simple-tool``.
413 .. code-block:: cmake
415 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.8)
416 project(SimpleProject)
418 find_package(LLVM REQUIRED CONFIG)
420 message(STATUS "Found LLVM ${LLVM_PACKAGE_VERSION}")
421 message(STATUS "Using LLVMConfig.cmake in: ${LLVM_DIR}")
423 # Set your project compile flags.
424 # E.g. if using the C++ header files
425 # you will need to enable C++11 support
428 include_directories(${LLVM_INCLUDE_DIRS})
429 add_definitions(${LLVM_DEFINITIONS})
431 # Now build our tools
432 add_excutable(simple-tool tool.cpp)
434 # Find the libraries that correspond to the LLVM components
435 # that we wish to use
436 llvm_map_components_to_libnames(llvm_libs support core irreader)
438 # Link against LLVM libraries
439 target_link_libraries(simple-tool ${llvm_libs})
441 The ``find_package(...)`` directive when used in CONFIG mode (as in the above
442 example) will look for the ``LLVMConfig.cmake`` file in various locations (see
443 cmake manual for details). It creates a ``LLVM_DIR`` cache entry to save the
444 directory where ``LLVMConfig.cmake`` is found or allows the user to specify the
445 directory (e.g. by passing ``-DLLVM_DIR=/usr/share/llvm/cmake`` to
446 the ``cmake`` command or by setting it directly in ``ccmake`` or ``cmake-gui``).
448 This file is available in two different locations.
450 * ``<INSTALL_PREFIX>/share/llvm/cmake/LLVMConfig.cmake`` where
451 ``<INSTALL_PREFIX>`` is the install prefix of an installed version of LLVM.
452 On Linux typically this is ``/usr/share/llvm/cmake/LLVMConfig.cmake``.
454 * ``<LLVM_BUILD_ROOT>/share/llvm/cmake/LLVMConfig.cmake`` where
455 ``<LLVM_BUILD_ROOT>`` is the root of the LLVM build tree. **Note this only
456 available when building LLVM with CMake**
458 If LLVM is installed in your operating system's normal installation prefix (e.g.
459 on Linux this is usually ``/usr/``) ``find_package(LLVM ...)`` will
460 automatically find LLVM if it is installed correctly. If LLVM is not installed
461 or you wish to build directly against the LLVM build tree you can use
462 ``LLVM_DIR`` as previously mentioned.
464 The ``LLVMConfig.cmake`` file sets various useful variables. Notable variables
468 The path to the LLVM CMake directory (i.e. the directory containing
472 A list of preprocessor defines that should be used when building against LLVM.
474 ``LLVM_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS``
475 This is set to ON if LLVM was built with assertions, otherwise OFF.
478 This is set to ON if LLVM was built with exception handling (EH) enabled,
482 This is set to ON if LLVM was built with run time type information (RTTI),
485 ``LLVM_INCLUDE_DIRS``
486 A list of include paths to directories containing LLVM header files.
488 ``LLVM_PACKAGE_VERSION``
489 The LLVM version. This string can be used with CMake conditionals. E.g. ``if
490 (${LLVM_PACKAGE_VERSION} VERSION_LESS "3.5")``.
492 ``LLVM_TOOLS_BINARY_DIR``
493 The path to the directory containing the LLVM tools (e.g. ``llvm-as``).
495 Notice that in the above example we link ``simple-tool`` against several LLVM
496 libraries. The list of libraries is determined by using the
497 ``llvm_map_components_to_libnames()`` CMake function. For a list of available
498 components look at the output of running ``llvm-config --components``.
500 Note that for LLVM < 3.5 ``llvm_map_components_to_libraries()`` was
501 used instead of ``llvm_map_components_to_libnames()``. This is now deprecated
502 and will be removed in a future version of LLVM.
504 .. _cmake-out-of-source-pass:
506 Developing LLVM passes out of source
507 ------------------------------------
509 It is possible to develop LLVM passes out of LLVM's source tree (i.e. against an
510 installed or built LLVM). An example of a project layout is provided below.
523 Contents of ``<project dir>/CMakeLists.txt``:
525 .. code-block:: cmake
527 find_package(LLVM REQUIRED CONFIG)
529 add_definitions(${LLVM_DEFINITIONS})
530 include_directories(${LLVM_INCLUDE_DIRS})
532 add_subdirectory(<pass name>)
534 Contents of ``<project dir>/<pass name>/CMakeLists.txt``:
536 .. code-block:: cmake
538 add_library(LLVMPassname MODULE Pass.cpp)
540 Note if you intend for this pass to be merged into the LLVM source tree at some
541 point in the future it might make more sense to use LLVM's internal
542 add_llvm_loadable_module function instead by...
545 Adding the following to ``<project dir>/CMakeLists.txt`` (after
546 ``find_package(LLVM ...)``)
548 .. code-block:: cmake
550 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${LLVM_CMAKE_DIR}")
553 And then changing ``<project dir>/<pass name>/CMakeLists.txt`` to
555 .. code-block:: cmake
557 add_llvm_loadable_module(LLVMPassname
561 When you are done developing your pass, you may wish to integrate it
562 into LLVM source tree. You can achieve it in two easy steps:
564 #. Copying ``<pass name>`` folder into ``<LLVM root>/lib/Transform`` directory.
566 #. Adding ``add_subdirectory(<pass name>)`` line into
567 ``<LLVM root>/lib/Transform/CMakeLists.txt``.
569 Compiler/Platform-specific topics
570 =================================
572 Notes for specific compilers and/or platforms.
577 **LLVM_COMPILER_JOBS**:STRING
578 Specifies the maximum number of parallell compiler jobs to use per project
579 when building with msbuild or Visual Studio. Only supported for the Visual
580 Studio 2010 CMake generator. 0 means use all processors. Default is 0.