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12 Getting Started with the LLVM System
16 <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
17 <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
18 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
20 <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#software">Software</a></li>
22 <li><a href="#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a></li>
25 <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
27 <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a></li>
28 <li><a href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a></li>
29 <li><a href="#unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a></li>
30 <li><a href="#checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion</a></li>
31 <li><a href="#git_mirror">LLVM GIT mirror</a></li>
32 <li><a href="#config">Local LLVM Configuration</a></li>
33 <li><a href="#compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a></li>
34 <li><a href="#cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a></li>
35 <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a></li>
36 <li><a href="#optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a></li>
39 <li><a href="#layout">Program layout</a>
41 <li><a href="#examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a></li>
42 <li><a href="#include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a></li>
43 <li><a href="#lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a></li>
44 <li><a href="#projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a></li>
45 <li><a href="#runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a></li>
46 <li><a href="#test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a></li>
47 <li><a href="#test-suite"><tt>test-suite</tt></a></li>
48 <li><a href="#tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a></li>
49 <li><a href="#utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a></li>
52 <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
54 <li><a href="#tutorial4">Example with Clang</a></li>
56 <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
57 <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
60 <div class="doc_author">
62 <a href="mailto:criswell@uiuc.edu">John Criswell</a>,
63 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a>,
64 <a href="http://misha.brukman.net/">Misha Brukman</a>,
65 <a href="http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/~vadve">Vikram Adve</a>, and
66 <a href="mailto:gshi1@uiuc.edu">Guochun Shi</a>.
71 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
73 <a name="overview">Overview</a>
75 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
79 <p>Welcome to LLVM! In order to get started, you first need to know some
80 basic information.</p>
82 <p>First, LLVM comes in three pieces. The first piece is the LLVM
83 suite. This contains all of the tools, libraries, and header files
84 needed to use LLVM. It contains an assembler, disassembler, bitcode
85 analyzer and bitcode optimizer. It also contains basic regression tests that
86 can be used to test the LLVM tools and the Clang front end.</p>
88 <p>The second piece is the <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang</a> front end.
89 This component compiles C, C++, Objective C, and Objective C++ code into LLVM
90 bitcode. Once compiled into LLVM bitcode, a program can be manipulated with the
91 LLVM tools from the LLVM suite.
95 There is a third, optional piece called Test Suite. It is a suite of programs
96 with a testing harness that can be used to further test LLVM's functionality
102 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
104 <a name="quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
106 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
110 <p>The LLVM Getting Started documentation may be out of date. So, the Clang
111 <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html">Getting Started</a> page might
112 also be a good place to start.</p>
114 <p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
117 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
118 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
119 <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
123 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
124 <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm</tt></li>
130 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
131 <li><tt>cd llvm/tools</tt>
132 <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk clang</tt></li>
136 <li>Checkout Compiler-RT:
138 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
139 <li><tt>cd llvm/projects</tt>
140 <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/compiler-rt/trunk
141 compiler-rt</tt></li>
145 <li>Get the Test Suite Source Code <b>[Optional]</b>
147 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
148 <li><tt>cd llvm/projects</tt>
149 <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk test-suite</tt></li>
153 <li>Configure and build LLVM and Clang:
155 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-to-build-llvm</i></tt></li>
156 <li><tt>mkdir build</tt> (for building without polluting the source dir)</li>
157 <li><tt>cd build</tt></li>
158 <li><tt>../llvm/configure [options]</tt></li>
162 <li><tt>--prefix=<i>directory</i></tt> -
163 Specify for <i>directory</i> the full pathname of where you
164 want the LLVM tools and libraries to be installed (default
165 <tt>/usr/local</tt>).</li>
169 <li><tt>--enable-optimized</tt> -
170 Compile with optimizations enabled (default is NO).</li>
174 <li><tt>--enable-assertions</tt> -
175 Compile with assertion checks enabled (default is YES).</li>
178 <li><tt>make [-j]</tt> - The -j specifies the number of jobs (commands) to
179 run simultaneously. This builds both LLVM and Clang for Debug+Asserts mode.
180 The --enabled-optimized configure option is used to specify a Release build.</li>
181 <li><tt>make check-all</tt> -
182 This run the regression tests to ensure everything is in working order.</li>
183 <li><tt>make update</tt> -
184 This command is used to update all the svn repositories at once, rather then
185 having to <tt>cd</tt> into the individual repositories and running
186 <tt>svn update</tt>.</li>
187 <li>It is also possible to use CMake instead of the makefiles. With CMake
188 it is also possible to generate project files for several IDEs: Eclipse
189 CDT4, CodeBlocks, Qt-Creator (use the CodeBlocks generator), KDevelop3.</li>
190 <li>If you get an "internal compiler error (ICE)" or test failures, see
191 <a href="#brokengcc">below</a>.</li>
199 <p>Consult the <a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a> section for
200 detailed information on configuring and compiling LLVM. See <a
201 href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a> for tips that simplify
202 working with the Clang front end and LLVM tools. Go to <a href="#layout">Program
203 Layout</a> to learn about the layout of the source code tree.</p>
207 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
209 <a name="requirements">Requirements</a>
211 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
215 <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given below.
216 This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware and
217 software you will need.</p>
219 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
221 <a name="hardware">Hardware</a>
226 <p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
228 <table cellpadding="3" summary="Known LLVM platforms">
236 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
241 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
251 <td>V9 (Ultrasparc)</td>
256 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
265 <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a></sup></td>
270 <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a>,<a href="#pf_9">9</a></sup></td>
275 <td>Cygwin/Win32</td>
276 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_8">8</a>,
277 <a href="#pf_11">11</a></sup></td>
278 <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.20</td>
282 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_6">6</a>,
283 <a href="#pf_8">8</a>, <a href="#pf_10">10</a>,
284 <a href="#pf_11">11</a></sup></td>
285 <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.20</td>
289 <p>LLVM has partial support for the following platforms:</p>
291 <table summary="LLVM partial platform support">
299 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
300 <td>Visual Studio 2008 or higher<sup><a href="#pf_4">4</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
302 <td>AIX<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_4">4</a></sup></td>
307 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
313 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
318 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
319 <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
323 <td>HP-UX<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
324 <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
330 <td>mingw-w64's GCC-4.5.x<sup><a href="#pf_12">12</a></sup></td>
336 <div class="doc_notes">
338 <li><a name="pf_1">Code generation supported for Pentium processors and
340 <li><a name="pf_2">Code generation supported for 32-bit ABI only</a></li>
341 <li><a name="pf_3">No native code generation</a></li>
342 <li><a name="pf_4">Build is not complete: one or more tools do not link or function</a></li>
343 <li><a name="pf_5">The GCC-based C/C++ frontend does not build</a></li>
344 <li><a name="pf_6">The port is done using the MSYS shell.</a></li>
345 <li><a name="pf_7">Native code generation exists but is not complete.</a></li>
346 <li><a name="pf_8">Binutils 2.20 or later is required to build the assembler
347 generated by LLVM properly.</a></li>
348 <li><a name="pf_9">XCode 2.5 and gcc 4.0.1</a> (Apple Build 5370) will trip
349 internal LLVM assert messages when compiled for Release at optimization
350 levels greater than 0 (i.e., <i>"-O1"</i> and higher).
351 Add <i>OPTIMIZE_OPTION="-O0"</i> to the build command line
352 if compiling for LLVM Release or bootstrapping the LLVM toolchain.</li>
353 <li><a name="pf_10">For MSYS/MinGW on Windows, be sure to install the MSYS
354 version of the perl package, and be sure it appears in your path
355 before any Windows-based versions such as Strawberry Perl and
356 ActivePerl, as these have Windows-specifics that will cause the
357 build to fail.</a></li>
358 <li><a name="pf_11">To use LLVM modules on Win32-based system,
359 you may configure LLVM with <i>"--enable-shared"</i>.</a></li>
360 <li><a name="pf_12">To compile SPU backend, you need to add
361 <tt>"LDFLAGS=-Wl,--stack,16777216"</tt> to configure.</a></li>
365 <p>Note that you will need about 1-3 GB of space for a full LLVM build in Debug
366 mode, depending on the system (it is so large because of all the debugging
367 information and the fact that the libraries are statically linked into multiple
368 tools). If you do not need many of the tools and you are space-conscious, you
369 can pass <tt>ONLY_TOOLS="tools you need"</tt> to make. The Release build
370 requires considerably less space.</p>
372 <p>The LLVM suite <i>may</i> compile on other platforms, but it is not
373 guaranteed to do so. If compilation is successful, the LLVM utilities should be
374 able to assemble, disassemble, analyze, and optimize LLVM bitcode. Code
375 generation should work as well, although the generated native code may not work
376 on your platform.</p>
380 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
382 <a name="software">Software</a>
385 <p>Compiling LLVM requires that you have several software packages
386 installed. The table below lists those required packages. The Package column
387 is the usual name for the software package that LLVM depends on. The Version
388 column provides "known to work" versions of the package. The Notes column
389 describes how LLVM uses the package and provides other details.</p>
390 <table summary="Packages required to compile LLVM">
391 <tr><th>Package</th><th>Version</th><th>Notes</th></tr>
394 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/make">GNU Make</a></td>
395 <td>3.79, 3.79.1</td>
396 <td>Makefile/build processor</td>
400 <td><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/">GCC</a></td>
402 <td>C/C++ compiler<sup><a href="#sf1">1</a></sup></td>
406 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/">TeXinfo</a></td>
408 <td>For building the CFE</td>
412 <td><a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html">SVN</a></td>
414 <td>Subversion access to LLVM<sup><a href="#sf2">2</a></sup></td>
419 Are DejaGnu and expect obsolete?
420 Shall we mention Python? -->
423 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/dejagnu">DejaGnu</a></td>
425 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
429 <td><a href="http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/">tcl</a></td>
431 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
435 <td><a href="http://expect.nist.gov/">expect</a></td>
437 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
441 <td><a href="http://www.perl.com/download.csp">perl</a></td>
447 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/m4">GNU M4</a>
449 <td>Macro processor for configuration<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
453 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/">GNU Autoconf</a></td>
455 <td>Configuration script builder<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
459 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/">GNU Automake</a></td>
461 <td>aclocal macro generator<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
465 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/libtool">libtool</a></td>
467 <td>Shared library manager<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
473 <div class="doc_notes">
475 <li><a name="sf1">Only the C and C++ languages are needed so there's no
476 need to build the other languages for LLVM's purposes.</a> See
477 <a href="#brokengcc">below</a> for specific version info.</li>
478 <li><a name="sf2">You only need Subversion if you intend to build from the
479 latest LLVM sources. If you're working from a release distribution, you
480 don't need Subversion.</a></li>
481 <li><a name="sf3">Only needed if you want to run the automated test
482 suite in the <tt>llvm/test</tt> directory.</a></li>
483 <li><a name="sf4">If you want to make changes to the configure scripts,
484 you will need GNU autoconf (2.60), and consequently, GNU M4 (version 1.4
485 or higher). You will also need automake (1.9.6). We only use aclocal
486 from that package.</a></li>
490 <p>Additionally, your compilation host is expected to have the usual
491 plethora of Unix utilities. Specifically:</p>
493 <li><b>ar</b> - archive library builder</li>
494 <li><b>bzip2*</b> - bzip2 command for distribution generation</li>
495 <li><b>bunzip2*</b> - bunzip2 command for distribution checking</li>
496 <li><b>chmod</b> - change permissions on a file</li>
497 <li><b>cat</b> - output concatenation utility</li>
498 <li><b>cp</b> - copy files</li>
499 <li><b>date</b> - print the current date/time </li>
500 <li><b>echo</b> - print to standard output</li>
501 <li><b>egrep</b> - extended regular expression search utility</li>
502 <li><b>find</b> - find files/dirs in a file system</li>
503 <li><b>grep</b> - regular expression search utility</li>
504 <li><b>gzip*</b> - gzip command for distribution generation</li>
505 <li><b>gunzip*</b> - gunzip command for distribution checking</li>
506 <li><b>install</b> - install directories/files </li>
507 <li><b>mkdir</b> - create a directory</li>
508 <li><b>mv</b> - move (rename) files</li>
509 <li><b>ranlib</b> - symbol table builder for archive libraries</li>
510 <li><b>rm</b> - remove (delete) files and directories</li>
511 <li><b>sed</b> - stream editor for transforming output</li>
512 <li><b>sh</b> - Bourne shell for make build scripts</li>
513 <li><b>tar</b> - tape archive for distribution generation</li>
514 <li><b>test</b> - test things in file system</li>
515 <li><b>unzip*</b> - unzip command for distribution checking</li>
516 <li><b>zip*</b> - zip command for distribution generation</li>
520 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
522 <a name="brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a>
527 <p>LLVM is very demanding of the host C++ compiler, and as such tends to expose
528 bugs in the compiler. In particular, several versions of GCC crash when trying
529 to compile LLVM. We routinely use GCC 4.2 (and higher) or Clang.
530 Other versions of GCC will probably work as well. GCC versions listed
531 here are known to not work. If you are using one of these versions, please try
532 to upgrade your GCC to something more recent. If you run into a problem with a
533 version of GCC not listed here, please <a href="mailto:llvmdev@cs.uiuc.edu">let
534 us know</a>. Please use the "<tt>gcc -v</tt>" command to find out which version
535 of GCC you are using.
538 <p><b>GCC versions prior to 3.0</b>: GCC 2.96.x and before had several
539 problems in the STL that effectively prevent it from compiling LLVM.
542 <p><b>GCC 3.2.2 and 3.2.3</b>: These versions of GCC fails to compile LLVM with
543 a bogus template error. This was fixed in later GCCs.</p>
545 <p><b>GCC 3.3.2</b>: This version of GCC suffered from a <a
546 href="http://gcc.gnu.org/PR13392">serious bug</a> which causes it to crash in
547 the "<tt>convert_from_eh_region_ranges_1</tt>" GCC function.</p>
549 <p><b>Cygwin GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 commonly shipped with
550 Cygwin does not work.</p>
551 <p><b>SuSE GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 shipped with SuSE 9.1 (and
552 possibly others) does not compile LLVM correctly (it appears that exception
553 handling is broken in some cases). Please download the FSF 3.3.3 or upgrade
554 to a newer version of GCC.</p>
555 <p><b>GCC 3.4.0 on linux/x86 (32-bit)</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
556 code generator, causing an infinite loop in the llvm-gcc build when built
557 with optimizations enabled (i.e. a release build).</p>
558 <p><b>GCC 3.4.2 on linux/x86 (32-bit)</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
559 code generator at -O3, as with 3.4.0. However gcc 3.4.2 (unlike 3.4.0)
560 correctly compiles LLVM at -O2. A work around is to build release LLVM
561 builds with "make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2 ..."</p>
562 <p><b>GCC 3.4.x on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1056">
563 miscompiles portions of LLVM</a>.</p>
564 <p><b>GCC 3.4.4 (CodeSourcery ARM 2005q3-2)</b>: this compiler miscompiles LLVM
565 when building with optimizations enabled. It appears to work with
566 "<tt>make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O1</tt>" or build a debug
568 <p><b>IA-64 GCC 4.0.0</b>: The IA-64 version of GCC 4.0.0 is known to
570 <p><b>Apple Xcode 2.3</b>: GCC crashes when compiling LLVM at -O3 (which is the
571 default with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1. To work around this, build with
572 "ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2".</p>
573 <p><b>GCC 4.1.1</b>: GCC fails to build LLVM with template concept check errors
574 compiling some files. At the time of this writing, GCC mainline (4.2)
575 did not share the problem.</p>
576 <p><b>GCC 4.1.1 on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1063">
577 miscompiles portions of LLVM</a> when compiling llvm itself into 64-bit
578 code. LLVM will appear to mostly work but will be buggy, e.g. failing
579 portions of its testsuite.</p>
580 <p><b>GCC 4.1.2 on OpenSUSE</b>: Seg faults during libstdc++ build and on x86_64
581 platforms compiling md5.c gets a mangled constant.</p>
582 <p><b>GCC 4.1.2 (20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) on Debian</b>: Appears
583 to miscompile parts of LLVM 2.4. One symptom is ValueSymbolTable complaining
584 about symbols remaining in the table on destruction.</p>
585 <p><b>GCC 4.1.2 20071124 (Red Hat 4.1.2-42)</b>: Suffers from the same symptoms
586 as the previous one. It appears to work with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=0 (the default).</p>
587 <p><b>Cygwin GCC 4.3.2 20080827 (beta) 2</b>:
588 Users <a href="http://llvm.org/PR4145">reported</a> various problems related
589 with link errors when using this GCC version.</p>
590 <p><b>Debian GCC 4.3.2 on X86</b>: Crashes building some files in LLVM 2.6.</p>
591 <p><b>GCC 4.3.3 (Debian 4.3.3-10) on ARM</b>: Miscompiles parts of LLVM 2.6
592 when optimizations are turned on. The symptom is an infinite loop in
593 FoldingSetImpl::RemoveNode while running the code generator.</p>
594 <p><b>GCC 4.3.5 and GCC 4.4.5 on ARM</b>: These can miscompile <tt>value >>
595 1</tt> even at -O0. A test failure in <tt>test/Assembler/alignstack.ll</tt> is
596 one symptom of the problem.
597 <p><b>GNU ld 2.16.X</b>. Some 2.16.X versions of the ld linker will produce very
598 long warning messages complaining that some ".gnu.linkonce.t.*" symbol was
599 defined in a discarded section. You can safely ignore these messages as they are
600 erroneous and the linkage is correct. These messages disappear using ld
603 <p><b>GNU binutils 2.17</b>: Binutils 2.17 contains <a
604 href="http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3111">a bug</a> which
605 causes huge link times (minutes instead of seconds) when building LLVM. We
606 recommend upgrading to a newer version (2.17.50.0.4 or later).</p>
608 <p><b>GNU Binutils 2.19.1 Gold</b>: This version of Gold contained
609 <a href="http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9836">a bug</a>
610 which causes intermittent failures when building LLVM with position independent
611 code. The symptom is an error about cyclic dependencies. We recommend
612 upgrading to a newer version of Gold.</p>
618 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
620 <a name="starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
622 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
626 <p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
627 LLVM and to give you some basic information about the LLVM environment.</p>
629 <p>The later sections of this guide describe the <a
630 href="#layout">general layout</a> of the the LLVM source tree, a <a
631 href="#tutorial">simple example</a> using the LLVM tool chain, and <a
632 href="#links">links</a> to find more information about LLVM or to get
635 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
637 <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
642 <p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
643 specific to the local system and working environment. <i>These are not
644 environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
645 of this document below</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
646 each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
647 All these paths are absolute:</p>
652 This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
657 This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
658 tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It
659 can be the same as SRC_ROOT).
666 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
668 <a name="environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a>
674 In order to compile and use LLVM, you may need to set some environment
678 <dt><tt>LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH</tt>=<tt>/path/to/your/bitcode/libs</tt></dt>
679 <dd>[Optional] This environment variable helps LLVM linking tools find the
680 locations of your bitcode libraries. It is provided only as a
681 convenience since you can specify the paths using the -L options of the
682 tools and the C/C++ front-end will automatically use the bitcode files
684 <tt>lib</tt> directory.</dd>
689 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
691 <a name="unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a>
697 If you have the LLVM distribution, you will need to unpack it before you
698 can begin to compile it. LLVM is distributed as a set of two files: the LLVM
699 suite and the LLVM GCC front end compiled for your platform. There is an
700 additional test suite that is optional. Each file is a TAR archive that is
701 compressed with the gzip program.
704 <p>The files are as follows, with <em>x.y</em> marking the version number:
706 <dt><tt>llvm-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
707 <dd>Source release for the LLVM libraries and tools.<br></dd>
709 <dt><tt>llvm-test-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
710 <dd>Source release for the LLVM test-suite.</dd>
712 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc-4.2-x.y.source.tar.gz</tt></dt>
713 <dd>Source release of the llvm-gcc-4.2 front end. See README.LLVM in the root
714 directory for build instructions.<br></dd>
716 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc-4.2-x.y-platform.tar.gz</tt></dt>
717 <dd>Binary release of the llvm-gcc-4.2 front end for a specific platform.<br></dd>
723 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
725 <a name="checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion</a>
730 <p>If you have access to our Subversion repository, you can get a fresh copy of
731 the entire source code. All you need to do is check it out from Subversion as
735 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
736 <li>Read-Only: <tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm</tt></li>
737 <li>Read-Write:<tt>svn co https://user@llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk
742 <p>This will create an '<tt>llvm</tt>' directory in the current
743 directory and fully populate it with the LLVM source code, Makefiles,
744 test directories, and local copies of documentation files.</p>
746 <p>If you want to get a specific release (as opposed to the most recent
747 revision), you can checkout it from the '<tt>tags</tt>' directory (instead of
748 '<tt>trunk</tt>'). The following releases are located in the following
749 subdirectories of the '<tt>tags</tt>' directory:</p>
752 <li>Release 2.9: <b>RELEASE_29/final</b></li>
753 <li>Release 2.8: <b>RELEASE_28</b></li>
754 <li>Release 2.7: <b>RELEASE_27</b></li>
755 <li>Release 2.6: <b>RELEASE_26</b></li>
756 <li>Release 2.5: <b>RELEASE_25</b></li>
757 <li>Release 2.4: <b>RELEASE_24</b></li>
758 <li>Release 2.3: <b>RELEASE_23</b></li>
759 <li>Release 2.2: <b>RELEASE_22</b></li>
760 <li>Release 2.1: <b>RELEASE_21</b></li>
761 <li>Release 2.0: <b>RELEASE_20</b></li>
762 <li>Release 1.9: <b>RELEASE_19</b></li>
763 <li>Release 1.8: <b>RELEASE_18</b></li>
764 <li>Release 1.7: <b>RELEASE_17</b></li>
765 <li>Release 1.6: <b>RELEASE_16</b></li>
766 <li>Release 1.5: <b>RELEASE_15</b></li>
767 <li>Release 1.4: <b>RELEASE_14</b></li>
768 <li>Release 1.3: <b>RELEASE_13</b></li>
769 <li>Release 1.2: <b>RELEASE_12</b></li>
770 <li>Release 1.1: <b>RELEASE_11</b></li>
771 <li>Release 1.0: <b>RELEASE_1</b></li>
774 <p>If you would like to get the LLVM test suite (a separate package as of 1.4),
775 you get it from the Subversion repository:</p>
777 <div class="doc_code">
780 % svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk test-suite
784 <p>By placing it in the <tt>llvm/projects</tt>, it will be automatically
785 configured by the LLVM configure script as well as automatically updated when
786 you run <tt>svn update</tt>.</p>
790 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
792 <a name="git_mirror">GIT mirror</a>
797 <p>GIT mirrors are available for a number of LLVM subprojects. These mirrors
798 sync automatically with each Subversion commit and contain all necessary
799 git-svn marks (so, you can recreate git-svn metadata locally). Note that right
800 now mirrors reflect only <tt>trunk</tt> for each project. You can do the
801 read-only GIT clone of LLVM via:</p>
803 <pre class="doc_code">
804 git clone http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git
807 <p>If you want to check out clang too, run:</p>
809 <pre class="doc_code">
810 git clone http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git
812 git clone http://llvm.org/git/clang.git
816 Since the upstream repository is in Subversion, you should use
817 <tt>"git pull --rebase"</tt>
818 instead of <tt>"git pull"</tt> to avoid generating a non-linear
819 history in your clone.
820 To configure <tt>"git pull"</tt> to pass <tt>--rebase</tt> by default
821 on the master branch, run the following command:
824 <pre class="doc_code">
825 git config branch.master.rebase true
828 <h4>Sending patches with Git</h4>
831 Please read <a href="DeveloperPolicy.html#patches">Developer Policy</a>, too.
835 Assume <tt>master</tt> points the upstream and <tt>mybranch</tt> points your
836 working branch, and <tt>mybranch</tt> is rebased onto <tt>master</tt>.
837 At first you may check sanity of whitespaces:
840 <pre class="doc_code">
841 git diff --check master..mybranch
845 The easiest way to generate a patch is as below:
848 <pre class="doc_code">
849 git diff master..mybranch > /path/to/mybranch.diff
853 It is a little different from svn-generated diff. git-diff-generated diff has
854 prefixes like <tt>a/</tt> and <tt>b/</tt>. Don't worry, most developers might
855 know it could be accepted with <tt>patch -p1 -N</tt>.
859 But you may generate patchset with git-format-patch. It generates
860 by-each-commit patchset. To generate patch files to attach to your article:
863 <pre class="doc_code">
864 git format-patch --no-attach master..mybranch -o /path/to/your/patchset
868 If you would like to send patches directly, you may use git-send-email or
869 git-imap-send. Here is an example to generate the patchset in Gmail's [Drafts].
872 <pre class="doc_code">
873 git format-patch --attach master..mybranch --stdout | git imap-send
877 Then, your .git/config should have [imap] sections.
880 <pre class="doc_code">
882 host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
883 user = <em>your.gmail.account</em>@gmail.com
884 pass = <em>himitsu!</em>
888 folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
889 ; example for Japanese, "Modified UTF-7" encoded.
890 folder = "[Gmail]/&Tgtm+DBN-"
891 ; example for Traditional Chinese
892 folder = "[Gmail]/&g0l6Pw-"
897 <h4>For developers to work with git-svn</h4>
900 <p>To set up clone from which you can submit code using
901 <tt>git-svn</tt>, run:</p>
903 <pre class="doc_code">
904 git clone http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git
906 git svn init https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk --username=<username>
907 git config svn-remote.svn.fetch :refs/remotes/origin/master
908 git svn rebase -l # -l avoids fetching ahead of the git mirror.
910 # If you have clang too:
912 git clone http://llvm.org/git/clang.git
914 git svn init https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk --username=<username>
915 git config svn-remote.svn.fetch :refs/remotes/origin/master
919 <p>To update this clone without generating git-svn tags that conflict
920 with the upstream git repo, run:</p>
922 <pre class="doc_code">
923 git fetch && (cd tools/clang && git fetch) # Get matching revisions of both trees.
927 git checkout master &&
931 <p>This leaves your working directories on their master branches, so
932 you'll need to <tt>checkout</tt> each working branch individually and
933 <tt>rebase</tt> it on top of its parent branch. (Note: This script is
934 intended for relative newbies to git. If you have more experience,
935 you can likely improve on it.)</p>
937 <p>The git-svn metadata can get out of sync after you mess around with
938 branches and <code>dcommit</code>. When that happens, <code>git svn
939 dcommit</code> stops working, complaining about files with uncommitted
940 changes. The fix is to rebuild the metadata:</p>
942 <pre class="doc_code">
951 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
953 <a name="config">Local LLVM Configuration</a>
958 <p>Once checked out from the Subversion repository, the LLVM suite source
960 configured via the <tt>configure</tt> script. This script sets variables in the
961 various <tt>*.in</tt> files, most notably <tt>llvm/Makefile.config</tt> and
962 <tt>llvm/include/Config/config.h</tt>. It also populates <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> with
963 the Makefiles needed to begin building LLVM.</p>
965 <p>The following environment variables are used by the <tt>configure</tt>
966 script to configure the build system:</p>
968 <table summary="LLVM configure script environment variables">
969 <tr><th>Variable</th><th>Purpose</th></tr>
972 <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C compiler to use. By default,
973 <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C compiler in
974 <tt>PATH</tt>. Use this variable to override
975 <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
979 <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C++ compiler to use. By default,
980 <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C++ compiler in
981 <tt>PATH</tt>. Use this variable to override
982 <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
986 <p>The following options can be used to set or enable LLVM specific options:</p>
989 <dt><i>--enable-optimized</i></dt>
991 Enables optimized compilation (debugging symbols are removed
992 and GCC optimization flags are enabled). Note that this is the default
993 setting if you are using the LLVM distribution. The default behavior
994 of an Subversion checkout is to use an unoptimized build (also known as a
998 <dt><i>--enable-debug-runtime</i></dt>
1000 Enables debug symbols in the runtime libraries. The default is to strip
1001 debug symbols from the runtime libraries.
1003 <dt><i>--enable-jit</i></dt>
1005 Compile the Just In Time (JIT) compiler functionality. This is not
1007 on all platforms. The default is dependent on platform, so it is best
1008 to explicitly enable it if you want it.
1011 <dt><i>--enable-targets=</i><tt>target-option</tt></dt>
1012 <dd>Controls which targets will be built and linked into llc. The default
1013 value for <tt>target_options</tt> is "all" which builds and links all
1014 available targets. The value "host-only" can be specified to build only a
1015 native compiler (no cross-compiler targets available). The "native" target is
1016 selected as the target of the build host. You can also specify a comma
1017 separated list of target names that you want available in llc. The target
1018 names use all lower case. The current set of targets is: <br>
1019 <tt>arm, cbe, cpp, hexagon, mblaze, mips, mipsel, msp430, powerpc, ptx, sparc, spu, x86, x86_64, xcore</tt>.
1021 <dt><i>--enable-doxygen</i></dt>
1022 <dd>Look for the doxygen program and enable construction of doxygen based
1023 documentation from the source code. This is disabled by default because
1024 generating the documentation can take a long time and producess 100s of
1025 megabytes of output.</dd>
1026 <dt><i>--with-udis86</i></dt>
1027 <dd>LLVM can use external disassembler library for various purposes (now it's
1028 used only for examining code produced by JIT). This option will enable usage
1029 of <a href="http://udis86.sourceforge.net/">udis86</a> x86 (both 32 and 64
1030 bits) disassembler library.</dd>
1033 <p>To configure LLVM, follow these steps:</p>
1036 <li><p>Change directory into the object root directory:</p>
1038 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></pre></div></li>
1040 <li><p>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script located in the LLVM source
1043 <div class="doc_code">
1044 <pre>% <i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure --prefix=/install/path [other options]</pre>
1050 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1052 <a name="compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a>
1057 <p>Once you have configured LLVM, you can build it. There are three types of
1063 These builds are the default when one is using an Subversion checkout and
1064 types <tt>gmake</tt> (unless the <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option was
1065 used during configuration). The build system will compile the tools and
1066 libraries with debugging information. To get a Debug Build using the
1067 LLVM distribution the <tt>--disable-optimized</tt> option must be passed
1068 to <tt>configure</tt>.
1071 <dt>Release (Optimized) Builds
1073 These builds are enabled with the <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option to
1074 <tt>configure</tt> or by specifying <tt>ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt> on the
1075 <tt>gmake</tt> command line. For these builds, the build system will
1076 compile the tools and libraries with GCC optimizations enabled and strip
1077 debugging information from the libraries and executables it generates.
1078 Note that Release Builds are default when using an LLVM distribution.
1083 These builds are for use with profiling. They compile profiling
1084 information into the code for use with programs like <tt>gprof</tt>.
1085 Profile builds must be started by specifying <tt>ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
1086 on the <tt>gmake</tt> command line.
1089 <p>Once you have LLVM configured, you can build it by entering the
1090 <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> directory and issuing the following command:</p>
1092 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% gmake</pre></div>
1094 <p>If the build fails, please <a href="#brokengcc">check here</a> to see if you
1095 are using a version of GCC that is known not to compile LLVM.</p>
1098 If you have multiple processors in your machine, you may wish to use some of
1099 the parallel build options provided by GNU Make. For example, you could use the
1102 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% gmake -j2</pre></div>
1104 <p>There are several special targets which are useful when working with the LLVM
1108 <dt><tt>gmake clean</tt>
1110 Removes all files generated by the build. This includes object files,
1111 generated C/C++ files, libraries, and executables.
1114 <dt><tt>gmake dist-clean</tt>
1116 Removes everything that <tt>gmake clean</tt> does, but also removes files
1117 generated by <tt>configure</tt>. It attempts to return the source tree to the
1118 original state in which it was shipped.
1121 <dt><tt>gmake install</tt>
1123 Installs LLVM header files, libraries, tools, and documentation in a
1125 under $PREFIX, specified with <tt>./configure --prefix=[dir]</tt>, which
1126 defaults to <tt>/usr/local</tt>.
1129 <dt><tt>gmake -C runtime install-bytecode</tt>
1131 Assuming you built LLVM into $OBJDIR, when this command is run, it will
1132 install bitcode libraries into the GCC front end's bitcode library
1133 directory. If you need to update your bitcode libraries,
1134 this is the target to use once you've built them.
1138 <p>Please see the <a href="MakefileGuide.html">Makefile Guide</a> for further
1139 details on these <tt>make</tt> targets and descriptions of other targets
1142 <p>It is also possible to override default values from <tt>configure</tt> by
1143 declaring variables on the command line. The following are some examples:</p>
1146 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt>
1148 Perform a Release (Optimized) build.
1151 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 DISABLE_ASSERTIONS=1</tt>
1153 Perform a Release (Optimized) build without assertions enabled.
1156 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=0</tt>
1158 Perform a Debug build.
1161 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
1163 Perform a Profiling build.
1166 <dt><tt>gmake VERBOSE=1</tt>
1168 Print what <tt>gmake</tt> is doing on standard output.
1171 <dt><tt>gmake TOOL_VERBOSE=1</tt></dt>
1172 <dd>Ask each tool invoked by the makefiles to print out what it is doing on
1173 the standard output. This also implies <tt>VERBOSE=1</tt>.
1177 <p>Every directory in the LLVM object tree includes a <tt>Makefile</tt> to build
1178 it and any subdirectories that it contains. Entering any directory inside the
1179 LLVM object tree and typing <tt>gmake</tt> should rebuild anything in or below
1180 that directory that is out of date.</p>
1184 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1186 <a name="cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a>
1190 <p>It is possible to cross-compile LLVM itself. That is, you can create LLVM
1191 executables and libraries to be hosted on a platform different from the
1192 platform where they are build (a Canadian Cross build). To configure a
1193 cross-compile, supply the configure script with <tt>--build</tt> and
1194 <tt>--host</tt> options that are different. The values of these options must
1195 be legal target triples that your GCC compiler supports.</p>
1197 <p>The result of such a build is executables that are not runnable on
1198 on the build host (--build option) but can be executed on the compile host
1199 (--host option).</p>
1202 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1204 <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
1209 <p>The LLVM build system is capable of sharing a single LLVM source tree among
1210 several LLVM builds. Hence, it is possible to build LLVM for several different
1211 platforms or configurations using the same source tree.</p>
1213 <p>This is accomplished in the typical autoconf manner:</p>
1216 <li><p>Change directory to where the LLVM object files should live:</p>
1218 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></pre></div></li>
1220 <li><p>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script found in the LLVM source
1223 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% <i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure</pre></div></li>
1226 <p>The LLVM build will place files underneath <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> in directories
1227 named after the build type:</p>
1230 <dt>Debug Builds with assertions enabled (the default)
1234 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug+Asserts/bin</tt>
1236 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug+Asserts/lib</tt>
1244 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/bin</tt>
1246 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/lib</tt>
1254 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/bin</tt>
1256 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/lib</tt>
1262 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1264 <a name="optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a>
1270 If you're running on a Linux system that supports the "<a
1271 href="http://www.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/~rguenth/linux/binfmt_misc.html">binfmt_misc</a>"
1272 module, and you have root access on the system, you can set your system up to
1273 execute LLVM bitcode files directly. To do this, use commands like this (the
1274 first command may not be required if you are already using the module):</p>
1276 <div class="doc_code">
1278 $ mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
1279 $ echo ':llvm:M::BC::/path/to/lli:' > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
1280 $ chmod u+x hello.bc (if needed)
1286 This allows you to execute LLVM bitcode files directly. On Debian, you
1287 can also use this command instead of the 'echo' command above:
1290 <div class="doc_code">
1292 $ sudo update-binfmts --install llvm /path/to/lli --magic 'BC'
1300 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1302 <a name="layout">Program Layout</a>
1304 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1308 <p>One useful source of information about the LLVM source base is the LLVM <a
1309 href="http://www.doxygen.org/">doxygen</a> documentation available at <tt><a
1310 href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">http://llvm.org/doxygen/</a></tt>.
1311 The following is a brief introduction to code layout:</p>
1313 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1315 <a name="examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a>
1319 <p>This directory contains some simple examples of how to use the LLVM IR and
1323 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1325 <a name="include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a>
1330 <p>This directory contains public header files exported from the LLVM
1331 library. The three main subdirectories of this directory are:</p>
1334 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm</b></tt></dt>
1335 <dd>This directory contains all of the LLVM specific header files. This
1336 directory also has subdirectories for different portions of LLVM:
1337 <tt>Analysis</tt>, <tt>CodeGen</tt>, <tt>Target</tt>, <tt>Transforms</tt>,
1340 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Support</b></tt></dt>
1341 <dd>This directory contains generic support libraries that are provided with
1342 LLVM but not necessarily specific to LLVM. For example, some C++ STL utilities
1343 and a Command Line option processing library store their header files here.
1346 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Config</b></tt></dt>
1347 <dd>This directory contains header files configured by the <tt>configure</tt>
1348 script. They wrap "standard" UNIX and C header files. Source code can
1349 include these header files which automatically take care of the conditional
1350 #includes that the <tt>configure</tt> script generates.</dd>
1354 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1356 <a name="lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a>
1361 <p>This directory contains most of the source files of the LLVM system. In LLVM,
1362 almost all code exists in libraries, making it very easy to share code among the
1363 different <a href="#tools">tools</a>.</p>
1366 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/VMCore/</b></tt></dt>
1367 <dd> This directory holds the core LLVM source files that implement core
1368 classes like Instruction and BasicBlock.</dd>
1370 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/AsmParser/</b></tt></dt>
1371 <dd>This directory holds the source code for the LLVM assembly language parser
1374 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/BitCode/</b></tt></dt>
1375 <dd>This directory holds code for reading and write LLVM bitcode.</dd>
1377 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Analysis/</b></tt><dd>This directory contains a variety of
1378 different program analyses, such as Dominator Information, Call Graphs,
1379 Induction Variables, Interval Identification, Natural Loop Identification,
1382 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Transforms/</b></tt></dt>
1383 <dd> This directory contains the source code for the LLVM to LLVM program
1384 transformations, such as Aggressive Dead Code Elimination, Sparse Conditional
1385 Constant Propagation, Inlining, Loop Invariant Code Motion, Dead Global
1386 Elimination, and many others.</dd>
1388 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Target/</b></tt></dt>
1389 <dd> This directory contains files that describe various target architectures
1390 for code generation. For example, the <tt>llvm/lib/Target/X86</tt>
1391 directory holds the X86 machine description while
1392 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/CBackend</tt> implements the LLVM-to-C converter.</dd>
1394 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/CodeGen/</b></tt></dt>
1395 <dd> This directory contains the major parts of the code generator: Instruction
1396 Selector, Instruction Scheduling, and Register Allocation.</dd>
1398 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/MC/</b></tt></dt>
1399 <dd>(FIXME: T.B.D.)</dd>
1401 <!--FIXME: obsoleted -->
1402 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Debugger/</b></tt></dt>
1403 <dd> This directory contains the source level debugger library that makes
1404 it possible to instrument LLVM programs so that a debugger could identify
1405 source code locations at which the program is executing.</dd>
1407 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/ExecutionEngine/</b></tt></dt>
1408 <dd> This directory contains libraries for executing LLVM bitcode directly
1409 at runtime in both interpreted and JIT compiled fashions.</dd>
1411 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Support/</b></tt></dt>
1412 <dd> This directory contains the source code that corresponds to the header
1413 files located in <tt>llvm/include/ADT/</tt>
1414 and <tt>llvm/include/Support/</tt>.</dd>
1419 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1421 <a name="projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a>
1425 <p>This directory contains projects that are not strictly part of LLVM but are
1426 shipped with LLVM. This is also the directory where you should create your own
1427 LLVM-based projects. See <tt>llvm/projects/sample</tt> for an example of how
1428 to set up your own project.</p>
1431 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1433 <a name="runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a>
1438 <p>This directory contains libraries which are compiled into LLVM bitcode and
1439 used when linking programs with the Clang front end. Most of these libraries are
1440 skeleton versions of real libraries; for example, libc is a stripped down
1441 version of glibc.</p>
1443 <p>Unlike the rest of the LLVM suite, this directory needs the LLVM GCC front
1448 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1450 <a name="test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a>
1454 <p>This directory contains feature and regression tests and other basic sanity
1455 checks on the LLVM infrastructure. These are intended to run quickly and cover
1456 a lot of territory without being exhaustive.</p>
1459 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1461 <a name="test-suite"><tt>test-suite</tt></a>
1465 <p>This is not a directory in the normal llvm module; it is a separate
1467 module that must be checked out (usually to <tt>projects/test-suite</tt>).
1469 module contains a comprehensive correctness, performance, and benchmarking
1471 suite for LLVM. It is a separate Subversion module because not every LLVM
1473 interested in downloading or building such a comprehensive test suite. For
1474 further details on this test suite, please see the
1475 <a href="TestingGuide.html">Testing Guide</a> document.</p>
1478 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1480 <a name="tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a>
1485 <p>The <b>tools</b> directory contains the executables built out of the
1486 libraries above, which form the main part of the user interface. You can
1487 always get help for a tool by typing <tt>tool_name -help</tt>. The
1488 following is a brief introduction to the most important tools. More detailed
1489 information is in the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">Command Guide</a>.</p>
1493 <dt><tt><b>bugpoint</b></tt></dt>
1494 <dd><tt>bugpoint</tt> is used to debug
1495 optimization passes or code generation backends by narrowing down the
1496 given test case to the minimum number of passes and/or instructions that
1497 still cause a problem, whether it is a crash or miscompilation. See <a
1498 href="HowToSubmitABug.html">HowToSubmitABug.html</a> for more information
1499 on using <tt>bugpoint</tt>.</dd>
1501 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ar</b></tt></dt>
1502 <dd>The archiver produces an archive containing
1503 the given LLVM bitcode files, optionally with an index for faster
1506 <dt><tt><b>llvm-as</b></tt></dt>
1507 <dd>The assembler transforms the human readable LLVM assembly to LLVM
1510 <dt><tt><b>llvm-dis</b></tt></dt>
1511 <dd>The disassembler transforms the LLVM bitcode to human readable
1514 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ld</b></tt></dt>
1515 <dd><tt>llvm-ld</tt> is a general purpose and extensible linker for LLVM.
1516 It performs standard link time optimizations and allows optimization
1517 modules to be loaded and run so that language specific optimizations can
1518 be applied at link time.</dd>
1520 <dt><tt><b>llvm-link</b></tt></dt>
1521 <dd><tt>llvm-link</tt>, not surprisingly, links multiple LLVM modules into
1522 a single program.</dd>
1524 <dt><tt><b>lli</b></tt></dt>
1525 <dd><tt>lli</tt> is the LLVM interpreter, which
1526 can directly execute LLVM bitcode (although very slowly...). For architectures
1527 that support it (currently x86, Sparc, and PowerPC), by default, <tt>lli</tt>
1528 will function as a Just-In-Time compiler (if the functionality was compiled
1529 in), and will execute the code <i>much</i> faster than the interpreter.</dd>
1531 <dt><tt><b>llc</b></tt></dt>
1532 <dd> <tt>llc</tt> is the LLVM backend compiler, which
1533 translates LLVM bitcode to a native code assembly file or to C code (with
1534 the -march=c option).</dd>
1536 <dt><tt><b>llvm-gcc</b></tt></dt>
1537 <dd><tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is a GCC-based C frontend that has been retargeted to
1538 use LLVM as its backend instead of GCC's RTL backend. It can also emit LLVM
1539 bitcode or assembly (with the <tt>-emit-llvm</tt> option) instead of the
1540 usual machine code output. It works just like any other GCC compiler,
1541 taking the typical <tt>-c, -S, -E, -o</tt> options that are typically used.
1542 Additionally, the the source code for <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is available as a
1543 separate Subversion module.</dd>
1545 <dt><tt><b>opt</b></tt></dt>
1546 <dd><tt>opt</tt> reads LLVM bitcode, applies a series of LLVM to LLVM
1547 transformations (which are specified on the command line), and then outputs
1548 the resultant bitcode. The '<tt>opt -help</tt>' command is a good way to
1549 get a list of the program transformations available in LLVM.<br>
1550 <dd><tt>opt</tt> can also be used to run a specific analysis on an input
1551 LLVM bitcode file and print out the results. It is primarily useful for
1552 debugging analyses, or familiarizing yourself with what an analysis does.</dd>
1556 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1558 <a name="utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a>
1563 <p>This directory contains utilities for working with LLVM source code, and some
1564 of the utilities are actually required as part of the build process because they
1565 are code generators for parts of LLVM infrastructure.</p>
1568 <dt><tt><b>codegen-diff</b></tt> <dd><tt>codegen-diff</tt> is a script
1569 that finds differences between code that LLC generates and code that LLI
1570 generates. This is a useful tool if you are debugging one of them,
1571 assuming that the other generates correct output. For the full user
1572 manual, run <tt>`perldoc codegen-diff'</tt>.<br><br>
1574 <dt><tt><b>emacs/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>emacs</tt> directory contains
1575 syntax-highlighting files which will work with Emacs and XEmacs editors,
1576 providing syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1577 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1578 the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1580 <dt><tt><b>getsrcs.sh</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>getsrcs.sh</tt> script finds
1581 and outputs all non-generated source files, which is useful if one wishes
1582 to do a lot of development across directories and does not want to
1583 individually find each file. One way to use it is to run, for example:
1584 <tt>xemacs `utils/getsources.sh`</tt> from the top of your LLVM source
1587 <dt><tt><b>llvmgrep</b></tt></dt>
1588 <dd>This little tool performs an "egrep -H -n" on each source file in LLVM and
1589 passes to it a regular expression provided on <tt>llvmgrep</tt>'s command
1590 line. This is a very efficient way of searching the source base for a
1591 particular regular expression.</dd>
1593 <dt><tt><b>makellvm</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>makellvm</tt> script compiles all
1594 files in the current directory and then compiles and links the tool that
1595 is the first argument. For example, assuming you are in the directory
1596 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/Sparc</tt>, if <tt>makellvm</tt> is in your path,
1597 simply running <tt>makellvm llc</tt> will make a build of the current
1598 directory, switch to directory <tt>llvm/tools/llc</tt> and build it,
1599 causing a re-linking of LLC.<br><br>
1601 <dt><tt><b>TableGen/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>TableGen</tt> directory contains
1602 the tool used to generate register descriptions, instruction set
1603 descriptions, and even assemblers from common TableGen description
1606 <dt><tt><b>vim/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>vim</tt> directory contains
1607 syntax-highlighting files which will work with the VIM editor, providing
1608 syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1609 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1610 the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1618 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1620 <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
1622 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1625 <p>This section gives an example of using LLVM with the Clang front end.</p>
1627 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1629 <a name="tutorial4">Example with clang</a>
1635 <li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':</p>
1637 <div class="doc_code">
1639 #include <stdio.h>
1642 printf("hello world\n");
1647 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a native executable:</p>
1649 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% clang hello.c -o hello</pre></div>
1651 <p>Note that clang works just like GCC by default. The standard -S and
1652 -c arguments work as usual (producing a native .s or .o file,
1653 respectively).</p></li>
1655 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p>
1657 <div class="doc_code">
1658 <pre>% clang -O3 -emit-llvm hello.c -c -o hello.bc</pre></div>
1660 <p>The -emit-llvm option can be used with the -S or -c options to emit an
1661 LLVM ".ll" or ".bc" file (respectively) for the code. This allows you
1662 to use the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">standard LLVM tools</a> on
1663 the bitcode file.</p></li>
1665 <li><p>Run the program in both forms. To run the program, use:</p>
1667 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% ./hello</pre></div>
1671 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% lli hello.bc</pre></div>
1673 <p>The second examples shows how to invoke the LLVM JIT, <a
1674 href="CommandGuide/html/lli.html">lli</a>.</p></li>
1676 <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
1679 <div class="doc_code">
1680 <pre>llvm-dis < hello.bc | less</pre>
1683 <li><p>Compile the program to native assembly using the LLC code
1686 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% llc hello.bc -o hello.s</pre></div></li>
1688 <li><p>Assemble the native assembly language file into a program:</p>
1690 <div class="doc_code">
1692 <b>Solaris:</b> % /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xarch=v9 hello.s -o hello.native
1694 <b>Others:</b> % gcc hello.s -o hello.native
1698 <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
1700 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% ./hello.native</pre></div>
1702 <p>Note that using clang to compile directly to native code (i.e. when
1703 the -emit-llvm option is not present) does steps 6/7/8 for you.</p>
1712 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1714 <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
1716 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1720 <p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
1721 general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
1722 Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
1726 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1728 <a name="links">Links</a>
1730 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1734 <p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> on how to use LLVM to do
1735 some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
1736 that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
1737 if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
1741 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
1742 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
1743 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
1744 that Uses LLVM</a></li>
1749 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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1758 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
1759 <a href="http://llvm.x10sys.com/rspencer/">Reid Spencer</a><br>
1760 <a href="http://llvm.org/">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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