1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
5 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
6 <title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title>
7 <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
11 <div class="doc_title">
12 Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio
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>
21 <li><a href="#software">Software</a>
24 <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
26 <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
27 <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
30 <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
31 <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
32 <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
35 <div class="doc_author">
37 <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a>
42 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
43 <div class="doc_section">
44 <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
46 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
48 <div class="doc_text">
50 <p>The Visual Studio port at this time is experimental. It is suitable for
51 use only if you are writing your own compiler front end or otherwise have a
52 need to dynamically generate machine code. The JIT and interpreter are
53 functional, but it is currently not possible to generate assembly code which
54 is then assembled into an executable. You can indirectly create executables
55 by using the C back end.</p>
57 <p>To emphasize, there is no C/C++ front end currently available.
58 <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is based on GCC, which cannot be bootstrapped using VC++.
59 Eventually there should be a <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> based on Cygwin or MinGW that
60 is usable. There is also the option of generating bytecode files on Unix and
61 copying them over to Windows. But be aware the odds of linking C++ code
62 compiled with <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> with code compiled with VC++ is essentially
65 <p>The LLVM test suite cannot be run on the Visual Studio port at this
68 <p>Most of the tools build and work. <tt>llvm-db</tt> does not build at this
69 time. <tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does not work.
71 <p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain
72 can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a>
77 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
78 <div class="doc_section">
79 <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
81 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
83 <div class="doc_text">
85 <p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
88 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
89 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
90 <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
92 <li>Get the Source Code
94 <li>With the distributed files:
96 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
97 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
98 <i> or use WinZip</i>
99 <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
102 <li>With anonymous CVS access (or use a <a href="#mirror">mirror</a>):
104 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
106 :pserver:anon@llvm-cvs.cs.uiuc.edu:/var/cvs/llvm login</tt></li>
107 <li>Hit the return key when prompted for the password.
108 <li><tt>cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anon@llvm-cvs.cs.uiuc.edu:/var/cvs/llvm
110 <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
111 <li><tt>cvs up -P -d</tt></li>
115 <li>Start Visual Studio
117 <li>Simply double click on the solution file <tt>llvm/win32/llvm.sln</tt>.
121 <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
123 <li>Simply build the solution.</li>
124 <li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT. Modify
125 the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric command line
126 argument. The program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li>
131 <p>It is strongly encouraged that you get the latest version from CVS. Much
132 progress has been made since the 1.4 release.</p>
136 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
137 <div class="doc_section">
138 <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
140 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
142 <div class="doc_text">
144 <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given
145 below. This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware
146 and software you will need.</p>
150 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
151 <div class="doc_subsection">
152 <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
155 <div class="doc_text">
157 <p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2003 is fine. The
158 LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume
159 approximately 3GB.</p>
163 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
164 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
165 <div class="doc_text">
167 <p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2003. Earlier versions cannot open the
168 solution/project files. The VS 2005 beta can, but will migrate these files
169 to its own format in the process. While it should work with the VS 2005
170 beta, there are no guarantees and there is no support for it at this time.
171 It has been reported that VC++ Express also works.</p>
173 <p>If you plan to modify any .y or .l files, you will need to have bison
174 and/or flex installed where Visual Studio can find them. Otherwise, you do
175 not need them and the pre-generated files that come with the source tree
180 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
181 <div class="doc_section">
182 <a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
184 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
186 <div class="doc_text">
188 <p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
189 LLVM using Visual Studio and to give you some basic information about the LLVM
194 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
195 <div class="doc_subsection">
196 <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
199 <div class="doc_text">
201 <p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
202 specific to the local system and working environment. <i>These are not
203 environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
204 of this document below</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
205 each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
206 All these paths are absolute:</p>
211 This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
216 This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
217 tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It
218 is fixed at SRC_ROOT/win32).
224 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
225 <div class="doc_subsection">
226 <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
229 <div class="doc_text">
231 <p>The object files are placed under <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Debug</tt> for debug builds
232 and <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Release</tt> for release (optimized) builds. These include
233 both executables and libararies that your application can link against.
235 <p>The files that <tt>configure</tt> would create when building on Unix are
236 created by the <tt>Configure</tt> project and placed in
237 <tt>OBJ_ROOT/llvm</tt>. You application must have OBJ_ROOT in its include
238 search path just before <tt>SRC_ROOT/include</tt>.
242 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
243 <div class="doc_section">
244 <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
246 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
248 <div class="doc_text">
251 <li>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':
253 #include <stdio.h>
255 printf("hello world\n");
260 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bytecode file:</p>
261 <p><tt>% llvm-gcc hello.c -o hello</tt></p>
263 <p>Note that you should have already built the tools and they have to be
264 in your path, at least <tt>gccas</tt> and <tt>gccld</tt>.</p>
266 <p>This will create two result files: <tt>hello</tt> and
267 <tt>hello.bc</tt>. The <tt>hello.bc</tt> is the LLVM bytecode that
268 corresponds the the compiled program and the library facilities that it
269 required. <tt>hello</tt> is a simple shell script that runs the bytecode
270 file with <tt>lli</tt>, making the result directly executable. Note that
271 all LLVM optimizations are enabled by default, so there is no need for a
274 <p><b>Note: while you cannot do this step on Windows, you can do it on a
275 Unix system and transfer <tt>hello.bc</tt> to Windows.</b></p></li>
277 <li><p>Run the program using the just-in-time compiler:</p>
279 <p><tt>% lli hello.bc</tt></p></li>
281 <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
284 <p><tt>% llvm-dis < hello.bc | more</tt><p></li>
286 <li><p>Compile the program to C using the LLC code generator:</p>
288 <p><tt>% llc -march=c hello.bc</tt></p></li>
290 <li><p>Compile to binary using Microsoft C:</p>
292 <p><tt>% cl hello.cbe.c</tt></p></li>
294 <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
296 <p><tt>% hello.cbe.exe</tt></p></li>
302 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
303 <div class="doc_section">
304 <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
306 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
308 <div class="doc_text">
310 <p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
311 general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
312 Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
316 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
317 <div class="doc_section">
318 <a name="links">Links</a>
320 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
322 <div class="doc_text">
324 <p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
325 some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
326 that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
327 if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
331 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
332 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
333 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
334 that Uses LLVM</a></li>
339 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
343 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
344 src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
345 <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
346 src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" /></a>
348 <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a><br>
349 <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
350 Last modified: $Date$