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2 <html><head><title>LLVM 1.0 Release Notes</title></head>
5 <table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
6 <tr><td> <font size=+3 color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino,Times,Roman"><b>LLVM 1.0 Release Notes</b></font></td>
10 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
11 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a>
12 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
13 <li><a href="#install-instructions">Installation Instructions</a>
14 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
16 <!-- <li><a href="#portabilityprobs">Portability Problems</a> -->
17 <li><a href="#core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
18 <li><a href="#c-fe">Known problems with the C Front-end</a>
19 <li><a href="#c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ Front-end</a>
20 <li><a href="#x86-be">Known problems with the X86 Back-end</a>
21 <li><a href="#sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc Back-end</a>
22 <li><a href="#c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
24 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
27 <p><b>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></b><p>
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32 <table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
33 <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
34 <a name="intro">Introduction
35 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
36 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
38 This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler infrastructure,
39 release 1.0. Here we describe how to install LLVM, as well as any known
40 problems. The most up-to-date version of this document can be found on the <a
41 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.0/">LLVM 1.0 web site</a>. If you are
42 not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there, because
43 this document may be updated after the release.<p>
45 For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more
46 current releases, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main
47 web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
48 href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
49 list</a> is a good place to send them.<p>
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53 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
54 <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
55 <a name="whatsnew">What's New?
56 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
57 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
59 This is the first public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure. As such,
60 it is all new! In particular, we are providing a stable C compiler, beta C++
61 compiler, a C back-end, stable X86 and Sparc V9 static and JIT code generators,
62 as well as a large suite of scalar and interprocedural optimizations.<p>
64 The default optimizer sequence used by the C/C++ front-ends is:<p>
67 <li>Interprocedural dead code elimination (-globaldce)
68 <li>Exception handling pruning (-prune-eh)
69 <li>Function inlining (-inline)
70 <li>Instruction combining (-instcombine)
71 <li>Cast elimination (-raise)
72 <li>Tail duplication (-tailduplicate)
73 <li>CFG simplification (-simplifycfg)
74 <li>Scalar replacement of aggregates (-scalarrepl)
75 <li>Tail call elimination (-tailcallelim)
76 <li>Instruction combining (-instcombine)
77 <li>Reassociation (-reassociate)
78 <li>Instruction combining (-instcombine)
79 <li>CFG simplification (-simplifycfg)
80 <li>Loop canonicalization (-loopsimplify)
81 <li>Loop invariant code motion, with scalar promotion (-licm)
82 <li>Global common subexpression elimination, with load elimination (-gcse)
83 <li>Sparse conditional constant propagation (-sccp)
84 <li>Instruction combining (-instcombine)
85 <li>Induction variable canonicalization (-indvars)
86 <li>Aggressive dead code elimination (-adce)
87 <li>CFG simplication (-simplifycfg)
88 <li>Dead type elimination (-deadtypeelim)
89 <li>Global constant merging (-constmerge)
92 At link-time, the following optimizations are run:<p>
95 <li>Global constant merging (-constmerge)
96 <li>[optional] Internalization [which marks most functions and global variables static] (-internalize)
97 <li>Interprocedural dead argument elimination (-deadargelim)
98 <li>Instruction combining (-instcombine)
99 <li>CFG simplification (-simplifycfg)
100 <li>Interprocedural dead code elimination (-globaldce)
103 At this time, LLVM is known to work properly with SPEC CPU 2000, the Olden
104 benchmarks, and the Ptrdist benchmarks among many other programs. Note however
105 that the Sparc and X86 backends do not currently support exception throwing or
106 long jumping. For these programs you must use the C backend.<p>
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110 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
111 <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
112 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms
113 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
114 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
116 LLVM has only been extensively tested on Intel and AMD machines running Red
117 Hat Linux, and Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8.
118 The core LLVM infrastructure uses "autoconf" for portability, so hopefully we
119 work on more platforms than that. However, it is extremely likely that we
120 missed something. We welcome portability patches and error messages.<p>
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124 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
125 <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
126 <a name="install-instructions">Installation Instructions
127 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
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134 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
135 <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
136 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems
137 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
138 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
140 This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
141 component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
145 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
147 </ul><h4><a name="portability"><hr size=0>Portability Problems</h4><ul>
151 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
152 </ul><h4><a name="core"><hr size=0>Known problems with the LLVM Core</h4><ul>
154 <li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not work.<p>
156 <li>The JIT does not use mutexes to protect its internal data structures. As
157 such, execution of a threaded program could cause these data structures to
160 <li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.<p>
162 <li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow (there is no symbol
163 table in the archive).
165 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
166 </ul><h4><a name="c-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C front-end</h4><ul>
168 <li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.<p>
170 <li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
171 support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64 bits.
173 <li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
174 scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
176 for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
182 <li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not work:
184 <li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
185 appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions.
186 <li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
187 - These functions have not been tested.
191 <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR6">Oversized integer bitfields cause crash</a>.<br>
194 <li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
195 the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
197 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.
198 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html#Labels%20as%20Values">Labels as Values</a>: Getting pointers to labels, and computed gotos.
199 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Nested-Functions.html#Nested%20Functions">Nested Functions</a>: As in Algol and Pascal, lexical scoping of functions.
200 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.
201 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.
202 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands
203 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Asm-Labels.html#Asm%20Labels">Asm Labels</a>: Specifying the assembler name to use for a C symbol.
204 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Explicit-Reg-Vars.html#Explicit%20Reg%20Vars">Explicit Reg Vars</a>: Defining variables residing in specified registers.
205 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Return-Address.html#Return%20Address">Return Address</a>: Getting the return or frame address of a function.
206 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.
207 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.
208 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.
209 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.
212 The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
213 attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
214 but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
215 ignored by the LLVM compiler, which will cause a different interpretation of
219 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
220 Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
221 Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).
223 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
224 Declaring that functions have no side effects, or that they can never return.<br>
225 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>, <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>deprecated</tt>,
226 <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
227 <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>noinline</tt>, <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>, <tt>malloc</tt>
228 <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
229 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>, <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
230 <tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes
232 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
233 Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
234 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
235 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
236 <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
237 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
238 <tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
239 <tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
240 <tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.<br>
242 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.
243 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
244 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt>
245 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>
246 all target specific attributes.<br>
247 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
248 Other built-in functions.<br>
249 We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
250 <tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
251 <tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
252 <tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt> (ignored).
256 The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:
258 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.
259 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.
260 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.
261 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.
262 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.
263 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.
264 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.
265 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.
266 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.
267 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.
268 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.
269 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.
270 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pointer-Arith.html#Pointer%20Arith">Pointer Arith</a>:Arithmetic on <code>void</code>-pointers and function pointers.
271 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.
272 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Compound-Literals.html#Compound%20Literals">Compound Literals</a>: Compound literals give structures, unions or arrays as values.
273 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.
275 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Cast-to-Union.html#Cast%20to%20Union">Cast to Union</a>:Casting to union type from any member of the union.
276 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.
277 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.
279 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.
280 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.
281 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.
282 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Character-Escapes.html#Character%20Escapes">Character Escapes</a>: <code>\e</code> stands for the character <ESC>.
283 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.
284 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).
285 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alternate-Keywords.html#Alternate%20Keywords">Alternate Keywords</a>:<code>__const__</code>, <code>__asm__</code>, etc., for header files.
286 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Incomplete-Enums.html#Incomplete%20Enums">Incomplete Enums</a>: <code>enum foo;</code>, with details to follow.
287 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Names.html#Function%20Names">Function Names</a>: Printable strings which are the name of the current function.
288 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.
289 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.
292 If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
293 lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).
296 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
297 </ul><h4><a name="c++-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C++ front-end</h4><ul>
299 For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be of <b>beta</b> quality.
300 It works for a large number of simple programs, but has not been extensively
301 tested. We welcome bug reports though!<p>
303 <li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
306 <li>The C++ front-end is based on a pre-release of the GCC 3.4 C++ parser. This
307 parser is significantly more standards compliant (and picky) than prior GCC
308 versions. For more information, see the C++ section of the <a
309 href="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html">GCC 3.4 release notes</a>.<p>
311 <li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
312 performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
313 function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
314 Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed however (which is
315 better than most compilers).<p>
317 <li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
318 href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
319 This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
320 mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
321 representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
322 compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
323 Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
324 <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
325 different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
326 interact correctly</b> .
328 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR11">Code for executing
329 destructors when unwinding is not shared</a>.
332 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
333 </ul><h4><a name="x86-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the X86 back-end</h4><ul>
335 <li>The X86 code generator <a
336 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR16">does not currently
337 support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
338 or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
341 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
342 </ul><h4><a name="sparc-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the Sparc back-end</h4><ul>
344 <li>The Sparc code generator <a
345 href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR15">does not currently
346 support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
347 or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
350 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
351 </ul><h4><a name="c-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C back-end</h4><ul>
353 <li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
354 Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
355 (for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
356 problem probably cannot be fixed.<p>
358 <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR33">Initializers for global variables</a>
359 cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or Infinity.<p>
361 <li>The code produces by the C back-end has only been tested with the Sun CC and
362 GCC compilers. It is possible that it will have to be adjusted to support other
367 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
368 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
369 <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
370 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information
371 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
372 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
374 A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page,
375 including mailing lists publications describing algorithms and components
376 implemented in LLVM. The web page also contains versions of the API
377 documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code. You
378 can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going into
379 the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.<p>
381 If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact us
382 via the mailing lists.<p>
385 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
387 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
391 Maintained By: <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/">The LLVM Team</a><br>
392 <!-- Created: Wed Oct 1 17:38:54 CDT 2003 -->
394 Last modified: Mon Oct 20 14:04:51 CDT 2003