Although LLVM generally does not do much string manipulation, we do have +several important APIs which take strings. Two important examples are the +Value class -- which has names for instructions, functions, etc. -- and the +StringMap class which is used extensively in LLVM and Clang.
+ +These are generic classes, and they need to be able to accept strings which +may have embedded null characters. Therefore, they cannot simply take +a const char *, and taking a const std::string& requires +clients to perform a heap allocation which is usually unnecessary. Instead, +many LLVM APIs use a const StringRef& or a const +Twine& for passing strings efficiently.
+ +The StringRef data type represents a reference to a constant string +(a character array and a length) and supports the common operations available +on std:string, but does not require heap allocation.
+ +It can be implicitly constructed using a C style null-terminated string, +an std::string, or explicitly with a character pointer and length. +For example, the StringRef find function is declared as:
+ +and clients can call it using any one of:
+ +
+ Map.find("foo"); // Lookup "foo"
+ Map.find(std::string("bar")); // Lookup "bar"
+ Map.find(StringRef("\0baz", 4)); // Lookup "\0baz"
+
+Similarly, APIs which need to return a string may return a StringRef +instance, which can be used directly or converted to an std::string +using the str member function. See +"llvm/ADT/StringRef.h" +for more information.
+ +You should rarely use the StringRef class directly, because it contains +pointers to external memory it is not generally safe to store an instance of the +class (unless you know that the external storage will not be freed).
+ +The Twine class is an efficient way for APIs to accept concatenated +strings. For example, a common LLVM paradigm is to name one instruction based on +the name of another instruction with a suffix, for example:
+ ++ New = CmpInst::Create(..., SO->getName() + ".cmp"); ++
The Twine class is effectively a +lightweight rope +which points to temporary (stack allocated) objects. Twines can be implicitly +constructed as the result of the plus operator applied to strings (i.e., a C +strings, an std::string, or a StringRef). The twine delays the +actual concatentation of strings until it is actually required, at which point +it can be efficiently rendered directly into a character array. This avoids +unnecessary heap allocation involved in constructing the temporary results of +string concatenation. See +"llvm/ADT/Twine.h" +for more information.
+ +As with a StringRef, Twine objects point to external memory +and should almost never be stored or mentioned directly. They are intended +solely for use when defining a function which should be able to efficiently +accept concatenated strings.
+ +-DOUT << "I am here!\n"; +DEBUG(errs() << "I am here!\n");
-DOUT << "No debug type\n"; #undef DEBUG_TYPE +DEBUG(errs() << "No debug type\n"); #define DEBUG_TYPE "foo" -DOUT << "'foo' debug type\n"; +DEBUG(errs() << "'foo' debug type\n"); #undef DEBUG_TYPE #define DEBUG_TYPE "bar" -DOUT << "'bar' debug type\n"; +DEBUG(errs() << "'bar' debug type\n")); #undef DEBUG_TYPE #define DEBUG_TYPE "" -DOUT << "No debug type (2)\n"; +DEBUG(errs() << "No debug type (2)\n");
The DEBUG_WITH_TYPE macro is also available for situations where you +would like to set DEBUG_TYPE, but only for one specific DEBUG +statement. It takes an additional first parameter, which is the type to use. For +example, the preceding example could be written as:
+ + +
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("", errs() << "No debug type\n");
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("foo", errs() << "'foo' debug type\n");
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("bar", errs() << "'bar' debug type\n"));
+DEBUG_WITH_TYPE("", errs() << "No debug type (2)\n");
+
+These properties are exactly what we want for things like Instructions -and basic blocks, which is why these are implemented with ilists.
+These properties are exactly what we want for things like +Instructions and basic blocks, which is why these are implemented with +ilists.
Related classes of interest are explained in the following subsections: @@ -922,8 +1068,8 @@ publicly derive from this traits class.iplist<T> is ilist<T>'s base and as such -supports a slightly narrower interface. Notably, inserters from T& -are absent.
+supports a slightly narrower interface. Notably, inserters from +T& are absent.ilist_traits<T> is a public base of this class and can be used for a wide variety of customizations.
@@ -940,7 +1086,46 @@ that are expected by the ilist<T> (and analogous containers) in the default manner.ilist_node<T>s are meant to be embedded in the node type -T.
+T, usually T publicly derives from +ilist_node<T>. +ilists have another speciality that must be considered. To be a good +citizen in the C++ ecosystem, it needs to support the standard container +operations, such as begin and end iterators, etc. Also, the +operator-- must work correctly on the end iterator in the +case of non-empty ilists.
+ +The only sensible solution to this problem is to allocate a so-called +sentinel along with the intrusive list, which serves as the end +iterator, providing the back-link to the last element. However conforming to the +C++ convention it is illegal to operator++ beyond the sentinel and it +also must not be dereferenced.
+ +These constraints allow for some implementation freedom to the ilist +how to allocate and store the sentinel. The corresponding policy is dictated +by ilist_traits<T>. By default a T gets heap-allocated +whenever the need for a sentinel arises.
+ +While the default policy is sufficient in most cases, it may break down when +T does not provide a default constructor. Also, in the case of many +instances of ilists, the memory overhead of the associated sentinels +is wasted. To alleviate the situation with numerous and voluminous +T-sentinels, sometimes a trick is employed, leading to ghostly +sentinels.
+ +Ghostly sentinels are obtained by specially-crafted ilist_traits<T> +which superpose the sentinel with the ilist instance in memory. Pointer +arithmetic is used to obtain the sentinel, which is relative to the +ilist's this pointer. The ilist is augmented by an +extra pointer, which serves as the back-link of the sentinel. This is the only +field in the ghostly sentinel which can be legally accessed.
The STL provides several other options, such as std::multiset and the various -"hash_set" like containers (whether from C++ TR1 or from the SGI library).
+"hash_set" like containers (whether from C++ TR1 or from the SGI library). We +never use hash_set and unordered_set because they are generally very expensive +(each insertion requires a malloc) and very non-portable. +std::multiset is useful if you're not interested in elimination of duplicates, but has all the drawbacks of std::set. A sorted vector (where you don't delete duplicate entries) or some other approach is almost always better.
-The various hash_set implementations (exposed portably by -"llvm/ADT/hash_set") is a simple chained hashtable. This algorithm is as malloc -intensive as std::set (performing an allocation for each element inserted, -thus having really high constant factors) but (usually) provides O(1) -insertion/deletion of elements. This can be useful if your elements are large -(thus making the constant-factor cost relatively low) or if comparisons are -expensive. Element iteration does not visit elements in a useful order.
- @@ -1311,6 +1491,23 @@ inserted into the map) that it needs internally. + + + +
+ValueMap is a wrapper around a DenseMap mapping
+Value*s (or subclasses) to another type. When a Value is deleted or RAUW'ed,
+ValueMap will update itself so the new version of the key is mapped to the same
+value, just as if the key were a WeakVH. You can configure exactly how this
+happens, and what else happens on these two events, by passing
+a Config parameter to the ValueMap template.
The STL provides several other options, such as std::multimap and the various -"hash_map" like containers (whether from C++ TR1 or from the SGI library).
+"hash_map" like containers (whether from C++ TR1 or from the SGI library). We +never use hash_set and unordered_set because they are generally very expensive +(each insertion requires a malloc) and very non-portable.std::multimap is useful if you want to map a key to multiple values, but has all the drawbacks of std::map. A sorted vector or some other approach is almost always better.
-The various hash_map implementations (exposed portably by -"llvm/ADT/hash_map") are simple chained hash tables. This algorithm is as -malloc intensive as std::map (performing an allocation for each element -inserted, thus having really high constant factors) but (usually) provides O(1) -insertion/deletion of elements. This can be useful if your elements are large -(thus making the constant-factor cost relatively low) or if comparisons are -expensive. Element iteration does not visit elements in a useful order.
++TODO: const char* vs stringref vs smallstring vs std::string. Describe twine, +xref to #string_apis. +
However, this isn't really the best way to print out the contents of a BasicBlock! Since the ostream operators are overloaded for virtually anything you'll care about, you could have just invoked the print routine on the -basic block itself: llvm::cerr << *blk << "\n";.
+basic block itself: errs() << *blk << "\n";. @@ -1533,7 +1738,7 @@ small example that shows how to dump all instructions in a function to the stand // F is a pointer to a Function instance for (inst_iterator I = inst_begin(F), E = inst_end(F); I != E; ++I) - llvm::cerr << *I << "\n"; + errs() << *I << "\n"; @@ -1612,7 +1817,7 @@ without actually obtaining it via iteration over some structure: void printNextInstruction(Instruction* inst) { BasicBlock::iterator it(inst); ++it; // After this line, it refers to the instruction after *inst - if (it != inst->getParent()->end()) llvm::cerr << *it << "\n"; + if (it != inst->getParent()->end()) errs() << *it << "\n"; } @@ -1730,8 +1935,8 @@ Function *F = ...; for (Value::use_iterator i = F->use_begin(), e = F->use_end(); i != e; ++i) if (Instruction *Inst = dyn_cast<Instruction>(*i)) { - llvm::cerr << "F is used in instruction:\n"; - llvm::cerr << *Inst << "\n"; + errs() << "F is used in instruction:\n"; + errs() << *Inst << "\n"; } @@ -2059,6 +2264,207 @@ GV->eraseFromParent(); + + + +In generating IR, you may need some complex types. If you know these types +statically, you can use TypeBuilder<...>::get(), defined +in llvm/Support/TypeBuilder.h, to retrieve them. TypeBuilder +has two forms depending on whether you're building types for cross-compilation +or native library use. TypeBuilder<T, true> requires +that T be independent of the host environment, meaning that it's built +out of types from +the llvm::types +namespace and pointers, functions, arrays, etc. built of +those. TypeBuilder<T, false> additionally allows native C types +whose size may depend on the host compiler. For example,
+ ++FunctionType *ft = TypeBuilder<types::i<8>(types::i<32>*), true>::get(); ++
is easier to read and write than the equivalent
+ ++std::vector<const Type*> params; +params.push_back(PointerType::getUnqual(Type::Int32Ty)); +FunctionType *ft = FunctionType::get(Type::Int8Ty, params, false); ++
See the class +comment for more details.
+ ++This section describes the interaction of the LLVM APIs with multithreading, +both on the part of client applications, and in the JIT, in the hosted +application. +
+ ++Note that LLVM's support for multithreading is still relatively young. Up +through version 2.5, the execution of threaded hosted applications was +supported, but not threaded client access to the APIs. While this use case is +now supported, clients must adhere to the guidelines specified below to +ensure proper operation in multithreaded mode. +
+ ++Note that, on Unix-like platforms, LLVM requires the presence of GCC's atomic +intrinsics in order to support threaded operation. If you need a +multhreading-capable LLVM on a platform without a suitably modern system +compiler, consider compiling LLVM and LLVM-GCC in single-threaded mode, and +using the resultant compiler to build a copy of LLVM with multithreading +support. +
++In order to properly protect its internal data structures while avoiding +excessive locking overhead in the single-threaded case, the LLVM must intialize +certain data structures necessary to provide guards around its internals. To do +so, the client program must invoke llvm_start_multithreaded() before +making any concurrent LLVM API calls. To subsequently tear down these +structures, use the llvm_stop_multithreaded() call. You can also use +the llvm_is_multithreaded() call to check the status of multithreaded +mode. +
+ ++Note that both of these calls must be made in isolation. That is to +say that no other LLVM API calls may be executing at any time during the +execution of llvm_start_multithreaded() or llvm_stop_multithreaded +. It's is the client's responsibility to enforce this isolation. +
+ ++The return value of llvm_start_multithreaded() indicates the success or +failure of the initialization. Failure typically indicates that your copy of +LLVM was built without multithreading support, typically because GCC atomic +intrinsics were not found in your system compiler. In this case, the LLVM API +will not be safe for concurrent calls. However, it will be safe for +hosting threaded applications in the JIT, though care must be taken to ensure +that side exits and the like do not accidentally result in concurrent LLVM API +calls. +
++When you are done using the LLVM APIs, you should call llvm_shutdown() +to deallocate memory used for internal structures. This will also invoke +llvm_stop_multithreaded() if LLVM is operating in multithreaded mode. +As such, llvm_shutdown() requires the same isolation guarantees as +llvm_stop_multithreaded(). +
+ ++Note that, if you use scope-based shutdown, you can use the +llvm_shutdown_obj class, which calls llvm_shutdown() in its +destructor. +
+ManagedStatic is a utility class in LLVM used to implement static +initialization of static resources, such as the global type tables. Before the +invocation of llvm_shutdown(), it implements a simple lazy +initialization scheme. Once llvm_start_multithreaded() returns, +however, it uses double-checked locking to implement thread-safe lazy +initialization. +
+ ++Note that, because no other threads are allowed to issue LLVM API calls before +llvm_start_multithreaded() returns, it is possible to have +ManagedStatics of llvm::sys::Mutexs. +
+ ++The llvm_acquire_global_lock() and llvm_release_global_lock +APIs provide access to the global lock used to implement the double-checked +locking for lazy initialization. These should only be used internally to LLVM, +and only if you know what you're doing! +
++LLVMContext is an opaque class in the LLVM API which clients can use +to operate multiple, isolated instances of LLVM concurrently within the same +address space. For instance, in a hypothetical compile-server, the compilation +of an individual translation unit is conceptually independent from all the +others, and it would be desirable to be able to compile incoming translation +units concurrently on independent server threads. Fortunately, +LLVMContext exists to enable just this kind of scenario! +
+ ++Conceptually, LLVMContext provides isolation. Every LLVM entity +(Modules, Values, Types, Constants, etc.) +in LLVM's in-memory IR belongs to an LLVMContext. Entities in +different contexts cannot interact with each other: Modules in +different contexts cannot be linked together, Functions cannot be added +to Modules in different contexts, etc. What this means is that is is +safe to compile on multiple threads simultaneously, as long as no two threads +operate on entities within the same context. +
+ ++In practice, very few places in the API require the explicit specification of a +LLVMContext, other than the Type creation/lookup APIs. +Because every Type carries a reference to its owning context, most +other entities can determine what context they belong to by looking at their +own Type. If you are adding new entities to LLVM IR, please try to +maintain this interface design. +
+ ++For clients that do not require the benefits of isolation, LLVM +provides a convenience API getGlobalContext(). This returns a global, +lazily initialized LLVMContext that may be used in situations where +isolation is not a concern. +
+The Function class represents a single procedure in LLVM. It is -actually one of the more complex classes in the LLVM heirarchy because it must +actually one of the more complex classes in the LLVM hierarchy because it must keep track of a large amount of data. The Function class keeps track of a list of BasicBlocks, a list of formal Arguments, and a @@ -3164,7 +3570,7 @@ of a list of BasicBlocks, a list of formal
The list of BasicBlocks is the most commonly used part of Function objects. The list imposes an implicit ordering of the blocks in the function, which indicate how the code will be -layed out by the backend. Additionally, the first BasicBlock is the implicit entry node for the Function. It is not legal in LLVM to explicitly branch to this initial block. There are no implicit exit nodes, and in fact there may be multiple exit @@ -3294,7 +3700,7 @@ Superclasses: GlobalValue, User, Value
-Global variables are represented with the (suprise suprise) +
Global variables are represented with the (surprise surprise) GlobalVariable class. Like functions, GlobalVariables are also subclasses of GlobalValue, and as such are always referenced by their address (global values must live in memory, so their @@ -3322,11 +3728,12 @@ never change at runtime).
Create a new global variable of the specified type. If isConstant is true then the global variable will be marked as unchanging for the program. The Linkage parameter specifies the type of - linkage (internal, external, weak, linkonce, appending) for the variable. If - the linkage is InternalLinkage, WeakLinkage, or LinkOnceLinkage, then - the resultant global variable will have internal linkage. AppendingLinkage - concatenates together all instances (in different translation units) of the - variable into a single variable but is only applicable to arrays. See + linkage (internal, external, weak, linkonce, appending) for the variable. + If the linkage is InternalLinkage, WeakAnyLinkage, WeakODRLinkage, + LinkOnceAnyLinkage or LinkOnceODRLinkage, then the resultant + global variable will have internal linkage. AppendingLinkage concatenates + together all instances (in different translation units) of the variable + into a single variable but is only applicable to arrays. See the LLVM Language Reference for further details on linkage types. Optionally an initializer, a name, and the module to put the variable into may be specified for the global variable as @@ -3343,7 +3750,7 @@ never change at runtime).
Returns the intial value for a GlobalVariable. It is not legal +
Returns the initial value for a GlobalVariable. It is not legal to call this method if there is no initializer.
#include "llvm/BasicBlock.h"
-doxygen info: BasicBlock
+doxygen info: BasicBlock
Class
Superclass: Value