From: Duncan Sands Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:38:48 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Start sketching 2.6 release notes. This provides a X-Git-Url: http://demsky.eecs.uci.edu/git/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=e2e4a896a21efdc63daf45e5eaf80e70b9f9ec7d;p=oota-llvm.git Start sketching 2.6 release notes. This provides a place to note major API changes (I've noted the getABITypeSize -> getAllocSize change). git-svn-id: https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk@74070 91177308-0d34-0410-b5e6-96231b3b80d8 --- diff --git a/docs/ReleaseNotes-2.6.html b/docs/ReleaseNotes-2.6.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..2a8daa98ea2 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/ReleaseNotes-2.6.html @@ -0,0 +1,754 @@ + + + + + + LLVM 2.6 Release Notes + + + +
LLVM 2.6 Release Notes
+ +
    +
  1. Introduction
    2. +
  2. Sub-project Status Update
    3. +
  3. External Projects Using LLVM 2.6
    4. +
  4. What's New in LLVM 2.6?
    5. +
  5. Installation Instructions
    6. +
  6. Portability and Supported Platforms
    7. +
  7. Known Problems
    8. +
  8. Additional Information
    9. +
+ +
+

Written by the LLVM Team

+
+ + +
+ Introduction +
+ + +
+ +

This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler +Infrastructure, release 2.6. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including +major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems. +All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the LLVM releases web site.

+ +

For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest +release, please check out the main LLVM +web site. If you have questions or comments, the LLVM Developer's Mailing +List is a good place to send them.

+ +

Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the +main LLVM web page, this document applies to the next release, not the +current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the +releases page.

+ +
+ + + + + + +
+ Sub-project Status Update +
+ + +
+

+The LLVM 2.6 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM +repository —which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators +and supporting tools — and the llvm-gcc repository. In addition to this +code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in development. The +two which are the most actively developed are the Clang +Project and the VMKit Project. +

+ +
+ + + +
+Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit +
+ +
+ +

The Clang project is an effort to build +a set of new 'LLVM native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer and +code generator. While Clang is not included in the LLVM 2.6 release, it is +continuing to make major strides forward in all areas. Its C and Objective-C +parsing and code generation support is now very solid. For example, it is +capable of successfully building many real-world applications for X86-32 +and X86-64, +including the FreeBSD +kernel and gcc 4.2. C++ is also +making incredible progress, +and work on templates has recently started. If you are +interested in fast compiles and good diagnostics, we encourage you to try it out +by building from mainline +and reporting any issues you hit to the Clang front-end mailing +list.

+ +

In the LLVM 2.6 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:

+ + +
+ + +
+Clang Static Analyzer +
+ +
+ +

Previously announced in the 2.4 LLVM release, the Clang project also +includes an early stage static source code analysis tool for automatically finding bugs +in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs a growing set of checks to find +bugs that occur on a specific path within a program.

+ +

In the LLVM 2.6 time-frame there have been many significant improvements to +XYZ.

+ +

The set of checks performed by the static analyzer continues to expand, and +future plans for the tool include full source-level inter-procedural analysis +and deeper checks such as buffer overrun detection. There are many opportunities +to extend and enhance the static analyzer, and anyone interested in working on +this project is encouraged to get involved!

+ +
+ + +
+VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation +
+ +
+

+The VMKit project is an implementation of +a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machines (Microsoft .NET is an +implementation of the CLI) using the Just-In-Time compiler of LLVM.

+ +

Following LLVM 2.6, VMKit has its XYZ release that you can find on its +webpage. The release includes +bug fixes, cleanup and new features. The major changes are:

+ + +
+ + +
+ External Projects Using LLVM 2.6 +
+ + + +
+Pure +
+ +
+

+Pure +is an algebraic/functional programming language based on term rewriting. +Programs are collections of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in +a symbolic fashion. Pure offers dynamic typing, eager and lazy evaluation, +lexical closures, a hygienic macro system (also based on term rewriting), +built-in list and matrix support (including list and matrix comprehensions) and +an easy-to-use C interface. The interpreter uses LLVM as a backend to + JIT-compile Pure programs to fast native code.

+ +

In addition to the usual algebraic data structures, Pure also has +MATLAB-style matrices in order to support numeric computations and signal +processing in an efficient way. Pure is mainly aimed at mathematical +applications right now, but it has been designed as a general purpose language. +The dynamic interpreter environment and the C interface make it possible to use +it as a kind of functional scripting language for many application areas. +

+
+ + + +
+LLVM D Compiler +
+ +
+

+LDC is an implementation of +the D Programming Language using the LLVM optimizer and code generator. +The LDC project works great with the LLVM 2.6 release. General improvements in +this +cycle have included new inline asm constraint handling, better debug info +support, general bugfixes, and better x86-64 support. This has allowed +some major improvements in LDC, getting us much closer to being as +fully featured as the original DMD compiler from DigitalMars. +

+
+ + +
+Roadsend PHP +
+ +
+

Roadsend PHP (rphp) is an open +source implementation of the PHP programming +language that uses LLVM for its optimizer, JIT, and static compiler. This is a +reimplementation of an earlier project that is now based on LLVM.

+
+ + + +
+ What's New in LLVM 2.6? +
+ + +
+ +

This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks, and +minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed +in this section. +

+
+ + +
+Major New Features +
+ +
+ +

LLVM 2.6 includes several major new capabilities:

+ + + +
+ + + +
+llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements +
+ +
+ +

LLVM fully supports the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end, which marries the GCC +front-ends and driver with the LLVM optimizer and code generator. It currently +includes support for the C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and Fortran front-ends.

+ + + +
+ + + +
+LLVM IR and Core Improvements +
+ +
+

LLVM IR has several new features that are used by our existing front-ends and +can be useful if you are writing a front-end for LLVM:

+ + + +
+ + +
+Optimizer Improvements +
+ +
+ +

In addition to a large array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, this +release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:

+ + + +
+ + +
+Target Independent Code Generator Improvements +
+ +
+ +

We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator +infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make +it run faster:

+ + +
+ + +
+X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements +
+ +
+

New features of the X86 target include: +

+ + + +
+ + +
+PIC16 Target Improvements +
+ +
+

New features of the PIC16 target include: +

+ + + +

Things not yet supported:

+ + + +
+ + + +
+Improvements in LLVMC +
+ +
+

New features include:

+ + + +
+ + + +
+Major Changes and Removed Features +
+ +
+ +

If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based +on LLVM 2.4, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading +from the previous release.

+ + + + +

In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM +API changes are:

+ + + +
+ + + + +
+ Portability and Supported Platforms +
+ + +
+ +

LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:

+ + + +

The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself +to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor +porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your +portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.

+ +
+ + +
+ Known Problems +
+ + +
+ +

This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system, +listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the LLVM bug database and submit a bug if +there isn't already one.

+ +
+ + +
+ Experimental features included with this release +
+ +
+ +

The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to +be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should +not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be +useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these +components, please contact us on the LLVMdev list.

+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the X86 back-end +
+ +
+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the PowerPC back-end +
+ +
+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the ARM back-end +
+ +
+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the SPARC back-end +
+ +
+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the MIPS back-end +
+ +
+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the Alpha back-end +
+ +
+ + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the IA64 back-end +
+ +
+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the C back-end +
+ +
+ + + +
+ + + +
+ Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end +
+ +
+ +

llvm-gcc does not currently support Link-Time +Optimization on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the +LLVMdev mailing list if you are interested.

+ +

The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is + the __builtin_apply family of builtins. However, some extensions + are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only + supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a + nested function).

+ +

If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know. +

+ +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end +
+ +
+ +

The C++ front-end is considered to be fully +tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM +itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.

+ + + +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end +
+ +
+ +
+ + +
+ Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end +
+ +
+The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well; however, this is not a mature +technology, and problems should be expected. + +
+ + +
+ Additional Information +
+ + +
+ +

A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page, in particular in the documentation section. The web page also +contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the +Subversion version of the source code. +You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going +into the "llvm/doc/" directory in the LLVM tree.

+ +

If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact +us via the mailing +lists.

+ +
+ + + +
+
+ Valid CSS + Valid HTML 4.01 + + LLVM Compiler Infrastructure
+ Last modified: $Date$ +
+ + +