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 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.0 Release Notes</div> | 
 |   | 
 | <ol> | 
 |   <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li> | 
 |   <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a></li> | 
 |   <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li> | 
 |   <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li> | 
 |   <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a> | 
 |   <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li> | 
 | </ol> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_author"> | 
 |   <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a><p> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | <div class="doc_section"> | 
 |   <a name="intro">Introduction</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler | 
 | infrastructure, release 2.0.  Here we describe the status of LLVM, including | 
 | major improvements from the previous release and any known problems.  All LLVM | 
 | releases may be downloaded from the <a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM | 
 | releases web site</a>.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest | 
 | release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM | 
 | web site</a>.  If you have questions or comments, the <a | 
 | href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing | 
 | list</a> is a good place to send them.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the  | 
 | main LLVM web page, | 
 | this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the current one.  To see | 
 | the release notes for the current or previous releases, see the <a | 
 | href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | <div class="doc_section"> | 
 |   <a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>This is the eleventh public release of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure.  | 
 | Being the first major release since 1.0, this release is different in several | 
 | ways from our previous releases:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ol> | 
 | <li>We took this as an opportunity to | 
 | break backwards compatibility with the LLVM 1.x bytecode and .ll file format. | 
 | If you have LLVM 1.9 .ll files that you would like to upgrade to LLVM 2.x, we  | 
 | recommend the use of the stand alone <a href="#llvm-upgrade">llvm-upgrade</a> | 
 | tool (which is included with 2.0).  We intend to keep compatibility with .ll  | 
 | and .bc formats within the 2.x release series, like we did within the 1.x  | 
 | series.</li> | 
 | <li>There are several significant change to the LLVM IR and internal APIs, such | 
 |     as a major overhaul of the type system, the completely new bitcode file | 
 |     format, etc (described below).</li> | 
 | <li>We designed the release around a 6 month release cycle instead of the usual | 
 |     3-month cycle.  This gave us extra time to develop and test some of the | 
 |     more invasive features in this release.</li> | 
 | <li>LLVM 2.0 no longer supports the llvm-gcc3 front-end.  Users are required to | 
 |     upgrade to llvm-gcc4.  llvm-gcc4 includes many features over | 
 |     llvm-gcc3, is faster, and is <a href="CFEBuildInstrs.html">much easier to | 
 |     build from source</a>.</li> | 
 | </ol> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>Note that while this is a major version bump, this release has been | 
 |    extensively tested on a wide range of software.  It is easy to say that this | 
 |    is our best release yet, in terms of both features and correctness.  This is | 
 |    the first LLVM release to correctly compile and optimize major software like | 
 |    LLVM itself, Mozilla/Seamonkey, Qt 4.3rc1, kOffice, etc out of the box on | 
 |    linux/x86. | 
 |    </p> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!--=========================================================================--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 | <a name="newfeatures">New Features in LLVM 2.0</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!--_________________________________________________________________________--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="majorchanges">Major Changes</a></div> | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>Changes to the LLVM IR itself:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Integer types are now completely signless. This means that we | 
 |     have types like i8/i16/i32 instead of ubyte/sbyte/short/ushort/int | 
 |     etc. LLVM operations that depend on sign have been split up into  | 
 |     separate instructions (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR950">PR950</a>).  This | 
 |     eliminates cast instructions that just change the sign of the operands (e.g. | 
 |     int -> uint), which reduces the size of the IR and makes optimizers | 
 |     simpler to write.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Integer types with arbitrary bitwidths (e.g. i13, i36, i42, i1057, etc) are | 
 |     now supported in the LLVM IR and optimizations (<a  | 
 |     href="http://llvm.org/PR1043">PR1043</a>).  However, neither llvm-gcc | 
 |     (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1284">PR1284</a>) nor the native code generators | 
 |     (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1270">PR1270</a>) support non-standard width | 
 |     integers yet.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>'Type planes' have been removed (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR411">PR411</a>). | 
 |     It is no longer possible to have two values with the same name in the  | 
 |     same symbol table.  This simplifies LLVM internals, allowing significant  | 
 |     speedups.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Global variables and functions in .ll files are now prefixed with | 
 |     @ instead of % (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR645">PR645</a>).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The LLVM 1.x "bytecode" format has been replaced with a   | 
 |     completely new binary representation, named 'bitcode'. The <a | 
 |     href="BitCodeFormat.html">Bitcode Format</a> brings a | 
 |     number of advantages to the LLVM over the old bytecode format: it is denser   | 
 |     (files are smaller), more extensible, requires less memory to read,   | 
 |     is easier to keep backwards compatible (so LLVM 2.5 will read 2.0 .bc   | 
 |     files), and has many other nice features.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Load and store instructions now track the alignment of their pointer | 
 |     (<a href="http://www.llvm.org/PR400">PR400</a>).  This allows the IR to | 
 |     express loads that are not sufficiently aligned (e.g. due to '<tt>#pragma | 
 |     packed</tt>') or to capture extra alignment information.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>Major new features:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>A number of ELF features are now supported by LLVM, including 'visibility', | 
 |     extern weak linkage, Thread Local Storage (TLS) with the <tt>__thread</tt> | 
 |     keyword, and symbol aliases. | 
 |     Among other things, this means that many of the special options needed to | 
 |     configure llvm-gcc on linux are no longer needed, and special hacks to build | 
 |     large C++ libraries like Qt are not needed.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>LLVM now has a new MSIL backend. <tt>llc -march=msil</tt> will now turn LLVM | 
 |     into MSIL (".net") bytecode.  This is still fairly early development  | 
 |     with a number of limitations.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>A new <a href="CommandGuide/html/llvm-upgrade.html">llvm-upgrade</a> tool  | 
 |     exists to migrates LLVM 1.9 .ll files to LLVM 2.0 syntax.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | <!--_________________________________________________________________________--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="llvmgccfeatures">llvm-gcc | 
 | Improvements</a></div> | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 | <p>New features include: | 
 | </p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>Precompiled Headers (PCH) are now supported.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>"<tt>#pragma packed</tt>" is now supported, as are the various features | 
 |     described above (visibility, extern weak linkage, __thread, aliases, | 
 |     etc).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Tracking function parameter/result attributes is now possible.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Many internal enhancements have been added, such as improvements to | 
 |     NON_LVALUE_EXPR, arrays with non-zero base, structs with variable sized | 
 |     fields, VIEW_CONVERT_EXPR, CEIL_DIV_EXPR, nested functions, and many other | 
 |     things.  This is primarily to supports non-C GCC front-ends, like Ada.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>It is simpler to configure llvm-gcc for linux.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |    | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!--_________________________________________________________________________--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="optimizer">Optimizer | 
 | Improvements</a></div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 | <p>New features include: | 
 | </p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>The <a href="WritingAnLLVMPass.html">pass manager</a> has been entirely | 
 |     rewritten, making it significantly smaller, simpler, and more extensible. | 
 |     Support has been added to run <tt>FunctionPass</tt>es interlaced with | 
 |     <tt>CallGraphSCCPass</tt>es, we now support loop transformations | 
 |     explicitly with <tt>LoopPass</tt>, and <tt>ModulePass</tt>es may now use the | 
 |     result of <tt>FunctionPass</tt>es.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>LLVM 2.0 includes a new loop rotation pass, which converts "for loops" into  | 
 |     "do/while loops", where the condition is at the bottom of the loop.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The Loop Strength Reduction pass has been improved, and we now support | 
 |     sinking expressions across blocks to reduce register pressure.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The <tt>-scalarrepl</tt> pass can now promote unions containing FP values | 
 |     into a register, it can also handle unions of vectors of the same | 
 |     size.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The [Post]DominatorSet classes have been removed from LLVM and clients | 
 |     switched to use the more-efficient ETForest class instead.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The ImmediateDominator class has also been removed, and clients have been | 
 |     switched to use DominatorTree instead.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The predicate simplifier pass has been improved, making it able to do  | 
 |     simple value range propagation and eliminate more conditionals.  However, | 
 |     note that predsimplify is not enabled by default in llvm-gcc.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |    | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!--_________________________________________________________________________--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="codegen">Code | 
 | Generator Enhancements</a></div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 | <p> | 
 | New features include: | 
 | </p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>LLVM now supports software floating point, which allows LLVM to target | 
 |     chips that don't have hardware FPUs (e.g. ARM thumb mode).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>A new register scavenger has been implemented, which is useful for | 
 |     finding free registers after register allocation.  This is useful when | 
 |     rewriting frame references on RISC targets, for example.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Heuristics have been added to avoid coalescing vregs with very large live  | 
 |     ranges to physregs.  This was bad because it effectively pinned the physical | 
 |     register for the entire lifetime of the virtual register (<a  | 
 |     href="http://llvm.org/PR711">PR711</a>).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Support now exists for very simple (but still very useful)  | 
 |     rematerialization the register allocator, enough to move   | 
 |     instructions like "load immediate" and constant pool loads.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Switch statement lowering is significantly better, improving codegen for  | 
 |     sparse switches that have dense subregions, and implemented support  | 
 |     for the shift/and trick.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>LLVM now supports tracking physreg sub-registers and super-registers  | 
 |     in the code generator, and includes extensive register | 
 |     allocator changes to track them.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>There is initial support for virtreg sub-registers  | 
 |     (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1350">PR1350</a>).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <p> | 
 | Other improvements include: | 
 | </p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Inline assembly support is much more solid that before. | 
 |     The two primary features still missing are support for 80-bit floating point | 
 |     stack registers on X86 (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">PR879</a>), and | 
 |     support for inline asm in the C backend (<a  | 
 |     href="http://llvm.org/PR802">PR802</a>).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>DWARF debug information generation has been improved.  LLVM now passes  | 
 |     most of the GDB testsuite on MacOS and debug info is more dense.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Codegen support for Zero-cost DWARF exception handling has been added (<a  | 
 |     href="http://llvm.org/PR592">PR592</a>).  It is mostly | 
 |     complete and just in need of continued bug fixes and optimizations at  | 
 |     this point.  However, support in llvm-g++ is disabled with an | 
 |     #ifdef for the 2.0 release  (<a  | 
 |     href="http://llvm.org/PR870">PR870</a>).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The code generator now has more accurate and general hooks for   | 
 |     describing addressing modes ("isLegalAddressingMode") to   | 
 |     optimizations like loop strength reduction and code sinking.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Progress has been made on a direct Mach-o .o file writer. Many small  | 
 |     apps work, but it is still not quite complete.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>In addition, the LLVM target description format has itself been extended in | 
 |  several ways:</p> | 
 |   | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>TargetData now supports better target parameterization in | 
 |     the .ll/.bc files, eliminating the 'pointersize/endianness' attributes | 
 |     in the files (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR761">PR761</a>).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>TargetData was generalized for finer grained alignment handling, | 
 |     handling of vector alignment, and handling of preferred alignment</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>LLVM now supports describing target calling conventions   | 
 |     explicitly in .td files, reducing the amount of C++ code that needs   | 
 |     to be written for a port.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!--_________________________________________________________________________--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="specifictargets">Target-Specific | 
 | Improvements</a></div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>X86-specific Code Generator Enhancements: | 
 | </p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>The MMX instruction set is now supported through intrinsics.</li> | 
 | <li>The scheduler was improved to better reduce register pressure on   | 
 |     X86 and other targets that are register pressure sensitive.</li> | 
 | <li>Linux/x86-64 support is much better.</li> | 
 | <li>PIC support for linux/x86 has been added.</li> | 
 | <li>The X86 backend now supports the GCC regparm attribute.</li> | 
 | <li>LLVM now supports inline asm with multiple constraint letters per operand  | 
 |     (like "mri") which is common in X86 inline asms.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>ARM-specific Code Generator Enhancements:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>The ARM code generator is now stable and fully supported.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>There are major new features, including support for ARM  | 
 |     v4-v6 chips, vfp support, soft float point support, pre/postinc support, | 
 |     load/store multiple generation, constant pool entry motion (to support | 
 |     large functions), inline asm support, weak linkage support, static | 
 |     ctor/dtor support and many bug fixes.</li> | 
 |      | 
 | <li>Added support for Thumb code generation (<tt>llc -march=thumb</tt>).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The ARM backend now supports the ARM AAPCS/EABI ABI and PIC codegen on  | 
 |     arm/linux.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Several bugs were fixed for DWARF debug info generation on arm/linux.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>PowerPC-specific Code Generator Enhancements:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>The PowerPC 64 JIT now supports addressing code loaded above the 2G | 
 |      boundary.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Improved support for the Linux/ppc ABI and the linux/ppc JIT is fully  | 
 |     functional now.  llvm-gcc and static compilation are not fully supported  | 
 |     yet though.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Many PowerPC 64 bug fixes.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | <!--_________________________________________________________________________--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="other">Other Improvements</a></div> | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>More specific changes include:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>LLVM no longer relies on static destructors to shut itself down.  Instead, | 
 |     it lazily initializes itself and shuts down when <tt>llvm_shutdown()</tt> is  | 
 |     explicitly called.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>LLVM now has significantly fewer static constructors, reducing startup time. | 
 |     </li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Several classes have been refactored to reduce the amount of code that | 
 |     gets linked into apps that use the JIT.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Construction of intrinsic function declarations has been simplified.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The gccas/gccld tools have been replaced with small shell scripts.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Support has been added to llvm-test for running on low-memory   | 
 |     or slow machines (make SMALL_PROBLEM_SIZE=1).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!--_________________________________________________________________________--> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="apichanges">API Changes</a></div> | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>LLVM 2.0 contains a revamp of the type system and several other significant | 
 | internal changes.  If you are programming to the C++ API, be aware of the | 
 | following major changes:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>Pass registration is slightly different in LLVM 2.0 (you now need an | 
 |    <tt>intptr_t</tt> in your constructor), as explained in the <a  | 
 |    href="WritingAnLLVMPass.html#basiccode">Writing an LLVM Pass</a> | 
 |    document.</li> | 
 |     | 
 | <li><tt>ConstantBool</tt>, <tt>ConstantIntegral</tt> and <tt>ConstantInt</tt> | 
 |     classes have been merged together, we now just have | 
 |     <tt>ConstantInt</tt>.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li><tt>Type::IntTy</tt>, <tt>Type::UIntTy</tt>, <tt>Type::SByteTy</tt>, ... are | 
 |     replaced by <tt>Type::Int8Ty</tt>, <tt>Type::Int16Ty</tt>, etc.  LLVM types | 
 |     have always corresponded to fixed size types | 
 |     (e.g. long was always 64-bits), but the type system no longer includes | 
 |     information about the sign of the type.  Also, the | 
 |     <tt>Type::isPrimitiveType()</tt> method now returns false for integers.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Several classes (<tt>CallInst</tt>, <tt>GetElementPtrInst</tt>, | 
 |     <tt>ConstantArray</tt>, etc), that once took <tt>std::vector</tt> as | 
 |      arguments now take ranges instead.   For example, you can create a | 
 |     <tt>GetElementPtrInst</tt> with code like: | 
 |      | 
 |     <pre> | 
 |       Value *Ops[] = { Op1, Op2, Op3 }; | 
 |       GEP = new GetElementPtrInst(BasePtr, Ops, 3); | 
 |     </pre> | 
 |      | 
 |     This avoids creation of a temporary vector (and a call to malloc/free).  If | 
 |     you have an <tt>std::vector</tt>, use code like this: | 
 |     <pre> | 
 |       std::vector<Value*> Ops = ...; | 
 |       GEP = new GetElementPtrInst(BasePtr, &Ops[0], Ops.size()); | 
 |     </pre> | 
 |  | 
 |     </li> | 
 |      | 
 | <li><tt>CastInst</tt> is now abstract and its functionality is split into | 
 |     several parts, one for each of the <a href="LangRef.html#convertops">new | 
 |     cast instructions</a>.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li><tt>Instruction::getNext()/getPrev()</tt> are now private (along with | 
 |     <tt>BasicBlock::getNext</tt>, etc), for efficiency reasons (they are now no | 
 |     longer just simple pointers).  Please use <tt>BasicBlock::iterator</tt>, etc | 
 |     instead. | 
 | </li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li><tt>Module::getNamedFunction()</tt> is now called | 
 |     <tt>Module::getFunction()</tt>.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li><tt>SymbolTable.h</tt> has been split into <tt>ValueSymbolTable.h</tt> and  | 
 | <tt>TypeSymbolTable.h</tt>.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | <div class="doc_section"> | 
 |   <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>Intel and AMD machines running Red Hat Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD  | 
 |       (and probably other unix-like systems).</li> | 
 | <li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.2 and above in 32-bit and | 
 |     64-bit modes.</li> | 
 | <li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native)</li> | 
 | <li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited | 
 |     support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li> | 
 | <li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8.</li> | 
 | <li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li> | 
 | <li>Itanium-based machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses | 
 | <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/">GNU autoconf</a> 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.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | <div class="doc_section"> | 
 |   <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by | 
 | component.  As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these | 
 | sections.  If you run into a problem, please check the <a | 
 | href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if | 
 | there isn't already one.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>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 <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>The <tt>-cee</tt> pass is known to be buggy, and may be removed in in a  | 
 |     future release.</li> | 
 | <li>C++ EH support is disabled for this release.</li> | 
 | <li>The MSIL backend is experimental.</li> | 
 | <li>The IA64 code generator is experimental.</li> | 
 | <li>The Alpha JIT is experimental.</li> | 
 | <li>"<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported value for the  | 
 |     <tt>-filetype</tt> llc option.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>The X86 backend does not yet support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline | 
 |     assembly that uses the X86 floating point stack</a>.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR642">PowerPC backend does not correctly | 
 | implement ordered FP comparisons</a>.</li> | 
 | <li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static | 
 | compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6 | 
 | processors, thumb program can crash or produces wrong | 
 | results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li> | 
 | <li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported, but not fully tested. | 
 | </li> | 
 | <li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (<= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly execute | 
 | programs compiled with LLVM.  Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not | 
 |     support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the | 
 | appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>C++ programs are likely to fail on IA64, as calls to <tt>setjmp</tt> are | 
 | made where the argument is not 16-byte aligned, as required on IA64. (Strictly | 
 | speaking this is not a bug in the IA64 back-end; it will also be encountered | 
 | when building C++ programs using the C back-end.)</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The C++ front-end does not use <a href="http://llvm.org/PR406">IA64 | 
 | ABI compliant layout of v-tables</a>.  In particular, it just stores function | 
 | pointers instead of function descriptors in the vtable.  This bug prevents | 
 | mixing C++ code compiled with LLVM with C++ objects compiled by other C++ | 
 | compilers.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>There are a few ABI violations which will lead to problems when mixing LLVM | 
 | output with code built with other compilers, particularly for floating-point | 
 | programs.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Defining vararg functions is not supported (but calling them is ok).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The Itanium backend has bitrotted somewhat.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend does not support inline | 
 |     assembly code</a>.</li> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the C front-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection">Bugs</div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>llvm-gcc4 does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time  | 
 | Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box".  Please inquire on the  | 
 | llvmdev mailing list if you are interested.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsubsection"> | 
 |   Notes | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 | <ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <li><p>"long double" is silently transformed by the front-end into "double".  There | 
 | is no support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64 | 
 | bits.</p></li> | 
 |      | 
 | <li><p>llvm-gcc does <b>not</b> support <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> yet. | 
 |   See <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.</p> | 
 | </li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li><p>llvm-gcc <b>partially</b> supports these GCC extensions:</p> | 
 |   <ol> | 
 |   <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.<br> | 
 |       Nested functions are supported, but llvm-gcc does not support non-local | 
 |       gotos or taking the address of a nested function.</li> | 
 |  | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>: | 
 |  | 
 |       Declaring that functions have no side effects or that they can never | 
 |       return.<br> | 
 |  | 
 |       <b>Supported:</b> <tt>alias</tt>, <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt>, | 
 |       <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, | 
 |       <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>fastcall</tt>, <tt>format</tt>,  | 
 |       <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>, <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt> | 
 |       <tt>section</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>used</tt>,  | 
 |       <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br> | 
 |  | 
 |       <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noinline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>, | 
 |       <tt>malloc</tt>, <tt>no_instrument_function</tt></li> | 
 |   </ol> | 
 | </li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li><p>llvm-gcc supports the vast majority of GCC extensions, including:</p> | 
 |  | 
 |   <ol> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>: | 
 |       Other built-in functions.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>: | 
 |       Specifying attributes of variables.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>:	Specifying attributes of types.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread_002dLocal.html">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>: | 
 |       Arrays whose length is computed at run time.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>:   Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.4.0/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>:   Data types for complex numbers.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>:  Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>:   Built-in functions specific to particular targets.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C_002b_002b-Comments.html#C_002b_002b-Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.</li> | 
 |   <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>.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <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.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.</li> | 
 |   <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.</li> | 
 |   </ol></li> | 
 |  | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these | 
 | lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).</p> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | <div class="doc_subsection"> | 
 |   <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ front-end</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>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.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <ul> | 
 | <li>llvm-gcc4 only has partial support for <a href="http://llvm.org/PR870">C++  | 
 | Exception Handling</a>, and it is not enabled by default.</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- NO EH Support! | 
 |  | 
 | <li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is | 
 |     performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing | 
 |     function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run. | 
 |     Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed, however (which is | 
 |     better than most compilers).</li> | 
 |  | 
 | <li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a | 
 |     href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>. | 
 |     This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name | 
 |     mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++ | 
 |     representation issues.  Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM | 
 |     compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other | 
 |     Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc). | 
 |     <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by llvm-gcc3 is very | 
 |     different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not | 
 |     interact correctly</b>. </li> | 
 | --> | 
 | </ul> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | <div class="doc_section"> | 
 |   <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a> | 
 | </div> | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 |  | 
 | <div class="doc_text"> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a | 
 | href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a | 
 | href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> 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 "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | <p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact | 
 | us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing | 
 | lists</a>.</p> | 
 |  | 
 | </div> | 
 |  | 
 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 |  | 
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