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Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +00007 <title>LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</title>
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9<body>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000010
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000011<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</div>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000012
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000013<ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000014 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000015 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
16 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM?</a></li>
Chris Lattner4b538b92004-04-30 22:17:12 +000017 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000018 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +000019 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000020 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000021</ol>
22
Chris Lattner7911ce22004-05-23 21:07:27 +000023<div class="doc_author">
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +000024 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000025</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000026
27<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000028<div class="doc_section">
29 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
30</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000031<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
32
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000033<div class="doc_text">
34
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000035<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000036Infrastructure, release 2.5. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000037major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
38All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
39href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000040
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +000041<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +000042release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000043web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000044href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's Mailing
45List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000046
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000047<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +000048main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greiffa933f82008-10-14 11:00:32 +000049current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +000050<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000051
52</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000053
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000054<!-- Unfinished features in 2.5:
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000055 Machine LICM
56 Machine Sinking
57 LegalizeDAGTypes
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000058 llc -enable-value-prop, propagation of value info (sign/zero ext info) from
59 one MBB to another
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000060 -->
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000061
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000062 <!-- for announcement email:
63 mention dev mtg
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +000064 Xcode 3.1 and 3.1.1.
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000065 -->
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000066
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000067<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
68<div class="doc_section">
69 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +000070</div>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000071<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +000072
73<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000074<p>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000075The LLVM 2.5 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +000076repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators and
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000077supporting tools) and the llvm-gcc repository. In addition to this code, the
78LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in development. The two which
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000079are the most actively developed are the <a href="#clang">Clang Project</a> and
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +000080the <a href="#vmkit">VMKit Project</a>.
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000081</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000082
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000083</div>
84
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000085
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000086<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000087<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +000088<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000089</div>
90
91<div class="doc_text">
92
93<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is an effort to build
94a set of new 'LLVM native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +000095and code generator. While Clang is not included in the LLVM 2.5 release, it
96is continuing to make major strides forward in all areas. Its C and Objective-C
97parsing and code generation support is now very solid. For example, it is
98capable of successfully building many real applications for X86-32 and X86-64,
99including the FreeBSD kernel. C++ is also making <a
100href="http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html">incredible progress</a>, and work
101on templates has recently started.</p>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000102
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000103<p>While Clang is not yet production quality, it is progressing very nicely and
104is quite usable for building many C and Objective-C applications. If you are
105interested in fast compiles and good diagnostics, we encourage you to try it out
106by <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html">building from mainlnie</a>
107and reporting any issues you hit to the <a
108href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">Clang front-end mailing
109list</a>.</p>
110
111<p>In the LLVM 2.5 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000112
Daniel Dunbar13739432008-10-14 23:25:09 +0000113<ul>
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000114<li>Clang now has a new driver, which is focused on providing a GCC-compatible
115 interface.</li>
116<li>The X86-64 ABI is now supported.</li>
117<li>Precompiled header support is now implemented.</li>
118<li>Objective-C support is significantly improved beyond LLVM 2.4, supporting
119 many features, such as Objective-C Garbage Collection.</li>
120<li>Many many bugs are fixed.</li>
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000121</div>
122
123<!--=========================================================================-->
124<div class="doc_subsection">
125<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
126</div>
127
128<div class="doc_text">
129
Ted Kremenek3c3ec0c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000130<p>The Clang project also includes an early stage static source code analysis
131tool for <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">automatically
132finding bugs</a> in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs a growing set
Chris Lattnerc702d162008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000133of checks to find bugs that occur on a specific path within a program. Examples
Ted Kremenek3c3ec0c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000134of bugs the tool finds include logic errors such as null dereferences,
135violations of various API rules, dead code, and potential memory leaks in
Chris Lattnerc702d162008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000136Objective-C programs. Since its inception, public feedback on the tool has been
137extremely positive, and conservative estimates put the number of real bugs it
138has found in industrial-quality software on the order of thousands.</p>
Chris Lattnercc042612008-10-14 00:52:49 +0000139
Ted Kremenek3c3ec0c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000140<p>The tool also provides a simple web GUI to inspect potential bugs found by
Chris Lattnerc702d162008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000141the tool. While still early in development, the GUI illustrates some of the key
Ted Kremenek3c3ec0c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000142features of Clang: accurate source location information, which is used by the
143GUI to highlight specific code expressions that relate to a bug (including those
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000144that span multiple lines); and built-in knowledge of macros, which is used to
Ted Kremenek3c3ec0c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000145perform inline expansion of macros within the GUI itself.</p>
146
Chris Lattnerc702d162008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000147<p>The set of checks performed by the static analyzer is gradually expanding,
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000148and future plans for the tool include full source-level inter-procedural
149analysis and deeper checks such as buffer overrun detection. There are many
150opportunities to extend and enhance the static analyzer, and anyone interested
151in working on this project is encouraged to get involved!</p>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000152
153</div>
154
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000155<!--=========================================================================-->
156<div class="doc_subsection">
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000157<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000158</div>
159
160<div class="doc_text">
161<p>
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000162The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000163a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machines (Microsoft .NET is an
164implementation of the CLI) using the Just-In-Time compiler of LLVM.</p>
165
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000166<p>Following LLVM 2.5, VMKit has its first release 0.24 that you can find on its
Nicolas Geoffray56d313d2008-10-15 20:25:04 +0000167<a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/releases/">webpage</a>. The release includes
168bug fixes, cleanup and new features. The major changes are:</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000169
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000170<ul>
171
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000172<li>?</li>
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000173
174</ul>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000175</div>
176
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000177
178<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
179<div class="doc_section">
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000180 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM?</a>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000181</div>
182<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
183
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000184<div class="doc_text">
185
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000186<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks, and
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000187minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
188in this section.
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000189</p>
190</div>
191
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000192<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000193<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000194<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
195</div>
196
197<div class="doc_text">
198
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000199<p>LLVM 2.5 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000200
201<ul>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000202<li><p>?</p></li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000203
Chris Lattner8170c102008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000204</ul>
205
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000206</div>
207
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000208
209<!--=========================================================================-->
210<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000211<a name="llvm-gcc">llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000212</div>
213
214<div class="doc_text">
215
Chris Lattnerb82eb062008-10-13 20:47:20 +0000216<p>LLVM fully supports the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end, which marries the GCC
217front-ends and driver with the LLVM optimizer and code generator. It currently
218includes support for the C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and Fortran front-ends.</p>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000219
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000220<ul>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000221<li>?</li>
Gabor Greifa3bd11d2008-06-09 06:06:18 +0000222</ul>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000223
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000224</div>
225
226
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000227<!--=========================================================================-->
228<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000229<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM Core Improvements</a>
230</div>
231
232<div class="doc_text">
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000233<p>New features include:</p>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000234
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000235<ul>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000236<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner7752d1a2008-10-13 20:59:32 +0000237
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000238</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000239
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000240</div>
241
242<!--=========================================================================-->
243<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000244<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
245</div>
246
247<div class="doc_text">
248
Chris Lattnerf3013872008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000249<p>In addition to a huge array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, this
250release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000251
252<ul>
253
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000254<li>?</li>
Chris Lattnerf3013872008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000255
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000256</ul>
257
258</div>
259
260<!--=========================================================================-->
261<div class="doc_subsection">
262<a name="codegen">Code Generator Improvements</a>
263</div>
264
265<div class="doc_text">
266
Gabor Greifa8b84902008-10-14 11:31:14 +0000267<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator infrastructure,
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000268which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make it run
269faster:</p>
270
271<ul>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000272<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000273
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000274</ul>
275
276</div>
277
278
279<!--=========================================================================-->
280<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000281<a name="targetspecific">Target Specific Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000282</div>
Chris Lattner60893e52007-05-18 06:33:02 +0000283
Chris Lattner738bd302006-04-18 06:32:08 +0000284<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000285<p>New target-specific features include:
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000286</p>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000287
288<ul>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000289<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000290</ul>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000291
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000292</div>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000293
294
295<!--=========================================================================-->
296<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000297<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements</a>
298</div>
299
300<div class="doc_text">
301<p>New features include:
302</p>
303
304<ul>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000305<li>?</li>
Tanya Lattnera7ec7062008-11-04 18:40:27 +0000306
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000307</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000308
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000309</div>
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000310
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000311<!--=========================================================================-->
312<div class="doc_subsection">
313<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
314</div>
315
316<div class="doc_text">
317
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000318<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000319on LLVM 2.4, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000320from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000321
322<ul>
323
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000324<li>?</li>
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000325</ul>
326
327
328<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
329API changes are:</p>
330
331<ul>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000332<li>?</li>
Devang Patelb34dd132008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000333</ul>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000334
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000335<li>?</li>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000336</ul>
337
338</div>
339
340
341
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000342<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000343<div class="doc_section">
344 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
345</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000346<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
347
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000348<div class="doc_text">
349
John Criswell0b5b5e92004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000350<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000351
352<ul>
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000353<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
354Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
355<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit
356and 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000357<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000358<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
359 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000360<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 10.</li>
John Criswell9321fa82005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000361<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000362<li>Itanium-based (IA64) machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000363</ul>
364
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000365<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekeb0fd7612004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000366to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
367porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
368portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000369
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000370</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000371
372<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000373<div class="doc_section">
374 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
375</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000376<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
377
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000378<div class="doc_text">
379
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000380<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
381listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000382href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000383there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000384
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000385</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000386
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000387<!-- ======================================================================= -->
388<div class="doc_subsection">
389 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
390</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000391
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000392<div class="doc_text">
393
Misha Brukman6df9e2c2004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000394<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
395be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
396not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
397useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000398components, please contact us on the <a
399href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000400
401<ul>
Gabor Greifa8b84902008-10-14 11:31:14 +0000402<li>The MSIL, IA64, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, and PIC16 backends are experimental.</li>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000403<li>The llc "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported
Chris Lattner000c73b2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000404 value for this option.</li>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000405</ul>
406
407</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000408
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000409<!-- ======================================================================= -->
410<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000411 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000412</div>
413
414<div class="doc_text">
415
416<ul>
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000417 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
418 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
419 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
420 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000421 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
422 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands47eff2b2008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000423 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000424 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build mingw64 runtime
425 currently due
426 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
Chris Lattner04af7cb2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000427 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> due to lack of support for the
428 'u' inline assembly constraint and X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000429 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
430 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc front-end supports variadic
431 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000432</ul>
433
434</div>
435
436<!-- ======================================================================= -->
437<div class="doc_subsection">
438 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
439</div>
440
441<div class="doc_text">
442
443<ul>
Nicolas Geoffraye4285dc2007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000444<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000445compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000446</ul>
447
448</div>
449
450<!-- ======================================================================= -->
451<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000452 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
453</div>
454
455<div class="doc_text">
456
457<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000458<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sandsc90d68b2007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000459processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000460results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000461<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported, but not fully tested.
462</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000463<li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (&lt;= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly
464 execute
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000465programs compiled with LLVM. Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000466</ul>
467
468</div>
469
470<!-- ======================================================================= -->
471<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000472 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
473</div>
474
475<div class="doc_text">
476
477<ul>
478<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not
479 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
480</ul>
481
482</div>
483
484<!-- ======================================================================= -->
485<div class="doc_subsection">
Bruno Cardoso Lopesb7e1a4f2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000486 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
487</div>
488
489<div class="doc_text">
490
491<ul>
492<li>The O32 ABI is not fully supported.</li>
493<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
494</ul>
495
496</div>
497
498<!-- ======================================================================= -->
499<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000500 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
501</div>
502
503<div class="doc_text">
504
505<ul>
506
507<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
508appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
509
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000510</ul>
511</div>
512
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000513<!-- ======================================================================= -->
514<div class="doc_subsection">
515 <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
516</div>
517
518<div class="doc_text">
519
520<ul>
Chris Lattner04af7cb2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000521<li>The Itanium backend is highly experimental, and has a number of known
522 issues. We are looking for a maintainer for the Itanium backend. If you
Gabor Greif3bd3a262008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000523 are interested, please contact the LLVMdev mailing list.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000524</ul>
525
526</div>
527
528<!-- ======================================================================= -->
529<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000530 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000531</div>
532
533<div class="doc_text">
534
535<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000536<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
537 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner725a0d82007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000538<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
539 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000540 C++ code compiled with llc or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsf74c0cc2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000541<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000542</ul>
543
544</div>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000545
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000546
547<!-- ======================================================================= -->
548<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000549 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000550</div>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000551
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000552<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000553
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000554<p>llvm-gcc does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time
555Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the
Gabor Greif3bd3a262008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000556LLVMdev mailing list if you are interested.</p>
Chris Lattnerd9ea0172006-08-08 17:27:28 +0000557
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000558<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
559 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
560 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000561 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
562 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000563
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000564<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
565</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000566
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000567</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000568
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000569<!-- ======================================================================= -->
570<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000571 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000572</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000573
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000574<div class="doc_text">
575
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000576<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000577tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000578itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000579
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000580<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov0021fc12008-10-11 18:27:16 +0000581<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets. Currently
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000582 only Linux and Darwin targets are supported (both 32 and 64 bit).</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000583</ul>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000584
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000585</div>
586
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000587<!-- ======================================================================= -->
588<div class="doc_subsection">
589 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
590</div>
591
592<div class="doc_text">
Gabor Greifba10fe02008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000593<ul>
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000594<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
595 in Bugzilla. Please see the tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
596
597<li>The Fortran front-end currently does not build on Darwin (without tweaks)
598 due to unresolved dependencies on the C front-end.</li>
Gabor Greifba10fe02008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000599</ul>
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000600</div>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000601
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000602<!-- ======================================================================= -->
603<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000604 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000605</div>
606
607<div class="doc_text">
608The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well, however this is not a mature
609technology and problems should be expected.
610<ul>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000611<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000612to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms,
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000613however it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000614which does support trampolines.</li>
615<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
616Workaround: configure with --disable-bootstrap.</li>
Duncan Sands978bcee2008-10-13 17:27:23 +0000617<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
618and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
619(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).</li>
620<li>Some gcc specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000621<li>The -E binder option (exception backtraces)
622<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
623crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use -E.</li>
624<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
625or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
626or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
627starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000628<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
629'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
630Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
631<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
632<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
633ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000634</ul>
635</div>
636
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000637<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000638<div class="doc_section">
639 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
640</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000641<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
642
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000643<div class="doc_text">
644
Chris Lattner416db102005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000645<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000646href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
647href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000648contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
649Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman109d9e82005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000650You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
651into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000652
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000653<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000654us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000655lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000656
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000657</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000658
659<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000660
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000661<hr>
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