blob: bbc96e6e8314bc47333280dfdcddf64a7b30dde6 [file] [log] [blame]
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +00002<html><head><title>LLVM 1.1 Release Notes</title></head>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00003<body bgcolor=white>
4
5<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +00006<tr><td>&nbsp; <font size=+3 color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino,Times,Roman"><b>LLVM 1.1 Release Notes</b></font></td>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00007</tr></table>
8
9<ol>
Chris Lattner824b9a62003-10-02 05:09:46 +000010 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000011 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000012 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000013 <li><a href="#install-instructions">Installation Instructions</a>
14 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
15 <ul>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000016<!-- <li><a href="#portabilityprobs">Portability Problems</a> -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000017 <li><a href="#core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
18 <li><a href="#c-fe">Known problems with the C Front-end</a>
19 <li><a href="#c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ Front-end</a>
20 <li><a href="#x86-be">Known problems with the X86 Back-end</a>
21 <li><a href="#sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc Back-end</a>
22 <li><a href="#c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
23 </ul>
24 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
25 </ul>
26
27 <p><b>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></b><p>
28</ol>
29
30
31<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
32<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
33<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
34<a name="intro">Introduction
35</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
36<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
37
38This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler infrastructure,
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000039release 1.1. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any known problems,
40and bug fixes from the previous release. The most up-to-date version of this
41document can be found on the <a
42href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.1/">LLVM 1.1 web site</a>. If you are
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000043not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there, because
44this document may be updated after the release.<p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000045
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000046For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more
47current releases, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main
48web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
49href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
50list</a> is a good place to send them.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000051
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000052Note that if you are reading this file from CVS, that this document applies to
53the <i>next</i> release, not the previous one. To see the release notes for the
54previous release, see the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/">releases
55page</a>.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000056
57<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
58</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
59<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
60<a name="whatsnew">What's New?
61</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
62<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
63
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000064This is the second public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure. This
65release implements the following new features:<p>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000066
67<ol>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000068<li><a href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2003-November/000528.html">A new LLVM profiler, similar to gprof</a> is available</li><p>
69
70<li>LLVM and the C/C++ front-end now compile on Mac OSX! Mac OSX users can now
71explore the LLVM optimizer with the C backend (note that LLVM requires GCC 3.3
72on Mac OSX).</li><p>
73
Chris Lattner2a77f2d2003-11-11 23:46:35 +000074<li>LLVM has been <a
75href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2003-November/000554.html">moved
76into an 'llvm' C++ namespace</a>, for easier integration with third-party
Misha Brukmanbfcadff2003-11-12 22:55:13 +000077code.</a> Note that due to a bug in GDB 5.x, to debug namespacified LLVM code,
78you will need to upgrade to GDB 6.</li>
Brian Gaeke360c2662003-11-11 22:45:41 +000079
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000080</ol><p>
81
82In this release, the following missing features were implemented:<p>
83
84<ol>
85<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR88">The interpreter does not support
86invoke or unwind</a></li>
Misha Brukmanc99037d2003-11-14 03:30:43 +000087
88<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR99">Interpreter does not support the
89<tt>vaarg</tt> instruction</a></li><p>
90
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000091</ol><p>
92
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +000093In this release, the following Quality of Implementation issues were fixed:<p>
94
95<ol>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000096
97<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR29">C++ front-end is not generating
98linkonce linkage type when it can</a></li>
99
100<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR84">C front-end doesn't emit
101getelementptr for address of array element</a></li>
102
Chris Lattnerba46d552003-11-16 20:25:24 +0000103<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR96">Bad path to the C/C++ frontend causes
104build problems</a></li>
105
106<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR114">LLVM header files should be -Wold-style-cast clean</a></li>
107
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +0000108</ol><p>
109
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +0000110
Chris Lattnerf7100202003-10-27 05:41:39 +0000111In this release, the following bugs in the previous release were fixed:<p>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000112
113<ol>
Chris Lattnerf7100202003-10-27 05:41:39 +0000114<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR57">[inliner] Inlining invoke with PHI in unwind target is broken</a></li>
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +0000115<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR58">[linker] linkonce globals should link successfully to external globals</a></li>
Chris Lattner4ad4b3a2003-10-27 17:58:57 +0000116<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR59">C++ frontend can crash when compiling virtual base classes</a></li>
Chris Lattner2c17a892003-10-28 23:13:03 +0000117<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR62">C backend fails on constant cast expr to ptr-to-anonymous struct</a></li>
Chris Lattner287b6212003-10-29 01:26:07 +0000118<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR63">#ident is not recognized by C frontend</a></li>
Chris Lattner32547fe2003-10-29 07:17:13 +0000119<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR64">[constmerge] Constant merging pass merges constants with external linkage</a></li>
120<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR65">C front-end miscompiles the builtin_expect intrinsic!</a></li>
Chris Lattner34790e52003-10-29 18:49:14 +0000121<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR66">[scalarrepl] Scalar Replacement of aggregates is decimating structures it shouldn't be</a></li>
122<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR67">1.0 precompiled libstdc++ does not include wchar_t support</a></li>
Chris Lattner05b958d2003-10-29 20:59:45 +0000123<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR68">llvmgcc asserts when compiling functions renamed with asm's</a></li>
124<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR69">C frontend crashes on some programs with lots of types.</a></li>
Chris Lattner36bd5d12003-10-30 01:20:42 +0000125<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR70">[instcombine] Resolving invoke inserts cast after terminator</a></li>
Chris Lattnerf9e8a0f2003-10-30 01:43:33 +0000126<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR71">llvm-as crashes when labels are used in phi nodes</a></li>
Chris Lattner3dcc7b92003-10-30 16:20:15 +0000127<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR72">[build problem] Callgraph.cpp not pulled in from libipa.a</a></li>
Chris Lattner8222eca2003-11-02 02:15:11 +0000128<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR79">llvm-gcc crashes compiling global union initializer</a></li>
129<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR80">C front-end crash on empty structure</a></li>
130<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR81">CFrontend crashes when compiling C99 compound expressions</a></li>
Chris Lattner2fb1ef82003-11-03 20:08:08 +0000131<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR83">[X86] Emission of global bool initializers broken</a></li>
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000132<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR87">llvm-gcc infinite loops on "case MAXINT:"</a></li>
Chris Lattnerde3bb572003-11-05 06:30:04 +0000133<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR89">[C++] Catch blocks make unparsable labels</a></li>
134<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR90">[C++] Initializing array with constructable objects fail</a></li>
135<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR91">[gccld] The -r (relinking) option does not work correctly</a></li>
Chris Lattner5b3fb032003-11-07 04:46:56 +0000136<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR92">[bcreader] Cannot read shift constant expressions from bytecode file</a></li>
137<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR93">[lowersetjmp] Lowersetjmp pass breaks dominance properties!</a></li>
138<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR94">llvm-gcc tries to add bools</a></li>
Chris Lattner11dde852003-11-09 19:44:07 +0000139<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR95">SymbolTable::getUniqueName is very inefficient</a></li>
Chris Lattner5b3fb032003-11-07 04:46:56 +0000140<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR98">[buildscripts] Building into objdir with .o in it fails</a></li>
Chris Lattner7af4d5e2003-11-08 05:18:50 +0000141<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR101">[setjmp/longjmp] Linking C programs which use setjmp/longjmp sometimes fail with references to the C++ runtime library!</a></li>
Chris Lattner11dde852003-11-09 19:44:07 +0000142<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR104">[c++] C++ Frontend lays out superclasses like anonymous bitfields!</a></li>
Chris Lattner9b29bde2003-11-12 04:42:37 +0000143<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR107">AsmParser Misses Symbol Redefinition Error</a></li>
Brian Gaeke78792062003-11-11 21:52:34 +0000144<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR108">gccld -Lfoo -lfoo fails to find ./foo/libfoo.a</a></li>
Chris Lattner6e4046f2003-11-14 06:42:01 +0000145<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR110">[bcreader] Incorrect cast causes misread forward constant references</a></li>
Brian Gaeke502c4812003-11-12 22:48:52 +0000146<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR112">Casting a string constant to void crashes llvm-gcc</a></li>
Chris Lattner5edc1bb2003-11-16 21:42:48 +0000147<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR116">[adce] ADCE considers blocks without postdominators to be unreachable</a></li>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000148</ol><p>
149
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000150At this time, LLVM is known to work properly with SPEC CPU 2000, the Olden
151benchmarks, and the Ptrdist benchmarks among many other programs. Note however
152that the Sparc and X86 backends do not currently support exception throwing or
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +0000153long jumping (including 253.perlbmk in SPEC). For these programs you must use
154the C backend.<p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000155
156
157<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
158</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
159<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
160<a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms
161</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
162<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
163
Chris Lattner3e2959e2003-11-08 05:22:09 +0000164LLVM has been extensively tested on Intel and AMD machines running Red
165Hat Linux, and Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8. Additionally,
166LLVM works on Mac OS/X 10.3 and above, but only with the C back-end (no native
167backend for the PowerPC is available yet).
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000168The core LLVM infrastructure uses "autoconf" for portability, so hopefully we
Chris Lattner3e2959e2003-11-08 05:22:09 +0000169work on more platforms than that. However, it is likely that we
170missed something, and that minor porting is required to get LLVM to work on
171new platforms. We welcome portability patches and error messages.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000172
173
174<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
175</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
176<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000177<a name="knownproblems">Known Problems
178</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
179<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
180
181This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
182component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000183sections.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000184
185
186<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000187<!--
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000188</ul><h4><a name="portability"><hr size=0>Portability Problems</h4><ul>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000189-->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000190
191
192<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
193</ul><h4><a name="core"><hr size=0>Known problems with the LLVM Core</h4><ul>
194
195<li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not work.<p>
196
197<li>The JIT does not use mutexes to protect its internal data structures. As
198 such, execution of a threaded program could cause these data structures to
199 be corrupted.<p>
200
201<li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.<p>
202
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000203<li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow (there is no symbol
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000204table in the archive).<p>
205
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000206<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR82">LLVM cannot handle structures with
207more than 256 elements</a>.<p>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000208
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000209<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
210</ul><h4><a name="c-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C front-end</h4><ul>
211
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000212</ul><b>Bugs:</b><ul><p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000213
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000214<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR6">Oversized integer bitfields cause crash</a>.<p>
215
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000216<li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
217 scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
218<pre>
219 for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
220 int X[n];
221 foo(X);
222 }
223</pre><p>
224
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000225</ul><b>Notes:</b><ul><p>
226
227<li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.<p>
228
229<li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
230 support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64 bits.
231 <p>
232
Chris Lattner824b9a62003-10-02 05:09:46 +0000233<li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not work:
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000234<ol>
235 <li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
John Criswell97745952003-10-27 17:41:53 +0000236 appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions. Note that
237 <tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> <em>are</em> compiled correctly.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000238 <li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
239 - These functions have not been tested.
240</ol><p>
241
242<li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
243 the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
244 <ol>
245 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.
246 <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.
247 <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.
248 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.
249 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.
250 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands
251 <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.
252 <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.
253 <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.
254 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.
255 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.
256 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.
257 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.
258 </ol><p>
259
260 The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
261 attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
262 but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
263 ignored by the LLVM compiler, which will cause a different interpretation of
264 the program.<p>
265
266 <ol>
267 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
268 Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
269 Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).
270
271 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
272 Declaring that functions have no side effects, or that they can never return.<br>
273 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>, <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>deprecated</tt>,
274 <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
275 <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>noinline</tt>, <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>, <tt>malloc</tt>
276 <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
277 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>, <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
278 <tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes
279
280 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
281 Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
282 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
283 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
284 <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
285 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
286 <tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
287 <tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
288 <tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.<br>
289
290 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.
291 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
292 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt>
293 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>
294 all target specific attributes.<br>
295 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
296 Other built-in functions.<br>
297 We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
298 <tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
299 <tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
300 <tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt> (ignored).
301 </ol><p>
302
303
304 The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:
305 <ol>
306 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.
307 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000308 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000309 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.
310 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.
311 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.
312 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.
313 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.
314 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.
315 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.
316 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.
317 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.
318 <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.
319 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.
320 <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.
321 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.
322
323 <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.
324 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.
325 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.
326
327 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.
328 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.
329 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.
330 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Character-Escapes.html#Character%20Escapes">Character Escapes</a>: <code>\e</code> stands for the character &lt;ESC&gt;.
331 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.
332 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).
333 <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.
334 <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.
335 <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.
336 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.
337 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.
338 </ol><p>
339
340 If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
341 lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).
342
343
344<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
345</ul><h4><a name="c++-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C++ front-end</h4><ul>
346
John Criswell97745952003-10-27 17:41:53 +0000347For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be fully functional but
348of <b>beta</b> quality. It has been tested and works for a number of simple programs that collectively exercise most of the language. Nevertheless, it has not been in use as long as the C front-end. Please report any bugs or problems.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000349
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000350</ul><b>Bugs</b>:<ul><p>
351
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000352<li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
353 front-end</a><p>
354
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000355</ul><b>Notes</b>:<ul><p>
356
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000357<li>The C++ front-end is based on a pre-release of the GCC 3.4 C++ parser. This
358parser is significantly more standards compliant (and picky) than prior GCC
359versions. For more information, see the C++ section of the <a
360href="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html">GCC 3.4 release notes</a>.<p>
361
362<li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000363 performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000364 function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
365 Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed however (which is
366 better than most compilers).<p>
367
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000368<li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
369 href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
370 This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
371 mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
372 representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
373 compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
374 Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
375 <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
376 different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
377 interact correctly</b> .
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000378
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000379<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR11">Code for executing destructors when
380 unwinding is not shared</a> (this is a quality of implementation problem,
381 which does not effect functionality).<p>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000382
383
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000384<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
385</ul><h4><a name="x86-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the X86 back-end</h4><ul>
386
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000387<li>The X86 code generator <a
Chris Lattner0d4379a2003-10-08 06:01:38 +0000388href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR16">does not currently
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000389support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
390or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000391
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000392
393<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
394</ul><h4><a name="sparc-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the Sparc back-end</h4><ul>
395
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000396<li>The Sparc code generator <a
Chris Lattner0d4379a2003-10-08 06:01:38 +0000397href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR15">does not currently
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000398support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
399or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000400
401
402<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
403</ul><h4><a name="c-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C back-end</h4><ul>
404
405<li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
406Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
407(for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
408problem probably cannot be fixed.<p>
409
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000410<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR33">Initializers for global variables</a>
411cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or Infinity.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000412
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000413<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +0000414supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
415frontends.<p>
416
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000417<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR77">Variables in scope of output setjmp
418calls should be volatile</a>. Note that this does not effect correctness on
419many platforms.<p>
420
421<li>The code produces by the C back-end has only been tested with the Sun CC,
422GCC, and Intel compilers. It is possible that it will have to be adjusted to
423support other C compilers.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000424
425
426
427<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
428</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
429<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
430<a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information
431</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
432<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
433
434A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page,
435including mailing lists publications describing algorithms and components
436implemented in LLVM. The web page also contains versions of the API
437documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code. You
438can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going into
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000439the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000440
441If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact us
442via the mailing lists.<p>
443
444
445<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
446</ul>
447<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
448
449<hr><font size-1>
450
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000451Maintained By: <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/">The LLVM Team</a><br>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000452<!-- Created: Wed Oct 1 17:38:54 CDT 2003 -->
453<!-- hhmts start -->
Chris Lattner5edc1bb2003-11-16 21:42:48 +0000454Last modified: Sun Nov 16 15:41:42 CST 2003
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000455<!-- hhmts end -->
456</body></html>