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Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +00008 <title>LLVM 2.9 Release Notes</title>
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10<body>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000011
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +000012<h1 class="doc_title">LLVM 2.9 Release Notes</h1>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000013
Chris Lattner0e464a92010-03-17 04:02:39 +000014<img align=right src="http://llvm.org/img/DragonSmall.png"
Gabor Greifee2187a2010-04-22 10:21:43 +000015 width="136" height="136" alt="LLVM Dragon Logo">
Chris Lattner0e464a92010-03-17 04:02:39 +000016
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000017<ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000018 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000019 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +000020 <li><a href="#externalproj">External Projects Using LLVM 2.9</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.9?</a></li>
Chris Lattner4b538b92004-04-30 22:17:12 +000022 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +000023 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000024 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000025</ol>
26
Chris Lattner7911ce22004-05-23 21:07:27 +000027<div class="doc_author">
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +000028 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000029</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000030
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +000031<h1 style="color:red">These are in-progress notes for the upcoming LLVM 2.9
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +000032release.<br>
33You may prefer the
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +000034<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/2.8/docs/ReleaseNotes.html">LLVM 2.8
Dan Gohmanb44f6c62010-05-03 23:51:05 +000035Release Notes</a>.</h1>
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +000036
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000037<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +000038<h1>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000039 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +000040</h1>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000041<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
42
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000043<div class="doc_text">
44
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000045<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +000046Infrastructure, release 2.9. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000047major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +000048All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000049href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000050
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +000051<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +000052release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000053web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattnerc66bfef2010-03-17 04:41:49 +000054href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's
55Mailing List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000056
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000057<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +000058main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greiffa933f82008-10-14 11:00:32 +000059current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +000060<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000061
62</div>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +000063
Chris Lattnere4dc1962011-04-05 23:22:33 +000064<!-- Features that need text if they're finished for 3.1:
65 ARM EHABI
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +000066 combiner-aa?
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +000067 strong phi elim
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +000068 loop dependence analysis
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +000069 CorrelatedValuePropagation
Chris Lattnere4dc1962011-04-05 23:22:33 +000070 lib/Transforms/IPO/MergeFunctions.cpp => consider for 3.1.
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000071 -->
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +000072
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000073<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +000074<h1>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000075 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +000076</h1>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000077<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +000078
79<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000080<p>
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +000081The LLVM 2.9 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +000082repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators
83and supporting tools), the Clang repository and the llvm-gcc repository. In
84addition to this code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in
85development. Here we include updates on these subprojects.
Bill Wendling63d8c552009-03-02 04:28:57 +000086</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000087
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000088</div>
89
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000090
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000091<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +000092<h2>
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +000093<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +000094</h2>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000095
96<div class="doc_text">
97
Chris Lattner095539f2010-04-26 17:42:18 +000098<p><a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang</a> is an LLVM front end for the C,
99C++, and Objective-C languages. Clang aims to provide a better user experience
100through expressive diagnostics, a high level of conformance to language
101standards, fast compilation, and low memory use. Like LLVM, Clang provides a
102modular, library-based architecture that makes it suitable for creating or
103integrating with other development tools. Clang is considered a
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000104production-quality compiler for C, Objective-C, C++ and Objective-C++ on x86
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000105(32- and 64-bit), and for darwin/arm targets.</p>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000106
Chris Lattner0a6f6d52011-04-05 07:19:28 +0000107<p>In the LLVM 2.9 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements in C,
108C++ and Objective-C support. C++ support is now generally rock solid, has
Chris Lattnerdf448a32011-04-06 00:56:12 +0000109been exercised on a broad variety of code, and has several new <a
110href="http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html#cxx0x">C++'0x features</a>
Chris Lattner0a6f6d52011-04-05 07:19:28 +0000111implemented (such as rvalue references and variadic templates). LLVM 2.9 has
112also brought in a large range of bug fixes and minor features (e.g. __label__
113support), and is much more compatible with the Linux Kernel.</p>
114
115<p>If Clang rejects your code that is built with another compiler, please take a
116look at the <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/compatibility.html">language
117compatibility</a> guide to make sure the issue isn't intentional or a known
118issue.
119</p>
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000120
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000121<ul>
122</ul>
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000123</div>
124
125<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000126<h2>
Duncan Sands528a5102011-04-04 11:09:08 +0000127<a name="dragonegg">DragonEgg: GCC front-ends, LLVM back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000128</h2>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000129
130<div class="doc_text">
131<p>
Duncan Sands528a5102011-04-04 11:09:08 +0000132<a href="http://dragonegg.llvm.org/">DragonEgg</a> is a
133<a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/plugins">gcc plugin</a> that replaces GCC's
134optimizers and code generators with LLVM's.
135Currently it requires a patched version of gcc-4.5.
136The plugin can target the x86-32 and x86-64 processor families and has been
137used successfully on the Darwin, FreeBSD and Linux platforms.
138The Ada, C, C++ and Fortran languages work well.
139The plugin is capable of compiling plenty of Obj-C, Obj-C++ and Java but it is
140not known whether the compiled code actually works or not!
Duncan Sands749fd832010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000141</p>
142
143<p>
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000144The 2.9 release has the following notable changes:
Duncan Sands4b1da2b2010-09-30 17:37:34 +0000145<ul>
Duncan Sands528a5102011-04-04 11:09:08 +0000146<li>The plugin is much more stable when compiling Fortran.</li>
Chris Lattnerdf448a32011-04-06 00:56:12 +0000147<li>Inline assembly where an asm output is tied to an input of a different size
148is now supported in many more cases.</li>
Duncan Sands528a5102011-04-04 11:09:08 +0000149<li>Basic support for the __float128 type was added. It is now possible to
150generate LLVM IR from programs using __float128 but code generation does not
151work yet.</li>
152<li>Compiling Java programs no longer systematically crashes the plugin.</li>
Duncan Sands4b1da2b2010-09-30 17:37:34 +0000153</ul>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000154
155</div>
156
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000157<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000158<h2>
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000159<a name="compiler-rt">compiler-rt: Compiler Runtime Library</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000160</h2>
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000161
162<div class="doc_text">
163<p>
164The new LLVM <a href="http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/">compiler-rt project</a>
165is a simple library that provides an implementation of the low-level
166target-specific hooks required by code generation and other runtime components.
167For example, when compiling for a 32-bit target, converting a double to a 64-bit
168unsigned integer is compiled into a runtime call to the "__fixunsdfdi"
169function. The compiler-rt library provides highly optimized implementations of
170this and other low-level routines (some are 3x faster than the equivalent
171libgcc routines).</p>
172
Chris Lattnerdf448a32011-04-06 00:56:12 +0000173<p>In the LLVM 2.9 timeframe, compiler_rt has had several minor changes for
174 better ARM support, and a fairly major license change. All of the code in the
175 compiler-rt project is now <a href="DeveloperPolicy.html#license">dual
176 licensed</a> under MIT and UIUC license, which allows you to use compiler-rt
177 in applications without the binary copyright reproduction clause. If you
178 prefer the LLVM/UIUC license, you are free to continue using it under that
179 license as well.</p>
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000180
181</div>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000182
183<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000184<h2>
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000185<a name="lldb">LLDB: Low Level Debugger</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000186</h2>
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000187
188<div class="doc_text">
189<p>
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000190<a href="http://lldb.llvm.org/">LLDB</a> is a brand new member of the LLVM
191umbrella of projects. LLDB is a next generation, high-performance debugger. It
192is built as a set of reusable components which highly leverage existing
193libraries in the larger LLVM Project, such as the Clang expression parser, the
194LLVM disassembler and the LLVM JIT.</p>
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000195
196<p>
Chris Lattnerdf448a32011-04-06 00:56:12 +0000197LLDB is has advanced by leaps and bounds in the 2.9 timeframe. It is
198dramatically more stable and useful, and includes both a new <a
199href="http://lldb.llvm.org/tutorial.html">tutorial</a> and a <a
200href="http://lldb.llvm.org/lldb-gdb.html">side-by-side comparison with
201GDB</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000202
203</div>
204
205<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000206<h2>
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000207<a name="libc++">libc++: C++ Standard Library</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000208</h2>
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000209
210<div class="doc_text">
211<p>
Tobias Grossercdce44b2010-10-06 21:07:30 +0000212<a href="http://libcxx.llvm.org/">libc++</a> is another new member of the LLVM
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000213family. It is an implementation of the C++ standard library, written from the
214ground up to specifically target the forthcoming C++'0X standard and focus on
215delivering great performance.</p>
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000216
217<p>
Chris Lattner2009c492011-04-06 00:59:18 +0000218In the LLVM 2.9 timeframe, libc++ has had numerous bugs fixed, and is now being
219co-developed with Clang's C++'0x mode.</p>
Chris Lattner0a6f6d52011-04-05 07:19:28 +0000220
Chris Lattner2009c492011-04-06 00:59:18 +0000221<p>
222Like compiler_rt, libc++ is now <a href="DeveloperPolicy.html#license">dual
223 licensed</a> under the MIT and UIUC license, allowing it to be used more
224 permissively.
Chris Lattnere07043c2010-09-29 05:30:03 +0000225</p>
226
227</div>
228
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000229
Daniel Dunbar97b01a82010-10-04 17:39:47 +0000230
231<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner7a8e6c52011-04-05 18:38:45 +0000232<!--
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000233<h2>
Daniel Dunbar97b01a82010-10-04 17:39:47 +0000234<a name="klee">KLEE: A Symbolic Execution Virtual Machine</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000235</h2>
Daniel Dunbar97b01a82010-10-04 17:39:47 +0000236
237<div class="doc_text">
238<p>
239<a href="http://klee.llvm.org/">KLEE</a> is a symbolic execution framework for
240programs in LLVM bitcode form. KLEE tries to symbolically evaluate "all" paths
241through the application and records state transitions that lead to fault
242states. This allows it to construct testcases that lead to faults and can even
243be used to verify some algorithms.
244</p>
245
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000246<p>UPDATE!</p>
Chris Lattner7a8e6c52011-04-05 18:38:45 +0000247</div>-->
Daniel Dunbar97b01a82010-10-04 17:39:47 +0000248
249
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000250<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000251<h1>
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000252 <a name="externalproj">External Open Source Projects Using LLVM 2.9</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000253</h1>
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000254<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
255
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000256<div class="doc_text">
257
258<p>An exciting aspect of LLVM is that it is used as an enabling technology for
259 a lot of other language and tools projects. This section lists some of the
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000260 projects that have already been updated to work with LLVM 2.9.</p>
Chris Lattner7c8e7962010-04-26 17:38:10 +0000261</div>
262
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000263
Chris Lattner3bfe57e2011-04-06 01:13:49 +0000264<!--=========================================================================-->
265<h2>Crack Programming Language</h2>
266
267<div class="doc_text">
268<p>
269<a href="http://code.google.com/p/crack-language/">Crack</a> aims to provide the
270ease of development of a scripting language with the performance of a compiled
271language. The language derives concepts from C++, Java and Python, incorporating
272object-oriented programming, operator overloading and strong typing.</p>
273</div>
274
275
276<!--=========================================================================-->
277<h2>TTA-based Codesign Environment (TCE)</h2>
278
279<div class="doc_text">
280<p>TCE is a toolset for designing application-specific processors (ASP) based on
281the Transport triggered architecture (TTA). The toolset provides a complete
282co-design flow from C/C++ programs down to synthesizable VHDL and parallel
283program binaries. Processor customization points include the register files,
284function units, supported operations, and the interconnection network.</p>
285
286<p>TCE uses Clang and LLVM for C/C++ language support, target independent
287optimizations and also for parts of code generation. It generates new LLVM-based
288code generators "on the fly" for the designed TTA processors and loads them in
289to the compiler backend as runtime libraries to avoid per-target recompilation
290of larger parts of the compiler chain.</p>
291</div>
292
293
294
295<!--=========================================================================-->
296<h2>PinaVM</h2>
297
298<div class="doc_text">
299<p><a href="http://gitorious.org/pinavm/pages/Home">PinaVM</a> is an open
300source, <a href="http://www.systemc.org/">SystemC</a> front-end. Unlike many
301other front-ends, PinaVM actually executes the elaboration of the
302program analyzed using LLVM's JIT infrastructure. It later enriches the
303bitcode with SystemC-specific information.</p>
304</div>
305
306<!--=========================================================================-->
307<h2>Pure</h2>
308
309<div class="doc_text">
310<p><a href="http://pure-lang.googlecode.com/">Pure</a> is an
311 algebraic/functional
312 programming language based on term rewriting. Programs are collections
313 of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in a symbolic
314 fashion. The interpreter uses LLVM as a backend to JIT-compile Pure
315 programs to fast native code. Pure offers dynamic typing, eager and lazy
316 evaluation, lexical closures, a hygienic macro system (also based on
317 term rewriting), built-in list and matrix support (including list and
318 matrix comprehensions) and an easy-to-use interface to C and other
319 programming languages (including the ability to load LLVM bitcode
320 modules, and inline C, C++, Fortran and Faust code in Pure programs if
321 the corresponding LLVM-enabled compilers are installed).</p>
322
323<p>Pure version 0.47 has been tested and is known to work with LLVM 2.9
324 (and continues to work with older LLVM releases &gt;= 2.5).</p>
325</div>
326
327<!--=========================================================================-->
328<h2 id="icedtea">IcedTea Java Virtual Machine Implementation</h2>
329
330<div class="doc_text">
331<p>
332<a href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/Main_Page">IcedTea</a> provides a
333harness to build OpenJDK using only free software build tools and to provide
334replacements for the not-yet free parts of OpenJDK. One of the extensions that
335IcedTea provides is a new JIT compiler named <a
336href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/ZeroSharkFaq">Shark</a> which uses LLVM
337to provide native code generation without introducing processor-dependent
338code.
339</p>
340
341<p> OpenJDK 7 b112, IcedTea6 1.9 and IcedTea7 1.13 and later have been tested
342and are known to work with LLVM 2.9 (and continue to work with older LLVM
343releases &gt;= 2.6 as well).</p>
344</div>
345
346<!--=========================================================================-->
347<h2>Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC)</h2>
348
349<div class="doc_text">
350<p>GHC is an open source, state-of-the-art programming suite for Haskell,
351a standard lazy functional programming language. It includes an
352optimizing static compiler generating good code for a variety of
353platforms, together with an interactive system for convenient, quick
354development.</p>
355
356<p>In addition to the existing C and native code generators, GHC 7.0 now
357supports an LLVM code generator. GHC supports LLVM 2.7 and later.</p>
358</div>
359
360<!--=========================================================================-->
361<h2>Polly - Polyhedral optimizations for LLVM</h2>
362
363<div class="doc_text">
364<p>Polly is a project that aims to provide advanced memory access optimizations
365to better take advantage of SIMD units, cache hierarchies, multiple cores or
366even vector accelerators for LLVM. Built around an abstract mathematical
367description based on Z-polyhedra, it provides the infrastructure to develop
368advanced optimizations in LLVM and to connect complex external optimizers. In
369its first year of existence Polly already provides an exact value-based
370dependency analysis as well as basic SIMD and OpenMP code generation support.
371Furthermore, Polly can use PoCC(Pluto) an advanced optimizer for data-locality
372and parallelism.</p>
373</div>
Chris Lattner75547712010-10-03 23:49:06 +0000374
Chris Lattnere0518442010-10-01 06:34:49 +0000375
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000376<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000377<h1>
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000378 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.9?</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000379</h1>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000380<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
381
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000382<div class="doc_text">
383
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000384<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000385minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
386in this section.
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000387</p>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000388
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000389</div>
390
391<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000392<h2>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000393<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000394</h2>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000395
396<div class="doc_text">
397
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000398<p>LLVM 2.9 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000399
400<ul>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000401
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000402<li>Type Based Alias Analysis (TBAA) is now implemented and turned on by default
403 in Clang. This allows substantially better load/store optimization in some
404 cases. TBAA can be disabled by passing -fno-strict-aliasing.
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000405</li>
406
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000407<li>This release has seen a continued focus on quality of debug information.
408 LLVM now generates much higher fidelity debug information, particularly when
409 debugging optimized code.</li>
410
411<li>Inline assembly now supports multiple alternative constraints.</li>
412
413<li>A new backend for the NVIDIA PTX virtual ISA (used to target its GPUs) is
414 under rapid development. It is not generally useful in 2.9, but is making
415 rapid progress.</li>
Chris Lattner7a8e6c52011-04-05 18:38:45 +0000416
Chris Lattner8170c102008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000417</ul>
Chris Lattner0a6f6d52011-04-05 07:19:28 +0000418
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000419</div>
420
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000421<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000422<h2>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000423<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM IR and Core Improvements</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000424</h2>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000425
426<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000427<p>LLVM IR has several new features for better support of new targets and that
428expose new optimization opportunities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000429
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000430<ul>
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000431<li>The <a href="LangRef.html#bitwiseops">udiv, ashr, lshr, and shl</a>
432 instructions now have support exact and nuw/nsw bits to indicate that they
433 don't overflow or shift out bits. This is useful for optimization of <a
434 href="http://llvm.org/PR8862">pointer differences</a> and other cases.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000435
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000436<li>LLVM IR now supports the <a href="LangRef.html#globalvars">unnamed_addr</a>
437 attribute to indicate that constant global variables with identical
438 initializers can be merged. This fixed <a href="http://llvm.org/PR8927">an
439 issue</a> where LLVM would incorrectly merge two globals which were supposed
440 to have distinct addresses.</li>
441
442<li>The new <a href="LangRef.html#fnattrs">hotpatch attribute</a> has been added
443 to allow runtime patching of functions.</li>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000444</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000445
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000446</div>
447
448<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000449<h2>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000450<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000451</h2>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000452
453<div class="doc_text">
454
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000455<p>In addition to a large array of minor performance tweaks and bug fixes, this
Chris Lattnerf3013872008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000456release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000457
458<ul>
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000459<li>Link Time Optimization (LTO) has been improved to use MC for parsing inline
460 assembly and now can build large programs like Firefox 4 on both Mac OS X and
461 Linux.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000462
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000463<li>The new -loop-idiom pass recognizes memset/memcpy loops (and memset_pattern
464 on darwin), turning them into library calls, which are typically better
465 optimized than inline code. If you are building a libc and notice that your
466 memcpy and memset functions are compiled into infinite recursion, please build
467 with -ffreestanding or -fno-builtin to disable this pass.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000468
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000469<li>A new -early-cse pass does a fast pass over functions to fold constants,
470 simplify expressions, perform simple dead store elimination, and perform
471 common subexpression elimination. It does a good job at catching some of the
472 trivial redundancies that exist in unoptimized code, making later passes more
473 effective.<,/li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000474
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000475<li>A new -loop-instsimplify pass is used to clean up loop bodies in the loop
476 optimizer.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000477
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000478<li>The new TargetLibraryInfo interface allows mid-level optimizations to know
479 whether the current target's runtime library has certain functions. For
480 example, the optimizer can now transform integer-only printf calls to call
481 iprintf, allowing reduced code size for embedded C libraries (e.g. newlib).
482</li>
483
484<li>LLVM has a new <a href="WritingAnLLVMPass.html#RegionPass">RegionPass</a>
485 infrastructure for region-based optimizations.</li>
486
487<li>Several optimizer passes have been substantially sped up:
488 GVN is much faster on functions with deep dominator trees and lots of basic
489 blocks. The dominator tree and dominance frontier passes are much faster to
490 compute, and preserved by more passes (so they are computed less often). The
491 -scalar-repl pass is also much faster and doesn't use DominanceFrontier.
492</li>
493
494<li>The Dead Store Elimination pass is more aggressive optimizing stores of
495 different types: e.g. a large store following a small one to the same address.
496 The MemCpyOptimizer pass handles several new forms of memcpy elimination.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000497
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000498<li>LLVM now optimizes various idioms for overflow detection into check of the
499 flag register on various CPUs. For example, we now compile:
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000500
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000501 <pre>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000502 unsigned long t = a+b;
503 if (t &lt; a) ...
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000504 </pre>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000505 into:
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000506 <pre>
507 addq %rdi, %rbx
508 jno LBB0_2
509 </pre>
510</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000511
Chris Lattner11b66112010-10-04 02:42:39 +0000512</ul>
513
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000514</div>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000515
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000516<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000517<h2>
Chris Lattner4ba2b652010-09-30 16:31:33 +0000518<a name="mc">MC Level Improvements</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000519</h2>
Chris Lattner4ba2b652010-09-30 16:31:33 +0000520
521<div class="doc_text">
522<p>
Chris Lattner7d9b6b42010-10-02 21:59:30 +0000523The LLVM Machine Code (aka MC) subsystem was created to solve a number
Chris Lattner4ba2b652010-09-30 16:31:33 +0000524of problems in the realm of assembly, disassembly, object file format handling,
525and a number of other related areas that CPU instruction-set level tools work
Chris Lattner7d9b6b42010-10-02 21:59:30 +0000526in.</p>
527
Chris Lattner7d9b6b42010-10-02 21:59:30 +0000528<ul>
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000529<li>ELF MC support has matured enough for the integrated assembler to be turned
530 on by default in Clang on X86-32 and X86-64 ELF systems.</li>
531
532<li>MC supports and CodeGen uses the <tt>.file</tt> and <tt>.loc</tt> directives
533 for producing line number debug info. This produces more compact line
534 tables and easier to read .s files.</li>
535
536<li>MC supports the <tt>.cfi_*</tt> directives for producing DWARF
Rafael Espindolaa26f36c2011-03-18 04:07:44 +0000537 frame information, but it is still not used by CodeGen by default.</li>
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000538
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000539
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000540<li>The MC assembler now generates much better diagnostics for common errors,
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000541 is much faster at matching instructions, is much more bug-compatible with
542 the GAS assembler, and is now generally useful for a broad range of X86
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000543 assembly.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000544
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000545<li>We now have some basic <a href="CodeGenerator.html#mc">internals
546 documentation</a> for MC.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000547
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000548<li>.td files can now specify assembler aliases directly with the <a
549 href="CodeGenerator.html#na_instparsing">MnemonicAlias and InstAlias</a>
550 tblgen classes.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000551
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000552<li>LLVM now has an experimental format-independent object file manipulation
553 library (lib/Object). It supports both PE/COFF and ELF. The llvm-nm tool has
554 been extended to work with native object files, and the new llvm-objdump tool
555 supports disassembly of object files (but no relocations are displayed yet).
556</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000557
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000558<li>Win32 PE-COFF support in the MC assembler has made a lot of progress in the
559 2.9 timeframe, but is still not generally useful.</li>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000560
Chris Lattner7d9b6b42010-10-02 21:59:30 +0000561</ul>
562
563<p>For more information, please see the <a
Chris Lattner4ba2b652010-09-30 16:31:33 +0000564href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/04/intro-to-llvm-mc-project.html">Intro to the
565LLVM MC Project Blog Post</a>.
566</p>
567
NAKAMURA Takumi45c435a2011-04-05 08:24:22 +0000568</div>
Chris Lattner4ba2b652010-09-30 16:31:33 +0000569
Chris Lattner4ba2b652010-09-30 16:31:33 +0000570<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000571<h2>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000572<a name="codegen">Target Independent Code Generator Improvements</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000573</h2>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000574
575<div class="doc_text">
576
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000577<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator
578infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make
579it run faster:</p>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000580
581<ul>
Chris Lattner3bdcda12010-10-04 03:58:12 +0000582<!-- SplitKit -->
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000583
584<li>The pre-register-allocation (preRA) instruction scheduler models register
585 pressure much more accurately in some cases. This allows the adoption of more
586 aggressive scheduling heuristics.
587</li>
588
589 LiveDebugVariables is a new pass that keeps track of debugging information for
590 user variables that are kept in registers in optimized builds.
591
592
593Scheduler now models operand latency and pipeline forwarding.
594
595Major regalloc rewrite, not on by default for 2.9 and not advised to use it.
596 * New basic register allocator that can be used as a safe fallback when
597 debugging. Enable with -regalloc=basic.
598 * New infrastructure for live range splitting. SplitKit can break a live
599 interval into smaller pieces while preserving SSA form, and SpillPlacement
600 can help find the best split points. This is a work in progress so the API
601 is changing quickly.
602 * The inline spiller has learned to clean up after live range splitting. It
603 can hoist spills out of loops, and it can eliminate redundant spills.
604 Rematerialization works with live range splitting.
605 * New greedy register allocator using live range splitting. This will be the
606 default register allocator in the next LLVM release, but it is not turned on
607 by default in 2.9.
608
609
610
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000611</ul>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000612</div>
613
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000614<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000615<h2>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000616<a name="x86">X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000617</h2>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000618
619<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner7714c912010-10-04 04:39:25 +0000620<p>New features and major changes in the X86 target include:
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000621</p>
622
623<ul>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000624<li>
625X86: Reimplemented all of MMX to introduce a new LLVM IR x86_mmx type. Now
626 random types like &lt;2 x i32&gt; are not iseld to mmx without emms. The
627 -disable-mmx flag is gone now.
628</li>
629
630 <li>
631X86 support for FS/GS relative loads and stores using address space 256/257 are
632 reliable now.
633 </li>
634
635 <li>
636X86: Much better codegen for several cases using adc/sbb instead of cmovs for
637 conditional increment and other idioms.
638 </li>
639
640 <li>
641 The X86 backend has adopted a new preRA scheduling
642 mode, "list-ilp", to shorten the height of instruction schedules
643 without inducing register spills.
644 </li>
645
646 MC assembler support for 3dNow! and 3DNowA instructions.
647
NAKAMURA Takumi45c435a2011-04-05 08:24:22 +0000648 <li>Several bugs have been fixed for Windows x64 code generator.</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000649</ul>
650
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000651</div>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000652
653<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000654<h2>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000655<a name="ARM">ARM Target Improvements</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000656</h2>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000657
658<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000659<p>New features of the ARM target include:
660</p>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000661
662<ul>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000663<li>ARM Fast ISel</li>
664<li>ARM: New code placement pass.</li>
665<li>ARM: Improved code generation for Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 CPUs.</li>
666<li>ARM: __builtin_prefetch turns into prefetch instructions.</li>
667<li>Countless ARM microoptimizations.</li>
668
669<li> The ARM backend preRA scheduler now models machine resources at cycle
670 granularity. This allows the scheduler to both accurately model
671 instruction latency and avoid overcommitting functional units.</li>
672
673
Bob Wilsone8472772010-09-13 17:39:35 +0000674</ul>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000675</div>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000676
677<!--=========================================================================-->
678<h2>
679<a name="OtherTS">Other Target Specific Improvements</a>
680</h2>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000681
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000682<div class="doc_text">
683<ul>
684 PPC: Switched to MCInstPrinter, and MCCodeEmitter. Ready to implement support
685 for directly writing out mach-o object files, but noone seems interested.
686
687 MicroBlaze: major updates for aggressive delay slot filler, MC-based assembly
688 printing, assembly instruction parsing, ELF .o file emission, and MC
689 instruction disassembler.
690
691 SPARC: Many improvements, including using the Y registers for multiplications
692 and addition of a simple delay slot filler.
693
694</ul>
695</div>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000696
697<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000698<h2>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000699<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000700</h2>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000701
702<div class="doc_text">
703
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000704<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000705on LLVM 2.8, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000706from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000707
708<ul>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000709 last release for llvm-gcc
710
Chris Lattnerc5ac61d2011-04-06 05:50:04 +0000711 <li>
712 New naming rules in coding standards: CodingStandards.html#ll_naming
713 </li>
714
715
716
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000717- DIBuilder provides simpler interface for front ends like Clang to encode debug info in LLVM IR.
718 - This interface hides implementation details (e.g. DIDerivedType, existence of compile unit etc..) that any front end should not know about.
719 For example, DIFactory DebugFactory;
720 Ty = DebugFactory.CreateDerivedType(DW_TAG_volatile_type,
721 findRegion(TYPE_CONTEXT(type)),
722 StringRef(),
723 getOrCreateFile(main_input_filename),
724 0 /*line no*/,
725 NodeSizeInBits(type),
726 NodeAlignInBits(type),
727 0 /*offset */,
728 0 /* flags */,
729 MainTy);
730 can be replaced by
731 DbgTy = DBuilder.createQualifiedType(DW_TAG_volatile_type, MainTy);
732DIFactory is gone now.
733
734
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000735
Chris Lattnerbb117712010-10-04 01:29:06 +0000736
737
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000738
739 LoopIndexSplit pass was removed, unmaintained.
740 LiveValues, SimplifyHalfPowrLibCalls, and GEPSplitter were removed.
741 Removed the PartialSpecialization pass, it was unmaintained and buggy.
742
743 DIFactory removed, use DIBuilder instead.
744
745 Triple::normalize is new, llvm triples are always stored in normalized form internally.
746
747 Triple x86_64--mingw64 is obsoleted. Use x86_64--mingw32 instead.
748
749 PointerTracking has been removed from mainline, moved to ClamAV.
750
Devang Patelb34dd132008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000751</ul>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000752
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000753</div>
754
Daniel Dunbarf0233c62010-10-04 20:11:41 +0000755<!--=========================================================================-->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000756<h2>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000757<a name="api_changes">Internal API Changes</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000758</h2>
Daniel Dunbarf0233c62010-10-04 20:11:41 +0000759
760<div class="doc_text">
761
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000762<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major
763 LLVM API changes are:</p>
Daniel Dunbarf0233c62010-10-04 20:11:41 +0000764
765<ul>
Chris Lattner1efe27e2011-04-06 00:45:11 +0000766
767 include/llvm/System merged into include/llvm/Support.
768
769
770 APInt API changes, see PR5207.
771
772 MVT::Flag renamed to MVT::Glue
773
774
775 error_code + libsystem + PathV2 changes
776 The system_error header from C++0x was added.
777 * Use if (error_code ec = function()) to check for error conditions
778 from functions which return it.
779 * error_code::message returns a human readable description of the error.
780
781 PathV1 has been deprecated in favor of PathV2 (sorry I didn't finish
782 this before the release).
783 * No Path class, use a r-value convertible to a twine instead.
784 * Assumes all paths are UTF-8.
785
786
Daniel Dunbarf0233c62010-10-04 20:11:41 +0000787</ul>
788</div>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000789
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000790<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000791<h1>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000792 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000793</h1>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000794<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
795
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000796<div class="doc_text">
797
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000798<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000799listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000800href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000801there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000802
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000803</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000804
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000805<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000806<h2>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000807 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000808</h2>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000809
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000810<div class="doc_text">
811
Misha Brukman6df9e2c2004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000812<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
813be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
814not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
815useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000816components, please contact us on the <a
817href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000818
819<ul>
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000820<li>The Alpha, Blackfin, CellSPU, MicroBlaze, MSP430, MIPS, PTX, SystemZ
Chris Lattnerbb117712010-10-04 01:29:06 +0000821 and XCore backends are experimental.</li>
Chris Lattner7d9b6b42010-10-02 21:59:30 +0000822<li><tt>llc</tt> "<tt>-filetype=obj</tt>" is experimental on all targets
Chris Lattnerbe2e1b52011-03-10 07:43:44 +0000823 other than darwin-i386 and darwin-x86_64. FIXME: Not true on ELF anymore?</li>
824
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000825</ul>
826
827</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000828
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000829<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000830<h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000831 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000832</h2>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000833
834<div class="doc_text">
835
836<ul>
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000837 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
838 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
839 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
840 'u'.</li>
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000841 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000842 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, front-ends support variadic
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000843 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
NAKAMURA Takumi45c435a2011-04-05 08:24:22 +0000844 <li>Windows x64 (aka Win64) code generator has a few issues.
845 <ul>
846 <li>llvm-gcc cannot build the mingw-w64 runtime currently
847 due to lack of support for the 'u' inline assembly
848 constraint and for X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
849 <li>On mingw-w64, you will see unresolved symbol <tt>__chkstk</tt>
850 due to <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=8919">Bug 8919</a>.
851 It is fixed in <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvm-commits/Week-of-Mon-20110321/118499.html">r128206</a>.</li>
852 <li>Miss-aligned MOVDQA might crash your program. It is due to
853 <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=9483">Bug 9483</a>,
854 lack of handling aligned internal globals.</li>
855 </ul>
856 </li>
857
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000858</ul>
859
860</div>
861
862<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000863<h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000864 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000865</h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000866
867<div class="doc_text">
868
869<ul>
Nicolas Geoffraye4285dc2007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000870<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000871compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000872</ul>
873
874</div>
875
876<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000877<h2>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000878 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000879</h2>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000880
881<div class="doc_text">
882
883<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000884<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sandsc90d68b2007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000885processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000886results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000887<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported but not fully tested.
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000888</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000889</ul>
890
891</div>
892
893<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000894<h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000895 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000896</h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000897
898<div class="doc_text">
899
900<ul>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000901<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32); it does not
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000902 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
903</ul>
904
905</div>
906
907<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000908<h2>
Bruno Cardoso Lopesb7e1a4f2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000909 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000910</h2>
Bruno Cardoso Lopesb7e1a4f2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000911
912<div class="doc_text">
913
914<ul>
Bruno Cardoso Lopesb7e1a4f2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000915<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
916</ul>
917
918</div>
919
920<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000921<h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000922 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000923</h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000924
925<div class="doc_text">
926
927<ul>
928
929<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
930appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
931
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000932</ul>
933</div>
934
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000935<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000936<h2>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000937 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000938</h2>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000939
940<div class="doc_text">
941
Chris Lattner3016ee92010-09-29 05:34:42 +0000942<p>The C backend has numerous problems and is not being actively maintained.
943Depending on it for anything serious is not advised.</p>
944
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000945<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000946<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
947 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner725a0d82007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000948<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
949 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Gabor Greif4906abe2009-03-02 12:02:51 +0000950 C++ code compiled with <tt>llc</tt> or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsf74c0cc2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000951<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Duncan Sands50723a92009-02-25 11:51:54 +0000952<li>The C backend does not support arbitrary precision integers.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000953</ul>
954
955</div>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000956
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000957
958<!-- ======================================================================= -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000959<h2>
Chris Lattner3016ee92010-09-29 05:34:42 +0000960 <a name="llvm-gcc">Known problems with the llvm-gcc front-end</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000961</h2>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000962
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000963<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000964
Chris Lattner3016ee92010-09-29 05:34:42 +0000965<p>llvm-gcc is generally very stable for the C family of languages. The only
966 major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is the
967 <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
968 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
969 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
970 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000971
Chris Lattner3016ee92010-09-29 05:34:42 +0000972<p>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
973 in <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">Bugzilla</a>. Please see the
974 tools/gfortran component for details. Note that llvm-gcc is missing major
975 Fortran performance work in the frontend and library that went into GCC after
976 4.2. If you are interested in Fortran, we recommend that you consider using
977 <a href="#dragonegg">dragonegg</a> instead.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000978
Duncan Sands3af96332010-10-04 10:06:56 +0000979<p>The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler has basic functionality, but is no longer being
980actively maintained. If you are interested in Ada, we recommend that you
981consider using <a href="#dragonegg">dragonegg</a> instead.</p>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000982</div>
983
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000984<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000985<h1>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000986 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
NAKAMURA Takumic6319312011-04-05 21:55:14 +0000987</h1>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000988<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
989
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000990<div class="doc_text">
991
Chris Lattner416db102005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000992<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000993href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
994href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000995contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
996Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman109d9e82005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000997You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
998into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000999
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001000<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +00001001us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +00001002lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001003
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001004</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001005
1006<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001007
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001008<hr>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +00001009<address>
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Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +00001014
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +00001015 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001016 Last modified: $Date$
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +00001017</address>
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