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Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +00007 <title>LLVM 2.3 Release Notes</title>
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9<body>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000010
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +000011<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.3 Release Notes</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000012
13<ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000014 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
15 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a></li>
Chris Lattner4b538b92004-04-30 22:17:12 +000016 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000017 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000018 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000019 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000020</ol>
21
Chris Lattner7911ce22004-05-23 21:07:27 +000022<div class="doc_author">
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +000023 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a><p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000024</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000025
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +000026<!-- Done through Week-of-Mon-20080324.txt -->
27
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000028<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000029<div class="doc_section">
30 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
31</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000032<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
33
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000034<div class="doc_text">
35
36<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +000037infrastructure, release 2.3. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +000038major improvements from the previous release and any known problems. All LLVM
Chris Lattnercaf06342007-05-09 04:58:11 +000039releases may be downloaded from the <a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +000040releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000041
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +000042<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +000043release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000044web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
45href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000046list</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000047
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +000048<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +000049main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
50current one. To see the release notes for a specific releases, please see the
51<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000052
53</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000054
55<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000056<div class="doc_section">
57 <a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a>
58</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000059<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
60
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000061<div class="doc_text">
62
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +000063<p>This is the fourteenth public release of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure.
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +000064It includes a large number of features and refinements from LLVM 2.2.</p>
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000065
Chris Lattner80453c92004-05-24 04:50:25 +000066</div>
67
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +000068<!-- Unfinished features in 2.3:
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000069 Machine LICM
70 Machine Sinking
71 LegalizeDAGTypes
72 -->
73
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000074<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner8a458762005-05-15 05:44:51 +000075<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +000076<a name="changes">Major Changes in LLVM 2.3</a>
Chris Lattnerb4c68cd2008-02-10 07:04:35 +000077</div>
78
79<div class="doc_text">
80
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +000081<p>LLVM 2.2 was the last LLVM release to support llvm-gcc 4.0 and llvm-upgrade.
82llvm-gcc 4.0 has been replaced with llvm-gcc 4.2. llvm-upgrade was useful for
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +000083upgrading LLVM 1.9 files to LLVM 2.x syntax, but you can always use a previous
84LLVM release to do this. One nice impact of this is that the LLVM regressionn
85test suite no longer depends on llvm-upgrade, which makes it run faster.</p>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +000086
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +000087<p>LLVM 2.3 renames the LLVMBuilder and LLVMFoldingBuilder classes to
88 IRBuilder.</p>
89
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +000090</div>
91
92<!--=========================================================================-->
93<div class="doc_subsection">
94<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
95</div>
96
97<div class="doc_text">
98
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +000099<p>LLVM 2.3 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000100
101<ul>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000102<li>Multiple Return Value Support</li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000103
104
105<li><p>LLVM 2.3 includes a complete reimplementation of the "llvmc" tool. It is
106designed to overcome several problems of the original llvmc and to provide a
107superset of the features as the 'gcc' driver.</p>
108
109<p>The main features of llvmc2 is:</p>
110
111<ul>
112<li>Extended handling of command line options and smart rules for
113dispatching them to different tools.</li>
114<li>Flexible (and extensible) rules for defining different tools.</li>
115<li>The different intermediate steps performed by tools are represented
116as edged in the abstract graph.</li>
117</l>The 'language' for driver behaviour definition is tablegen and thus
118it's relatively easy to add new features.</li>
119<li>The definition of driver is transformed into set of C++ classes, thus
120no runtime interpretation is needed.</li>
121</ul>
122
123</li>
124
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000125<li>Reimplemented <a href="LinkTimeOptimization.html">LTO interface</a> in
126 C.</li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000127
128
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000129<li>kaleidoscope tutorial in ocaml.</li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000130
Chris Lattner8170c102008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000131</ul>
132
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000133</div>
134
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000135
136<!--=========================================================================-->
137<div class="doc_subsection">
138<a name="frontends">llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements and Clang</a>
139</div>
140
141<div class="doc_text">
142
143<p>LLVM 2.3 fully supports llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end.</p>
144
145<p>llvm-gcc 4.2 includes numerous fixes to better support the Objective-C
146front-end. Objective-C now works very well on Mac OS/X.</p>
147
148<p>llvm-gcc 4.2 includes many other fixes which improve conformance with the
149relevant parts of the GCC testsuite.</p>
150
151<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">clang project</a> is an effort to build
152a set of new 'llvm native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer
153and code generator. Currently, its C and Objective-C support is maturing
154nicely, and it has advanced source-to-source analysis and transformation
155capabilities. If you are interested in building source-level tools for C and
156Objective-C (and eventually C++), you should take a look. However, note that
157clang is not an official part of the LLVM 2.3 release. If you are interested in
158this project, please see its <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">web site</a>.</p>
159
160</div>
161
162
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000163<!--=========================================================================-->
164<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000165<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM Core Improvements</a>
166</div>
167
168<div class="doc_text">
169<p>New features include:
170</p>
171
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000172
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000173Common linkage?
174
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000175Atomic operation support, Alpha, X86, X86-64, PowerPC. "__sync_synchronize"
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000176
177<ul>
Gordon Henriksen1494bcc2008-06-05 12:51:50 +0000178<li>The C and Ocaml bindings have received additional improvements. The
179bindings now cover pass managers, several transformation passes, iteration
180over the LLVM IR, target data, and parameter attribute lists.</li>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000181</ul>
182
183</div>
184
185<!--=========================================================================-->
186<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000187<a name="codegen">Code Generator Improvements</a>
188</div>
189
190<div class="doc_text">
191
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000192<p>We put a significant amount of work into the code generator infrastructure,
193which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make it run
194faster:</p>
Chris Lattnerd4298712007-09-26 05:44:21 +0000195
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000196<ul>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000197<li>MemOperand in the code generator: describe me!.</li>
Dan Gohman85765e62008-06-05 15:43:11 +0000198<li>Target-independent codegen infastructure now uses LLVM's APInt class for
199 handling integer values, which allow it to support integer types larger
200 than 64 bits. Note that support for such types is also dependent on
201 target-specific support. Use of APInt is also a step toward support for
202 non-power-of-2 integer sizes.</li>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000203<li>Several compile time speedups for code with large basic blocks.</li>
Dan Gohman809d91e2008-06-05 15:46:36 +0000204<li>Several improvements which make llc's <tt>--view-sunit-dags</tt>
205 visualization of scheduling dependency graphs easier to understand.</li>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000206</ul>
207
208</div>
209
210<!--=========================================================================-->
211<div class="doc_subsection">
212<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
213</div>
214
215<div class="doc_text">
216
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000217<p>In addition to a huge array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, the
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000218LLVM 2.3 optimizers support a few major enhancements:</p>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000219
220<ul>
221
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000222<li>Loop index set splitting on by default: describe me.</li>
223<li>LLVM includes a new memcpy optimization pass which optimizes out dead
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000224memcpy calls, unneeded copies of aggregates, and handles the return slot
225optimization. The LLVM optimizer now notices long sequences of consequtive
226stores and merges them into memcpy's where profitable.</li>
Dan Gohman9c399262008-06-05 15:49:29 +0000227<li>Alignment detection for vector memory references and for memcpy and
228memset is now more aggressive.</li>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000229</ul>
230
231</div>
232
233
234<!--=========================================================================-->
235<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000236<a name="x86specific">X86/X86-64 Specific Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000237</div>
Chris Lattner60893e52007-05-18 06:33:02 +0000238
Chris Lattner738bd302006-04-18 06:32:08 +0000239<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000240<p>New target-specific features include:
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000241</p>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000242
243<ul>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000244<li>llvm-gcc's X86-64 ABI conformance is far improved, particularly in the
245 area of passing and returning structures by value. llvm-gcc Compiled code
246 now interoperates very well on X86-64 systems with other compilers.</li>
247
248<li>The LLVM X86 backend now supports the support SSE 4.1 instruction set, and
249 the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end supports the SSE 4.1 compiler builtins.</li>
250
251<li>The X86 backend now does a number of optimizations that aim to avoid
252 converting numbers back and forth from SSE registers to the X87 floating
253 point stack.</li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000254
255<li>The X86 backend supports stack realignment, which is particularly useful for
256 vector code on OS's without 16-byte aligned stacks.</li>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000257
258<li>The X86 backend now supports the "sseregparm" options in GCC, which allow
259 functions to be tagged as passing floating point values in SSE
260 registers.</li>
261
262<li>Trampolines (taking the address of a nested function) now work on
263 Linux/x86-64.</li>
264
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000265<li><tt>__builtin_prefetch</tt> is now compiled into the appropriate prefetch
266 instructions instead of being ignored.</li>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000267
Dan Gohman4e16d402008-06-05 16:15:39 +0000268<li>128-bit integers are now supported on x86-64 targets.</li>
269
Chris Lattnerbfb17ab2007-05-17 21:41:31 +0000270</ul>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000271
Chris Lattnerbfb17ab2007-05-17 21:41:31 +0000272</div>
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000273
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000274<!--=========================================================================-->
275<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000276<a name="targetspecific">Other Target Specific Improvements</a>
277</div>
278
279<div class="doc_text">
280<p>New target-specific features include:
281</p>
282
283<ul>
284<li>The LLVM C backend now supports vectors code.</li>
285
286
287</ul>
288
289</div>
290
291
292
293<!--=========================================================================-->
294<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000295<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements</a>
296</div>
297
298<div class="doc_text">
299<p>New features include:
300</p>
301
302<ul>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000303<li>LLVM now builds with GCC 4.3.</li>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000304<li>llvm2cpp tool was moved into llc, use llc -march=cpp</li>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000305</ul>
306
307</div>
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000308
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000309<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000310<div class="doc_section">
311 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
312</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000313<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
314
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000315<div class="doc_text">
316
John Criswell0b5b5e92004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000317<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000318
319<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000320<li>Intel and AMD machines running Red Hat Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD
Reid Spencer00812e22005-05-17 02:47:27 +0000321 (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
Chris Lattner000c73b2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000322<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit and
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000323 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000324<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000325<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
326 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
327<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8.</li>
John Criswell9321fa82005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000328<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
329<li>Itanium-based machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000330</ul>
331
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000332<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekeb0fd7612004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000333to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
334porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
335portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000336
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000337</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000338
339<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000340<div class="doc_section">
341 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
342</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000343<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
344
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000345<div class="doc_text">
346
347<p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000348component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000349sections. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000350href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000351there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000352
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000353</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000354
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000355<!-- ======================================================================= -->
356<div class="doc_subsection">
357 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
358</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000359
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000360<div class="doc_text">
361
Misha Brukman6df9e2c2004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000362<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
363be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
364not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
365useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000366components, please contact us on the <a
367href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000368
369<ul>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000370<li>The MSIL, IA64, Alpha, SPU, and MIPS backends are experimental.</li>
Chris Lattner000c73b2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000371<li>The LLC "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported
372 value for this option.</li>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000373</ul>
374
375</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000376
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000377<!-- ======================================================================= -->
378<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000379 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000380</div>
381
382<div class="doc_text">
383
384<ul>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000385<li>The X86 backend does not yet support all <a
386 href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86 floating
387 point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000388<li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured to
389 generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000390</ul>
391
392</div>
393
394<!-- ======================================================================= -->
395<div class="doc_subsection">
396 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
397</div>
398
399<div class="doc_text">
400
401<ul>
Nicolas Geoffraye4285dc2007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000402<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000403compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000404</ul>
405
406</div>
407
408<!-- ======================================================================= -->
409<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000410 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
411</div>
412
413<div class="doc_text">
414
415<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000416<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sandsc90d68b2007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000417processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000418results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000419<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported, but not fully tested.
420</li>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000421<li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (&lt;= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly execute
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000422programs compiled with LLVM. Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000423</ul>
424
425</div>
426
427<!-- ======================================================================= -->
428<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000429 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
430</div>
431
432<div class="doc_text">
433
434<ul>
435<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not
436 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
437</ul>
438
439</div>
440
441<!-- ======================================================================= -->
442<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000443 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
444</div>
445
446<div class="doc_text">
447
448<ul>
449
450<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
451appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
452
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000453</ul>
454</div>
455
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000456<!-- ======================================================================= -->
457<div class="doc_subsection">
458 <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
459</div>
460
461<div class="doc_text">
462
463<ul>
464
465<li>C++ programs are likely to fail on IA64, as calls to <tt>setjmp</tt> are
466made where the argument is not 16-byte aligned, as required on IA64. (Strictly
467speaking this is not a bug in the IA64 back-end; it will also be encountered
468when building C++ programs using the C back-end.)</li>
469
470<li>The C++ front-end does not use <a href="http://llvm.org/PR406">IA64
471ABI compliant layout of v-tables</a>. In particular, it just stores function
472pointers instead of function descriptors in the vtable. This bug prevents
473mixing C++ code compiled with LLVM with C++ objects compiled by other C++
474compilers.</li>
475
476<li>There are a few ABI violations which will lead to problems when mixing LLVM
477output with code built with other compilers, particularly for floating-point
478programs.</li>
479
480<li>Defining vararg functions is not supported (but calling them is ok).</li>
481
Chris Lattnercaf06342007-05-09 04:58:11 +0000482<li>The Itanium backend has bitrotted somewhat.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000483</ul>
484
485</div>
486
487<!-- ======================================================================= -->
488<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000489 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000490</div>
491
492<div class="doc_text">
493
494<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000495<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
496 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner725a0d82007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000497<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
498 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
499 C++ code compiled with LLC or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsf74c0cc2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000500<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000501</ul>
502
503</div>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000504
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000505
506<!-- ======================================================================= -->
507<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000508 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000509</div>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000510
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000511<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +0000512<div class="doc_subsubsection">Bugs</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000513
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000514<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000515
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000516<p>llvm-gcc does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time
517Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000518llvmdev mailing list if you are interested.</p>
Chris Lattnerd9ea0172006-08-08 17:27:28 +0000519
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000520<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
521 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
522 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
523 supported on some targets, which are used when you take the address of a
524 nested function.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000525
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000526<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
527</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000528
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000529</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000530
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000531<!-- ======================================================================= -->
532<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000533 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000534</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000535
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000536<div class="doc_text">
537
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000538<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000539tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000540itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000541
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000542<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000543<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets, including
544x86-64 darwin. This works when linking to a libstdc++ compiled by GCC. It is
545supported on x86-64 linux, but that is disabled by default in this release.</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000546</ul>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000547
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000548</div>
549
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000550
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000551<!-- ======================================================================= -->
552<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000553 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000554</div>
555
556<div class="doc_text">
557The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well, however this is not a mature
558technology and problems should be expected.
559<ul>
560<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on x86-32. This is mainly due
561to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms,
562however it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on x86-64</a>
563which does support trampolines.</li>
564<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
565Workaround: configure with --disable-bootstrap.</li>
566<li>The c380004 and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a> ACATS tests
567fail (c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).</li>
568<li>Many gcc specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
569<li>The -E binder option (exception backtraces)
570<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
571crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use -E.</li>
572<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
573or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
574or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
575starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
576<li>The lli interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers 'main'
577as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
578Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for argv and envp rather than
579integers.</li>
580<li>The -fstack-check option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is ignored</a>.</li>
581</ul>
582</div>
583
584<!-- ======================================================================= -->
585<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000586 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000587</div>
588
589<div class="doc_text">
590
591<ul>
592<li>The llvm-gcc 4.2 gfortran front-end supports a broad range of Fortran code, but does
593<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1971">not support EQUIVALENCE yet</a>.</li>
594</ul>
595</div>
596
597
Chris Lattner98a493c2005-05-15 16:01:20 +0000598
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000599<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000600<div class="doc_section">
601 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
602</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000603<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
604
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000605<div class="doc_text">
606
Chris Lattner416db102005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000607<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000608href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
609href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000610contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
611Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman109d9e82005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000612You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
613into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000614
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000615<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000616us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000617lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000618
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000619</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000620
621<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000622
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000623<hr>
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Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000630 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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