Reid Spencer | cbadf80 | 2004-11-01 09:21:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 2 | <html> |
| 3 | <head> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 4 | <title>Using The LLVM Libraries</title> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 5 | <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css"> |
| 6 | </head> |
| 7 | <body> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 8 | <div class="doc_title">Using The LLVM Libraries</div> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 9 | <ol> |
| 10 | <li><a href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li> |
| 11 | <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 12 | <li><a href="#descriptions">Library Descriptions</a></li> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 13 | <li><a href="#rot">Linkage Rules Of Thumb</a> |
| 14 | <ol> |
Reid Spencer | 4148266 | 2004-10-31 23:24:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 15 | <li><a href="#always">Always link LLVMCore, LLVMSupport, LLVMSystem</a> |
| 16 | <li><a href="#onlyone">Never link both archive and re-linked</a> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 17 | </ol> |
| 18 | </li> |
| 19 | </ol> |
Chris Lattner | 7911ce2 | 2004-05-23 21:07:27 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 20 | |
| 21 | <div class="doc_author"> |
| 22 | <p>Written by <a href="mailto:rspencer@x10sys.com">Reid Spencer</a></p> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 23 | </div> |
Chris Lattner | 7911ce2 | 2004-05-23 21:07:27 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 24 | |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 25 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
| 26 | <div class="doc_section"><a name="abstract">Abstract</a></div> |
| 27 | <div class="doc_text"> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 28 | <p>Amongst other things, LLVM is a toolkit for building compilers, linkers, |
| 29 | runtime executives, virtual machines, and other program execution related |
| 30 | tools. In addition to the LLVM tool set, the functionality of LLVM is |
| 31 | available through a set of libraries. To use LLVM as a toolkit for |
| 32 | constructing tools, a developer needs to understand what is contained in the |
| 33 | various libraries, what they depend on, and how to use them. This document |
| 34 | describes the contents of the libraries and how and when to use them. |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 35 | </p> |
| 36 | </div> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 37 | |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 38 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
| 39 | <div class="doc_section"> <a name="introduction">Introduction</a></div> |
| 40 | <div class="doc_text"> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 41 | <p>If you're writing a compiler, virtual machine, or any other utility based |
| 42 | on LLVM, you'll need to figure out which of the many libraries files you will |
| 43 | need to link with to be successful. An understanding of the contents of these |
| 44 | files and their inter-relationships will be useful in coming up with an optimal |
| 45 | specification for the libraries to link with. The purpose of this document is |
| 46 | to reduce some of the trial and error that the author experienced in using |
| 47 | LLVM.</p> |
| 48 | <p>LLVM produces two types of libraries: archives (ending in <tt>.a</tt>) and |
| 49 | objects (ending in <tt>.o</tt>). However, both are libraries. Libraries ending |
| 50 | in <tt>.o</tt> are known as re-linked libraries because they contain all the |
| 51 | compilation units of the library linked together as a single <tt>.o</tt> file. |
| 52 | Furthermore, many of the libraries have <em>both</em> forms of library. The |
| 53 | re-linked libraries are used whenever you want to include all symbols from the |
| 54 | library. The archive libraries are used whenever you want to only resolve |
| 55 | outstanding symbols at that point in the link without including everything in |
| 56 | the library. </p> |
| 57 | <p>When linking your tools, you will use the <tt>LLVMLIBS</tt> make variable. |
| 58 | (see the <a href="MakefileGuide.html#LLVMLIBS">Makefile Guide</a> for |
| 59 | details). This variable specifies which LLVM libraries to link into your tool |
| 60 | and the order in which they will be linked. You specify re-linked libraries by |
| 61 | naming the library without a suffix. You specify archive libraries by naming |
| 62 | the library with a <tt>.a</tt> suffix but without the <tt>lib</tt> prefix. The |
| 63 | order in which the libraries appear in the <tt>LLVMLIBS</tt> variable |
| 64 | definition is the order in which they will be linked. Getting this order |
| 65 | correct for your tool can sometimes be challenging. |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 66 | </div> |
| 67 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 68 | <div class="doc_section"><a name="descriptions"></a>Library Descriptions</div> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 69 | <div class="doc_text"> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 70 | <p>The table below categorizes each library |
| 71 | <table style="text-align:left"> |
| 72 | <tr><th>Library</th><th>Forms</th><th>Description</th></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 0a4e8b3 | 2004-11-01 09:22:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 73 | <tr><th colspan="3">Core Libraries</th></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 4148266 | 2004-10-31 23:24:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 74 | <tr><td>LLVMAsmParser</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 75 | <td>LLVM Assembly Parsing</td></tr> |
| 76 | <tr><td>LLVMBCReader</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 77 | <td>LLVM Bytecode Reading</td></tr> |
| 78 | <tr><td>LLVMBCWriter</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 79 | <td>LLVM Bytecode Writing</td></tr> |
| 80 | <tr><td>LLVMDebugger</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 81 | <td>Source Level Debugging Support</td></tr> |
| 82 | <tr><td>LLVMSupport</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 83 | <td>General support utilities</td></tr> |
| 84 | <tr><td>LLVMSystem</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 85 | <td>Operating system abstraction</td></tr> |
| 86 | <tr><td>LLVMCore</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 87 | <td>LLVM Core IR</td></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 88 | |
Reid Spencer | 0a4e8b3 | 2004-11-01 09:22:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 89 | <tr><th colspan="3">Analysis Libraries</th></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 4148266 | 2004-10-31 23:24:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 90 | <tr><td>LLVMAnalysis</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 91 | <td>Various analysis passes.</td></tr> |
| 92 | <tr><td>LLVMDataStructure</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 93 | <td>Data structure analysis passes.</td></tr> |
| 94 | <tr><td>LLVMipa</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 95 | <td>Inter-procedural analysis passes.</td></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 96 | |
Reid Spencer | 0a4e8b3 | 2004-11-01 09:22:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 97 | <tr><th colspan="3">Transformation Libraries</th></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 4148266 | 2004-10-31 23:24:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 98 | <tr><td>LLVMInstrumentation</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 99 | <td>Instrumentation passes.</td></tr> |
| 100 | <tr><td>LLVMipo</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 101 | <td>All inter-procedural optimization passes.</td></tr> |
| 102 | <tr><td>LLVMScalarOpts</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 103 | <td>All scalar optimization passes.</td></tr> |
| 104 | <tr><td>LLVMTransforms</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 105 | <td>Uncategorized transformation passes.</td></tr> |
| 106 | <tr><td>LLVMTransformUtils</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 107 | <td>Transformation utilities.</td></tr> |
| 108 | <tr><td>LLVMProfilePaths</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 109 | <td>Profile paths for instrumentation.</td></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 110 | |
Reid Spencer | 0a4e8b3 | 2004-11-01 09:22:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 111 | <tr><th colspan="3">Code Generation Libraries </th></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 4148266 | 2004-10-31 23:24:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 112 | <tr><td>LLVMCodeGen</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 113 | <td>Native code generation infrastructure</td></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 114 | |
Reid Spencer | 0a4e8b3 | 2004-11-01 09:22:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 115 | <tr><th colspan="3">Target Libraries</th></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 4148266 | 2004-10-31 23:24:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 116 | <tr><td>LLVMCBackend</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 117 | <td>'C' language code generator.</td></tr> |
| 118 | <tr><td>LLVMPowerPC</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 119 | <td>PowerPC code generation backend</td></tr> |
| 120 | <tr><td>LLVMSelectionDAG</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 121 | <td>Aggressive instruction selector for Directed Acyclic Graphs.</td></tr> |
| 122 | <tr><td>LLVMSkeleton</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 123 | <td>Skeleton for a code generation backend.</td></tr> |
| 124 | <tr><td>LLVMSparcV9</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 125 | <td>Code generation for SparcV9.</td></tr> |
| 126 | <tr><td>LLVMSparcV9RegAlloc</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 127 | <td>Graph-coloring register allocator for SparcV9.</td></tr> |
| 128 | <tr><td>LLVMSparcV9InstrSched</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 129 | <td>Instruction scheduling for SparcV9.</td></tr> |
| 130 | <tr><td>LLVMSparcV9LiveVar</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 131 | <td>Live variable analysis SparcV9.</td></tr> |
| 132 | <tr><td>LLVMSparcV9ModuloSched</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 133 | <td>Modulo scheduling for SparcV9.</td></tr> |
| 134 | <tr><td>LLVMTarget</td><td><tt>.a .o</tt></td> |
| 135 | <td>Generic code generation utilities.</td></tr> |
| 136 | <tr><td>LLVMX86</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 137 | <td>Intel x86 code generation backend</td></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 138 | |
Reid Spencer | 0a4e8b3 | 2004-11-01 09:22:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 139 | <tr><th colspan="3">Runtime Libraries</th></tr> |
Reid Spencer | 4148266 | 2004-10-31 23:24:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 140 | <tr><td>LLVMInterpreter</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 141 | <td>Bytecode Interpreter</td></tr> |
| 142 | <tr><td>LLVMJIT</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 143 | <td>Bytecode JIT Compiler</td></tr> |
| 144 | <tr><td>LLVMExecutionEngine</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 145 | <td>Virtual machine engine</td></tr> |
| 146 | <tr><td>LLVMexecve</td><td><tt>.o</tt></td> |
| 147 | <td>execve(2) replacement for llee</td></tr> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 148 | </table> |
| 149 | </div> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 150 | |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 151 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
| 152 | <div class="doc_section"><a name="rot">Linkage Rules Of Thumb</a></div> |
| 153 | <div class="doc_text"> |
| 154 | <p>This section contains various "rules of thumb" about what files you |
| 155 | should link into your programs.</p> |
| 156 | </div> |
| 157 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
Misha Brukman | 6fb5166 | 2004-11-08 00:22:22 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 158 | <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="always">Always Link LLVMCore, LLVMSupport, |
| 159 | and LLVMSystem</a></div> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 160 | <div class="doc_text"> |
Reid Spencer | 52afa7e | 2004-11-08 00:26:32 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 161 | <p>No matter what you do with LLVM, the last three entries in the value of |
| 162 | your LLVMLIBS make variable should always be: |
| 163 | <tt>LLVMCore LLVMSupport.a LLVMSystem.a</tt>. There are no <tt>LLVM</tt> |
| 164 | programs that don't depend on these three.</p> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 165 | </div> |
| 166 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 167 | <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="onlyone">Never link both archive and |
| 168 | re-linked library</a></div> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 169 | <div class="doc_text"> |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 170 | <p>There is never any point to linking both the re-linked (<tt>.o</tt>) and |
| 171 | the archive (<tt>.a</tt>) versions of a library. Since the re-linked version |
| 172 | includes the entire library, the archive version will not resolve any symbols. |
Reid Spencer | 347e288 | 2004-11-08 00:24:43 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 173 | You could even end up with link error if you place the archive version before |
Reid Spencer | 341d714 | 2004-10-31 23:00:25 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 174 | the re-linked version on the linker's command line.</p> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 175 | </div> |
| 176 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
| 177 | <hr> |
| 178 | <div class="doc_footer"> |
Reid Spencer | bd72241 | 2004-11-01 09:19:53 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 179 | <address> |
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| 184 | <a href="mailto:rspencer@x10sys.com">Reid Spencer</a> |
| 185 | </address> |
Chris Lattner | 6175735 | 2004-02-27 06:28:34 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 186 | <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a> |
| 187 | <br>Last modified: $Date$ </div> |
| 188 | </body> |
| 189 | </html> |
| 190 | <!-- vim: sw=2 ts=2 ai |
| 191 | --> |