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Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +00007 <title>LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</title>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00008</head>
9<body>
10
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +000011<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</div>
Mikhail Glushenkov808cd3e2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000012
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000013<ol>
14 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000015 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
16 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM?</a></li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000017 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
18 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Dan Gohman0de549c2008-10-14 16:23:02 +000019 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000020 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
21</ol>
22
23<div class="doc_author">
Dan Gohman0de549c2008-10-14 16:23:02 +000024 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000025</div>
26
27<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
28<div class="doc_section">
29 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
30</div>
31<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
32
33<div class="doc_text">
34
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +000035<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +000036Infrastructure, release 2.5. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +000037major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
38All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
39href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000040
41<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
42release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
43web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +000044href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's Mailing
45List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000046
Mikhail Glushenkov808cd3e2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000047<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +000048main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greif7c65c4f2008-10-14 11:00:32 +000049current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +000050<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000051
52</div>
53
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +000054<!-- Unfinished features in 2.5:
Chris Lattner8fda4952008-02-10 07:46:44 +000055 Machine LICM
56 Machine Sinking
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +000057 target-specific intrinsics
58 gold lto plugin
Chris Lattner56b64702009-02-25 07:32:53 +000059 pre-alloc splitter, strong phi elim
Chris Lattner4f076402008-10-12 19:47:48 +000060 llc -enable-value-prop, propagation of value info (sign/zero ext info) from
61 one MBB to another
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +000062 debug info for optimized code
Chris Lattner56b64702009-02-25 07:32:53 +000063
Chris Lattner8fda4952008-02-10 07:46:44 +000064 -->
Mikhail Glushenkov808cd3e2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000065
Chris Lattner4f076402008-10-12 19:47:48 +000066 <!-- for announcement email:
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +000067 -->
Chris Lattner8fda4952008-02-10 07:46:44 +000068
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000069<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
70<div class="doc_section">
71 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
Chris Lattnerf65224f2008-06-08 21:34:41 +000072</div>
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000073<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattnerf65224f2008-06-08 21:34:41 +000074
75<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +000076<p>
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +000077The LLVM 2.5 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattnera3c683b2008-10-13 18:11:54 +000078repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators and
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +000079supporting tools) and the llvm-gcc repository. In addition to this code, the
80LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in development. The two which
Chris Lattner2c3ef982008-10-11 18:18:28 +000081are the most actively developed are the <a href="#clang">Clang Project</a> and
Nicolas Geoffray2b139382008-10-14 19:23:04 +000082the <a href="#vmkit">VMKit Project</a>.
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +000083</p>
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000084
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +000085</div>
86
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000087
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +000088<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +000089<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnera3c683b2008-10-13 18:11:54 +000090<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +000091</div>
92
93<div class="doc_text">
94
95<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is an effort to build
96a set of new 'LLVM native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer
Chris Lattnerc97507b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +000097and code generator. While Clang is not included in the LLVM 2.5 release, it
98is continuing to make major strides forward in all areas. Its C and Objective-C
99parsing and code generation support is now very solid. For example, it is
100capable of successfully building many real applications for X86-32 and X86-64,
101including the FreeBSD kernel. C++ is also making <a
102href="http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html">incredible progress</a>, and work
103on templates has recently started.</p>
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000104
Chris Lattnerc97507b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000105<p>While Clang is not yet production quality, it is progressing very nicely and
106is quite usable for building many C and Objective-C applications. If you are
107interested in fast compiles and good diagnostics, we encourage you to try it out
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000108by <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html">building from mainline</a>
Chris Lattnerc97507b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000109and reporting any issues you hit to the <a
110href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">Clang front-end mailing
111list</a>.</p>
112
113<p>In the LLVM 2.5 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
Bill Wendling385b0d32008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000114
Daniel Dunbarf3e35782008-10-14 23:25:09 +0000115<ul>
Chris Lattnerc97507b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000116<li>Clang now has a new driver, which is focused on providing a GCC-compatible
117 interface.</li>
118<li>The X86-64 ABI is now supported.</li>
119<li>Precompiled header support is now implemented.</li>
120<li>Objective-C support is significantly improved beyond LLVM 2.4, supporting
121 many features, such as Objective-C Garbage Collection.</li>
122<li>Many many bugs are fixed.</li>
Chris Lattnera3c683b2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000123</div>
124
125<!--=========================================================================-->
126<div class="doc_subsection">
127<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
128</div>
129
130<div class="doc_text">
131
Ted Kremenek0437b2c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000132<p>The Clang project also includes an early stage static source code analysis
133tool for <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">automatically
134finding bugs</a> in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs a growing set
Chris Lattnerff170152008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000135of checks to find bugs that occur on a specific path within a program. Examples
Ted Kremenek0437b2c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000136of bugs the tool finds include logic errors such as null dereferences,
137violations of various API rules, dead code, and potential memory leaks in
Chris Lattnerff170152008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000138Objective-C programs. Since its inception, public feedback on the tool has been
139extremely positive, and conservative estimates put the number of real bugs it
140has found in industrial-quality software on the order of thousands.</p>
Chris Lattnerc2d84672008-10-14 00:52:49 +0000141
Ted Kremenek0437b2c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000142<p>The tool also provides a simple web GUI to inspect potential bugs found by
Chris Lattnerff170152008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000143the tool. While still early in development, the GUI illustrates some of the key
Ted Kremenek0437b2c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000144features of Clang: accurate source location information, which is used by the
145GUI to highlight specific code expressions that relate to a bug (including those
Bill Wendling385b0d32008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000146that span multiple lines); and built-in knowledge of macros, which is used to
Ted Kremenek0437b2c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000147perform inline expansion of macros within the GUI itself.</p>
148
Chris Lattnerff170152008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000149<p>The set of checks performed by the static analyzer is gradually expanding,
Bill Wendling385b0d32008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000150and future plans for the tool include full source-level inter-procedural
151analysis and deeper checks such as buffer overrun detection. There are many
152opportunities to extend and enhance the static analyzer, and anyone interested
153in working on this project is encouraged to get involved!</p>
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000154
155</div>
156
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000157<!--=========================================================================-->
158<div class="doc_subsection">
Nicolas Geoffray2b139382008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000159<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000160</div>
161
162<div class="doc_text">
163<p>
Nicolas Geoffray2b139382008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000164The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000165a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machines (Microsoft .NET is an
166implementation of the CLI) using the Just-In-Time compiler of LLVM.</p>
167
Chris Lattner02408742009-02-25 05:45:05 +0000168<p>Following LLVM 2.5, VMKit has its first release ? that you can find on its
Nicolas Geoffray20cfdd42008-10-15 20:25:04 +0000169<a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/releases/">webpage</a>. The release includes
170bug fixes, cleanup and new features. The major changes are:</p>
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000171
Nicolas Geoffray2b139382008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000172<ul>
173
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000174<li>?</li>
Nicolas Geoffray2b139382008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000175
176</ul>
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000177</div>
178
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000179
180<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
181<div class="doc_section">
Chris Lattner78a130b2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000182 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM?</a>
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000183</div>
184<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
185
Chris Lattner5cce7a52008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000186<div class="doc_text">
187
Bill Wendling385b0d32008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000188<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks, and
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000189minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
190in this section.
Chris Lattner5cce7a52008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000191</p>
192</div>
193
Chris Lattnerf6a0d382008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000194<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerf65224f2008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000195<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnere0798082008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000196<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
197</div>
198
199<div class="doc_text">
200
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000201<p>LLVM 2.5 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000202
203<ul>
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000204<li><p> Legalize Types</p></li>
205
206<!--
207Random stuff:
208
Chris Lattner56b64702009-02-25 07:32:53 +0000209xcore backend!
210fortran on darwin!
211
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000212.ll parser rewrite.
213GCC inliner off.
214cmake mature?
215x86 backend FS/GS segment address spaces?
216nocapture
217memdep is faster / more aggressive.
Chris Lattner56b64702009-02-25 07:32:53 +0000218how to write a backend doc docs/WritingAnLLVMBackend.html
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000219fastisel + exception handling
220vector widening <3 x float> -> <4 x float>
Chris Lattner56b64702009-02-25 07:32:53 +0000221arm port improvements? arm jit encoding stuff, constant island support?
222JIT TLS support on x86
223mem2reg now faster on code with huge basic blocks
224stack protectors/stack canaries, -fstack-protector, controllable on a
225 per-function basis with attributes.
226shufflevector is generalized to allow different shuffle mask width than its
227 input vectors.
228loop optimizer improves floating point induction variables
229llvm/Analysis/DebugInfo.h classes, llvm-gcc and clang and codegen use them.
230asmprinters seperate from targets for jits
Chris Lattnera53f4972009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000231-->
Chris Lattnerba948522008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000232
Chris Lattner5ba16862008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000233</ul>
234
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000235</div>
236
Chris Lattnerc5a4e312008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000237
238<!--=========================================================================-->
239<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf65224f2008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000240<a name="llvm-gcc">llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerc5a4e312008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000241</div>
242
243<div class="doc_text">
244
Chris Lattner4352cc82008-10-13 20:47:20 +0000245<p>LLVM fully supports the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end, which marries the GCC
246front-ends and driver with the LLVM optimizer and code generator. It currently
247includes support for the C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and Fortran front-ends.</p>
Chris Lattnerc5a4e312008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000248
Chris Lattner5cce7a52008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000249<ul>
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000250<li>?</li>
Gabor Greif0e49cc82008-06-09 06:06:18 +0000251</ul>
Chris Lattnerc5a4e312008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000252
Chris Lattnerc5a4e312008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000253</div>
254
255
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000256<!--=========================================================================-->
257<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerc3649452008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000258<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM Core Improvements</a>
259</div>
260
261<div class="doc_text">
Bill Wendling385b0d32008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000262<p>New features include:</p>
Chris Lattnerc3649452008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000263
Chris Lattnerc5a4e312008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000264<ul>
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000265<li>?</li>
Chris Lattnerf7bae6d2008-10-13 20:59:32 +0000266
Chris Lattnerc3649452008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000267</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov808cd3e2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000268
Chris Lattnerc3649452008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000269</div>
270
271<!--=========================================================================-->
272<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner8fda4952008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000273<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
274</div>
275
276<div class="doc_text">
277
Chris Lattnerea9c2242008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000278<p>In addition to a huge array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, this
279release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattner8fda4952008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000280
281<ul>
282
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000283<li>?</li>
Chris Lattnerea9c2242008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000284
Chris Lattner0eef6e42008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000285</ul>
286
287</div>
288
289<!--=========================================================================-->
290<div class="doc_subsection">
291<a name="codegen">Code Generator Improvements</a>
292</div>
293
294<div class="doc_text">
295
Gabor Greifaa53e562008-10-14 11:31:14 +0000296<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator infrastructure,
Chris Lattner0eef6e42008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000297which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make it run
298faster:</p>
299
300<ul>
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000301<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner0eef6e42008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000302
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000303</ul>
304
305</div>
306
307
308<!--=========================================================================-->
309<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnercc64a322008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000310<a name="targetspecific">Target Specific Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000311</div>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000312
313<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc3649452008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000314<p>New target-specific features include:
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000315</p>
316
317<ul>
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000318<li>?</li>
Chris Lattnere45f18b2008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000319</ul>
Chris Lattnere45f18b2008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000320
Mikhail Glushenkov808cd3e2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000321</div>
Chris Lattnere45f18b2008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000322
323
324<!--=========================================================================-->
325<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000326<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements</a>
327</div>
328
329<div class="doc_text">
330<p>New features include:
331</p>
332
333<ul>
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000334<li>?</li>
Tanya Lattnerc79f7542008-11-04 18:40:27 +0000335
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000336</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov808cd3e2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000337
Chris Lattnerb0d6c502007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000338</div>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000339
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000340<!--=========================================================================-->
341<div class="doc_subsection">
342<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
343</div>
344
345<div class="doc_text">
346
Chris Lattnercc64a322008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000347<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000348on LLVM 2.4, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattnercc64a322008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000349from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000350
351<ul>
352
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000353<li>?</li>
Chris Lattnercc64a322008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000354</ul>
355
356
357<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
358API changes are:</p>
359
360<ul>
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000361<li>?</li>
Devang Patel0e3da1a2008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000362</ul>
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000363
Chris Lattner95d25072009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000364<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner92eacf82008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000365</ul>
366
367</div>
368
369
370
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000371<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
372<div class="doc_section">
373 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
374</div>
375<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
376
377<div class="doc_text">
378
379<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
380
381<ul>
Chris Lattnerb1ad47c2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000382<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
383Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
384<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit
385and 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattnere0798082008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000386<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000387<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
388 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Gabor Greif5e75e652008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000389<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 10.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000390<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Gabor Greif5e75e652008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000391<li>Itanium-based (IA64) machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000392</ul>
393
Chris Lattnerba948522008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000394<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000395to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
396porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
397portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
398
399</div>
400
401<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
402<div class="doc_section">
403 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
404</div>
405<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
406
407<div class="doc_text">
408
Chris Lattnerb1ad47c2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000409<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
410listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000411href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
412there isn't already one.</p>
413
414</div>
415
416<!-- ======================================================================= -->
417<div class="doc_subsection">
418 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
419</div>
420
421<div class="doc_text">
422
423<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
424be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
425not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
426useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattnerdaeb3232008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000427components, please contact us on the <a
428href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000429
430<ul>
Gabor Greifaa53e562008-10-14 11:31:14 +0000431<li>The MSIL, IA64, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, and PIC16 backends are experimental.</li>
Duncan Sandsa73561c2008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000432<li>The llc "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported
Chris Lattnerbd633de92008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000433 value for this option.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000434</ul>
435
436</div>
437
438<!-- ======================================================================= -->
439<div class="doc_subsection">
440 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
441</div>
442
443<div class="doc_text">
444
445<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov77d15e22008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000446 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
447 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
448 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
449 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnerd95b5962008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000450 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
451 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands8b4f3772008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000452 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
Anton Korobeynikov77d15e22008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000453 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build mingw64 runtime
454 currently due
455 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
Chris Lattnerf06141a2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000456 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> due to lack of support for the
457 'u' inline assembly constraint and X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman3882ecb2008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000458 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
459 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc front-end supports variadic
460 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000461</ul>
462
463</div>
464
465<!-- ======================================================================= -->
466<div class="doc_subsection">
467 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
468</div>
469
470<div class="doc_text">
471
472<ul>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000473<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
474compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
475</ul>
476
477</div>
478
479<!-- ======================================================================= -->
480<div class="doc_subsection">
481 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
482</div>
483
484<div class="doc_text">
485
486<ul>
487<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sands1827fa62007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000488processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000489results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
490<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported, but not fully tested.
491</li>
Chris Lattnerd95b5962008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000492<li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (&lt;= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly
493 execute
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000494programs compiled with LLVM. Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li>
495</ul>
496
497</div>
498
499<!-- ======================================================================= -->
500<div class="doc_subsection">
501 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
502</div>
503
504<div class="doc_text">
505
506<ul>
507<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not
508 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
509</ul>
510
511</div>
512
513<!-- ======================================================================= -->
514<div class="doc_subsection">
Bruno Cardoso Lopes62d45d72008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000515 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
516</div>
517
518<div class="doc_text">
519
520<ul>
521<li>The O32 ABI is not fully supported.</li>
522<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
523</ul>
524
525</div>
526
527<!-- ======================================================================= -->
528<div class="doc_subsection">
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000529 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
530</div>
531
532<div class="doc_text">
533
534<ul>
535
536<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
537appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
538
539</ul>
540</div>
541
542<!-- ======================================================================= -->
543<div class="doc_subsection">
544 <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
545</div>
546
547<div class="doc_text">
548
549<ul>
Chris Lattnerf06141a2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000550<li>The Itanium backend is highly experimental, and has a number of known
551 issues. We are looking for a maintainer for the Itanium backend. If you
Gabor Greif45fc8b12008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000552 are interested, please contact the LLVMdev mailing list.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000553</ul>
554
555</div>
556
557<!-- ======================================================================= -->
558<div class="doc_subsection">
559 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
560</div>
561
562<div class="doc_text">
563
564<ul>
Chris Lattner499c07c2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000565<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
566 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnere0194462007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000567<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
568 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Duncan Sandsa73561c2008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000569 C++ code compiled with llc or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsbd0ad6e2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000570<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000571</ul>
572
573</div>
574
575
576<!-- ======================================================================= -->
577<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner499c07c2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000578 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000579</div>
580
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000581<div class="doc_text">
582
Chris Lattnere0798082008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000583<p>llvm-gcc does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time
584Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the
Gabor Greif45fc8b12008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000585LLVMdev mailing list if you are interested.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000586
Chris Lattner499c07c2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000587<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
588 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
589 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sandsa73561c2008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000590 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
591 nested function).</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000592
Chris Lattner499c07c2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000593<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
594</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000595
596</div>
597
598<!-- ======================================================================= -->
599<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner499c07c2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000600 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000601</div>
602
603<div class="doc_text">
604
605<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
606tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
607itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
608
609<ul>
Anton Korobeynikovd9a17932008-10-11 18:27:16 +0000610<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets. Currently
Chris Lattnerb1ad47c2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000611 only Linux and Darwin targets are supported (both 32 and 64 bit).</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000612</ul>
613
614</div>
615
Chris Lattner6c8a1b82008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000616<!-- ======================================================================= -->
617<div class="doc_subsection">
618 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
619</div>
620
621<div class="doc_text">
Gabor Greif1fc8fbc2008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000622<ul>
Chris Lattner6c8a1b82008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000623<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
624 in Bugzilla. Please see the tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
625
626<li>The Fortran front-end currently does not build on Darwin (without tweaks)
627 due to unresolved dependencies on the C front-end.</li>
Gabor Greif1fc8fbc2008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000628</ul>
Chris Lattner6c8a1b82008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000629</div>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000630
Chris Lattnerdaeb3232008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000631<!-- ======================================================================= -->
632<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner499c07c2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000633 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattnerdaeb3232008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000634</div>
635
636<div class="doc_text">
637The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well, however this is not a mature
638technology and problems should be expected.
639<ul>
Duncan Sandsa73561c2008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000640<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
Chris Lattnerdaeb3232008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000641to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms,
Duncan Sandsa73561c2008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000642however it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattnerdaeb3232008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000643which does support trampolines.</li>
644<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
645Workaround: configure with --disable-bootstrap.</li>
Duncan Sands2dbc2e82008-10-13 17:27:23 +0000646<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
647and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
648(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).</li>
649<li>Some gcc specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattnerdaeb3232008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000650<li>The -E binder option (exception backtraces)
651<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
652crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use -E.</li>
653<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
654or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
655or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
656starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnerd95b5962008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000657<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
658'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
659Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
660<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
661<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
662ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnerdaeb3232008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000663</ul>
664</div>
665
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000666<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
667<div class="doc_section">
668 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
669</div>
670<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
671
672<div class="doc_text">
673
674<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
675href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
676href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
677contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
678Subversion version of the source code.
679You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
680into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
681
682<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
683us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
684lists</a>.</p>
685
686</div>
687
688<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
689
690<hr>
691<address>
692 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
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