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10
11<div class="doc_title">
12 Getting Started with the LLVM System
13</div>
14
15<ul>
16 <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
17 <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
18 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
19 <ol>
Chris Lattner05300e42007-11-01 04:20:16 +000020 <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#software">Software</a></li>
22 <li><a href="#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a></li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000023 </ol></li>
24
25 <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
26 <ol>
Chris Lattner05300e42007-11-01 04:20:16 +000027 <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a></li>
28 <li><a href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a></li>
29 <li><a href="#unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a></li>
30 <li><a href="#checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion</a></li>
31 <li><a href="#installcf">Install the GCC Front End</a></li>
32 <li><a href="#config">Local LLVM Configuration</a></li>
33 <li><a href="#compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a></li>
34 <li><a href="#cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a></li>
35 <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a></li>
36 <li><a href="#optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a></li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000037 </ol></li>
38
39 <li><a href="#layout">Program layout</a>
40 <ol>
Chris Lattner05300e42007-11-01 04:20:16 +000041 <li><a href="#examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a></li>
42 <li><a href="#include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a></li>
43 <li><a href="#lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a></li>
44 <li><a href="#projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a></li>
45 <li><a href="#runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a></li>
46 <li><a href="#test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a></li>
47 <li><a href="#llvmtest"><tt>llvm-test</tt></a></li>
48 <li><a href="#tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a></li>
49 <li><a href="#utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a></li>
50 <li><a href="#win32"><tt>llvm/win32</tt></a></li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +000051 </ol></li>
52
53 <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
54 <ol>
55 <li><a href="#tutorial4">Example with llvm-gcc4</a></li>
56 </ol>
57 <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
58 <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
59</ul>
60
61<div class="doc_author">
62 <p>Written by:
63 <a href="mailto:criswell@uiuc.edu">John Criswell</a>,
64 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a>,
65 <a href="http://misha.brukman.net">Misha Brukman</a>,
66 <a href="http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/~vadve">Vikram Adve</a>, and
67 <a href="mailto:gshi1@uiuc.edu">Guochun Shi</a>.
68 </p>
69</div>
70
71
72<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
73<div class="doc_section">
74 <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
75</div>
76<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
77
78<div class="doc_text">
79
80<p>Welcome to LLVM! In order to get started, you first need to know some
81basic information.</p>
82
83<p>First, LLVM comes in two pieces. The first piece is the LLVM suite. This
84contains all of the tools, libraries, and header files needed to use the low
85level virtual machine. It contains an assembler, disassembler, bitcode
86analyzer and bitcode optimizer. It also contains a test suite that can be
87used to test the LLVM tools and the GCC front end.</p>
88
89<p>The second piece is the GCC front end. This component provides a version of
90GCC that compiles C and C++ code into LLVM bitcode. Currently, the GCC front
91end uses the GCC parser to convert code to LLVM. Once
92compiled into LLVM bitcode, a program can be manipulated with the LLVM tools
93from the LLVM suite.</p>
94
95<p>
96There is a third, optional piece called llvm-test. It is a suite of programs
97with a testing harness that can be used to further test LLVM's functionality
98and performance.
99</p>
100
101</div>
102
103<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
104<div class="doc_section">
105 <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
106</div>
107<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
108
109<div class="doc_text">
110
111<p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
112
113<ol>
114 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
115 <li>Read the documentation.</li>
116 <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
Tanya Lattnerf3ff76b2008-04-07 18:32:25 +0000117 <li>Install the llvm-gcc4.2 front end if you intend to compile C or C++:
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000118 <ol>
119 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-the-C-front-end-to-live</i></tt></li>
120 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-gcc.<i>platform</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
121 </li>
Tanya Lattner99c4a2c2007-09-27 18:14:33 +0000122 <ul><li>If the binary extension is ".bz" use bunzip2 instead of gunzip.</li>
123 </ul>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000124 <li>Add llvm-gcc's "bin" directory to your PATH variable.</li>
125 </ol></li>
126
127 <li>Get the LLVM Source Code
128 <ul>
129 <li>With the distributed files (or use <a href="#checkout">SVN</a>):
130 <ol>
131 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
132 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
133 </ol></li>
134
135 </ul></li>
136
137 <li><b>[Optional]</b> Get the Test Suite Source Code
138 <ul>
139 <li>With the distributed files (or use <a href="#checkout">SVN</a>):
140 <ol>
141 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
142 <li><tt>cd llvm/projects</tt>
143 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-test-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
144 </ol></li>
145
146 </ul></li>
147
148
149 <li>Configure the LLVM Build Environment
150 <ol>
151 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-to-build-llvm</i></tt></li>
152 <li><tt><i>/path/to/llvm/</i>configure [options]</tt><br>
153 Some common options:
154
155 <ul>
156 <li><tt>--prefix=<i>directory</i></tt>
157 <p>Specify for <i>directory</i> the full pathname of where you
158 want the LLVM tools and libraries to be installed (default
159 <tt>/usr/local</tt>).</p></li>
160 <li><tt>--with-llvmgccdir=<i>directory</i></tt>
161 <p>Optionally, specify for <i>directory</i> the full pathname of the
162 C/C++ front end installation to use with this LLVM configuration. If
163 not specified, the PATH will be searched.</p></li>
164 <li><tt>--enable-spec2000=<i>directory</i></tt>
165 <p>Enable the SPEC2000 benchmarks for testing. The SPEC2000
166 benchmarks should be available in
167 <tt><i>directory</i></tt>.</p></li>
168 </ul>
169 </ol></li>
170
171 <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
172 <ol>
173 <li><tt>gmake -k |&amp; tee gnumake.out
174 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;# this is csh or tcsh syntax</tt></li>
175 <li>If you get an "internal compiler error (ICE)" or test failures, see
176 <a href="#brokengcc">below</a>.</li>
177 </ol>
178
179</ol>
180
181<p>Consult the <a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a> section for
182detailed information on configuring and compiling LLVM. See <a
183href="#environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a> for tips that simplify
184working with the GCC front end and LLVM tools. Go to <a href="#layout">Program
185Layout</a> to learn about the layout of the source code tree.</p>
186
187</div>
188
189<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
190<div class="doc_section">
191 <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
192</div>
193<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
194
195<div class="doc_text">
196
197<p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given below.
198This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware and
199software you will need.</p>
200
201</div>
202
203<!-- ======================================================================= -->
204<div class="doc_subsection">
205 <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
206</div>
207
208<div class="doc_text">
209
210<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
211
212<table cellpadding="3" summary="Known LLVM platforms">
213<tr>
214 <th>OS</th>
215 <th>Arch</th>
216 <th>Compilers</th>
217</tr>
218<tr>
219 <td>Linux</td>
220 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
221 <td>GCC</td>
222</tr>
223<tr>
224 <td>Solaris</td>
225 <td>V9 (Ultrasparc)</td>
226 <td>GCC</td>
227</tr>
228<tr>
229 <td>FreeBSD</td>
230 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
231 <td>GCC</td>
232</tr>
233<tr>
234 <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a></sup></td>
235 <td>PowerPC</td>
236 <td>GCC</td>
237</tr>
238<tr>
Scott Michel6de83ff2008-03-18 23:13:26 +0000239 <td>MacOS X<sup><a href="#pf_2">2</a>,<a href="#pf_9">9</a></sup></td>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000240 <td>x86</td>
241 <td>GCC</td>
242
243</tr>
244<tr>
245 <td>Cygwin/Win32</td>
246 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_8">8</a></sup></td>
247 <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.15</td>
248</tr>
249<tr>
250 <td>MinGW/Win32</td>
251 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a>,<a href="#pf_6">6</a>,<a href="#pf_8">8</a></sup></td>
252 <td>GCC 3.4.X, binutils 2.15</td>
253</tr>
254<tr>
255 <td>Linux</td>
256 <td>amd64<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a></sup></td>
257 <td>GCC</td>
258</tr>
259</table>
260
261<p>LLVM has partial support for the following platforms:</p>
262
263<table summary="LLVM partial platform support">
264<tr>
265 <th>OS</th>
266 <th>Arch</th>
267 <th>Compilers</th>
268</tr>
269<tr>
270 <td>Windows</td>
271 <td>x86<sup><a href="#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
272 <td>Visual Studio .NET<sup><a href="#pf_4">4</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
273<tr>
274 <td>AIX<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_4">4</a></sup></td>
275 <td>PowerPC</td>
276 <td>GCC</td>
277</tr>
278<tr>
279 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_3">3</a>,<a href="#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
280 <td>PowerPC</td>
281 <td>GCC</td>
282</tr>
283
284<tr>
285 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
286 <td>Alpha</td>
287 <td>GCC</td>
288</tr>
289<tr>
290 <td>Linux<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
291 <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
292 <td>GCC</td>
293</tr>
294<tr>
295 <td>HP-UX<sup><a href="#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
296 <td>Itanium (IA-64)</td>
297 <td>HP aCC</td>
298</tr>
299</table>
300
301<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
302
303<div class="doc_notes">
304<ol>
305<li><a name="pf_1">Code generation supported for Pentium processors and
306up</a></li>
307<li><a name="pf_2">Code generation supported for 32-bit ABI only</a></li>
308<li><a name="pf_3">No native code generation</a></li>
309<li><a name="pf_4">Build is not complete: one or more tools don't link</a></li>
310<li><a name="pf_5">The GCC-based C/C++ frontend does not build</a></li>
311<li><a name="pf_6">The port is done using the MSYS shell.</a>
312<a href="http://www.mingw.org/MinGWiki/">Download</a> and install
313bison (excl. M4.exe) and flex in that order. Build binutils-2.15 from source,
314if necessary. Bison &amp; flex can be also grabbed from GNUWin32 sf.net
315project.</li>
316<li><a name="pf_7">Native code generation exists but is not complete.</a></li>
317<li><a name="pf_8">Binutils</a> up to post-2.17 has bug in bfd/cofflink.c
318 preventing LLVM from building correctly. Several workarounds have been
319 introduced into LLVM build system, but the bug can occur anytime in the
320 future. We highly recommend that you rebuild your current binutils with the
321 patch from <a href="http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2659">
322 Binutils bugzilla</a>, if it wasn't already applied.</li>
Scott Michel6de83ff2008-03-18 23:13:26 +0000323<li><a name="pf_9">XCode 2.5 and gcc 4.0.1 (Apple Build 5370) will trip
324 internal LLVM assert messages when compiled for Release at optimization
325 levels greater than 0 (i.e., <i>&ldquo;-O1&rdquo;</i> and higher).
326 Add <i>OPTIMIZE_OPTION=&quot;-O0&quot;</i> to the build command line
327 if compiling for LLVM Release or bootstrapping the LLVM toolchain.</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000328</ol>
329</div>
330
331<p>Note that you will need about 1-3 GB of space for a full LLVM build in Debug
332mode, depending on the system (it is so large because of all the debugging
333information and the fact that the libraries are statically linked into multiple
334tools). If you do not need many of the tools and you are space-conscious,
335you can disable them individually in <tt>llvm/tools/Makefile</tt>. The Release
336build requires considerably less space.</p>
337
338<p>The LLVM suite <i>may</i> compile on other platforms, but it is not
339guaranteed to do so. If compilation is successful, the LLVM utilities should be
340able to assemble, disassemble, analyze, and optimize LLVM bitcode. Code
341generation should work as well, although the generated native code may not work
342on your platform.</p>
343
344<p>The GCC front end is not very portable at the moment. If you want to get it
345to work on another platform, you can download a copy of the source and <a
Duncan Sandse38f3dc2008-02-14 17:53:22 +0000346href="GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">try to compile it</a> on your platform.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000347
348</div>
349
350<!-- ======================================================================= -->
351<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
352<div class="doc_text">
353 <p>Compiling LLVM requires that you have several software packages
354 installed. The table below lists those required packages. The Package column
355 is the usual name for the software package that LLVM depends on. The Version
356 column provides "known to work" versions of the package. The Notes column
357 describes how LLVM uses the package and provides other details.</p>
358 <table summary="Packages required to compile LLVM">
359 <tr><th>Package</th><th>Version</th><th>Notes</th></tr>
360
361 <tr>
362 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/make">GNU Make</a></td>
363 <td>3.79, 3.79.1</td>
364 <td>Makefile/build processor</td>
365 </tr>
366
367 <tr>
368 <td><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org">GCC</a></td>
369 <td>3.4.2</td>
370 <td>C/C++ compiler<sup><a href="#sf1">1</a></sup></td>
371 </tr>
372
373 <tr>
374 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo">TeXinfo</a></td>
375 <td>4.5</td>
376 <td>For building the CFE</td>
377 </tr>
378
379 <tr>
380 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/flex">Flex</a></td>
381 <td>2.5.4</td>
382 <td>LEX compiler</td>
383 </tr>
384
385 <tr>
386 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/bison.html">Bison</a></td>
387 <td>1.28, 1.35, 1.75, 1.875d, 2.0, or 2.1<br>(not 1.85 or 1.875)</td>
388 <td>YACC compiler</td>
389 </tr>
390
391 <tr>
392 <td><a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html">SVN</a></td>
393 <td>&ge;1.3</td>
394 <td>Subversion access to LLVM<sup><a href="#sf2">2</a></sup></td>
395 </tr>
396
397 <tr>
398 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/dejagnu">DejaGnu</a></td>
399 <td>1.4.2</td>
400 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
401 </tr>
402
403 <tr>
404 <td><a href="http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/">tcl</a></td>
405 <td>8.3, 8.4</td>
406 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
407 </tr>
408
409 <tr>
410 <td><a href="http://expect.nist.gov/">expect</a></td>
411 <td>5.38.0</td>
412 <td>Automated test suite<sup><a href="#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
413 </tr>
414
415 <tr>
416 <td><a href="http://www.perl.com/download.csp">perl</a></td>
417 <td>&ge;5.6.0</td>
418 <td>Nightly tester, utilities</td>
419 </tr>
420
421 <tr>
422 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/m4">GNU M4</a>
423 <td>1.4</td>
424 <td>Macro processor for configuration<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
425 </tr>
426
427 <tr>
428 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf">GNU Autoconf</a></td>
429 <td>2.59</td>
430 <td>Configuration script builder<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
431 </tr>
432
433 <tr>
434 <td><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/automake">GNU Automake</a></td>
435 <td>1.9.2</td>
436 <td>aclocal macro generator<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
437 </tr>
438
439 <tr>
440 <td><a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/libtool">libtool</a></td>
441 <td>1.5.10</td>
442 <td>Shared library manager<sup><a href="#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
443 </tr>
444
445 </table>
446
447 <p><b>Notes:</b></p>
448 <div class="doc_notes">
449 <ol>
450 <li><a name="sf1">Only the C and C++ languages are needed so there's no
451 need to build the other languages for LLVM's purposes.</a> See
452 <a href="#brokengcc">below</a> for specific version info.</li>
453 <li><a name="sf2">You only need Subversion if you intend to build from the
454 latest LLVM sources. If you're working from a release distribution, you
455 don't need Subversion.</a></li>
456 <li><a name="sf3">Only needed if you want to run the automated test
457 suite in the <tt>llvm/test</tt> directory.</a></li>
458 <li><a name="sf4">If you want to make changes to the configure scripts,
459 you will need GNU autoconf (2.59), and consequently, GNU M4 (version 1.4
460 or higher). You will also need automake (1.9.2). We only use aclocal
461 from that package.</a></li>
462 </ol>
463 </div>
464
465 <p>Additionally, your compilation host is expected to have the usual
466 plethora of Unix utilities. Specifically:</p>
467 <ul>
468 <li><b>ar</b> - archive library builder</li>
469 <li><b>bzip2*</b> - bzip2 command for distribution generation</li>
470 <li><b>bunzip2*</b> - bunzip2 command for distribution checking</li>
471 <li><b>chmod</b> - change permissions on a file</li>
472 <li><b>cat</b> - output concatenation utility</li>
473 <li><b>cp</b> - copy files</li>
474 <li><b>date</b> - print the current date/time </li>
475 <li><b>echo</b> - print to standard output</li>
476 <li><b>egrep</b> - extended regular expression search utility</li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000477 <li><b>find</b> - find files/dirs in a file system</li>
478 <li><b>grep</b> - regular expression search utility</li>
479 <li><b>gzip*</b> - gzip command for distribution generation</li>
480 <li><b>gunzip*</b> - gunzip command for distribution checking</li>
481 <li><b>install</b> - install directories/files </li>
482 <li><b>mkdir</b> - create a directory</li>
483 <li><b>mv</b> - move (rename) files</li>
484 <li><b>ranlib</b> - symbol table builder for archive libraries</li>
485 <li><b>rm</b> - remove (delete) files and directories</li>
486 <li><b>sed</b> - stream editor for transforming output</li>
487 <li><b>sh</b> - Bourne shell for make build scripts</li>
488 <li><b>tar</b> - tape archive for distribution generation</li>
489 <li><b>test</b> - test things in file system</li>
490 <li><b>unzip*</b> - unzip command for distribution checking</li>
491 <li><b>zip*</b> - zip command for distribution generation</li>
492 </ul>
493</div>
494
495<!-- ======================================================================= -->
496<div class="doc_subsection">
497 <a name="brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a>
498</div>
499
500<div class="doc_text">
501
502<p>LLVM is very demanding of the host C++ compiler, and as such tends to expose
503bugs in the compiler. In particular, several versions of GCC crash when trying
504to compile LLVM. We routinely use GCC 3.3.3, 3.4.0, and Apple 4.0.1
505successfully with them (however, see important notes below). Other versions
506of GCC will probably work as well. GCC versions listed
507here are known to not work. If you are using one of these versions, please try
508to upgrade your GCC to something more recent. If you run into a problem with a
509version of GCC not listed here, please <a href="mailto:llvmdev@cs.uiuc.edu">let
510us know</a>. Please use the "<tt>gcc -v</tt>" command to find out which version
511of GCC you are using.
512</p>
513
514<p><b>GCC versions prior to 3.0</b>: GCC 2.96.x and before had several
515problems in the STL that effectively prevent it from compiling LLVM.
516</p>
517
Chris Lattner76bb5302008-02-13 17:50:24 +0000518<p><b>GCC 3.2.2 and 3.2.3</b>: These versions of GCC fails to compile LLVM with
519a bogus template error. This was fixed in later GCCs.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000520
521<p><b>GCC 3.3.2</b>: This version of GCC suffered from a <a
522href="http://gcc.gnu.org/PR13392">serious bug</a> which causes it to crash in
523the "<tt>convert_from_eh_region_ranges_1</tt>" GCC function.</p>
524
525<p><b>Cygwin GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 commonly shipped with
Duncan Sandse38f3dc2008-02-14 17:53:22 +0000526 Cygwin does not work. Please <a href="GCCFEBuildInstrs.html#cygwin">upgrade
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000527 to a newer version</a> if possible.</p>
528<p><b>SuSE GCC 3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC 3.3.3 shipped with SuSE 9.1 (and
529 possibly others) does not compile LLVM correctly (it appears that exception
530 handling is broken in some cases). Please download the FSF 3.3.3 or upgrade
531 to a newer version of GCC.</p>
532<p><b>GCC 3.4.0 on linux/x86 (32-bit)</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
533 code generator, causing an infinite loop in the llvm-gcc build when built
534 with optimizations enabled (i.e. a release build).</p>
535<p><b>GCC 3.4.2 on linux/x86 (32-bit)</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
536 code generator at -O3, as with 3.4.0. However gcc 3.4.2 (unlike 3.4.0)
537 correctly compiles LLVM at -O2. A work around is to build release LLVM
538 builds with "make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2 ..."</p>
539<p><b>GCC 3.4.x on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1056">
540 miscompiles portions of LLVM</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner05300e42007-11-01 04:20:16 +0000541<p><b>GCC 3.4.4 (CodeSourcery ARM 2005q3-2)</b>: this compiler miscompiles LLVM
542 when building with optimizations enabled. It appears to work with
543 "<tt>make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O1</tt>" or build a debug
544 build.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000545<p><b>IA-64 GCC 4.0.0</b>: The IA-64 version of GCC 4.0.0 is known to
546 miscompile LLVM.</p>
547<p><b>Apple Xcode 2.3</b>: GCC crashes when compiling LLVM at -O3 (which is the
548 default with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1. To work around this, build with
549 "ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2".</p>
550<p><b>GCC 4.1.1</b>: GCC fails to build LLVM with template concept check errors
551 compiling some files. At the time of this writing, GCC mainline (4.2)
552 did not share the problem.</p>
553<p><b>GCC 4.1.1 on X86-64/amd64</b>: GCC <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1063">
554 miscompiles portions of LLVM</a> when compiling llvm itself into 64-bit
555 code. LLVM will appear to mostly work but will be buggy, e.g. failing
556 portions of its testsuite.</p>
557<p><b>GCC 4.1.2 on OpenSUSE</b>: Seg faults during libstdc++ build and on x86_64
558platforms compiling md5.c gets a mangled constant.</p>
559<p><b>GNU ld 2.16.X</b>. Some 2.16.X versions of the ld linker will produce very
560long warning messages complaining that some ".gnu.linkonce.t.*" symbol was
561defined in a discarded section. You can safely ignore these messages as they are
562erroneous and the linkage is correct. These messages disappear using ld
5632.17.</p>
564
565<p><b>GNU binutils 2.17</b>: Binutils 2.17 contains <a
566href="http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3111">a bug</a> which
567causes huge link times (minutes instead of seconds) when building LLVM. We
568recommend upgrading to a newer version (2.17.50.0.4 or later).</p>
569
570</div>
571
572
573
574<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
575<div class="doc_section">
576 <a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
577</div>
578<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
579
580<div class="doc_text">
581
582<p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
583LLVM and to give you some basic information about the LLVM environment.</p>
584
585<p>The later sections of this guide describe the <a
586href="#layout">general layout</a> of the the LLVM source tree, a <a
587href="#tutorial">simple example</a> using the LLVM tool chain, and <a
588href="#links">links</a> to find more information about LLVM or to get
589help via e-mail.</p>
590</div>
591
592<!-- ======================================================================= -->
593<div class="doc_subsection">
594 <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
595</div>
596
597<div class="doc_text">
598
599<p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
600specific to the local system and working environment. <i>These are not
601environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
602of this document below</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
603each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
604All these paths are absolute:</p>
605
606<dl>
607 <dt>SRC_ROOT
608 <dd>
609 This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
610 <br><br>
611
612 <dt>OBJ_ROOT
613 <dd>
614 This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
615 tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It
616 can be the same as SRC_ROOT).
617 <br><br>
618
619 <dt>LLVMGCCDIR
620 <dd>
621 This is where the LLVM GCC Front End is installed.
622 <p>
623 For the pre-built GCC front end binaries, the LLVMGCCDIR is
624 <tt>llvm-gcc/<i>platform</i>/llvm-gcc</tt>.
625</dl>
626
627</div>
628
629<!-- ======================================================================= -->
630<div class="doc_subsection">
631 <a name="environment">Setting Up Your Environment</a>
632</div>
633
634<div class="doc_text">
635
636<p>
637In order to compile and use LLVM, you may need to set some environment
638variables.
639
640<dl>
641 <dt><tt>LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH</tt>=<tt>/path/to/your/bitcode/libs</tt></dt>
642 <dd>[Optional] This environment variable helps LLVM linking tools find the
643 locations of your bitcode libraries. It is provided only as a
644 convenience since you can specify the paths using the -L options of the
645 tools and the C/C++ front-end will automatically use the bitcode files
646 installed in its
647 <tt>lib</tt> directory.</dd>
648</dl>
649
650</div>
651
652<!-- ======================================================================= -->
653<div class="doc_subsection">
654 <a name="unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives</a>
655</div>
656
657<div class="doc_text">
658
659<p>
660If you have the LLVM distribution, you will need to unpack it before you
661can begin to compile it. LLVM is distributed as a set of two files: the LLVM
662suite and the LLVM GCC front end compiled for your platform. There is an
663additional test suite that is optional. Each file is a TAR archive that is
664compressed with the gzip program.
665</p>
666
667<p>The files are as follows, with <em>x.y</em> marking the version number:
668<dl>
669 <dt><tt>llvm-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
670 <dd>Source release for the LLVM libraries and tools.<br/></dd>
671
672 <dt><tt>llvm-test-x.y.tar.gz</tt></dt>
673 <dd>Source release for the LLVM test suite.</dd>
674
675 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc4-x.y.source.tar.gz</tt></dt>
676 <dd>Source release of the llvm-gcc4 front end. See README.LLVM in the root
677 directory for build instructions.<br/></dd>
678
679 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc4-x.y-platform.tar.gz</tt></dt>
680 <dd>Binary release of the llvm-gcc4 front end for a specific platform.<br/></dd>
681
682</dl>
683
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000684</div>
685
686<!-- ======================================================================= -->
687<div class="doc_subsection">
688 <a name="checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion</a>
689</div>
690
691<div class="doc_text">
692
693<p>If you have access to our Subversion repository, you can get a fresh copy of
694the entire source code. All you need to do is check it out from Subvresion as
695follows:</p>
696
697<ul>
698 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
699 <li>Read-Only: <tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm</tt></li>
700 <li>Read-Write:<tt>svn co https://user@llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk
701 llvm</tt></li>
702</ul>
703
704
705<p>This will create an '<tt>llvm</tt>' directory in the current
706directory and fully populate it with the LLVM source code, Makefiles,
707test directories, and local copies of documentation files.</p>
708
709<p>If you want to get a specific release (as opposed to the most recent
710revision), you can checkout it from the '<tt>tags</tt>' directory (instead of
711'<tt>trunk</tt>'). The following releases are located in the following
712 subdirectories of the '<tt>tags</tt>' directory:</p>
713
714<ul>
Tanya Lattner9eb3be52008-06-09 06:02:09 +0000715<li>Release 2.3: <b>RELEASE_23</b></li>
Tanya Lattner60030782008-02-12 02:42:55 +0000716<li>Release 2.2: <b>RELEASE_22</b></li>
Tanya Lattner2fad5b02007-09-28 22:50:54 +0000717<li>Release 2.1: <b>RELEASE_21</b></li>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000718<li>Release 2.0: <b>RELEASE_20</b></li>
719<li>Release 1.9: <b>RELEASE_19</b></li>
720<li>Release 1.8: <b>RELEASE_18</b></li>
721<li>Release 1.7: <b>RELEASE_17</b></li>
722<li>Release 1.6: <b>RELEASE_16</b></li>
723<li>Release 1.5: <b>RELEASE_15</b></li>
724<li>Release 1.4: <b>RELEASE_14</b></li>
725<li>Release 1.3: <b>RELEASE_13</b></li>
726<li>Release 1.2: <b>RELEASE_12</b></li>
727<li>Release 1.1: <b>RELEASE_11</b></li>
728<li>Release 1.0: <b>RELEASE_1</b></li>
729</ul>
730
731<p>If you would like to get the LLVM test suite (a separate package as of 1.4),
732you get it from the Subversion repository:</p>
733
734<div class="doc_code">
735<pre>
736% cd llvm/projects
737% svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk llvm-test
738</pre>
739</div>
740
741<p>By placing it in the <tt>llvm/projects</tt>, it will be automatically
742configured by the LLVM configure script as well as automatically updated when
743you run <tt>svn update</tt>.</p>
744
745<p>If you would like to get the GCC front end source code, you can also get it
Duncan Sandse38f3dc2008-02-14 17:53:22 +0000746and build it yourself. Please follow <a href="GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">these
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000747instructions</a> to successfully get and build the LLVM GCC front-end.</p>
748
749</div>
750
751<!-- ======================================================================= -->
752<div class="doc_subsection">
753 <a name="installcf">Install the GCC Front End</a>
754</div>
755
756<div class="doc_text">
757
758<p>Before configuring and compiling the LLVM suite, you can optionally extract the
759LLVM GCC front end from the binary distribution. It is used for running the
760llvm-test testsuite and for compiling C/C++ programs. Note that you can optionally
Duncan Sandse38f3dc2008-02-14 17:53:22 +0000761<a href="GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">build llvm-gcc yourself</a> after building the
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000762main LLVM repository.</p>
763
764<p>To install the GCC front end, do the following:</p>
765
766<ol>
767 <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-the-front-end-to-live</i></tt></li>
768 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvmgcc-<i>version</i>.<i>platform</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf
769 -</tt></li>
770</ol>
771
772<p>Once the binary is uncompressed, you should add a symlink for llvm-gcc and
773llvm-g++ to some directory in your path. When you configure LLVM, it will
774automatically detect llvm-gcc's presence (if it is in your path) enabling its
775use in llvm-test. Note that you can always build or install llvm-gcc at any
776pointer after building the main LLVM repository: just reconfigure llvm and
777llvm-test will pick it up.
778</p>
779
780<p>The binary versions of the GCC front end may not suit all of your needs. For
781example, the binary distribution may include an old version of a system header
782file, not "fix" a header file that needs to be fixed for GCC, or it may be
783linked with libraries not available on your system.</p>
784
785<p>In cases like these, you may want to try <a
Duncan Sandse38f3dc2008-02-14 17:53:22 +0000786href="GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">building the GCC front end from source.</a> This is
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000787much easier now than it was in the past.</p>
788
789</div>
790
791<!-- ======================================================================= -->
792<div class="doc_subsection">
793 <a name="config">Local LLVM Configuration</a>
794</div>
795
796<div class="doc_text">
797
798 <p>Once checked out from the Subversion repository, the LLVM suite source
799 code must be
800configured via the <tt>configure</tt> script. This script sets variables in the
801various <tt>*.in</tt> files, most notably <tt>llvm/Makefile.config</tt> and
802<tt>llvm/include/Config/config.h</tt>. It also populates <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> with
803the Makefiles needed to begin building LLVM.</p>
804
805<p>The following environment variables are used by the <tt>configure</tt>
806script to configure the build system:</p>
807
808<table summary="LLVM configure script environment variables">
809 <tr><th>Variable</th><th>Purpose</th></tr>
810 <tr>
811 <td>CC</td>
812 <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C compiler to use. By default,
813 <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C compiler in
814 <tt>PATH</tt>. Use this variable to override
815 <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
816 </tr>
817 <tr>
818 <td>CXX</td>
819 <td>Tells <tt>configure</tt> which C++ compiler to use. By default,
820 <tt>configure</tt> will look for the first GCC C++ compiler in
821 <tt>PATH</tt>. Use this variable to override
822 <tt>configure</tt>'s default behavior.</td>
823 </tr>
824</table>
825
826<p>The following options can be used to set or enable LLVM specific options:</p>
827
828<dl>
829 <dt><i>--with-llvmgccdir</i></dt>
830 <dd>Path to the LLVM C/C++ FrontEnd to be used with this LLVM configuration.
831 The value of this option should specify the full pathname of the C/C++ Front
832 End to be used. If this option is not provided, the PATH will be searched for
833 a program named <i>llvm-gcc</i> and the C/C++ FrontEnd install directory will
834 be inferred from the path found. If the option is not given, and no llvm-gcc
835 can be found in the path then a warning will be produced by
836 <tt>configure</tt> indicating this situation. LLVM may still be built with
837 the <tt>tools-only</tt> target but attempting to build the runtime libraries
838 will fail as these libraries require llvm-gcc and llvm-g++. See
839 <a href="#installcf">Install the GCC Front End</a> for details on installing
840 the C/C++ Front End. See
Duncan Sandse38f3dc2008-02-14 17:53:22 +0000841 <a href="GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">Bootstrapping the LLVM C/C++ Front-End</a>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +0000842 for details on building the C/C++ Front End.</dd>
843 <dt><i>--with-tclinclude</i></dt>
844 <dd>Path to the tcl include directory under which <tt>tclsh</tt> can be
845 found. Use this if you have multiple tcl installations on your machine and you
846 want to use a specific one (8.x) for LLVM. LLVM only uses tcl for running the
847 dejagnu based test suite in <tt>llvm/test</tt>. If you don't specify this
848 option, the LLVM configure script will search for the tcl 8.4 and 8.3
849 releases.
850 <br><br>
851 </dd>
852 <dt><i>--enable-optimized</i></dt>
853 <dd>
854 Enables optimized compilation by default (debugging symbols are removed
855 and GCC optimization flags are enabled). The default is to use an
856 unoptimized build (also known as a debug build).
857 <br><br>
858 </dd>
859 <dt><i>--enable-debug-runtime</i></dt>
860 <dd>
861 Enables debug symbols in the runtime libraries. The default is to strip
862 debug symbols from the runtime libraries.
863 </dd>
864 <dt><i>--enable-jit</i></dt>
865 <dd>
866 Compile the Just In Time (JIT) compiler functionality. This is not
867 available
868 on all platforms. The default is dependent on platform, so it is best
869 to explicitly enable it if you want it.
870 <br><br>
871 </dd>
872 <dt><i>--enable-targets=</i><tt>target-option</tt></dt>
873 <dd>Controls which targets will be built and linked into llc. The default
874 value for <tt>target_options</tt> is "all" which builds and links all
875 available targets. The value "host-only" can be specified to build only a
876 native compiler (no cross-compiler targets available). The "native" target is
877 selected as the target of the build host. You can also specify a comma
878 separated list of target names that you want available in llc. The target
879 names use all lower case. The current set of targets is: <br/>
880 <tt>alpha, ia64, powerpc, skeleton, sparc, x86</tt>.
881 <br><br></dd>
882 <dt><i>--enable-doxygen</i></dt>
883 <dd>Look for the doxygen program and enable construction of doxygen based
884 documentation from the source code. This is disabled by default because
885 generating the documentation can take a long time and producess 100s of
886 megabytes of output.</dd>
887 <dt><i>--with-udis86</i></dt>
888 <dd>LLVM can use external disassembler library for various purposes (now it's
889 used only for examining code produced by JIT). This option will enable usage
890 of <a href="http://udis86.sourceforge.net/">udis86</a> x86 (both 32 and 64
891 bits) disassembler library.</dd>
892</dl>
893
894<p>To configure LLVM, follow these steps:</p>
895
896<ol>
897 <li><p>Change directory into the object root directory:</p>
898
899 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></pre></div></li>
900
901 <li><p>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script located in the LLVM source
902 tree:</p>
903
904 <div class="doc_code">
905 <pre>% <i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure --prefix=/install/path [other options]</pre>
906 </div></li>
907</ol>
908
909</div>
910
911<!-- ======================================================================= -->
912<div class="doc_subsection">
913 <a name="compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code</a>
914</div>
915
916<div class="doc_text">
917
918<p>Once you have configured LLVM, you can build it. There are three types of
919builds:</p>
920
921<dl>
922 <dt>Debug Builds
923 <dd>
924 These builds are the default when one types <tt>gmake</tt> (unless the
925 <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option was used during configuration). The
926 build system will compile the tools and libraries with debugging
927 information.
928 <br><br>
929
930 <dt>Release (Optimized) Builds
931 <dd>
932 These builds are enabled with the <tt>--enable-optimized</tt> option to
933 <tt>configure</tt> or by specifying <tt>ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt> on the
934 <tt>gmake</tt> command line. For these builds, the build system will
935 compile the tools and libraries with GCC optimizations enabled and strip
936 debugging information from the libraries and executables it generates.
937 <br><br>
938
939 <dt>Profile Builds
940 <dd>
941 These builds are for use with profiling. They compile profiling
942 information into the code for use with programs like <tt>gprof</tt>.
943 Profile builds must be started by specifying <tt>ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
944 on the <tt>gmake</tt> command line.
945</dl>
946
947<p>Once you have LLVM configured, you can build it by entering the
948<i>OBJ_ROOT</i> directory and issuing the following command:</p>
949
950<div class="doc_code"><pre>% gmake</pre></div>
951
952<p>If the build fails, please <a href="#brokengcc">check here</a> to see if you
953are using a version of GCC that is known not to compile LLVM.</p>
954
955<p>
956If you have multiple processors in your machine, you may wish to use some of
957the parallel build options provided by GNU Make. For example, you could use the
958command:</p>
959
960<div class="doc_code"><pre>% gmake -j2</pre></div>
961
962<p>There are several special targets which are useful when working with the LLVM
963source code:</p>
964
965<dl>
966 <dt><tt>gmake clean</tt>
967 <dd>
968 Removes all files generated by the build. This includes object files,
969 generated C/C++ files, libraries, and executables.
970 <br><br>
971
972 <dt><tt>gmake dist-clean</tt>
973 <dd>
974 Removes everything that <tt>gmake clean</tt> does, but also removes files
975 generated by <tt>configure</tt>. It attempts to return the source tree to the
976 original state in which it was shipped.
977 <br><br>
978
979 <dt><tt>gmake install</tt>
980 <dd>
981 Installs LLVM header files, libraries, tools, and documentation in a
982 hierarchy
983 under $PREFIX, specified with <tt>./configure --prefix=[dir]</tt>, which
984 defaults to <tt>/usr/local</tt>.
985 <br><br>
986
987 <dt><tt>gmake -C runtime install-bytecode</tt>
988 <dd>
989 Assuming you built LLVM into $OBJDIR, when this command is run, it will
990 install bitcode libraries into the GCC front end's bitcode library
991 directory. If you need to update your bitcode libraries,
992 this is the target to use once you've built them.
993 <br><br>
994</dl>
995
996<p>Please see the <a href="MakefileGuide.html">Makefile Guide</a> for further
997details on these <tt>make</tt> targets and descriptions of other targets
998available.</p>
999
1000<p>It is also possible to override default values from <tt>configure</tt> by
1001declaring variables on the command line. The following are some examples:</p>
1002
1003<dl>
1004 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1</tt>
1005 <dd>
1006 Perform a Release (Optimized) build.
1007 <br><br>
1008
1009 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 DISABLE_ASSERTIONS=1</tt>
1010 <dd>
1011 Perform a Release (Optimized) build without assertions enabled.
1012 <br><br>
1013
1014 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_PROFILING=1</tt>
1015 <dd>
1016 Perform a Profiling build.
1017 <br><br>
1018
1019 <dt><tt>gmake VERBOSE=1</tt>
1020 <dd>
1021 Print what <tt>gmake</tt> is doing on standard output.
1022 <br><br>
1023
1024 <dt><tt>gmake TOOL_VERBOSE=1</tt></dt>
1025 <dd>Ask each tool invoked by the makefiles to print out what it is doing on
1026 the standard output. This also implies <tt>VERBOSE=1</tt>.
1027 <br><br></dd>
1028</dl>
1029
1030<p>Every directory in the LLVM object tree includes a <tt>Makefile</tt> to build
1031it and any subdirectories that it contains. Entering any directory inside the
1032LLVM object tree and typing <tt>gmake</tt> should rebuild anything in or below
1033that directory that is out of date.</p>
1034
1035</div>
1036
1037<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1038<div class="doc_subsection">
1039 <a name="cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM</a>
1040</div>
1041
1042<div class="doc_text">
1043 <p>It is possible to cross-compile LLVM. That is, you can create LLVM
1044 executables and libraries for a platform different than the one one which you
1045 are compiling. To do this, a few additional steps are
1046 required. <sup><a href="#ccn_1">1</a></sup> To cross-compile LLVM, use
1047 these instructions:</p>
1048 <ol>
1049 <li>Configure and build LLVM as a native compiler. You will need
1050 just <tt>TableGen</tt> from that build.
1051 <ul>
1052 <li>If you have <tt>$LLVM_OBJ_ROOT=$LLVM_SRC_ROOT</tt> just execute
1053 <tt>make -C utils/TableGen</tt> after configuring.</li>
1054 <li>Otherwise you will need to monitor building process and terminate
1055 it just after <tt>TableGen</tt> was built.</li>
1056 </ul>
1057 </li>
1058 <li>Copy the TableGen binary to somewhere safe (out of your build tree).
1059 </li>
1060 <li>Configure LLVM to build with a cross-compiler. To do this, supply the
1061 configure script with <tt>--build</tt> and <tt>--host</tt> options that
1062 are different. The values of these options must be legal target triples
1063 that your GCC compiler supports.</li>
1064 <li>Put the saved <tt>TableGen</tt> executable into the
1065 into <tt>$LLVM_OBJ_ROOT/{BUILD_TYPE}/bin</tt> directory (e.g. into
1066 <tt>.../Release/bin</tt> for a Release build).</li>
1067 <li>Build LLVM as usual.</li>
1068 </ol>
1069 <p>The result of such a build will produce executables that are not executable
1070 on your build host (--build option) but can be executed on your compile host
1071 (--host option).</p>
1072 <p><b>Notes:</b></p>
1073 <div class="doc_notes">
1074 <ol>
1075 <li><a name="ccn_1">Cross-compiling</a> was tested only with Linux as
1076 build platform and Windows as host using mingw32 cross-compiler. Other
1077 combinations have not been tested.</li>
1078 </ol>
1079 </div>
1080</div>
1081
1082<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1083<div class="doc_subsection">
1084 <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
1085</div>
1086
1087<div class="doc_text">
1088
1089<p>The LLVM build system is capable of sharing a single LLVM source tree among
1090several LLVM builds. Hence, it is possible to build LLVM for several different
1091platforms or configurations using the same source tree.</p>
1092
1093<p>This is accomplished in the typical autoconf manner:</p>
1094
1095<ul>
1096 <li><p>Change directory to where the LLVM object files should live:</p>
1097
1098 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% cd <i>OBJ_ROOT</i></pre></div></li>
1099
1100 <li><p>Run the <tt>configure</tt> script found in the LLVM source
1101 directory:</p>
1102
1103 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% <i>SRC_ROOT</i>/configure</pre></div></li>
1104</ul>
1105
1106<p>The LLVM build will place files underneath <i>OBJ_ROOT</i> in directories
1107named after the build type:</p>
1108
1109<dl>
1110 <dt>Debug Builds
1111 <dd>
1112 <dl>
1113 <dt>Tools
1114 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug/bin</tt>
1115 <dt>Libraries
1116 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Debug/lib</tt>
1117 </dl>
1118 <br><br>
1119
1120 <dt>Release Builds
1121 <dd>
1122 <dl>
1123 <dt>Tools
1124 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/bin</tt>
1125 <dt>Libraries
1126 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Release/lib</tt>
1127 </dl>
1128 <br><br>
1129
1130 <dt>Profile Builds
1131 <dd>
1132 <dl>
1133 <dt>Tools
1134 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/bin</tt>
1135 <dt>Libraries
1136 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT</i>/Profile/lib</tt>
1137 </dl>
1138</dl>
1139
1140</div>
1141
1142<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1143<div class="doc_subsection">
1144 <a name="optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items</a>
1145</div>
1146
1147<div class="doc_text">
1148
1149<p>
1150If you're running on a Linux system that supports the "<a
1151href="http://www.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/~rguenth/linux/binfmt_misc.html">binfmt_misc</a>"
1152module, and you have root access on the system, you can set your system up to
1153execute LLVM bitcode files directly. To do this, use commands like this (the
1154first command may not be required if you are already using the module):</p>
1155
1156<div class="doc_code">
1157<pre>
1158$ mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
1159$ echo ':llvm:M::llvm::/path/to/lli:' &gt; /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
1160$ chmod u+x hello.bc (if needed)
1161$ ./hello.bc
1162</pre>
1163</div>
1164
1165<p>
1166This allows you to execute LLVM bitcode files directly. Thanks to Jack
1167Cummings for pointing this out!
1168</p>
1169
1170</div>
1171
1172
1173<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1174<div class="doc_section">
1175 <a name="layout"><b>Program Layout</b></a>
1176</div>
1177<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1178
1179<div class="doc_text">
1180
1181<p>One useful source of information about the LLVM source base is the LLVM <a
1182href="http://www.doxygen.org">doxygen</a> documentation available at <tt><a
1183href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">http://llvm.org/doxygen/</a></tt>.
1184The following is a brief introduction to code layout:</p>
1185
1186</div>
1187
1188<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1189<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="examples"><tt>llvm/examples</tt></a></div>
1190<div class="doc_text">
1191 <p>This directory contains some simple examples of how to use the LLVM IR and
1192 JIT.</p>
1193</div>
1194
1195<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1196<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="include"><tt>llvm/include</tt></a></div>
1197<div class="doc_text">
1198
1199<p>This directory contains public header files exported from the LLVM
1200library. The three main subdirectories of this directory are:</p>
1201
1202<dl>
1203 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm</b></tt></dt>
1204 <dd>This directory contains all of the LLVM specific header files. This
1205 directory also has subdirectories for different portions of LLVM:
1206 <tt>Analysis</tt>, <tt>CodeGen</tt>, <tt>Target</tt>, <tt>Transforms</tt>,
1207 etc...</dd>
1208
1209 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Support</b></tt></dt>
1210 <dd>This directory contains generic support libraries that are provided with
1211 LLVM but not necessarily specific to LLVM. For example, some C++ STL utilities
1212 and a Command Line option processing library store their header files here.
1213 </dd>
1214
1215 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Config</b></tt></dt>
1216 <dd>This directory contains header files configured by the <tt>configure</tt>
1217 script. They wrap "standard" UNIX and C header files. Source code can
1218 include these header files which automatically take care of the conditional
1219 #includes that the <tt>configure</tt> script generates.</dd>
1220</dl>
1221</div>
1222
1223<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1224<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="lib"><tt>llvm/lib</tt></a></div>
1225<div class="doc_text">
1226
1227<p>This directory contains most of the source files of the LLVM system. In LLVM,
1228almost all code exists in libraries, making it very easy to share code among the
1229different <a href="#tools">tools</a>.</p>
1230
1231<dl>
1232 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/VMCore/</b></tt></dt>
1233 <dd> This directory holds the core LLVM source files that implement core
1234 classes like Instruction and BasicBlock.</dd>
1235
1236 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/AsmParser/</b></tt></dt>
1237 <dd>This directory holds the source code for the LLVM assembly language parser
1238 library.</dd>
1239
1240 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/BitCode/</b></tt></dt>
1241 <dd>This directory holds code for reading and write LLVM bitcode.</dd>
1242
1243 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Analysis/</b></tt><dd>This directory contains a variety of
1244 different program analyses, such as Dominator Information, Call Graphs,
1245 Induction Variables, Interval Identification, Natural Loop Identification,
1246 etc.</dd>
1247
1248 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Transforms/</b></tt></dt>
1249 <dd> This directory contains the source code for the LLVM to LLVM program
1250 transformations, such as Aggressive Dead Code Elimination, Sparse Conditional
1251 Constant Propagation, Inlining, Loop Invariant Code Motion, Dead Global
1252 Elimination, and many others.</dd>
1253
1254 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Target/</b></tt></dt>
1255 <dd> This directory contains files that describe various target architectures
1256 for code generation. For example, the <tt>llvm/lib/Target/X86</tt>
1257 directory holds the X86 machine description while
1258 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/CBackend</tt> implements the LLVM-to-C converter.</dd>
1259
1260 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/CodeGen/</b></tt></dt>
1261 <dd> This directory contains the major parts of the code generator: Instruction
1262 Selector, Instruction Scheduling, and Register Allocation.</dd>
1263
1264 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Debugger/</b></tt></dt>
1265 <dd> This directory contains the source level debugger library that makes
1266 it possible to instrument LLVM programs so that a debugger could identify
1267 source code locations at which the program is executing.</dd>
1268
1269 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/ExecutionEngine/</b></tt></dt>
1270 <dd> This directory contains libraries for executing LLVM bitcode directly
1271 at runtime in both interpreted and JIT compiled fashions.</dd>
1272
1273 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Support/</b></tt></dt>
1274 <dd> This directory contains the source code that corresponds to the header
1275 files located in <tt>llvm/include/Support/</tt>.</dd>
1276
1277 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/System/</b></tt></dt>
1278 <dd>This directory contains the operating system abstraction layer that
1279 shields LLVM from platform-specific coding.</dd>
1280</dl>
1281
1282</div>
1283
1284<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1285<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="projects"><tt>llvm/projects</tt></a></div>
1286<div class="doc_text">
1287 <p>This directory contains projects that are not strictly part of LLVM but are
1288 shipped with LLVM. This is also the directory where you should create your own
1289 LLVM-based projects. See <tt>llvm/projects/sample</tt> for an example of how
Chris Lattneraf1df782008-08-11 06:13:31 +00001290 to set up your own project.</p>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001291</div>
1292
1293<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1294<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime</tt></a></div>
1295<div class="doc_text">
1296
1297<p>This directory contains libraries which are compiled into LLVM bitcode and
1298used when linking programs with the GCC front end. Most of these libraries are
1299skeleton versions of real libraries; for example, libc is a stripped down
1300version of glibc.</p>
1301
1302<p>Unlike the rest of the LLVM suite, this directory needs the LLVM GCC front
1303end to compile.</p>
1304
1305</div>
1306
1307<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1308<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="test"><tt>llvm/test</tt></a></div>
1309<div class="doc_text">
1310 <p>This directory contains feature and regression tests and other basic sanity
1311 checks on the LLVM infrastructure. These are intended to run quickly and cover
1312 a lot of territory without being exhaustive.</p>
1313</div>
1314
1315<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1316<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="llvmtest"><tt>test-suite</tt></a></div>
1317<div class="doc_text">
1318 <p>This is not a directory in the normal llvm module; it is a separate
1319 Subversion
1320 module that must be checked out (usually to <tt>projects/test-suite</tt>).
1321 This
1322 module contains a comprehensive correctness, performance, and benchmarking
1323 test
1324 suite for LLVM. It is a separate Subversion module because not every LLVM
1325 user is
1326 interested in downloading or building such a comprehensive test suite. For
1327 further details on this test suite, please see the
1328 <a href="TestingGuide.html">Testing Guide</a> document.</p>
1329</div>
1330
1331<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1332<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tools"><tt>llvm/tools</tt></a></div>
1333<div class="doc_text">
1334
1335<p>The <b>tools</b> directory contains the executables built out of the
1336libraries above, which form the main part of the user interface. You can
1337always get help for a tool by typing <tt>tool_name --help</tt>. The
1338following is a brief introduction to the most important tools. More detailed
1339information is in the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">Command Guide</a>.</p>
1340
1341<dl>
1342
1343 <dt><tt><b>bugpoint</b></tt></dt>
1344 <dd><tt>bugpoint</tt> is used to debug
1345 optimization passes or code generation backends by narrowing down the
1346 given test case to the minimum number of passes and/or instructions that
1347 still cause a problem, whether it is a crash or miscompilation. See <a
1348 href="HowToSubmitABug.html">HowToSubmitABug.html</a> for more information
1349 on using <tt>bugpoint</tt>.</dd>
1350
1351 <dt><tt><b>llvmc</b></tt></dt>
1352 <dd>The LLVM Compiler Driver. This program can
1353 be configured to utilize both LLVM and non-LLVM compilation tools to enable
1354 pre-processing, translation, optimization, assembly, and linking of programs
1355 all from one command line. <tt>llvmc</tt> also takes care of processing the
1356 dependent libraries found in bitcode. This reduces the need to get the
1357 traditional <tt>-l&lt;name&gt;</tt> options right on the command line. Please
1358 note that this tool, while functional, is still experimental and not feature
1359 complete.</dd>
1360
1361 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ar</b></tt></dt>
1362 <dd>The archiver produces an archive containing
1363 the given LLVM bitcode files, optionally with an index for faster
1364 lookup.</dd>
1365
1366 <dt><tt><b>llvm-as</b></tt></dt>
1367 <dd>The assembler transforms the human readable LLVM assembly to LLVM
1368 bitcode.</dd>
1369
1370 <dt><tt><b>llvm-dis</b></tt></dt>
1371 <dd>The disassembler transforms the LLVM bitcode to human readable
1372 LLVM assembly.</dd>
1373
1374 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ld</b></tt></dt>
1375 <dd><tt>llvm-ld</tt> is a general purpose and extensible linker for LLVM.
1376 This is the linker invoked by <tt>llvmc</tt>. It performsn standard link time
1377 optimizations and allows optimization modules to be loaded and run so that
1378 language specific optimizations can be applied at link time.</dd>
1379
1380 <dt><tt><b>llvm-link</b></tt></dt>
1381 <dd><tt>llvm-link</tt>, not surprisingly, links multiple LLVM modules into
1382 a single program.</dd>
1383
1384 <dt><tt><b>lli</b></tt></dt>
1385 <dd><tt>lli</tt> is the LLVM interpreter, which
Nick Lewycky32dc2a12007-12-03 01:58:01 +00001386 can directly execute LLVM bitcode (although very slowly...). For architectures
1387 that support it (currently x86, Sparc, and PowerPC), by default, <tt>lli</tt>
1388 will function as a Just-In-Time compiler (if the functionality was compiled
1389 in), and will execute the code <i>much</i> faster than the interpreter.</dd>
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001390
1391 <dt><tt><b>llc</b></tt></dt>
1392 <dd> <tt>llc</tt> is the LLVM backend compiler, which
1393 translates LLVM bitcode to a native code assembly file or to C code (with
1394 the -march=c option).</dd>
1395
1396 <dt><tt><b>llvm-gcc</b></tt></dt>
1397 <dd><tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is a GCC-based C frontend that has been retargeted to
1398 use LLVM as its backend instead of GCC's RTL backend. It can also emit LLVM
1399 bitcode or assembly (with the <tt>-emit-llvm</tt> option) instead of the
1400 usual machine code output. It works just like any other GCC compiler,
1401 taking the typical <tt>-c, -S, -E, -o</tt> options that are typically used.
1402 Additionally, the the source code for <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is available as a
1403 separate Subversion module.</dd>
1404
1405 <dt><tt><b>opt</b></tt></dt>
1406 <dd><tt>opt</tt> reads LLVM bitcode, applies a series of LLVM to LLVM
1407 transformations (which are specified on the command line), and then outputs
1408 the resultant bitcode. The '<tt>opt --help</tt>' command is a good way to
1409 get a list of the program transformations available in LLVM.<br/>
1410 <dd><tt>opt</tt> can also be used to run a specific analysis on an input
1411 LLVM bitcode file and print out the results. It is primarily useful for
1412 debugging analyses, or familiarizing yourself with what an analysis does.</dd>
1413</dl>
1414</div>
1415
1416<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1417<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="utils"><tt>llvm/utils</tt></a></div>
1418<div class="doc_text">
1419
1420<p>This directory contains utilities for working with LLVM source code, and some
1421of the utilities are actually required as part of the build process because they
1422are code generators for parts of LLVM infrastructure.</p>
1423
1424<dl>
1425 <dt><tt><b>codegen-diff</b></tt> <dd><tt>codegen-diff</tt> is a script
1426 that finds differences between code that LLC generates and code that LLI
1427 generates. This is a useful tool if you are debugging one of them,
1428 assuming that the other generates correct output. For the full user
1429 manual, run <tt>`perldoc codegen-diff'</tt>.<br><br>
1430
1431 <dt><tt><b>emacs/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>emacs</tt> directory contains
1432 syntax-highlighting files which will work with Emacs and XEmacs editors,
1433 providing syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1434 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1435 the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1436
1437 <dt><tt><b>getsrcs.sh</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>getsrcs.sh</tt> script finds
1438 and outputs all non-generated source files, which is useful if one wishes
1439 to do a lot of development across directories and does not want to
1440 individually find each file. One way to use it is to run, for example:
1441 <tt>xemacs `utils/getsources.sh`</tt> from the top of your LLVM source
1442 tree.<br><br>
1443
1444 <dt><tt><b>llvmgrep</b></tt></dt>
1445 <dd>This little tool performs an "egrep -H -n" on each source file in LLVM and
1446 passes to it a regular expression provided on <tt>llvmgrep</tt>'s command
1447 line. This is a very efficient way of searching the source base for a
1448 particular regular expression.</dd>
1449
1450 <dt><tt><b>makellvm</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>makellvm</tt> script compiles all
1451 files in the current directory and then compiles and links the tool that
1452 is the first argument. For example, assuming you are in the directory
1453 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/Sparc</tt>, if <tt>makellvm</tt> is in your path,
1454 simply running <tt>makellvm llc</tt> will make a build of the current
1455 directory, switch to directory <tt>llvm/tools/llc</tt> and build it,
1456 causing a re-linking of LLC.<br><br>
1457
1458 <dt><tt><b>NewNightlyTest.pl</b></tt> and
1459 <tt><b>NightlyTestTemplate.html</b></tt> <dd>These files are used in a
1460 cron script to generate nightly status reports of the functionality of
1461 tools, and the results can be seen by following the appropriate link on
1462 the <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a>.<br><br>
1463
1464 <dt><tt><b>TableGen/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>TableGen</tt> directory contains
1465 the tool used to generate register descriptions, instruction set
1466 descriptions, and even assemblers from common TableGen description
1467 files.<br><br>
1468
1469 <dt><tt><b>vim/</b></tt> <dd>The <tt>vim</tt> directory contains
1470 syntax-highlighting files which will work with the VIM editor, providing
1471 syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1472 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1473 the <tt>README</tt> file in that directory.<br><br>
1474
1475</dl>
1476
1477</div>
1478
1479<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1480<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="win32"><tt>llvm/win32</tt></a></div>
1481<div class="doc_text">
1482 <p>This directory contains build scripts and project files for use with
1483 Visual C++. This allows developers on Windows to build LLVM without the need
1484 for Cygwin. The contents of this directory should be considered experimental
1485 at this time.
1486 </p>
1487</div>
1488<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1489<div class="doc_section">
1490 <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
1491</div>
1492<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1493
1494<div class="doc_text">
1495<p>This section gives an example of using LLVM. llvm-gcc3 is now obsolete,
1496so we only include instructiosn for llvm-gcc4.
1497</p>
1498
1499<p><b>Note:</b> The <i>gcc4</i> frontend's invocation is <b><i>considerably different</i></b>
1500from the previous <i>gcc3</i> frontend. In particular, the <i>gcc4</i> frontend <b><i>does not</i></b>
1501create bitcode by default: <i>gcc4</i> produces native code. As the example below illustrates,
1502the '--emit-llvm' flag is needed to produce LLVM bitcode output. For <i>makefiles</i> and
1503<i>configure</i> scripts, the CFLAGS variable needs '--emit-llvm' to produce bitcode
1504output.</p>
1505</div>
1506
1507<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1508<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="tutorial4">Example with llvm-gcc4</a></div>
1509
1510<div class="doc_text">
1511
1512<ol>
1513 <li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':</p>
1514
1515<div class="doc_code">
1516<pre>
1517#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
1518
1519int main() {
1520 printf("hello world\n");
1521 return 0;
1522}
1523</pre></div></li>
1524
1525 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a native executable:</p>
1526
1527 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% llvm-gcc hello.c -o hello</pre></div>
1528
1529 <p>Note that llvm-gcc works just like GCC by default. The standard -S and
1530 -c arguments work as usual (producing a native .s or .o file,
1531 respectively).</p></li>
1532
1533 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p>
1534
1535 <div class="doc_code">
1536 <pre>% llvm-gcc -O3 -emit-llvm hello.c -c -o hello.bc</pre></div>
1537
1538 <p>The -emit-llvm option can be used with the -S or -c options to emit an
1539 LLVM ".ll" or ".bc" file (respectively) for the code. This allows you
1540 to use the <a href="CommandGuide/index.html">standard LLVM tools</a> on
1541 the bitcode file.</p>
1542
1543 <p>Unlike llvm-gcc3, llvm-gcc4 correctly responds to -O[0123] arguments.
1544 </p></li>
1545
1546 <li><p>Run the program in both forms. To run the program, use:</p>
1547
1548 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% ./hello</pre></div>
1549
1550 <p>and</p>
1551
1552 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% lli hello.bc</pre></div>
1553
1554 <p>The second examples shows how to invoke the LLVM JIT, <a
1555 href="CommandGuide/html/lli.html">lli</a>.</p></li>
1556
1557 <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
1558 code:</p>
1559
1560<div class="doc_code">
1561<pre>llvm-dis &lt; hello.bc | less</pre>
1562</div></li>
1563
1564 <li><p>Compile the program to native assembly using the LLC code
1565 generator:</p>
1566
1567 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% llc hello.bc -o hello.s</pre></div></li>
1568
1569 <li><p>Assemble the native assembly language file into a program:</p>
1570
1571<div class="doc_code">
1572<pre>
1573<b>Solaris:</b> % /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xarch=v9 hello.s -o hello.native
1574
1575<b>Others:</b> % gcc hello.s -o hello.native
1576</pre>
1577</div></li>
1578
1579 <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
1580
1581 <div class="doc_code"><pre>% ./hello.native</pre></div>
1582
1583 <p>Note that using llvm-gcc to compile directly to native code (i.e. when
1584 the -emit-llvm option is not present) does steps 6/7/8 for you.</p>
1585 </li>
1586
1587</ol>
1588
1589</div>
1590
1591
1592<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1593<div class="doc_section">
1594 <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
1595</div>
1596<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1597
1598<div class="doc_text">
1599
1600<p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
1601general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
1602Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
1603
1604</div>
1605
1606<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1607<div class="doc_section">
1608 <a name="links">Links</a>
1609</div>
1610<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1611
1612<div class="doc_text">
1613
Bill Wendling08f49b92008-07-22 01:10:25 +00001614<p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> on how to use LLVM to do
Dan Gohmanf17a25c2007-07-18 16:29:46 +00001615some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
1616that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
1617if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
1618out:</p>
1619
1620<ul>
1621 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
1622 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
1623 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
1624 that Uses LLVM</a></li>
1625</ul>
1626
1627</div>
1628
1629<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1630
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1638 <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
1639 <a href="http://llvm.x10sys.com/rspencer/">Reid Spencer</a><br>
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