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Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +00002<html><head><title>LLVM 1.1 Release Notes</title></head>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00003<body bgcolor=white>
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5<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +00006<tr><td>&nbsp; <font size=+3 color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino,Times,Roman"><b>LLVM 1.1 Release Notes</b></font></td>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00007</tr></table>
8
9<ol>
Chris Lattner824b9a62003-10-02 05:09:46 +000010 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000011 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000012 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000013 <li><a href="#install-instructions">Installation Instructions</a>
14 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
15 <ul>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000016<!-- <li><a href="#portabilityprobs">Portability Problems</a> -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000017 <li><a href="#core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
18 <li><a href="#c-fe">Known problems with the C Front-end</a>
19 <li><a href="#c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ Front-end</a>
20 <li><a href="#x86-be">Known problems with the X86 Back-end</a>
21 <li><a href="#sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc Back-end</a>
22 <li><a href="#c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
23 </ul>
24 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
25 </ul>
26
27 <p><b>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></b><p>
28</ol>
29
30
31<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
32<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
33<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
34<a name="intro">Introduction
35</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
36<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
37
38This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler infrastructure,
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000039release 1.1. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any known problems,
40and bug fixes from the previous release. The most up-to-date version of this
41document can be found on the <a
42href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.1/">LLVM 1.1 web site</a>. If you are
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000043not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there, because
44this document may be updated after the release.<p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000045
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000046For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more
47current releases, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main
48web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
49href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
50list</a> is a good place to send them.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000051
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000052Note that if you are reading this file from CVS, that this document applies to
53the <i>next</i> release, not the previous one. To see the release notes for the
54previous release, see the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/">releases
55page</a>.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000056
57<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
58</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
59<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
60<a name="whatsnew">What's New?
61</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
62<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
63
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000064This is the second public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure. This
65release implements the following new features:<p>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000066
67<ol>
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +000068<p><li><a
69href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2003-November/000528.html">A new
70LLVM profiler, similar to gprof</a> is available</li></p>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000071
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +000072<p><li>LLVM and the C/C++ front-end now compile on Mac OSX! Mac OSX users can
73now explore the LLVM optimizer with the C backend (note that LLVM requires GCC
743.3 on Mac OSX).</li></p>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000075
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +000076<p><li>LLVM has been <a
Chris Lattner2a77f2d2003-11-11 23:46:35 +000077href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2003-November/000554.html">moved
78into an 'llvm' C++ namespace</a>, for easier integration with third-party
Misha Brukmanbfcadff2003-11-12 22:55:13 +000079code.</a> Note that due to a bug in GDB 5.x, to debug namespacified LLVM code,
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +000080you will need to upgrade to GDB 6.</li></p>
81</ol>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000082
83In this release, the following missing features were implemented:<p>
84
85<ol>
86<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR88">The interpreter does not support
87invoke or unwind</a></li>
Misha Brukmanc99037d2003-11-14 03:30:43 +000088
89<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR99">Interpreter does not support the
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +000090<tt>vaarg</tt> instruction</a></li>
Misha Brukmanc99037d2003-11-14 03:30:43 +000091
Brian Gaekeb7508ee2003-11-16 23:49:26 +000092<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR117">llvm-nm cannot read archive
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +000093files</a></li>
Brian Gaekeb7508ee2003-11-16 23:49:26 +000094
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000095</ol><p>
96
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +000097In this release, the following Quality of Implementation issues were fixed:<p>
98
99<ol>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +0000100
101<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR29">C++ front-end is not generating
102linkonce linkage type when it can</a></li>
103
104<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR84">C front-end doesn't emit
105getelementptr for address of array element</a></li>
106
Chris Lattnerba46d552003-11-16 20:25:24 +0000107<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR96">Bad path to the C/C++ frontend causes
108build problems</a></li>
109
110<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR114">LLVM header files should be -Wold-style-cast clean</a></li>
111
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +0000112
113<li>The LLVM bytecode reader has been <a
114href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR127">sped up a lot</a> (up to 4x in some
115cases).</li>
116
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +0000117</ol><p>
118
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +0000119
Chris Lattnerf7100202003-10-27 05:41:39 +0000120In this release, the following bugs in the previous release were fixed:<p>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000121
122<ol>
Chris Lattnerf7100202003-10-27 05:41:39 +0000123<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR57">[inliner] Inlining invoke with PHI in unwind target is broken</a></li>
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +0000124<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR58">[linker] linkonce globals should link successfully to external globals</a></li>
Chris Lattner4ad4b3a2003-10-27 17:58:57 +0000125<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR59">C++ frontend can crash when compiling virtual base classes</a></li>
Chris Lattner2c17a892003-10-28 23:13:03 +0000126<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR62">C backend fails on constant cast expr to ptr-to-anonymous struct</a></li>
Chris Lattner287b6212003-10-29 01:26:07 +0000127<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR63">#ident is not recognized by C frontend</a></li>
Chris Lattner32547fe2003-10-29 07:17:13 +0000128<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR64">[constmerge] Constant merging pass merges constants with external linkage</a></li>
129<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR65">C front-end miscompiles the builtin_expect intrinsic!</a></li>
Chris Lattner34790e52003-10-29 18:49:14 +0000130<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR66">[scalarrepl] Scalar Replacement of aggregates is decimating structures it shouldn't be</a></li>
131<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR67">1.0 precompiled libstdc++ does not include wchar_t support</a></li>
Chris Lattner05b958d2003-10-29 20:59:45 +0000132<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR68">llvmgcc asserts when compiling functions renamed with asm's</a></li>
133<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR69">C frontend crashes on some programs with lots of types.</a></li>
Chris Lattner36bd5d12003-10-30 01:20:42 +0000134<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR70">[instcombine] Resolving invoke inserts cast after terminator</a></li>
Chris Lattnerf9e8a0f2003-10-30 01:43:33 +0000135<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR71">llvm-as crashes when labels are used in phi nodes</a></li>
Chris Lattner3dcc7b92003-10-30 16:20:15 +0000136<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR72">[build problem] Callgraph.cpp not pulled in from libipa.a</a></li>
Chris Lattner3af47222003-11-16 22:11:42 +0000137<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR77">Variables in scope of output setjmp
138calls should be volatile</a>. Note that this does not effect correctness on
139many platforms, such as X86.
Chris Lattner8222eca2003-11-02 02:15:11 +0000140<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR79">llvm-gcc crashes compiling global union initializer</a></li>
141<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR80">C front-end crash on empty structure</a></li>
142<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR81">CFrontend crashes when compiling C99 compound expressions</a></li>
Chris Lattner2fb1ef82003-11-03 20:08:08 +0000143<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR83">[X86] Emission of global bool initializers broken</a></li>
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000144<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR87">llvm-gcc infinite loops on "case MAXINT:"</a></li>
Chris Lattnerde3bb572003-11-05 06:30:04 +0000145<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR89">[C++] Catch blocks make unparsable labels</a></li>
146<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR90">[C++] Initializing array with constructable objects fail</a></li>
147<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR91">[gccld] The -r (relinking) option does not work correctly</a></li>
Chris Lattner5b3fb032003-11-07 04:46:56 +0000148<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR92">[bcreader] Cannot read shift constant expressions from bytecode file</a></li>
149<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR93">[lowersetjmp] Lowersetjmp pass breaks dominance properties!</a></li>
150<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR94">llvm-gcc tries to add bools</a></li>
Chris Lattner11dde852003-11-09 19:44:07 +0000151<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR95">SymbolTable::getUniqueName is very inefficient</a></li>
Chris Lattner5b3fb032003-11-07 04:46:56 +0000152<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR98">[buildscripts] Building into objdir with .o in it fails</a></li>
Chris Lattner7af4d5e2003-11-08 05:18:50 +0000153<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR101">[setjmp/longjmp] Linking C programs which use setjmp/longjmp sometimes fail with references to the C++ runtime library!</a></li>
Chris Lattner11dde852003-11-09 19:44:07 +0000154<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR104">[c++] C++ Frontend lays out superclasses like anonymous bitfields!</a></li>
Chris Lattner9b29bde2003-11-12 04:42:37 +0000155<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR107">AsmParser Misses Symbol Redefinition Error</a></li>
Brian Gaeke78792062003-11-11 21:52:34 +0000156<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR108">gccld -Lfoo -lfoo fails to find ./foo/libfoo.a</a></li>
Chris Lattner6e4046f2003-11-14 06:42:01 +0000157<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR110">[bcreader] Incorrect cast causes misread forward constant references</a></li>
Brian Gaeke502c4812003-11-12 22:48:52 +0000158<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR112">Casting a string constant to void crashes llvm-gcc</a></li>
Chris Lattner5edc1bb2003-11-16 21:42:48 +0000159<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR116">[adce] ADCE considers blocks without postdominators to be unreachable</a></li>
Chris Lattner17a51ce2003-11-18 06:25:05 +0000160<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR54">C front-end miscompiles unsigned enums whose LLVM types are signed</a></li>
Chris Lattner43a54cc2003-11-18 23:04:02 +0000161<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR123">[X86] div and rem constant exprs invalidate iterators!</a></li>
162<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR125">[llvmg++] Enum types are incorrectly shrunk to smaller than 'int' size</a></li>
163<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR128">[llvmg++] Cannot use pointer to member to initialize global</a></li>
Chris Lattner6ff1a922003-11-19 01:08:24 +0000164<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR130">[vmcore] Symbol table doesn't rename colliding variables during type resolution</a></li>
165<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR131">[llvm-gcc] ?: operator as lvalue not implemented</a></li>
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +0000166<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR133">[C/C++] Bogus warning about taking the address of 'register' variable</a></li>
167<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR97">bugpoint must not pass -R<directory> to Mach-O linker</a></li>
Chris Lattner18c4d852003-11-20 01:07:41 +0000168<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR113">crash assigning into an array in a struct which contains a bitfield</a>.</li>
169<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR6">Oversized integer bitfields cause crash</a></li>
Misha Brukman76683d32003-11-21 22:11:12 +0000170<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR140">gccld produces a runner script that includes command-line options to load the necessary shared objects</a></li>
Chris Lattnerfc592232003-11-20 19:11:47 +0000171<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR141">[llvm-gcc] Bitfields & large array don't mix well</a></li>
Chris Lattner6c024c4b2003-11-20 19:30:17 +0000172<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR132">[llvm-gcc] Complex division is not supported</a></li>
Chris Lattner5f36ebe2003-11-20 20:59:57 +0000173<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR143">[llvm-gcc] Illegal union field reference</a></li>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000174</ol><p>
175
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000176At this time, LLVM is known to work properly with SPEC CPU 2000, the Olden
177benchmarks, and the Ptrdist benchmarks among many other programs. Note however
178that the Sparc and X86 backends do not currently support exception throwing or
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +0000179long jumping (including 253.perlbmk in SPEC). For these programs you must use
180the C backend.<p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000181
182
183<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
184</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
185<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
186<a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms
187</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
188<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
189
Chris Lattner3e2959e2003-11-08 05:22:09 +0000190LLVM has been extensively tested on Intel and AMD machines running Red
191Hat Linux, and Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8. Additionally,
192LLVM works on Mac OS/X 10.3 and above, but only with the C back-end (no native
193backend for the PowerPC is available yet).
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000194The core LLVM infrastructure uses "autoconf" for portability, so hopefully we
Chris Lattner3e2959e2003-11-08 05:22:09 +0000195work on more platforms than that. However, it is likely that we
196missed something, and that minor porting is required to get LLVM to work on
197new platforms. We welcome portability patches and error messages.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000198
199
200<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
201</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
202<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000203<a name="knownproblems">Known Problems
204</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
205<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
206
207This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
208component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000209sections.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000210
211
212<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000213<!--
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000214</ul><h4><a name="portability"><hr size=0>Portability Problems</h4><ul>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000215-->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000216
217
218<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
219</ul><h4><a name="core"><hr size=0>Known problems with the LLVM Core</h4><ul>
220
221<li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not work.<p>
222
223<li>The JIT does not use mutexes to protect its internal data structures. As
224 such, execution of a threaded program could cause these data structures to
225 be corrupted.<p>
226
227<li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.<p>
228
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000229<li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow (there is no symbol
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000230table in the archive).<p>
231
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000232<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR82">LLVM cannot handle structures with
233more than 256 elements</a>.<p>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000234
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000235<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
236</ul><h4><a name="c-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C front-end</h4><ul>
237
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000238</ul><b>Bugs:</b><ul><p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000239
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000240<li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
241 scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
242<pre>
243 for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
244 int X[n];
245 foo(X);
246 }
247</pre><p>
248
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000249</ul><b>Notes:</b><ul><p>
250
251<li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.<p>
252
253<li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
254 support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64 bits.
255 <p>
256
Chris Lattner824b9a62003-10-02 05:09:46 +0000257<li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not work:
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000258<ol>
259 <li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
John Criswell97745952003-10-27 17:41:53 +0000260 appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions. Note that
261 <tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> <em>are</em> compiled correctly.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000262 <li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
263 - These functions have not been tested.
264</ol><p>
265
266<li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
267 the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
268 <ol>
269 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.
270 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html#Labels%20as%20Values">Labels as Values</a>: Getting pointers to labels, and computed gotos.
271 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Nested-Functions.html#Nested%20Functions">Nested Functions</a>: As in Algol and Pascal, lexical scoping of functions.
272 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.
273 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.
274 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands
275 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Asm-Labels.html#Asm%20Labels">Asm Labels</a>: Specifying the assembler name to use for a C symbol.
276 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Explicit-Reg-Vars.html#Explicit%20Reg%20Vars">Explicit Reg Vars</a>: Defining variables residing in specified registers.
277 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Return-Address.html#Return%20Address">Return Address</a>: Getting the return or frame address of a function.
278 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.
279 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.
280 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.
281 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.
282 </ol><p>
283
284 The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
285 attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
286 but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
287 ignored by the LLVM compiler, which will cause a different interpretation of
288 the program.<p>
289
290 <ol>
291 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
292 Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
293 Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).
294
295 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
296 Declaring that functions have no side effects, or that they can never return.<br>
297 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>, <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>deprecated</tt>,
298 <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
299 <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>noinline</tt>, <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>, <tt>malloc</tt>
300 <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
301 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>, <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
302 <tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes
303
304 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
305 Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
306 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
307 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
308 <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
309 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
310 <tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
311 <tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
312 <tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.<br>
313
314 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.
315 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
316 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt>
317 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>
318 all target specific attributes.<br>
319 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
320 Other built-in functions.<br>
321 We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
322 <tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
323 <tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
324 <tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt> (ignored).
325 </ol><p>
326
327
328 The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:
329 <ol>
330 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.
331 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000332 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000333 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.
334 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.
335 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.
336 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.
337 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.
338 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.
339 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.
340 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.
341 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.
342 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pointer-Arith.html#Pointer%20Arith">Pointer Arith</a>:Arithmetic on <code>void</code>-pointers and function pointers.
343 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.
344 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Compound-Literals.html#Compound%20Literals">Compound Literals</a>: Compound literals give structures, unions or arrays as values.
345 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.
346
347 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Cast-to-Union.html#Cast%20to%20Union">Cast to Union</a>:Casting to union type from any member of the union.
348 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.
349 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.
350
351 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.
352 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.
353 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.
354 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Character-Escapes.html#Character%20Escapes">Character Escapes</a>: <code>\e</code> stands for the character &lt;ESC&gt;.
355 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.
356 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).
357 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alternate-Keywords.html#Alternate%20Keywords">Alternate Keywords</a>:<code>__const__</code>, <code>__asm__</code>, etc., for header files.
358 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Incomplete-Enums.html#Incomplete%20Enums">Incomplete Enums</a>: <code>enum foo;</code>, with details to follow.
359 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Names.html#Function%20Names">Function Names</a>: Printable strings which are the name of the current function.
360 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.
361 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.
362 </ol><p>
363
364 If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
365 lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).
366
367
368<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
369</ul><h4><a name="c++-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C++ front-end</h4><ul>
370
John Criswell97745952003-10-27 17:41:53 +0000371For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be fully functional but
372of <b>beta</b> quality. It has been tested and works for a number of simple programs that collectively exercise most of the language. Nevertheless, it has not been in use as long as the C front-end. Please report any bugs or problems.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000373
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000374</ul><b>Bugs</b>:<ul><p>
375
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000376<li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
377 front-end</a><p>
378
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000379</ul><b>Notes</b>:<ul><p>
380
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000381<li>The C++ front-end is based on a pre-release of the GCC 3.4 C++ parser. This
382parser is significantly more standards compliant (and picky) than prior GCC
383versions. For more information, see the C++ section of the <a
384href="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html">GCC 3.4 release notes</a>.<p>
385
386<li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000387 performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000388 function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
389 Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed however (which is
390 better than most compilers).<p>
391
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000392<li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
393 href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
394 This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
395 mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
396 representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
397 compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
398 Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
399 <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
400 different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
401 interact correctly</b> .
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000402
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000403<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR11">Code for executing destructors when
404 unwinding is not shared</a> (this is a quality of implementation problem,
405 which does not effect functionality).<p>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000406
407
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000408<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
409</ul><h4><a name="x86-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the X86 back-end</h4><ul>
410
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000411<li>The X86 code generator <a
Chris Lattner0d4379a2003-10-08 06:01:38 +0000412href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR16">does not currently
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000413support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
414or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000415
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000416
417<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
418</ul><h4><a name="sparc-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the Sparc back-end</h4><ul>
419
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000420<li>The Sparc code generator <a
Chris Lattner0d4379a2003-10-08 06:01:38 +0000421href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR15">does not currently
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000422support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
423or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000424
425
426<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
427</ul><h4><a name="c-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C back-end</h4><ul>
428
429<li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
430Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
431(for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
432problem probably cannot be fixed.<p>
433
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000434<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR33">Initializers for global variables</a>
435cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or Infinity.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000436
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000437<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +0000438supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
439frontends.<p>
440
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000441<li>The code produces by the C back-end has only been tested with the Sun CC,
442GCC, and Intel compilers. It is possible that it will have to be adjusted to
443support other C compilers.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000444
445
446
447<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
448</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
449<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
450<a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information
451</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
452<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
453
454A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page,
455including mailing lists publications describing algorithms and components
456implemented in LLVM. The web page also contains versions of the API
457documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code. You
458can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going into
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000459the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000460
461If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact us
462via the mailing lists.<p>
463
464
465<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
466</ul>
467<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
468
469<hr><font size-1>
470
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000471Maintained By: <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/">The LLVM Team</a><br>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000472<!-- Created: Wed Oct 1 17:38:54 CDT 2003 -->
473<!-- hhmts start -->
Chris Lattner5f36ebe2003-11-20 20:59:57 +0000474Last modified: Thu Nov 20 14:59:29 CST 2003
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000475<!-- hhmts end -->
476</body></html>