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Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000[diff] [blame]7 <title>LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</title>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]8</head>
9<body>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]10
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000[diff] [blame]11<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</div>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]12
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]13<ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]14 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]15 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]16 <li><a href="#externalproj">External Projects Using LLVM 2.5</a></li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]17 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.5?</a></li>
Chris Lattner4b538b92004-04-30 22:17:12 +0000[diff] [blame]18 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]19 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +0000[diff] [blame]20 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]21 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]22</ol>
23
Chris Lattner7911ce22004-05-23 21:07:27 +0000[diff] [blame]24<div class="doc_author">
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +0000[diff] [blame]25 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]26</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]27
28<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]29<div class="doc_section">
30 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
31</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]32<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
33
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]34<div class="doc_text">
35
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]36<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000[diff] [blame]37Infrastructure, release 2.5. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]38major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]39All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]40href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000[diff] [blame]41
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000[diff] [blame]42<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000[diff] [blame]43release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000[diff] [blame]44web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]45href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's Mailing
46List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]47
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]48<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]49main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greiffa933f82008-10-14 11:00:32 +0000[diff] [blame]50current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]51<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]52
53</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]54
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000[diff] [blame]55<!-- Unfinished features in 2.5:
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]56 Machine LICM
57 Machine Sinking
Chris Lattner74c80df2009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000[diff] [blame]58 target-specific intrinsics
59 gold lto plugin
Chris Lattner99f375b2009-02-25 07:32:53 +0000[diff] [blame]60 pre-alloc splitter, strong phi elim
Gabor Greif4906abe2009-03-02 12:02:51 +0000[diff] [blame]61 <tt>llc -enable-value-prop</tt>, propagation of value info
62 (sign/zero ext info) from one MBB to another
Chris Lattner74c80df2009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000[diff] [blame]63 debug info for optimized code
Chris Lattnerc1771e32009-02-26 07:29:17 +0000[diff] [blame]64 interpreter + libffi
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]65 postalloc scheduler: anti dependence breaking, hazard recognizer?
66
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]67initial support for debug line numbers when optimization enabled, not useful in
68 2.5 but will be for 2.6.
69
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]70 -->
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]71
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000[diff] [blame]72 <!-- for announcement email:
Chris Lattner74c80df2009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000[diff] [blame]73 -->
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]74
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]75<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
76<div class="doc_section">
77 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000[diff] [blame]78</div>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]79<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000[diff] [blame]80
81<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]82<p>
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000[diff] [blame]83The LLVM 2.5 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Bill Wendling6bc15282009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000[diff] [blame]84repository &mdash;which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators
85and supporting tools &mdash; and the llvm-gcc repository. In addition to this
86code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in development. The
87two which are the most actively developed are the <a href="#clang">Clang
88Project</a> and the <a href="#vmkit">VMKit Project</a>.
Bill Wendling63d8c552009-03-02 04:28:57 +0000[diff] [blame]89</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]90
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]91</div>
92
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]93
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]94<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]95<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000[diff] [blame]96<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]97</div>
98
99<div class="doc_text">
100
101<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is an effort to build
Bill Wendling6bc15282009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000[diff] [blame]102a set of new 'LLVM native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer and
103code generator. While Clang is not included in the LLVM 2.5 release, it is
104continuing to make major strides forward in all areas. Its C and Objective-C
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000[diff] [blame]105parsing and code generation support is now very solid. For example, it is
Bill Wendling6bc15282009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000[diff] [blame]106capable of successfully building many real-world applications for X86-32
107andX86-64,
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]108including <a href="http://wiki.freebsd.org/BuildingFreeBSDWithClang">the FreeBSD
Bill Wendling6bc15282009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000[diff] [blame]109kernel</a>. C++ is also
110making <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html">incredible progress</a>,
111and work on templates has recently started.</p>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]112
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000[diff] [blame]113<p>While Clang is not yet production quality, it is progressing very nicely and
114is quite usable for building many C and Objective-C applications. If you are
115interested in fast compiles and good diagnostics, we encourage you to try it out
Chris Lattner74c80df2009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000[diff] [blame]116by <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html">building from mainline</a>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]117and reporting any issues you hit to the <a
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000[diff] [blame]118href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">Clang front-end mailing
119list</a>.</p>
120
121<p>In the LLVM 2.5 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000[diff] [blame]122
Daniel Dunbar13739432008-10-14 23:25:09 +0000[diff] [blame]123<ul>
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000[diff] [blame]124<li>Clang now has a new driver, which is focused on providing a GCC-compatible
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]125 interface.</li>
126<li>The X86-64 ABI is now supported.</li>
127<li>Precompiled header support is now implemented.</li>
Chris Lattnerf40c40b2009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000[diff] [blame]128<li>Objective-C support is significantly improved beyond LLVM 2.4, supporting
129 many features, such as Objective-C Garbage Collection.</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]130<li>Many many bugs are fixed and many features have been added.</li>
Bill Wendling6bc15282009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000[diff] [blame]131</ul>
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000[diff] [blame]132</div>
133
134<!--=========================================================================-->
135<div class="doc_subsection">
136<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
137</div>
138
139<div class="doc_text">
140
Ted Kremenek8b3894c2009-02-27 07:01:32 +0000[diff] [blame]141<p>Previously announced in the last LLVM release, the Clang project also
142includes an early stage static source code analysis tool for <a
143href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">automatically finding bugs</a>
144in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs a growing set of checks to find
145bugs that occur on a specific path within a program.</p>
Chris Lattnercc042612008-10-14 00:52:49 +0000[diff] [blame]146
Ted Kremenek8b3894c2009-02-27 07:01:32 +0000[diff] [blame]147<p>In the LLVM 2.5 time-frame there have been many significant improvements to
148the analyzer's core path simulation engine and machinery for generating
149path-based bug reports to end-users. Particularly noteworthy improvements
150include experimental support for full field-sensitivity and reasoning about heap
151objects as well as an improved value-constraints subengine that does a much
152better job of reasoning about inequality relationships (e.g., <tt>x &gt; 2</tt>)
153between variables and constants.
Ted Kremenek3c3ec0c2008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000[diff] [blame]154
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]155<p>The set of checks performed by the static analyzer continues to expand, and
Ted Kremenek8b3894c2009-02-27 07:01:32 +0000[diff] [blame]156future plans for the tool include full source-level inter-procedural analysis
157and deeper checks such as buffer overrun detection. There are many opportunities
158to extend and enhance the static analyzer, and anyone interested in working on
159this project is encouraged to get involved!</p>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]160
161</div>
162
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]163<!--=========================================================================-->
164<div class="doc_subsection">
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]165<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]166</div>
167
168<div class="doc_text">
169<p>
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]170The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]171a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machines (Microsoft .NET is an
172implementation of the CLI) using the Just-In-Time compiler of LLVM.</p>
173
Nicolas Geoffray09c9ed42009-03-02 09:25:38 +0000[diff] [blame]174<p>Following LLVM 2.5, VMKit has its second release that you can find on its
Nicolas Geoffray56d313d2008-10-15 20:25:04 +0000[diff] [blame]175<a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/releases/">webpage</a>. The release includes
176bug fixes, cleanup and new features. The major changes are:</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]177
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]178<ul>
179
Chris Lattner75e26ca2009-02-26 05:20:36 +0000[diff] [blame]180<li>Ahead of Time compiler: compiles .class files to llvm .bc. VMKit uses this
Gabor Greif29ecc1c2009-03-02 11:34:51 +0000[diff] [blame]181functionality to native compile the standard classes (e.g. java.lang.String).
Gabor Greif4906abe2009-03-02 12:02:51 +0000[diff] [blame]182Users can compile AoT .class files into dynamic libraries and run them with the
Chris Lattner75e26ca2009-02-26 05:20:36 +0000[diff] [blame]183help of VMKit.</li>
184
185<li>New exception model: the dwarf exception model is very slow for
186exception-intensive applications, so the JVM has had a new implementation of
187exceptions which check at each function call if an exception happened. There is
188a low performance penalty on applications without exceptions, but it is a big
189gain for exception-intensive applications. For example the jack benchmark in
190Spec JVM98 is 6x faster (performance gain of 83%).</li>
191
Nicolas Geoffray09c9ed42009-03-02 09:25:38 +0000[diff] [blame]192<li>User-level management of thread stacks, so that thread local data access
193at runtime is fast and portable. </li>
194
195<li>Implementation of biased locking for faster object synchronizations at
196runtime.</li>
197
198<li>New support for OSX/X64, Linux/X64 (with the Boehm GC) and Linux/ppc32.</li>
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]199
200</ul>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]201</div>
202
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]203<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
204<div class="doc_section">
205 <a name="externalproj">External Projects Using LLVM 2.5</a>
206</div>
207<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
208
209<!--=========================================================================-->
210<div class="doc_subsection">
211<a name="pure">Pure</a>
212</div>
213
214<div class="doc_text">
215<p>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]216<a href="http://pure-lang.googlecode.com/">Pure</a>
217is an algebraic/functional programming language based on term rewriting.
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]218Programs are collections of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in
219a symbolic fashion. Pure offers dynamic typing, eager and lazy evaluation,
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]220lexical closures, a hygienic macro system (also based on term rewriting),
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]221built-in list and matrix support (including list and matrix comprehensions) and
222an easy-to-use C interface. The interpreter uses LLVM as a backend to
223 JIT-compile Pure programs to fast native code.</p>
224
225<p>In addition to the usual algebraic data structures, Pure also has
226MATLAB-style matrices in order to support numeric computations and signal
227processing in an efficient way. Pure is mainly aimed at mathematical
228applications right now, but it has been designed as a general purpose language.
229The dynamic interpreter environment and the C interface make it possible to use
230it as a kind of functional scripting language for many application areas.
231</p>
232</div>
233
234
235<!--=========================================================================-->
236<div class="doc_subsection">
237<a name="ldc">LLVM D Compiler</a>
238</div>
239
240<div class="doc_text">
241<p>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]242<a href="http://www.dsource.org/projects/ldc">LDC</a> is an implementation of
243the D Programming Language using the LLVM optimizer and code generator.
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]244The LDC project works great with the LLVM 2.5 release. General improvements in
245this
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]246cycle have included new inline asm constraint handling, better debug info
247support, general bugfixes, and better x86-64 support. This has allowed
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]248some major improvements in LDC, getting us much closer to being as
249fully featured as the original DMD compiler from DigitalMars.
250</p>
251</div>
252
Chris Lattnerbc31caf2009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000[diff] [blame]253<!--=========================================================================-->
254<div class="doc_subsection">
255<a name="RoadsendPHP">Roadsend PHP</a>
256</div>
257
258<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]259<p><a href="http://code.roadsend.com/rphp">Roadsend PHP</a> (rphp) is an open
Chris Lattnercade8222009-03-02 19:07:24 +0000[diff] [blame^]260source implementation of the PHP programming
261language that uses LLVM for its optimizer, JIT, and static compiler. This is a
262reimplementation of an earlier project that is now based on LLVM.</p>
Chris Lattnerbc31caf2009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000[diff] [blame]263</div>
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]264
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]265
266<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
267<div class="doc_section">
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]268 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.5?</a>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]269</div>
270<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
271
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000[diff] [blame]272<div class="doc_text">
273
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000[diff] [blame]274<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks, and
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]275minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
276in this section.
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000[diff] [blame]277</p>
278</div>
279
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]280<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000[diff] [blame]281<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000[diff] [blame]282<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
283</div>
284
285<div class="doc_text">
286
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000[diff] [blame]287<p>LLVM 2.5 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]288
289<ul>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]290<li>LLVM 2.5 includes a brand new <a
291href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XCore">XCore</a> backend.</li>
Chris Lattner74c80df2009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000[diff] [blame]292
Bill Wendlingdc1350e2009-03-02 07:42:15 +0000[diff] [blame]293<li>llvm-gcc now generally supports the GFortran front-end, and the precompiled
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]294release binaries now support Fortran, even on Mac OS/X.</li>
Chris Lattner74c80df2009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000[diff] [blame]295
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]296<li>CMake is now used by the <a href="GettingStartedVS.html">LLVM build process
297on Windows</a>. It automatically generates Visual Studio project files (and
298more) from a set of simple text files. This makes it much easier to
299maintain. In time, we'd like to standardize on CMake for everything.</li>
Chris Lattnerc1771e32009-02-26 07:29:17 +0000[diff] [blame]300
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]301<li>LLVM 2.5 now uses (and includes) Google Test for unit testing.</li>
Chris Lattnerc1771e32009-02-26 07:29:17 +0000[diff] [blame]302
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]303<li>The LLVM native code generator now supports arbitrary precision integers.
304Types like <tt>i33</tt> have long been valid in the LLVM IR, but were previously
305only supported by the interpreter. Note that the C backend still does not
306support these.</li>
Chris Lattner99f375b2009-02-25 07:32:53 +0000[diff] [blame]307
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]308<li>LLVM 2.5 no longer uses 'bison,' so it is easier to build on Windows.</li>
Chris Lattner8170c102008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000[diff] [blame]309</ul>
310
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]311</div>
312
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000[diff] [blame]313
314<!--=========================================================================-->
315<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000[diff] [blame]316<a name="llvm-gcc">llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000[diff] [blame]317</div>
318
319<div class="doc_text">
320
Chris Lattnerb82eb062008-10-13 20:47:20 +0000[diff] [blame]321<p>LLVM fully supports the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end, which marries the GCC
322front-ends and driver with the LLVM optimizer and code generator. It currently
323includes support for the C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and Fortran front-ends.</p>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000[diff] [blame]324
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000[diff] [blame]325<ul>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]326<li>In this release, the GCC inliner is completely disabled. Previously the GCC
327inliner was used to handle always-inline functions and other cases. This caused
328problems with code size growth, and it is completely disabled in this
329release.</li>
330
331<li>llvm-gcc (and LLVM in general) now support code generation for stack
332canaries, which is an effective form of <a
333href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack-smashing_protection">buffer overflow
334protection</a>. llvm-gcc supports this with the <tt>-fstack-protector</tt>
335command line option (just like GCC). In LLVM IR, you can request code
336generation for stack canaries with function attributes.
337</li>
Gabor Greifa3bd11d2008-06-09 06:06:18 +0000[diff] [blame]338</ul>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000[diff] [blame]339
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000[diff] [blame]340</div>
341
342
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]343<!--=========================================================================-->
344<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]345<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM IR and Core Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]346</div>
347
348<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]349<p>LLVM IR has several new features that are used by our existing front-ends and
350can be useful if you are writing a front-end for LLVM:</p>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]351
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000[diff] [blame]352<ul>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]353<li>The <a href="LangRef.html#i_shufflevector">shufflevector</a> instruction
354has been generalized to allow different shuffle mask width than its input
355vectors. This allows you to use shufflevector to combine two
356"&lt;4 x float&gt;" vectors into a "&lt;8 x float&gt;" for example.</li>
357
358<li>LLVM IR now supports new intrinsics for computing and acting on <a
359href="LangRef.html#int_overflow">overflow of integer operations</a>. This allows
360efficient code generation for languages that must trap or throw an exception on
361overflow. While these intrinsics work on all targets, they only generate
362efficient code on X86 so far.</li>
363
364<li>LLVM IR now supports a new <a href="LangRef.html#linkage">private
365linkage</a> type to produce labels that are stripped by the assembler before it
366produces a .o file (thus they are invisible to the linker).</li>
367
368<li>LLVM IR supports two new attributes for better alias analysis. The <a
369href="LangRef.html#paramattrs">noalias</a> attribute can now be used on the
370return value of a function to indicate that it returns new memory (e.g.
Duncan Sands05c70952009-03-02 16:58:00 +0000[diff] [blame]371'malloc', 'calloc', etc).
372The new <a href="LangRef.html#paramattrs">nocapture</a> attribute can be used
373on pointer arguments to indicate that the function does not return the pointer,
374store it in an object that outlives the call, or let the value of the pointer
375escape from the function in any other way.
376Note that it is the pointer itself that must not escape, not the value it
377points to: loading a value out of the pointer is perfectly fine.
378Many standard library functions (e.g. 'strlen', 'memcpy') have this property.
379<!-- The simplifylibcalls pass applies these attributes to standard libc functions. -->
380</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]381
382<li>The parser for ".ll" files in lib/AsmParser is now completely rewritten as a
383recursive descent parser. This parser produces better error messages (including
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]384caret diagnostics), is less fragile (less likely to crash on strange things),
385does not leak memory, is more efficient, and eliminates LLVM's last use of the
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]386'bison' tool.</li>
387
388<li>Debug information representation and manipulation internals have been
389 consolidated to use a new set of classes in
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]390 <tt>llvm/Analysis/DebugInfo.h</tt>. These routines are more
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]391 efficient, robust, and extensible and replace the older mechanisms.
392 llvm-gcc, clang, and the code generator now use them to create and process
393 debug information.</li>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]394
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]395</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]396
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]397</div>
398
399<!--=========================================================================-->
400<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]401<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
402</div>
403
404<div class="doc_text">
405
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]406<p>In addition to a large array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, this
Chris Lattnerf3013872008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000[diff] [blame]407release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]408
409<ul>
410
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]411<li>The loop optimizer now improves floating point induction variables in
412several ways, including adding shadow induction variables to avoid
413"integer &lt;-&gt; floating point" conversions in loops when safe.</li>
414
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]415<li>The "-mem2reg" pass is now much faster on code with large basic blocks.</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]416
417<li>The "-jump-threading" pass is more powerful: it is iterative
418 and handles threading based on values with fully and partially redundant
419 loads.</li>
420
421<li>The "-memdep" memory dependence analysis pass (used by GVN and memcpyopt) is
422 both faster and more aggressive.</li>
423
424<li>The "-scalarrepl" scalar replacement of aggregates pass is more aggressive
425 about promoting unions to registers.</li>
Chris Lattnerf3013872008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000[diff] [blame]426
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000[diff] [blame]427</ul>
428
429</div>
430
431<!--=========================================================================-->
432<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]433<a name="codegen">Target Independent Code Generator Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000[diff] [blame]434</div>
435
436<div class="doc_text">
437
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]438<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator
439infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make
440it run faster:</p>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000[diff] [blame]441
442<ul>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]443<li>The <a href="WritingAnLLVMBackend.html">Writing an LLVM Compiler
444Backend</a> document has been greatly expanded and is substantially more
445complete.</li>
446
447<li>The SelectionDAG type legalization logic has been completely rewritten, is
448now more powerful (it supports arbitrary precision integer types for example),
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]449and is more correct in several corner cases. The type legalizer converts
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]450operations on types that are not natively supported by the target machine into
451equivalent code sequences that only use natively supported types. The old type
452legalizer is still available (for now) and will be used if
453<tt>-disable-legalize-types</tt> is passed to the code generator.
Duncan Sands07636ea2009-02-25 11:50:08 +0000[diff] [blame]454</li>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000[diff] [blame]455
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]456<li>The code generator now supports widening illegal vectors to larger legal
457ones (for example, converting operations on &lt;3 x float&gt; to work on
458&lt;4 x float&gt;) which is very important for common graphics
459applications.</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]460
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]461<li>The assembly printers for each target are now split out into their own
462libraries that are separate from the main code generation logic. This reduces
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]463the code size of JIT compilers by not requiring them to be linked in.</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]464
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]465<li>The 'fast' instruction selection path (used at -O0 and for fast JIT
466 compilers) now supports accelerating codegen for code that uses exception
467 handling constructs.</li>
468
469<li>The optional PBQP register allocator now supports register coalescing.</li>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]470</ul>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]471</div>
472
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]473<!--=========================================================================-->
474<div class="doc_subsection">
475<a name="x86">X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements</a>
476</div>
477
478<div class="doc_text">
479<p>New features of the X86 target include:
480</p>
481
482<ul>
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]483<li>The <tt><a href="LangRef.html#int_returnaddress">llvm.returnaddress</a></tt>
484intrinsic (which is used to implement <tt>__builtin_return_address</tt>) now
485supports non-zero stack depths on X86.</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]486
487<li>The X86 backend now supports code generation of vector shift operations
488using SSE instructions.</li>
489
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]490<li>X86-64 code generation now takes advantage of red zone, unless the
491<tt>-mno-red-zone</tt> option is specified.</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]492
493<li>The X86 backend now supports using address space #256 in LLVM IR as a way of
494performing memory references off the GS segment register. This allows a
495front-end to take advantage of very low-level programming techniques when
Gabor Greif29ecc1c2009-03-02 11:34:51 +0000[diff] [blame]496targeting X86 CPUs. See <tt>test/CodeGen/X86/movgs.ll</tt> for a simple
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]497example.</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]498
499<li>The X86 backend now supports a <tt>-disable-mmx</tt> command line option to
500 prevent use of MMX even on chips that support it. This is important for cases
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]501 where code does not contain the proper <tt>llvm.x86.mmx.emms</tt>
502 intrinsics.</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]503
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]504<li>The X86 JIT now detects the new Intel <a
505 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i7">Core i7</a> and <a
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]506 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Atom">Atom</a> chips and
507 auto-configures itself appropriately for the features of these chips.</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]508
509<li>The JIT now supports exception handling constructs on Linux/X86-64 and
510 Darwin/x86-64.</li>
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]511
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]512<li>The JIT supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) on Linux/X86-32 but not yet on
513 X86-64.</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]514</ul>
515
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]516</div>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]517
518<!--=========================================================================-->
519<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner11398992009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000[diff] [blame]520<a name="pic16">PIC16 Target Improvements</a>
521</div>
522
523<div class="doc_text">
524<p>New features of the PIC16 target include:
525</p>
526
527<ul>
528<li>Both direct and indirect load/stores work now.</li>
529<li>Logical, bitwise and conditional operations now work for integer data
530types.</li>
531<li>Function calls involving basic types work now.</li>
532<li>Support for integer arrays.</li>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]533<li>The compiler can now emit libcalls for operations not supported by m/c
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]534instructions.</li>
535<li>Support for both data and ROM address spaces.</li>
Chris Lattner11398992009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000[diff] [blame]536</ul>
537
538<p>Things not yet supported:</p>
539
540<ul>
541<li>Floating point.</li>
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]542<li>Passing/returning aggregate types to and from functions.</li>
Chris Lattner11398992009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000[diff] [blame]543<li>Variable arguments.</li>
544<li>Indirect function calls.</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]545<li>Interrupts/programs.</li>
Chris Lattner11398992009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000[diff] [blame]546<li>Debug info.</li>
Chris Lattner11398992009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000[diff] [blame]547</ul>
548
549</div>
550
551
552<!--=========================================================================-->
553<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]554<a name="llvmc">Improvements in LLVMC</a>
555</div>
556
557<div class="doc_text">
558<p>New features include:</p>
559
560<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]561<li>Beginning with LLVM 2.5, <tt>llvmc2</tt> is known as
562 just <tt>llvmc</tt>. The old <tt>llvmc</tt> driver was removed.</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]563
564<li>The Clang plugin was substantially improved and is now enabled
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]565 by default. The command <tt>llvmc --clang</tt> can be now used as a
566 synonym to <tt>ccc</tt>.</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]567
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]568<li>There is now a <tt>--check-graph</tt> option, which is supposed to catch
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]569 common errors like multiple default edges, mismatched output/input language
570 names and cycles. In general, these checks can't be done at compile-time
571 because of the need to support plugins.</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]572
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]573<li>Plugins are now more flexible and can refer to compilation graph nodes and
574 options defined in other plugins. To manage dependencies, a priority-sorting
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]575 mechanism was introduced. This change affects the TableGen file syntax. See the
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]576 documentation for details.</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]577
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]578<li>Hooks can now be provided with arguments. The syntax is "<tt>$CALL(MyHook,
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]579 'Arg1', 'Arg2', 'Arg3')</tt>".</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]580
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]581<li>A new option type: multi-valued option, for options that take more than one
582 argument (for example, "<tt>-foo a b c</tt>").</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]583
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]584<li>New option properties: '<tt>one_or_more</tt>', '<tt>zero_or_more</tt>',
585'<tt>hidden</tt>' and '<tt>really_hidden</tt>'.</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]586
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]587<li>The '<tt>case</tt>' expression gained an '<tt>error</tt>' action and
588 an '<tt>empty</tt>' test (equivalent to "<tt>(not (not_empty ...))</tt>").</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]589
590<li>Documentation now looks more consistent to the rest of the LLVM
591 docs. There is also a man page now.</li>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]592
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]593</ul>
594
595</div>
596
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000[diff] [blame]597
598<!--=========================================================================-->
599<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]600<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
601</div>
602
603<div class="doc_text">
604
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000[diff] [blame]605<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Chris Lattner38ab04c2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000[diff] [blame]606on LLVM 2.4, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000[diff] [blame]607from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]608
609<ul>
610
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]611<li>llvm-gcc defaults to <tt>-fno-math-errno</tt> on all X86 targets.</li>
612
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000[diff] [blame]613</ul>
614
615
616<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
617API changes are:</p>
618
619<ul>
Gabor Greifcc465502009-03-02 12:23:55 +0000[diff] [blame]620<li>Some deprecated interfaces to create <tt>Instruction</tt> subclasses, that
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]621 were spelled with lower case "create," have been removed.</li>
Devang Patelb34dd132008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000[diff] [blame]622</ul>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]623
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]624</div>
625
626
627
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000[diff] [blame]628<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]629<div class="doc_section">
630 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
631</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000[diff] [blame]632<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
633
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]634<div class="doc_text">
635
John Criswell0b5b5e92004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000[diff] [blame]636<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000[diff] [blame]637
638<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]639<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000[diff] [blame]640Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]641<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000[diff] [blame]642and 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000[diff] [blame]643<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]644<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
645 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000[diff] [blame]646<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 10.</li>
John Criswell9321fa82005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]647<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000[diff] [blame]648<li>Itanium-based (IA64) machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000[diff] [blame]649</ul>
650
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000[diff] [blame]651<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekeb0fd7612004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000[diff] [blame]652to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
653porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
654portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]655
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]656</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]657
658<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]659<div class="doc_section">
660 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
661</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]662<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
663
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]664<div class="doc_text">
665
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]666<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000[diff] [blame]667listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000[diff] [blame]668href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000[diff] [blame]669there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]670
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]671</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]672
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]673<!-- ======================================================================= -->
674<div class="doc_subsection">
675 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
676</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]677
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]678<div class="doc_text">
679
Misha Brukman6df9e2c2004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000[diff] [blame]680<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
681be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
682not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
683useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]684components, please contact us on the <a
685href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]686
687<ul>
Gabor Greifa8b84902008-10-14 11:31:14 +0000[diff] [blame]688<li>The MSIL, IA64, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, and PIC16 backends are experimental.</li>
Bill Wendling99dac472009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000[diff] [blame]689<li>The <tt>llc</tt> "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only
690 supported value for this option.</li>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]691</ul>
692
693</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]694
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]695<!-- ======================================================================= -->
696<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]697 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000[diff] [blame]698</div>
699
700<div class="doc_text">
701
702<ul>
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000[diff] [blame]703 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
704 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
705 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
706 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000[diff] [blame]707 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
708 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands47eff2b2008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000[diff] [blame]709 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]710 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build the mingw64
711 runtime currently due
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000[diff] [blame]712 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]713 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> and due to lack of support for
714 the
715 'u' inline assembly constraint and for X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000[diff] [blame]716 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]717 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc and front-ends support variadic
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000[diff] [blame]718 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]719</ul>
720
721</div>
722
723<!-- ======================================================================= -->
724<div class="doc_subsection">
725 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
726</div>
727
728<div class="doc_text">
729
730<ul>
Nicolas Geoffraye4285dc2007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000[diff] [blame]731<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]732compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]733</ul>
734
735</div>
736
737<!-- ======================================================================= -->
738<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]739 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
740</div>
741
742<div class="doc_text">
743
744<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]745<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sandsc90d68b2007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000[diff] [blame]746processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]747results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]748<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported but not fully tested.
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]749</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000[diff] [blame]750<li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (&lt;= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly
751 execute
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]752programs compiled with LLVM. Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]753</ul>
754
755</div>
756
757<!-- ======================================================================= -->
758<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]759 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
760</div>
761
762<div class="doc_text">
763
764<ul>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]765<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32); it does not
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]766 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
767</ul>
768
769</div>
770
771<!-- ======================================================================= -->
772<div class="doc_subsection">
Bruno Cardoso Lopesb7e1a4f2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000[diff] [blame]773 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
774</div>
775
776<div class="doc_text">
777
778<ul>
779<li>The O32 ABI is not fully supported.</li>
780<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
781</ul>
782
783</div>
784
785<!-- ======================================================================= -->
786<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]787 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
788</div>
789
790<div class="doc_text">
791
792<ul>
793
794<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
795appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
796
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000[diff] [blame]797</ul>
798</div>
799
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]800<!-- ======================================================================= -->
801<div class="doc_subsection">
802 <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
803</div>
804
805<div class="doc_text">
806
807<ul>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]808<li>The Itanium backend is highly experimental and has a number of known
Chris Lattner04af7cb2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000[diff] [blame]809 issues. We are looking for a maintainer for the Itanium backend. If you
Gabor Greif3bd3a262008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000[diff] [blame]810 are interested, please contact the LLVMdev mailing list.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]811</ul>
812
813</div>
814
815<!-- ======================================================================= -->
816<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]817 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]818</div>
819
820<div class="doc_text">
821
822<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]823<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
824 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner725a0d82007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000[diff] [blame]825<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
826 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Gabor Greif4906abe2009-03-02 12:02:51 +0000[diff] [blame]827 C++ code compiled with <tt>llc</tt> or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsf74c0cc2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000[diff] [blame]828<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Duncan Sands50723a92009-02-25 11:51:54 +0000[diff] [blame]829<li>The C backend does not support arbitrary precision integers.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]830</ul>
831
832</div>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000[diff] [blame]833
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]834
835<!-- ======================================================================= -->
836<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]837 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]838</div>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000[diff] [blame]839
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]840<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000[diff] [blame]841
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000[diff] [blame]842<p>llvm-gcc does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time
843Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the
Gabor Greif3bd3a262008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000[diff] [blame]844LLVMdev mailing list if you are interested.</p>
Chris Lattnerd9ea0172006-08-08 17:27:28 +0000[diff] [blame]845
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]846<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
847 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
848 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000[diff] [blame]849 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
850 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]851
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]852<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
853</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]854
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]855</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]856
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]857<!-- ======================================================================= -->
858<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]859 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]860</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]861
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]862<div class="doc_text">
863
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]864<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000[diff] [blame]865tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]866itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]867
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]868<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov0021fc12008-10-11 18:27:16 +0000[diff] [blame]869<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets. Currently
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000[diff] [blame]870 only Linux and Darwin targets are supported (both 32 and 64 bit).</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]871</ul>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000[diff] [blame]872
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]873</div>
874
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000[diff] [blame]875<!-- ======================================================================= -->
876<div class="doc_subsection">
877 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
878</div>
879
880<div class="doc_text">
Gabor Greifba10fe02008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000[diff] [blame]881<ul>
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000[diff] [blame]882<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
883 in Bugzilla. Please see the tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]884
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000[diff] [blame]885<li>The Fortran front-end currently does not build on Darwin (without tweaks)
886 due to unresolved dependencies on the C front-end.</li>
Gabor Greifba10fe02008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000[diff] [blame]887</ul>
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000[diff] [blame]888</div>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]889
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]890<!-- ======================================================================= -->
891<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]892 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]893</div>
894
895<div class="doc_text">
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]896The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well; however, this is not a mature
897technology, and problems should be expected.
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]898<ul>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000[diff] [blame]899<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]900to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms.
901However, it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]902which does support trampolines.</li>
903<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
Duncan Sands326a4982009-02-25 11:59:06 +0000[diff] [blame]904This is due to lack of LLVM support for <tt>setjmp</tt>/<tt>longjmp</tt> style
905exception handling, which is used internally by the compiler.
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]906Workaround: configure with --disable-bootstrap.</li>
Duncan Sands978bcee2008-10-13 17:27:23 +0000[diff] [blame]907<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
908and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
Duncan Sands326a4982009-02-25 11:59:06 +0000[diff] [blame]909(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).
910If the compiler is built with checks disabled then <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
911causes the compiler to go into an infinite loop, using up all system memory.</li>
Duncan Sandsdd3e6722009-03-02 16:35:57 +0000[diff] [blame]912<li>Some GCC specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]913<li>The -E binder option (exception backtraces)
914<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
915crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use -E.</li>
916<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
917or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
918or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
919starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000[diff] [blame]920<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
921'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
922Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
923<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
924<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
925ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]926</ul>
927</div>
928
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]929<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]930<div class="doc_section">
931 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
932</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]933<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
934
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]935<div class="doc_text">
936
Chris Lattner416db102005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000[diff] [blame]937<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000[diff] [blame]938href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
939href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]940contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
941Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman109d9e82005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000[diff] [blame]942You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
943into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]944
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]945<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000[diff] [blame]946us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000[diff] [blame]947lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]948
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]949</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]950
951<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]952
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]953<hr>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000[diff] [blame]954<address>
Misha Brukman38847d52003-12-21 22:53:21 +0000[diff] [blame]955 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
Misha Brukman44408702008-12-11 17:34:48 +0000[diff] [blame]956 src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss-blue" alt="Valid CSS"></a>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000[diff] [blame]957 <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
Misha Brukman44408702008-12-11 17:34:48 +0000[diff] [blame]958 src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401-blue" alt="Valid HTML 4.01"></a>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000[diff] [blame]959
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000[diff] [blame]960 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]961 Last modified: $Date$
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000[diff] [blame]962</address>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]963
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]964</body>
965</html>