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Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +00007 <title>LLVM 2.4 Release Notes</title>
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9<body>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000010
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000011<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.4 Release Notes</div>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000012
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000013<ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000014 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000015 <li><a href="#changes">Major Changes and Sub-project Status</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000016 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a></li>
Chris Lattner4b538b92004-04-30 22:17:12 +000017 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000018 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000019 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000020 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000021</ol>
22
Chris Lattner7911ce22004-05-23 21:07:27 +000023<div class="doc_author">
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +000024 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a><p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000025</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000026
27<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000028<div class="doc_section">
29 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
30</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000031<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
32
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000033<div class="doc_text">
34
35<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000036infrastructure, release 2.4. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +000037major improvements from the previous release and any known problems. All LLVM
Chris Lattnercaf06342007-05-09 04:58:11 +000038releases may be downloaded from the <a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +000039releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000040
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +000041<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +000042release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000043web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
44href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000045list</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000046
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000047<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +000048main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
49current one. To see the release notes for a specific releases, please see the
50<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000051
52</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000053
54<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000055<div class="doc_section">
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000056 <a name="changes">Major Changes and Sub-project Status</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000057</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000058<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
59
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000060<div class="doc_text">
61
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000062<p>This is the fifteenth public release of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure.
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000063It includes a large number of features and refinements from LLVM 2.3.</p>
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000064
Chris Lattner80453c92004-05-24 04:50:25 +000065</div>
66
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000067<!-- Unfinished features in 2.4:
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000068 Machine LICM
69 Machine Sinking
70 LegalizeDAGTypes
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000071 llc -enable-value-prop, propagation of value info (sign/zero ext info) from
72 one MBB to another
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000073 -->
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000074
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000075 <!-- for announcement email:
76 mention dev mtg
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +000077 Xcode 3.1 and 3.1.1.
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000078 -->
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000079
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000080<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner8a458762005-05-15 05:44:51 +000081<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000082<a name="changes">Major Changes in LLVM 2.4</a>
Chris Lattnerb4c68cd2008-02-10 07:04:35 +000083</div>
84
85<div class="doc_text">
86
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000087<p>The LLVM IR generated by llvm-gcc now doesn't name instructions. Use the
88 instnamer pass if you want them.</p>
89
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +000090<li>LoadVN and GCSE are completely gone.</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000091
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +000092
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +000093<p>LLVM API Changes:</p>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +000094
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +000095<ul>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000096<li>....</li>
Daniel Dunbar43778b32008-10-11 21:26:56 +000097
98<li>... Attributes changes ... </li>
99
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000100<li>The <tt>DbgStopPointInst</tt> methods <tt>getDirectory</tt> and
101<tt>getFileName</tt> now return <tt>Value*</tt> instead of strings. These can be
102converted to strings using <tt>llvm::GetConstantStringInfo</tt> defined via
103"llvm/Analysis/ValueTracking.h".</li>
Daniel Dunbar43778b32008-10-11 21:26:56 +0000104
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000105<li>API change: BinaryOperator::create -> Create (CmpInst, CastInst too)</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000106<li>Various header files like "llvm/ADT/iterator" were given a .h suffix.
107 Change your code to #include "llvm/ADT/iterator.h" instead.</li>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000108
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000109</ul>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000110
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000111</div>
112
113<!--=========================================================================-->
114<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000115<a name="otherprojects">Other LLVM Sub-Projects</a>
116</div>
117
118<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000119<p>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000120The core LLVM 2.4 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000121repository (which roughly contains the LLVM optimizer, code generators and
122supporting tools) and the llvm-gcc repository. In addition to this code, the
123LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in development. The two which
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000124are the most actively developed are the <a href="#clang">Clang Project</a> and
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000125<a href="#vmkit">vmkit Project</a>.
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000126</p>
127</div>
128
129<!--=========================================================================-->
130<div class="doc_subsubsection">
131<a name="vmkit">vmkit</a>
132</div>
133
134<div class="doc_text">
135<p>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000136The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">"vmkit" project</a> is an implementation of
137a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machines (Microsoft .NET is an
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000138implementation of the CLI) using the Just-In-Time compiler of LLVM.</p>
139
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000140<p>...</p>
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000141
142</div>
143
144<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000145<div class="doc_subsubsection">
146<a name="clang">Clang</a>
147</div>
148
149<div class="doc_text">
150
151<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is an effort to build
152a set of new 'LLVM native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer
153and code generator. Clang is continuing to make major strides forward in all
154areas. Its C and Objective-C parsing support is very solid, and the code
155generation support is far enough along to build many C applications. While not
156yet production quality, it is progressing very nicely. In addition, C++
157front-end work has started to make significant progress.</p>
158
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000159<p>Codegen progress/state
160</p>
161
162<p>
163<a href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">static analysis tool</a>
164</p>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000165
166</div>
167
168
169<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
170<div class="doc_section">
171 <a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a>
172</div>
173<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
174
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000175<div class="doc_text">
176
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000177<p>LLVM 2.4 includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and minor
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000178improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed in
179this section.
180</p>
181</div>
182
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000183<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000184<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000185<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
186</div>
187
188<div class="doc_text">
189
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000190<p>LLVM 2.4 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000191
192<ul>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000193<li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000194 <p>MRVs got generalized to FCAs. getresult is gone, ret with multiple values
195 is gone.</p>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000196 </li>
197
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000198<li><p>-O0 compile times overall much faster</p></li>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000199
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000200<li><p>Attrs changes?</p></li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000201
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000202
203<li><p>Initial PIC16 port</p></li>
204
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000205<li><p> Support the rest of the atomic __sync builtins</p></li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000206
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000207<li><p>...</p></li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000208
Chris Lattner8170c102008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000209</ul>
210
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000211</div>
212
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000213
214<!--=========================================================================-->
215<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000216<a name="llvm-gcc">llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000217</div>
218
219<div class="doc_text">
220
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000221<p>LLVM 2.4 fully supports the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end, and includes support
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000222for the C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and Fortran front-ends.</p>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000223
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000224<p>
225<ul>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000226<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000227
Gabor Greifa3bd11d2008-06-09 06:06:18 +0000228</ul>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000229
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000230</div>
231
232
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000233<!--=========================================================================-->
234<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000235<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM Core Improvements</a>
236</div>
237
238<div class="doc_text">
239<p>New features include:
240</p>
241
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000242<ul>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000243<li>vector shifts in the IR: no codegen support yet</li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000244<li>use diet patch landed: saved 15% IR memory footprint</li>
245<li>LLVM IR now directly represents "common" linkage, instead of
246 representing it as a form of weak linkage.</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000247<li>DebugInfoBuilder</li>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000248<li>.ll printing format change: %3 = add i32 4, 2</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000249<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000250</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000251
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000252</div>
253
254<!--=========================================================================-->
255<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000256<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
257</div>
258
259<div class="doc_text">
260
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000261<p>In addition to a huge array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, the
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000262LLVM 2.4 optimizers support a few major enhancements:</p>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000263
264<ul>
265
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000266<li>GVN now does local PRE?</li>
267
268<li>Matthijs' Dead argument elimination rewrite</li>
269
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000270<li>Old-ADCE used control dependence and deleted output-free infinite loops.
271Added a new Loop deletion pass (for deleting output free provably-finite loops)
272and rewrote ADCE to be simpler faster, and not need control dependence.</li>
273
274<li>SparsePropagation framework for lattice-based dataflow solvers.</li>
275
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000276<li>Tail duplication was removed from the standard optimizer sequence.</li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000277
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000278<li>Various helper functions (ComputeMaskedBits, ComputeNumSignBits, etc) were
279pulled out of instcombine and put into a new ValueTracking.h file, where they
280can be reused by other passes.</li>
281
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000282<li>MarkModRef etc</li>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000283</ul>
284
285</div>
286
287<!--=========================================================================-->
288<div class="doc_subsection">
289<a name="codegen">Code Generator Improvements</a>
290</div>
291
292<div class="doc_text">
293
294<p>We put a significant amount of work into the code generator infrastructure,
295which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make it run
296faster:</p>
297
298<ul>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000299<li>asm writers split out to their own library to avoid JITs having to link
300 them in.</li>
301<li>Big asm writer refactoring + TargetAsmInfo</li>
302<li>2-addr pass and coalescer can now remat trivial insts to avoid a copy.</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000303<li>spiller to commute instructions in order to fold a reload</li>
304<li>Stack slot coloring?</li>
305<li>Live intervals renumbering? Is this useful to external people?</li>
306<li>'is as cheap as a move' instruction flag</li>
307<li>Improvements to selection dag viewing</li>
308<li>fast isel</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000309<li>Selection dag speedups</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000310<li>asmwriter + raw_ostream -> fastah</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000311<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000312
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000313</ul>
314
315</div>
316
317
318<!--=========================================================================-->
319<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000320<a name="x86specific">X86/X86-64 Specific Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000321</div>
Chris Lattner60893e52007-05-18 06:33:02 +0000322
Chris Lattner738bd302006-04-18 06:32:08 +0000323<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000324<p>New target-specific features include:
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000325</p>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000326
327<ul>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000328<li>Exception handling is supported by default on Linux/x86-64.</li>
329<li>Position Independent Code (PIC) is now support on Linux/x86-64.</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000330<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000331
Chris Lattnerbfb17ab2007-05-17 21:41:31 +0000332</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000333
Chris Lattnerbfb17ab2007-05-17 21:41:31 +0000334</div>
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000335
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000336<!--=========================================================================-->
337<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000338<a name="targetspecific">Other Target Specific Improvements</a>
339</div>
340
341<div class="doc_text">
342<p>New target-specific features include:
343</p>
344
345<ul>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000346<li>MIPS floating point support?</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000347<li>....</li>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000348</ul>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000349
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000350</div>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000351
352
353<!--=========================================================================-->
354<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000355<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements</a>
356</div>
357
358<div class="doc_text">
359<p>New features include:
360</p>
361
362<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000363<li><tt>llvmc2</tt>(the generic compiler driver) gained plugin
364 support. It is now easier to experiment with <tt>llvmc2</tt> and
365 build your own tools based on it. </li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000366<li>raw_ostream + formatting</li>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000367<li>Recycler + pool allocation stuff?</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000368<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000369</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000370
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000371</div>
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000372
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000373<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000374<div class="doc_section">
375 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
376</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000377<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
378
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000379<div class="doc_text">
380
John Criswell0b5b5e92004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000381<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000382
383<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000384<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32) running Red Hat Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD
Reid Spencer00812e22005-05-17 02:47:27 +0000385 (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
Chris Lattner000c73b2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000386<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit and
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000387 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000388<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000389<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
390 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000391<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 10.</li>
John Criswell9321fa82005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000392<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000393<li>Itanium-based (IA64) machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000394</ul>
395
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000396<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekeb0fd7612004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000397to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
398porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
399portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000400
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000401</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000402
403<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000404<div class="doc_section">
405 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
406</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000407<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
408
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000409<div class="doc_text">
410
411<p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000412component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000413sections. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000414href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000415there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000416
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000417</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000418
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000419<!-- ======================================================================= -->
420<div class="doc_subsection">
421 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
422</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000423
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000424<div class="doc_text">
425
Misha Brukman6df9e2c2004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000426<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
427be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
428not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
429useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000430components, please contact us on the <a
431href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000432
433<ul>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000434<li>The MSIL, IA64, Alpha, SPU, and MIPS backends are experimental.</li>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000435<li>The llc "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported
Chris Lattner000c73b2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000436 value for this option.</li>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000437</ul>
438
439</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000440
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000441<!-- ======================================================================= -->
442<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000443 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000444</div>
445
446<div class="doc_text">
447
448<ul>
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000449 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
450 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
451 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
452 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000453 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
454 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands47eff2b2008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000455 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000456 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build mingw64 runtime
457 currently due
458 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
Chris Lattner04af7cb2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000459 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> due to lack of support for the
460 'u' inline assembly constraint and X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000461 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
462 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc front-end supports variadic
463 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000464</ul>
465
466</div>
467
468<!-- ======================================================================= -->
469<div class="doc_subsection">
470 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
471</div>
472
473<div class="doc_text">
474
475<ul>
Nicolas Geoffraye4285dc2007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000476<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000477compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000478</ul>
479
480</div>
481
482<!-- ======================================================================= -->
483<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000484 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
485</div>
486
487<div class="doc_text">
488
489<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000490<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sandsc90d68b2007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000491processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000492results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000493<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported, but not fully tested.
494</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000495<li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (&lt;= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly
496 execute
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000497programs compiled with LLVM. Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000498</ul>
499
500</div>
501
502<!-- ======================================================================= -->
503<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000504 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
505</div>
506
507<div class="doc_text">
508
509<ul>
510<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not
511 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
512</ul>
513
514</div>
515
516<!-- ======================================================================= -->
517<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000518 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
519</div>
520
521<div class="doc_text">
522
523<ul>
524
525<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
526appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
527
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000528</ul>
529</div>
530
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000531<!-- ======================================================================= -->
532<div class="doc_subsection">
533 <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
534</div>
535
536<div class="doc_text">
537
538<ul>
Chris Lattner04af7cb2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000539<li>The Itanium backend is highly experimental, and has a number of known
540 issues. We are looking for a maintainer for the Itanium backend. If you
541 are interested, please contact the llvmdev mailing list.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000542</ul>
543
544</div>
545
546<!-- ======================================================================= -->
547<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000548 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000549</div>
550
551<div class="doc_text">
552
553<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000554<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
555 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner725a0d82007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000556<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
557 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000558 C++ code compiled with llc or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsf74c0cc2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000559<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000560</ul>
561
562</div>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000563
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000564
565<!-- ======================================================================= -->
566<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000567 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000568</div>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000569
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000570<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000571
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000572<p>llvm-gcc does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time
573Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000574llvmdev mailing list if you are interested.</p>
Chris Lattnerd9ea0172006-08-08 17:27:28 +0000575
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000576<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
577 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
578 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000579 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
580 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000581
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000582<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
583</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000584
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000585</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000586
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000587<!-- ======================================================================= -->
588<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000589 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000590</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000591
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000592<div class="doc_text">
593
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000594<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000595tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000596itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000597
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000598<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov0021fc12008-10-11 18:27:16 +0000599<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets. Currently
600 only linux and darwin targets are supported (both 32 and 64 bit).</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000601</ul>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000602
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000603</div>
604
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000605
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000606<!-- ======================================================================= -->
607<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000608 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000609</div>
610
611<div class="doc_text">
612The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well, however this is not a mature
613technology and problems should be expected.
614<ul>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000615<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000616to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms,
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000617however it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000618which does support trampolines.</li>
619<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
620Workaround: configure with --disable-bootstrap.</li>
621<li>The c380004 and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a> ACATS tests
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000622fail (c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline). When built at -O3, the
623<a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS test also fails.</li>
624<li>Some gcc specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler. The testsuite
625reports most tests as having failed even though they pass.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000626<li>The -E binder option (exception backtraces)
627<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
628crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use -E.</li>
629<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
630or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
631or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
632starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000633<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
634'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
635Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
636<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
637<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
638ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000639</ul>
640</div>
641
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000642<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000643<div class="doc_section">
644 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
645</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000646<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
647
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000648<div class="doc_text">
649
Chris Lattner416db102005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000650<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000651href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
652href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000653contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
654Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman109d9e82005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000655You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
656into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000657
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000658<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000659us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000660lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000661
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000662</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000663
664<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000665
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000666<hr>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000667<address>
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Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000672
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000673 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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