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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
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000035<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
36Infrastructure, release 2.4. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
37major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
38All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
39href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
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
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000044href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's Mailing
45List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
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
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000060<p>If you're already an LLVM user, this section lists some "gotchas" that you
61may run into upgrading from the previous release. It also includes some status
62updates on subprojects of LLVM.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000063
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +000064<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000065
Chris Lattner80453c92004-05-24 04:50:25 +000066</div>
67
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000068<!-- Unfinished features in 2.4:
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000069 Machine LICM
70 Machine Sinking
71 LegalizeDAGTypes
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000072 llc -enable-value-prop, propagation of value info (sign/zero ext info) from
73 one MBB to another
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000074 -->
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000075
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000076 <!-- for announcement email:
77 mention dev mtg
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +000078 Xcode 3.1 and 3.1.1.
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +000079 -->
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000080
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000081<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner8a458762005-05-15 05:44:51 +000082<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +000083<a name="otherprojects">Other LLVM Sub-Projects</a>
84</div>
85
86<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000087<p>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000088The core LLVM 2.4 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000089repository (which roughly contains the LLVM optimizer, code generators and
90supporting tools) and the llvm-gcc repository. In addition to this code, the
91LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in development. The two which
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +000092are the most actively developed are the <a href="#clang">Clang Project</a> and
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000093<a href="#vmkit">vmkit Project</a>.
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +000094</p>
95</div>
96
97<!--=========================================================================-->
98<div class="doc_subsubsection">
99<a name="vmkit">vmkit</a>
100</div>
101
102<div class="doc_text">
103<p>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000104The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">"vmkit" project</a> is an implementation of
105a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machines (Microsoft .NET is an
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000106implementation of the CLI) using the Just-In-Time compiler of LLVM.</p>
107
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000108<p>...</p>
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000109
110</div>
111
112<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000113<div class="doc_subsubsection">
114<a name="clang">Clang</a>
115</div>
116
117<div class="doc_text">
118
119<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is an effort to build
120a set of new 'LLVM native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer
121and code generator. Clang is continuing to make major strides forward in all
122areas. Its C and Objective-C parsing support is very solid, and the code
123generation support is far enough along to build many C applications. While not
124yet production quality, it is progressing very nicely. In addition, C++
125front-end work has started to make significant progress.</p>
126
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000127<p>Codegen progress/state
128</p>
129
130<p>
131<a href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">static analysis tool</a>
132</p>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000133
134</div>
135
136
137<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
138<div class="doc_section">
139 <a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a>
140</div>
141<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
142
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000143<div class="doc_text">
144
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000145<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and
146minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
147in this section.
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000148</p>
149</div>
150
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000151<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000152<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000153<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
154</div>
155
156<div class="doc_text">
157
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000158<p>LLVM 2.4 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000159
160<ul>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000161<li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000162 <p>MRVs got generalized to FCAs. getresult is gone, ret with multiple values
163 is gone.</p>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000164 </li>
165
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000166<li><p>-O0 compile times overall much faster</p></li>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000167
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000168<li><p>Attrs changes?</p></li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000169
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000170
171<li><p>Initial PIC16 port</p></li>
172
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000173<li><p> Support the rest of the atomic __sync builtins</p></li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000174
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000175<li><p>...</p></li>
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000176
Chris Lattner8170c102008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000177</ul>
178
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000179</div>
180
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000181
182<!--=========================================================================-->
183<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000184<a name="llvm-gcc">llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000185</div>
186
187<div class="doc_text">
188
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000189<p>LLVM 2.4 fully supports the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end, and includes support
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000190for the C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and Fortran front-ends.</p>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000191
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000192<p>
193<ul>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000194<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000195
Gabor Greifa3bd11d2008-06-09 06:06:18 +0000196</ul>
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000197
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000198</div>
199
200
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000201<!--=========================================================================-->
202<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000203<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM Core Improvements</a>
204</div>
205
206<div class="doc_text">
207<p>New features include:
208</p>
209
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000210<ul>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000211<li>vector shifts in the IR: no codegen support yet</li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000212<li>use diet patch landed: saved 15% IR memory footprint</li>
213<li>LLVM IR now directly represents "common" linkage, instead of
214 representing it as a form of weak linkage.</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000215<li>DebugInfoBuilder</li>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000216<li>.ll printing format change: %3 = add i32 4, 2</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000217<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000218</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000219
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000220</div>
221
222<!--=========================================================================-->
223<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000224<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
225</div>
226
227<div class="doc_text">
228
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000229<p>In addition to a huge array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, the
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000230LLVM 2.4 optimizers support a few major enhancements:</p>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000231
232<ul>
233
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000234<li>GVN now does local PRE?</li>
235
236<li>Matthijs' Dead argument elimination rewrite</li>
237
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000238<li>Old-ADCE used control dependence and deleted output-free infinite loops.
239Added a new Loop deletion pass (for deleting output free provably-finite loops)
240and rewrote ADCE to be simpler faster, and not need control dependence.</li>
241
242<li>SparsePropagation framework for lattice-based dataflow solvers.</li>
243
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000244<li>Tail duplication was removed from the standard optimizer sequence.</li>
Chris Lattnercce6d4b2008-10-12 18:30:33 +0000245
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000246<li>Various helper functions (ComputeMaskedBits, ComputeNumSignBits, etc) were
247pulled out of instcombine and put into a new ValueTracking.h file, where they
248can be reused by other passes.</li>
249
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000250<li>MarkModRef etc</li>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000251</ul>
252
253</div>
254
255<!--=========================================================================-->
256<div class="doc_subsection">
257<a name="codegen">Code Generator Improvements</a>
258</div>
259
260<div class="doc_text">
261
262<p>We put a significant amount of work into the code generator infrastructure,
263which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make it run
264faster:</p>
265
266<ul>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000267<li>asm writers split out to their own library to avoid JITs having to link
268 them in.</li>
269<li>Big asm writer refactoring + TargetAsmInfo</li>
270<li>2-addr pass and coalescer can now remat trivial insts to avoid a copy.</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000271<li>spiller to commute instructions in order to fold a reload</li>
272<li>Stack slot coloring?</li>
273<li>Live intervals renumbering? Is this useful to external people?</li>
274<li>'is as cheap as a move' instruction flag</li>
275<li>Improvements to selection dag viewing</li>
276<li>fast isel</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000277<li>Selection dag speedups</li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000278<li>asmwriter + raw_ostream -> fastah</li>
Chris Lattner59b5ce42008-10-13 17:12:51 +0000279<li>Partitioned Boolean Quadratic Programming (PBQP) based register
280allocator.</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000281<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000282
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000283</ul>
284
285</div>
286
287
288<!--=========================================================================-->
289<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000290<a name="x86specific">X86/X86-64 Specific Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000291</div>
Chris Lattner60893e52007-05-18 06:33:02 +0000292
Chris Lattner738bd302006-04-18 06:32:08 +0000293<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000294<p>New target-specific features include:
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000295</p>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000296
297<ul>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000298<li>Exception handling is supported by default on Linux/x86-64.</li>
Duncan Sandsbbf379a2008-10-13 17:32:15 +0000299<li>Position Independent Code (PIC) is now supported on Linux/x86-64.</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000300<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000301
Chris Lattnerbfb17ab2007-05-17 21:41:31 +0000302</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000303
Chris Lattnerbfb17ab2007-05-17 21:41:31 +0000304</div>
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000305
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000306<!--=========================================================================-->
307<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000308<a name="targetspecific">Other Target Specific Improvements</a>
309</div>
310
311<div class="doc_text">
312<p>New target-specific features include:
313</p>
314
315<ul>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000316<li>MIPS floating point support?</li>
Duncan Sandsbbf379a2008-10-13 17:32:15 +0000317<li>PowerPC now supports trampolines.</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000318<li>....</li>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000319</ul>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000320
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000321</div>
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000322
323
324<!--=========================================================================-->
325<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000326<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements</a>
327</div>
328
329<div class="doc_text">
330<p>New features include:
331</p>
332
333<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov49feb452008-10-13 02:46:01 +0000334<li><tt>llvmc2</tt> (the generic compiler driver) gained plugin
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000335 support. It is now easier to experiment with <tt>llvmc2</tt> and
336 build your own tools based on it. </li>
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000337<li>raw_ostream + formatting</li>
Chris Lattnercdb0e4c2008-10-12 22:57:58 +0000338<li>Recycler + pool allocation stuff?</li>
Chris Lattner857fb132008-10-11 18:18:28 +0000339<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000340</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000341
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000342</div>
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000343
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000344<!--=========================================================================-->
345<div class="doc_subsection">
346<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
347</div>
348
349<div class="doc_text">
350
351<p>The LLVM IR generated by llvm-gcc now doesn't name instructions. Use the
352 instnamer pass if you want them.</p>
353
354<li>LoadVN and GCSE are completely gone.</li>
355
356
357<p>LLVM API Changes:</p>
358
359<ul>
360
361<li>... Attributes changes ... </li>
362
363<li>The <tt>DbgStopPointInst</tt> methods <tt>getDirectory</tt> and
364<tt>getFileName</tt> now return <tt>Value*</tt> instead of strings. These can be
365converted to strings using <tt>llvm::GetConstantStringInfo</tt> defined via
366"llvm/Analysis/ValueTracking.h".</li>
367
368<li>API change: BinaryOperator::create -> Create (CmpInst, CastInst too)</li>
369<li>Various header files like "llvm/ADT/iterator" were given a .h suffix.
370 Change your code to #include "llvm/ADT/iterator.h" instead.</li>
371
372</ul>
373
374</div>
375
376
377
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000378<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000379<div class="doc_section">
380 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
381</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000382<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
383
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000384<div class="doc_text">
385
John Criswell0b5b5e92004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000386<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000387
388<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000389<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32) running Red Hat Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD
Reid Spencer00812e22005-05-17 02:47:27 +0000390 (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
Chris Lattner000c73b2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000391<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 +0000392 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000393<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000394<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
395 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000396<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 10.</li>
John Criswell9321fa82005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000397<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Gabor Greif96a89c72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000398<li>Itanium-based (IA64) machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000399</ul>
400
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000401<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekeb0fd7612004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000402to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
403porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
404portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000405
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000406</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000407
408<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000409<div class="doc_section">
410 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
411</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000412<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
413
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000414<div class="doc_text">
415
416<p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000417component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000418sections. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000419href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000420there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000421
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000422</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000423
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000424<!-- ======================================================================= -->
425<div class="doc_subsection">
426 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
427</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000428
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000429<div class="doc_text">
430
Misha Brukman6df9e2c2004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000431<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
432be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
433not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
434useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000435components, please contact us on the <a
436href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000437
438<ul>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000439<li>The MSIL, IA64, Alpha, SPU, and MIPS backends are experimental.</li>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000440<li>The llc "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported
Chris Lattner000c73b2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000441 value for this option.</li>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000442</ul>
443
444</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000445
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000446<!-- ======================================================================= -->
447<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000448 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000449</div>
450
451<div class="doc_text">
452
453<ul>
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000454 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
455 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
456 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
457 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000458 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
459 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands47eff2b2008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000460 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000461 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build mingw64 runtime
462 currently due
463 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
Chris Lattner04af7cb2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000464 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> due to lack of support for the
465 'u' inline assembly constraint and X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000466 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
467 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc front-end supports variadic
468 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000469</ul>
470
471</div>
472
473<!-- ======================================================================= -->
474<div class="doc_subsection">
475 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
476</div>
477
478<div class="doc_text">
479
480<ul>
Nicolas Geoffraye4285dc2007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000481<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000482compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000483</ul>
484
485</div>
486
487<!-- ======================================================================= -->
488<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000489 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
490</div>
491
492<div class="doc_text">
493
494<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000495<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sandsc90d68b2007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000496processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000497results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000498<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported, but not fully tested.
499</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000500<li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (&lt;= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly
501 execute
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000502programs compiled with LLVM. Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000503</ul>
504
505</div>
506
507<!-- ======================================================================= -->
508<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000509 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
510</div>
511
512<div class="doc_text">
513
514<ul>
515<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not
516 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
517</ul>
518
519</div>
520
521<!-- ======================================================================= -->
522<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000523 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
524</div>
525
526<div class="doc_text">
527
528<ul>
529
530<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
531appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
532
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000533</ul>
534</div>
535
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000536<!-- ======================================================================= -->
537<div class="doc_subsection">
538 <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
539</div>
540
541<div class="doc_text">
542
543<ul>
Chris Lattner04af7cb2008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000544<li>The Itanium backend is highly experimental, and has a number of known
545 issues. We are looking for a maintainer for the Itanium backend. If you
546 are interested, please contact the llvmdev mailing list.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000547</ul>
548
549</div>
550
551<!-- ======================================================================= -->
552<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000553 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000554</div>
555
556<div class="doc_text">
557
558<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000559<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
560 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner725a0d82007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000561<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
562 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000563 C++ code compiled with llc or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsf74c0cc2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000564<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000565</ul>
566
567</div>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000568
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000569
570<!-- ======================================================================= -->
571<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000572 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000573</div>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000574
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000575<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000576
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000577<p>llvm-gcc does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time
578Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000579llvmdev mailing list if you are interested.</p>
Chris Lattnerd9ea0172006-08-08 17:27:28 +0000580
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000581<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
582 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
583 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000584 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
585 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000586
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000587<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
588</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000589
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
593<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000594 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000595</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000596
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000597<div class="doc_text">
598
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000599<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000600tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000601itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000602
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000603<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov0021fc12008-10-11 18:27:16 +0000604<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets. Currently
605 only linux and darwin targets are supported (both 32 and 64 bit).</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000606</ul>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000607
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000608</div>
609
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000610
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000611<!-- ======================================================================= -->
612<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000613 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000614</div>
615
616<div class="doc_text">
617The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well, however this is not a mature
618technology and problems should be expected.
619<ul>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000620<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000621to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms,
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000622however it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000623which does support trampolines.</li>
624<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
625Workaround: configure with --disable-bootstrap.</li>
Duncan Sands978bcee2008-10-13 17:27:23 +0000626<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
627and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
628(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).</li>
629<li>Some gcc specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000630<li>The -E binder option (exception backtraces)
631<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
632crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use -E.</li>
633<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
634or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
635or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
636starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000637<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
638'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
639Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
640<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
641<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
642ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000643</ul>
644</div>
645
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000646<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000647<div class="doc_section">
648 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
649</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000650<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
651
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000652<div class="doc_text">
653
Chris Lattner416db102005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000654<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000655href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
656href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000657contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
658Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman109d9e82005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000659You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
660into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000661
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000662<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000663us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000664lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000665
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000666</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000667
668<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000669
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000670<hr>
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Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000676
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000677 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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