Gitiles
Code Review Sign In
gerrit-public.fairphone.software / fp2-dev / platform / external / llvm / f720a4edb0343a288bfc77ccbedfdb164ed37742 / . / docs / ReleaseNotes.html
blob: e25f44ea9e0020beecdcbb29ce9df9bc69e548ac [file] [log] [blame]
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
3<html>
4<head>
Reid Spencer6454ed32004-11-18 18:38:58 +0000[diff] [blame]5 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]6 <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]7 <title>LLVM 2.7 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
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]11<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.7 Release Notes</div>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]12
Chris Lattner0e464a92010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000[diff] [blame]13<img align=right src="http://llvm.org/img/DragonSmall.png"
Gabor Greifee2187a2010-04-22 10:21:43 +0000[diff] [blame]14 width="136" height="136" alt="LLVM Dragon Logo">
Chris Lattner0e464a92010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000[diff] [blame]15
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]16<ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]17 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]18 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]19 <li><a href="#externalproj">External Projects Using LLVM 2.7</a></li>
20 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.7?</a></li>
Chris Lattner4b538b92004-04-30 22:17:12 +0000[diff] [blame]21 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]22 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +0000[diff] [blame]23 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]24 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]25</ol>
26
Chris Lattner7911ce22004-05-23 21:07:27 +0000[diff] [blame]27<div class="doc_author">
Dan Gohman44aa9212008-10-14 16:23:02 +0000[diff] [blame]28 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]29</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]30
Chris Lattner00736fc2010-04-13 06:37:00 +0000[diff] [blame]31<!--
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]32<h1 style="color:red">These are in-progress notes for the upcoming LLVM 2.8
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]33release.<br>
34You may prefer the
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]35<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/2.6/docs/ReleaseNotes.html">LLVM 2.7
Chris Lattner00736fc2010-04-13 06:37:00 +0000[diff] [blame]36Release Notes</a>.</h1>-->
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]37
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]38<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]39<div class="doc_section">
40 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
41</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]42<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
43
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]44<div class="doc_text">
45
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]46<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]47Infrastructure, release 2.7. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]48major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]49All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]50href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000[diff] [blame]51
Chris Lattner7506b1d2004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000[diff] [blame]52<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000[diff] [blame]53release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000[diff] [blame]54web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattnerc66bfef2010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000[diff] [blame]55href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's
56Mailing List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]57
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]58<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]59main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greiffa933f82008-10-14 11:00:32 +0000[diff] [blame]60current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]61<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]62
63</div>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]64
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]65
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]66<!--
67Almost dead code.
68 include/llvm/Analysis/LiveValues.h => Dan
69 lib/Transforms/IPO/MergeFunctions.cpp => consider for 2.8.
70 llvm/Analysis/PointerTracking.h => Edwin wants this, consider for 2.8.
Chris Lattner00736fc2010-04-13 06:37:00 +0000[diff] [blame]71 ABCD, GEPSplitterPass
Chris Lattner048fe3c2010-01-16 21:25:13 +0000[diff] [blame]72 MSIL backend?
Chris Lattnerdc910082010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000[diff] [blame]73 lib/Transforms/Utils/SSI.cpp -> ABCD depends on it.
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]74-->
75
76
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]77<!-- Features that need text if they're finished for 2.7:
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]78 combiner-aa?
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]79 strong phi elim
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]80 llvm.dbg.value: variable debug info for optimized code
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]81 loop dependence analysis
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]82 -->
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]83
Chris Lattner547a3912008-10-12 19:47:48 +0000[diff] [blame]84 <!-- for announcement email:
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]85 Logo web page.
86 llvm devmtg
87 compiler_rt
88 KLEE web page at klee.llvm.org
89 Many new papers added to /pubs/
Chris Lattnerdc910082010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000[diff] [blame]90 Mention gcc plugin.
Chris Lattner74c80df2009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000[diff] [blame]91 -->
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]92
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]93<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
94<div class="doc_section">
95 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000[diff] [blame]96</div>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]97<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000[diff] [blame]98
99<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]100<p>
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]101The LLVM 2.7 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]102repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators
103and supporting tools), the Clang repository and the llvm-gcc repository. In
104addition to this code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in
105development. Here we include updates on these subprojects.
Bill Wendling63d8c552009-03-02 04:28:57 +0000[diff] [blame]106</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]107
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]108</div>
109
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]110
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]111<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]112<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000[diff] [blame]113<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]114</div>
115
116<div class="doc_text">
117
Douglas Gregorf720a4e2010-04-22 20:42:40 +0000[diff] [blame^]118<p><a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang</a> is an LLVM front end for the C, C++, and Objective-C languages. Clang aims to provide a better user experience through expressive diagnostics, a high level of conformance to language standards, fast compilation, and low memory use. Like LLVM, Clang provides a modular, library-based architecture that makes it suitable for creating or integrating with other development tools. Clang is considered a production-quality compiler for C and Objective-C on x86 (32- and 64-bit).</p>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]119
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]120<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
Bill Wendling741748a2008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000[diff] [blame]121
Daniel Dunbar13739432008-10-14 23:25:09 +0000[diff] [blame]122<ul>
Douglas Gregorf720a4e2010-04-22 20:42:40 +0000[diff] [blame^]123
124<li>C++ Support: Clang is now capable of self-hosting! While still alpha-quality, Clang's C++ support has matured enough to build LLVM and Clang, and C++ is now enabled by default. See the <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_compatibility.html">Clang C++ compatibility page</a> for common C++ migration issues.</li>
125
126<li>New warnings: Clang contains a number of new warnings, including control-flow warnings (unreachable code, missing return statements in a non-<code>void</code> function, etc.), sign-comparison warnings, and improved format-string warnings.</li>
Daniel Dunbar60dadb62010-03-25 16:09:18 +0000[diff] [blame]127
Daniel Dunbar60dadb62010-03-25 16:09:18 +0000[diff] [blame]128<li>CIndex API and Python bindings: Clang now includes a C API as part of the
129CIndex library. Although we make make some changes to the API in the future, it
130is intended to be stable and has been designed for use by external projects. See
131the Clang
132doxygen <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/group__CINDEX.html">CIndex</a>
Wesley Peck1f433612010-04-22 14:19:00 +0000[diff] [blame]133documentation for more details. The CIndex API also includes a preliminary
Daniel Dunbar60dadb62010-03-25 16:09:18 +0000[diff] [blame]134set of Python bindings.</li>
135
136<li>ARM Support: Clang now has ABI support for both the Darwin and Linux ARM
137ABIs. Coupled with many improvements to the LLVM ARM backend, Clang is now
138suitable for use as a a beta quality ARM compiler.</li>
Bill Wendling6bc15282009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000[diff] [blame]139</ul>
Chris Lattnerfb97b2d2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000[diff] [blame]140</div>
141
142<!--=========================================================================-->
143<div class="doc_subsection">
144<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
145</div>
146
147<div class="doc_text">
148
Chris Lattner8cdd7932010-04-22 06:38:11 +0000[diff] [blame]149<p>The <a href="http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
150 project is an effort to use static source code analysis techniques to
151 automatically find bugs in C and Objective-C programs (and hopefully <a
152 href="http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/dev_cxx.html">C++ in the
153 future</a>!). The tool is very good at finding bugs that occur on specific
154 paths through code, such as on error conditions.</p>
Chris Lattnercc042612008-10-14 00:52:49 +0000[diff] [blame]155
Chris Lattner8cdd7932010-04-22 06:38:11 +0000[diff] [blame]156<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the analyzer core has made several major and
157 minor improvements, including better support for tracking the fields of
158 structures, initial support (not enabled by default yet) for doing
159 interprocedural (cross-function) analysis, and new checks have been added.
160</p>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]161
162</div>
163
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]164<!--=========================================================================-->
165<div class="doc_subsection">
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]166<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]167</div>
168
169<div class="doc_text">
170<p>
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]171The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]172a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machine (Microsoft .NET is an
173implementation of the CLI) using LLVM for static and just-in-time
174compilation.</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]175
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]176<p>
Chris Lattnerbf8e5162010-03-29 18:34:13 +0000[diff] [blame]177With the release of LLVM 2.7, VMKit has shifted to a great framework for writing
178virtual machines. VMKit now offers precise and efficient garbage collection with
179multi-threading support, thanks to the MMTk memory management toolkit, as well
180as just in time and ahead of time compilation with LLVM. The major changes in
181VMKit 0.27 are:</p>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]182
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]183<ul>
184
Chris Lattnerbf8e5162010-03-29 18:34:13 +0000[diff] [blame]185<li>Garbage collection: VMKit now uses the MMTk toolkit for garbage collectors.
186 The first collector to be ported is the MarkSweep collector, which is precise,
187 and drastically improves the performance of VMKit.</li>
188<li>Line number information in the JVM: by using the debug metadata of LLVM, the
189 JVM now supports precise line number information, useful when printing a stack
190 trace.</li>
191<li>Interface calls in the JVM: we implemented a variant of the Interface Method
192 Table technique for interface calls in the JVM.
193</li>
Nicolas Geoffray99a4d302008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000[diff] [blame]194
195</ul>
Chris Lattner96a445e2008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000[diff] [blame]196</div>
197
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]198
199<!--=========================================================================-->
200<div class="doc_subsection">
201<a name="compiler-rt">compiler-rt: Compiler Runtime Library</a>
202</div>
203
204<div class="doc_text">
205<p>
206The new LLVM <a href="http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/">compiler-rt project</a>
207is a simple library that provides an implementation of the low-level
208target-specific hooks required by code generation and other runtime components.
209For example, when compiling for a 32-bit target, converting a double to a 64-bit
210unsigned integer is compiled into a runtime call to the "__fixunsdfdi"
211function. The compiler-rt library provides highly optimized implementations of
212this and other low-level routines (some are 3x faster than the equivalent
213libgcc routines).</p>
214
215<p>
216All of the code in the compiler-rt project is available under the standard LLVM
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]217License, a "BSD-style" license. New in LLVM 2.7: compiler_rt now
218supports ARM targets.</p>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]219
220</div>
221
222<!--=========================================================================-->
223<div class="doc_subsection">
Duncan Sands749fd832010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000[diff] [blame]224<a name="dragonegg">DragonEgg: llvm-gcc ported to gcc-4.5</a>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]225</div>
226
227<div class="doc_text">
228<p>
Duncan Sands749fd832010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000[diff] [blame]229<a href="http://dragonegg.llvm.org/">DragonEgg</a> is a port of llvm-gcc to
230gcc-4.5. Unlike llvm-gcc, which makes many intrusive changes to the underlying
231gcc-4.2 code, dragonegg in theory does not require any gcc-4.5 modifications
232whatsoever (currently one small patch is needed). This is thanks to the new
233<a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/plugins">gcc plugin architecture</a>, which
234makes it possible to modify the behaviour of gcc at runtime by loading a plugin,
235which is nothing more than a dynamic library which conforms to the gcc plugin
236interface. DragonEgg is a gcc plugin that causes the LLVM optimizers to be run
237instead of the gcc optimizers, and the LLVM code generators instead of the gcc
238code generators, just like llvm-gcc. To use it, you add
239"-fplugin=path/dragonegg.so" to the gcc-4.5 command line, and gcc-4.5 magically
240becomes llvm-gcc-4.5!
241</p>
242
243<p>
244DragonEgg is still a work in progress. Currently C works very well, while C++,
245Ada and Fortran work fairly well. All other languages either don't work at all,
246or only work poorly. For the moment only the x86-32 and x86-64 targets are
Duncan Sands51a51742010-04-20 19:40:58 +0000[diff] [blame]247supported, and only on linux and darwin (darwin needs an additional gcc patch).
Duncan Sands749fd832010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000[diff] [blame]248</p>
249
250<p>
Duncan Sandscb9dda62010-04-21 13:51:48 +0000[diff] [blame]251DragonEgg is a new project which is seeing its first release with llvm-2.7.
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]252</p>
253
254</div>
255
256
257<!--=========================================================================-->
258<div class="doc_subsection">
259<a name="mc">llvm-mc: Machine Code Toolkit</a>
260</div>
261
262<div class="doc_text">
263<p>
Chris Lattner8cdd7932010-04-22 06:38:11 +0000[diff] [blame]264The LLVM Machine Code (aka MC) sub-project of LLVM was created to solve a number
265of problems in the realm of assembly, disassembly, object file format handling,
266and a number of other related areas that CPU instruction-set level tools work
267in. It is a sub-project of LLVM which provides it with a number of advantages
268over other compilers that do not have tightly integrated assembly-level tools.
269For a gentle introduction, please see the <a
270href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/04/intro-to-llvm-mc-project.html">Intro to the
271LLVM MC Project Blog Post</a>.
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]272</p>
273
Chris Lattner8cdd7932010-04-22 06:38:11 +0000[diff] [blame]274<p>2.7 includes major parts of the work required by the new MC Project. A few
275 targets have been refactored to support it, and work is underway to support a
276 native assembler in LLVM. This work is not complete in LLVM 2.7, but you has
277 made substantially more progress on LLVM mainline.</p>
278
279<p>One minor example of what MC can do is to transcode an AT&amp;T syntax
Gabor Greifed387452010-04-22 10:25:23 +0000[diff] [blame]280 X86 .s file into intel syntax. You can do this with something like:</p>
Chris Lattner8cdd7932010-04-22 06:38:11 +0000[diff] [blame]281<pre>
282 llvm-mc foo.s -output-asm-variant=1 -o foo-intel.s
283</pre>
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]284
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]285</div>
286
287
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]288<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
289<div class="doc_section">
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]290 <a name="externalproj">External Open Source Projects Using LLVM 2.7</a>
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]291</div>
292<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
293
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]294<div class="doc_text">
295
296<p>An exciting aspect of LLVM is that it is used as an enabling technology for
297 a lot of other language and tools projects. This section lists some of the
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]298 projects that have already been updated to work with LLVM 2.7.</p>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]299</div>
300
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]301<!--=========================================================================-->
302<div class="doc_subsection">
303<a name="pure">Pure</a>
304</div>
305
306<div class="doc_text">
307<p>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]308<a href="http://pure-lang.googlecode.com/">Pure</a>
309is an algebraic/functional programming language based on term rewriting.
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]310Programs are collections of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in
311a symbolic fashion. Pure offers dynamic typing, eager and lazy evaluation,
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]312lexical closures, a hygienic macro system (also based on term rewriting),
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]313built-in list and matrix support (including list and matrix comprehensions) and
314an easy-to-use C interface. The interpreter uses LLVM as a backend to
315 JIT-compile Pure programs to fast native code.</p>
316
Chris Lattner477a1fd2010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000[diff] [blame]317<p>Pure versions 0.43 and later have been tested and are known to work with
318LLVM 2.7 (and continue to work with older LLVM releases >= 2.5).</p>
319
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]320</div>
321
Chris Lattnerbc31caf2009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000[diff] [blame]322<!--=========================================================================-->
323<div class="doc_subsection">
324<a name="RoadsendPHP">Roadsend PHP</a>
325</div>
326
327<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]328<p>
329<a href="http://code.roadsend.com/rphp">Roadsend PHP</a> (rphp) is an open
Chris Lattnercade8222009-03-02 19:07:24 +0000[diff] [blame]330source implementation of the PHP programming
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]331language that uses LLVM for its optimizer, JIT and static compiler. This is a
Chris Lattner0e464a92010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000[diff] [blame]332reimplementation of an earlier project that is now based on LLVM.
Chris Lattner477a1fd2010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000[diff] [blame]333</p>
Chris Lattnerbc31caf2009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000[diff] [blame]334</div>
Chris Lattnerab68e9e2009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000[diff] [blame]335
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]336<!--=========================================================================-->
337<div class="doc_subsection">
338<a name="UnladenSwallow">Unladen Swallow</a>
339</div>
340
341<div class="doc_text">
342<p>
343<a href="http://code.google.com/p/unladen-swallow/">Unladen Swallow</a> is a
344branch of <a href="http://python.org/">Python</a> intended to be fully
345compatible and significantly faster. It uses LLVM's optimization passes and JIT
Chris Lattnerb5f6feb2010-03-18 06:52:15 +0000[diff] [blame]346compiler.
Chris Lattner0e464a92010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000[diff] [blame]347</p>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]348</div>
349
350<!--=========================================================================-->
351<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner8d4bbbe2010-03-29 17:50:39 +0000[diff] [blame]352<a name="tce">TTA-based Codesign Environment (TCE)</a>
353</div>
354
355<div class="doc_text">
356<p>
357<a href="http://tce.cs.tut.fi/">TCE</a> is a toolset for designing
358application-specific processors (ASP) based on the Transport triggered
359architecture (TTA). The toolset provides a complete co-design flow from C/C++
360programs down to synthesizable VHDL and parallel program binaries. Processor
361customization points include the register files, function units, supported
362operations, and the interconnection network.</p>
363
364<p>TCE uses llvm-gcc/Clang and LLVM for C/C++ language support, target
365independent optimizations and also for parts of code generation. It generates
366new LLVM-based code generators "on the fly" for the designed TTA processors and
367loads them in to the compiler backend as runtime libraries to avoid per-target
368recompilation of larger parts of the compiler chain.</p>
369
370</div>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]371
John Criswellf77cdab2010-04-06 14:52:14 +0000[diff] [blame]372<!--=========================================================================-->
373<div class="doc_subsection">
374<a name="safecode">SAFECode Compiler</a>
375</div>
376
377<div class="doc_text">
378<p>
379<a href="http://safecode.cs.illinois.edu">SAFECode</a> is a memory safe C
380compiler built using LLVM. It takes standard, unannotated C code, analyzes the
381code to ensure that memory accesses and array indexing operations are safe, and
382instruments the code with run-time checks when safety cannot be proven
383statically.
384</p>
385</div>
386
Chris Lattnerfb1a7392010-04-22 17:28:36 +0000[diff] [blame]387<!--=========================================================================-->
388<div class="doc_subsection">
389<a name="icedtea">IcedTea Java Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
390</div>
John Criswellf77cdab2010-04-06 14:52:14 +0000[diff] [blame]391
Chris Lattnerfb1a7392010-04-22 17:28:36 +0000[diff] [blame]392<div class="doc_text">
393<p>
394<a href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/Main_Page">IcedTea</a> provides a
395harness to build OpenJDK using only free software build tools and to provide
396replacements for the not-yet free parts of OpenJDK. One of the extensions that
397IcedTea provides is a new JIT compiler named <a
398href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/ZeroSharkFaq">Shark</a> which uses LLVM
399to provide native code generation without introducing processor-dependent
400code.
401</p>
402<p>Icedtea6 1.8 and later have been tested and are known to work with
403LLVM 2.7 (and continue to work with older LLVM releases >= 2.6 as well).
404</p>
405</div>
406
407<!--=========================================================================-->
408<div class="doc_subsection">
409<a name="llvm-lua">LLVM-Lua</a>
410</div>
411
412<div class="doc_text">
413<p>
414<a href="http://code.google.com/p/llvm-lua/">LLVM-Lua</a> uses LLVM
415 to add JIT and static compiling support to the Lua VM. Lua
416bytecode is analyzed to remove type checks, then LLVM is used to compile the
417bytecode down to machine code.
418</p>
419<p>LLVM-Lua 1.2.0 have been tested and is known to work with LLVM 2.7.
420</p>
421</div>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]422<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
423<div class="doc_section">
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]424 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.7?</a>
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]425</div>
426<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
427
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000[diff] [blame]428<div class="doc_text">
429
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]430<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]431minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
432in this section.
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000[diff] [blame]433</p>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]434
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]435</div>
436
437<!--=========================================================================-->
438<div class="doc_subsection">
439<a name="orgchanges">LLVM Community Changes</a>
440</div>
441
442<div class="doc_text">
443
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]444<p>In addition to changes to the code, between LLVM 2.6 and 2.7, a number of
445organization changes have happened:
446</p>
447
448<ul>
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]449<li>LLVM has a new <a href="http://llvm.org/Logo.html">official logo</a>!</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]450
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]451<li>Ted Kremenek and Doug Gregor have stepped forward as <a
452 href="http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#owners">Code Owners</a> of the
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]453 Clang static analyzer and the Clang frontend, respectively.</li>
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]454
455<li>LLVM now has an <a href="http://blog.llvm.org">official Blog</a> at
456 <a href="http://blog.llvm.org">http://blog.llvm.org</a>. This is a great way
457 to learn about new LLVM-related features as they are implemented. Several
458 features in this release are already explained on the blog.</li>
459
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]460<li>The LLVM web pages are now checked into the SVN server, in the "www",
461 "www-pubs" and "www-releases" SVN modules. Previously they were hidden in a
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]462 largely inaccessible old CVS server.</li>
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]463
464<li><a href="http://llvm.org">llvm.org</a> is now hosted on a new (and much
465 faster) server. It is still graciously hosted at the University of Illinois
466 of Urbana Champaign.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]467</ul>
Chris Lattnerf8e0b4e2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000[diff] [blame]468</div>
469
Chris Lattner8348b472008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000[diff] [blame]470<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerea34f642008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000[diff] [blame]471<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000[diff] [blame]472<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
473</div>
474
475<div class="doc_text">
476
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]477<p>LLVM 2.7 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]478
479<ul>
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]480<li>2.7 includes initial support for the <a
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]481 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroBlaze">MicroBlaze</a> target.
482 MicroBlaze is a soft processor core designed for Xilinx FPGAs.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]483
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]484<li>2.7 includes a new LLVM IR "extensible metadata" feature. This feature
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]485 supports many different use cases, including allowing front-end authors to
486 encode source level information into LLVM IR, which is consumed by later
487 language-specific passes. This is a great way to do high-level optimizations
488 like devirtualization, type-based alias analysis, etc. See the <a
489 href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/04/extensible-metadata-in-llvm-ir.html">
490 Extensible Metadata Blog Post</a> for more information.</li>
491
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]492<li>2.7 encodes <a href="SourceLevelDebugging.html">debug information</a>
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]493in a completely new way, built on extensible metadata. The new implementation
494is much more memory efficient and paves the way for improvements to optimized
495code debugging experience.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]496
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]497<li>2.7 now directly supports taking the address of a label and doing an
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]498 indirect branch through a pointer. This is particularly useful for
499 interpreter loops, and is used to implement the GCC "address of label"
500 extension. For more information, see the <a
501href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/01/address-of-label-and-indirect-branches.html">
502Address of Label and Indirect Branches in LLVM IR Blog Post</a>.
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]503
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]504<li>2.7 is the first release to start supporting APIs for assembling and
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]505 disassembling target machine code. These APIs are useful for a variety of
506 low level clients, and are surfaced in the new "enhanced disassembly" API.
507 For more information see the <a
508 href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/01/x86-disassembler.html">The X86
509 Disassembler Blog Post</a> for more information.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]510
Chris Lattner8cdd7932010-04-22 06:38:11 +0000[diff] [blame]511<li>2.7 includes major parts of the work required by the new MC Project,
512 see the <a href="#mc">MC update above</a> for more information.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]513
Chris Lattner8170c102008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000[diff] [blame]514</ul>
Chris Lattnerdc910082010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000[diff] [blame]515
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]516</div>
517
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]518<!--=========================================================================-->
519<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]520<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM IR and Core Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]521</div>
522
523<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]524<p>LLVM IR has several new features for better support of new targets and that
525expose new optimization opportunities:</p>
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]526
Chris Lattner791f77b2008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000[diff] [blame]527<ul>
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]528<li>LLVM IR now supports a 16-bit "half float" data type through <a
529 href="LangRef.html#int_fp16">two new intrinsics</a> and APFloat support.</li>
530<li>LLVM IR supports two new <a href="LangRef.html#fnattrs">function
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]531 attributes</a>: inlinehint and alignstack(n). The former is a hint to the
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]532 optimizer that a function was declared 'inline' and thus the inliner should
533 weight it higher when considering inlining it. The later
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]534 indicates to the code generator that the function diverges from the platform
535 ABI on stack alignment.</li>
536<li>The new <a href="LangRef.html#int_objectsize">llvm.objectsize</a> intrinsic
537 allows the optimizer to infer the sizes of memory objects in some cases.
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]538 This intrinsic is used to implement the GCC <tt>__builtin_object_size</tt>
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]539 extension.</li>
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]540<li>LLVM IR now supports marking load and store instructions with <a
541 href="LangRef.html#i_load">"non-temporal" hints</a> (building on the new
542 metadata feature). This hint encourages the code
543 generator to generate non-temporal accesses when possible, which are useful
544 for code that is carefully managing cache behavior. Currently, only the
545 X86 backend provides target support for this feature.</li>
546
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]547<li>LLVM 2.7 has pre-alpha support for <a
Gabor Greifc8b3af92010-04-22 10:11:24 +0000[diff] [blame]548 href="LangRef.html#t_union">unions in LLVM IR</a>.
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]549 Unfortunately, this support is not really usable in 2.7, so if you're
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]550 interested in pushing it forward, please help contribute to LLVM mainline.</li>
Gabor Greifee2187a2010-04-22 10:21:43 +0000[diff] [blame]551
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]552</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovea65d7d2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000[diff] [blame]553
Chris Lattnerf304ffc2008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000[diff] [blame]554</div>
555
556<!--=========================================================================-->
557<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]558<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
559</div>
560
561<div class="doc_text">
562
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]563<p>In addition to a large array of minor performance tweaks and bug fixes, this
Chris Lattnerf3013872008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000[diff] [blame]564release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattneracce85d2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000[diff] [blame]565
566<ul>
567
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]568<li>The inliner reuses now merges arrays stack objects in different callees when
569 inlining multiple call sites into one function. This reduces the stack size
570 of the resultant function.</li>
571<li>The -basicaa alias analysis pass (which is the default) has been improved to
572 be less dependent on "type safe" pointers. It can now look through bitcasts
573 and other constructs more aggressively, allowing better load/store
574 optimization.</li>
575<li>The load elimination optimization in the GVN Pass [<a
576href="http://blog.llvm.org/2009/12/introduction-to-load-elimination-in-gvn.html">intro
577 blog post</a>] has been substantially improved to be more aggressive about
578 partial redundancy elimination and do more aggressive phi translation. Please
579 see the <a
580 href="http://blog.llvm.org/2009/12/advanced-topics-in-redundant-load.html">
581 Advanced Topics in Redundant Load Elimination with a Focus on PHI Translation
582 Blog Post</a> for more details.</li>
583<li>The module <a href="LangRef.html#datalayout">target data string</a> now
Wesley Peck68d1fe92010-04-22 13:28:34 +0000[diff] [blame]584 includes a notion of 'native' integer data types for the target. This
585 helps mid-level optimizations avoid promoting complex sequences of
586 operations to data types that are not natively supported (e.g. converting
587 i32 operations to i64 on 32-bit chips).</li>
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]588<li>The mid-level optimizer is now conservative when operating on a module with
589 no target data. Previously, it would default to SparcV9 settings, which is
590 not what most people expected.</li>
Chris Lattnera54c1f72010-04-21 06:42:24 +0000[diff] [blame]591<li>Jump threading is now much more aggressive at simplifying correlated
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]592 conditionals and threading blocks with otherwise complex logic. It has
593 subsumed the old "Conditional Propagation" pass, and -condprop has been
594 removed from LLVM 2.7.</li>
595<li>The -instcombine pass has been refactored from being one huge file to being
596 a library of its own. Internally, it uses a customized IRBuilder to clean
597 it up and simplify it.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]598
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]599<li>The optimal edge profiling pass is reliable and much more complete than in
600 2.6. It can be used with the llvm-prof tool but isn't wired up to the
601 llvm-gcc and clang command line options yet.</li>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]602
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]603<li>A new experimental alias analysis implementation, -scev-aa, has been added.
604 It uses LLVM's Scalar Evolution implementation to do symbolic analysis of
605 pointer offset expressions to disambiguate pointers. It can catch a few
606 cases that basicaa cannot, particularly in complex loop nests.</li>
Chris Lattnera54c1f72010-04-21 06:42:24 +0000[diff] [blame]607
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]608<li>The default pass ordering has been tweaked for improved optimization
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]609 effectiveness.</li>
Chris Lattnera54c1f72010-04-21 06:42:24 +0000[diff] [blame]610
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]611</ul>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]612
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]613</div>
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]614
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]615
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]616<!--=========================================================================-->
617<div class="doc_subsection">
618<a name="executionengine">Interpreter and JIT Improvements</a>
619</div>
Chris Lattnerf3013872008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000[diff] [blame]620
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]621<div class="doc_text">
622
623<ul>
Wesley Peck640604a2010-04-22 13:36:27 +0000[diff] [blame]624<li>The JIT now supports generating debug information and is compatible with
625the new GDB 7.0 (and later) interfaces for registering dynamically generated
626debug info.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]627
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]628<li>The JIT now <a href="http://llvm.org/PR5184">defaults
Jeffrey Yasskin01eba392010-01-29 19:10:38 +0000[diff] [blame]629to compiling eagerly</a> to avoid a race condition in the lazy JIT.
630Clients that still want the lazy JIT can switch it on by calling
631<tt>ExecutionEngine::DisableLazyCompilation(false)</tt>.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]632
Jeffrey Yasskin40966a72010-02-11 01:07:39 +0000[diff] [blame]633<li>It is now possible to create more than one JIT instance in the same process.
634These JITs can generate machine code in parallel,
635although <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/ProgrammersManual.html#jitthreading">you
636still have to obey the other threading restrictions</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]637
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000[diff] [blame]638</ul>
639
640</div>
641
642<!--=========================================================================-->
643<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]644<a name="codegen">Target Independent Code Generator Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000[diff] [blame]645</div>
646
647<div class="doc_text">
648
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]649<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator
650infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make
651it run faster:</p>
Chris Lattner0b832202008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000[diff] [blame]652
653<ul>
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]654<li>The 'llc -asm-verbose' option (which is now the default) has been enhanced
655 to emit many useful comments to .s files indicating information about spill
656 slots and loop nest structure. This should make it much easier to read and
657 understand assembly files. This is wired up in llvm-gcc and clang to
658 the <tt>-fverbose-asm</tt> option.</li>
659
660<li>New LSR with "full strength reduction" mode. FIXME: Description?</li>
661
662<li>A new codegen level Common Subexpression Elimination pass (MachineCSE)
663 is available and enabled by default. It catches redundancies exposed by
664 lowering.</li>
665<li>A new pre-register-allocation tail duplication pass is available and enabled
666 by default, it can substantially improve branch prediction quality in some
667 cases.</li>
668<li>A new sign and zero extension optimization pass (OptimizeExtsPass)
669 is available and enabled by default. This pass can takes advantage
670 architecture features like x86-64 implicit zero extension behavior and
671 sub-registers.</li>
672<li>The code generator now supports a mode where it attempts to preserve the
673 order of instructions in the input code. This is important for source that
674 is hand scheduled and extremely sensitive to scheduling. It is compatible
675 with the GCC <tt>-fno-schedule-insns</tt> option.</li>
676<li>The target-independent code generator now supports generating code with
677 arbitrary numbers of result values. Returning more values than was
678 previously supported is handled by returning through a hidden pointer. In
679 2.7, only the X86 and XCore targets have adopted support for this
680 though.</li>
681<li>The code generator now supports generating code that follows the
682 <a href="LangRef.html#callingconv">Glasgow Haskell Compiler Calling
683 Convention</a> and ABI.</li>
684<li>The "<a href="CodeGenerator.html#selectiondag_select">DAG instruction
685 selection</a>" phase of the code generator has been largely rewritten for
686 2.7. Previously, tblgen spit out tons of C++ code which was compiled and
687 linked into the target to do the pattern matching, now it emits a much
688 smaller table which is read by the target-independent code. The primary
689 advantages of this approach is that the size and compile time of various
690 targets is much improved. The X86 code generator shrunk by 1.5MB of code,
691 for example.</li>
692<li>Almost the entire code generator has switched to emitting code through the
693 MC interfaces instead of printing textually to the .s file. This led to a
694 number of cleanups and speedups. In 2.7, debug an exception handling
695 information does not go through MC yet.</li>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]696</ul>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]697</div>
698
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]699<!--=========================================================================-->
700<div class="doc_subsection">
701<a name="x86">X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements</a>
702</div>
703
704<div class="doc_text">
705<p>New features of the X86 target include:
706</p>
707
708<ul>
Chris Lattnera54c1f72010-04-21 06:42:24 +0000[diff] [blame]709<li>The X86 backend now optimizes tails calls much more aggressively for
710 functions that use the standard C calling convention.</li>
711<li>The X86 backend now models scalar SSE registers as subregs of the SSE vector
712 registers, making the code generator more aggressive in cases where scalars
713 and vector types are mixed.</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]714
Chris Lattnera54c1f72010-04-21 06:42:24 +0000[diff] [blame]715<li>PostRA scheduler for X86? FIXME: is this on by default in 2.7?</li>
Chris Lattner511433e2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000[diff] [blame]716
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]717</ul>
718
Chris Lattner917cc712009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000[diff] [blame]719</div>
Chris Lattner84977642007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000[diff] [blame]720
721<!--=========================================================================-->
722<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]723<a name="ARM">ARM Target Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]724</div>
725
726<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]727<p>New features of the ARM target include:
728</p>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]729
730<ul>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]731
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]732<li>The ARM backend now generates instructions in unified assembly syntax.</li>
733
734<li>llvm-gcc now has complete support for the ARM v7 NEON instruction set. This
735 support differs slightly from the GCC implementation. Please see the
736 <a
737href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/04/arm-advanced-simd-neon-intrinsics-and.html">
738 ARM Advanced SIMD (NEON) Intrinsics and Types in LLVM Blog Post</a> for
739 helpful information if migrating code from GCC to LLVM-GCC.</li>
740
Wesley Peck9e385b12010-04-22 13:43:14 +0000[diff] [blame]741<li>The ARM and Thumb code generators now use register scavenging for stack
Jim Grosbach269e0fe2010-04-22 18:28:43 +0000[diff] [blame]742 object address materialization. This allows the use of R3 as a general
743 purpose register in Thumb1 code, as it was previous reserved for use in
744 stack address materialization. Secondly, sequential uses of the same
745 value will now re-use the materialized constant.</li>
746
Wesley Peck9e385b12010-04-22 13:43:14 +0000[diff] [blame]747<li>The ARM backend now has good support for ARMv4 targets and has been tested
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]748 on StrongARM hardware. Previously, LLVM only supported ARMv4T and
749 newer chips.</li>
Jim Grosbach41a77662010-04-22 18:33:31 +0000[diff] [blame]750
751<li>Atomic builtins are now supported for ARMv6 and ARMv7 (__sync_synchronize,
752 __sync_fetch_and_add, etc.).</li>
753
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]754</ul>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]755
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]756
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]757</div>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]758
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]759<!--=========================================================================-->
760<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]761<a name="newapis">New Useful APIs</a>
762</div>
763
764<div class="doc_text">
765
766<p>This release includes a number of new APIs that are used internally, which
767 may also be useful for external clients.
768</p>
769
770<ul>
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]771<li>The optimizer uses the new CodeMetrics class to measure the size of code.
Chris Lattner83cd35a2010-04-22 17:39:38 +0000[diff] [blame]772 Various passes (like the inliner, loop unswitcher, etc) all use this to make
773 more accurate estimates of the code size impact of various
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]774 optimizations.</li>
775<li>A new <a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/InstructionSimplify_8h-source.html">
Wesley Peckc0287ba2010-04-22 13:50:46 +0000[diff] [blame]776 llvm/Analysis/InstructionSimplify.h</a> interface is available for doing
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]777 symbolic simplification of instructions (e.g. <tt>a+0</tt> -&gt; <tt>a</tt>)
778 without requiring the instruction to exist. This centralizes a lot of
779 ad-hoc symbolic manipulation code scattered in various passes.</li>
780<li>The optimizer now uses a new <a
781 href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/SSAUpdater_8h-source.html">SSAUpdater</a>
782 class which efficiently supports
783 doing unstructured SSA update operations. This centralized a bunch of code
Wesley Peckc0287ba2010-04-22 13:50:46 +0000[diff] [blame]784 scattered throughout various passes (e.g. jump threading, lcssa,
785 loop rotate, etc) for doing this sort of thing. The code generator has a
786 similar <a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/MachineSSAUpdater_8h-source.html">
Chris Lattner7b91eda2010-04-22 05:41:35 +0000[diff] [blame]787 MachineSSAUpdater</a> class.</li>
788<li>The <a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/Regex_8h-source.html">
789 llvm/Support/Regex.h</a> header exposes a platform independent regular
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]790 expression API. Building on this, the <a
791 href="TestingGuide.html#FileCheck">FileCheck</a> utility now supports
792 regular exressions.</li>
793<li>raw_ostream now supports a circular "debug stream" accessed with "dbgs()".
794 By default, this stream works the same way as "errs()", but if you pass
795 <tt>-debug-buffer-size=1000</tt> to opt, the debug stream is capped to a
796 fixed sized circular buffer and the output is printed at the end of the
797 program's execution. This is helpful if you have a long lived compiler
798 process and you're interested in seeing snapshots in time.</li>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]799</ul>
800
801
802</div>
803
804<!--=========================================================================-->
805<div class="doc_subsection">
806<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements and New Features</a>
807</div>
808
809<div class="doc_text">
810<p>Other miscellaneous features include:</p>
811
812<ul>
Chris Lattner450a31e2010-04-21 06:23:40 +0000[diff] [blame]813<li>You can now build LLVM as a big dynamic library (e.g. "libllvm2.7.so"). To
814 get this, configure LLVM with the --enable-shared option.</li>
815
Wesley Pecka0c44842010-04-22 13:53:54 +0000[diff] [blame]816<li>LLVM command line tools now overwrite their output by default. Previously,
817 they would only do this with -f. This makes them more convenient to use, and
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]818 behave more like standard unix tools.</li>
819
820<li>The opt and llc tools now autodetect whether their input is a .ll or .bc
821 file, and automatically do the right thing. This means you don't need to
822 explicitly use the llvm-as tool for most things.</li>
Chris Lattnerc441fb82009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000[diff] [blame]823</ul>
824
825</div>
826
Chris Lattner77d29b12008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000[diff] [blame]827
828<!--=========================================================================-->
829<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]830<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
831</div>
832
833<div class="doc_text">
834
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000[diff] [blame]835<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Jeffrey Yasskinbec48772010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000[diff] [blame]836on LLVM 2.6, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000[diff] [blame]837from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]838
839<ul>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]840
841<li>
842The Andersen's alias analysis ("anders-aa") pass, the Predicate Simplifier
843("predsimplify") pass, the LoopVR pass, the GVNPRE pass, and the random sampling
844profiling ("rsprofiling") passes have all been removed. They were not being
845actively maintained and had substantial problems. If you are interested in
846these components, you are welcome to ressurect them from SVN, fix the
847correctness problems, and resubmit them to mainline.</li>
848
849<li>LLVM now defaults to building most libraries with RTTI turned off, providing
850a code size reduction. Packagers who are interested in building LLVM to support
851plugins that require RTTI information should build with "make REQUIRE_RTTI=1"
852and should read the new <a href="Packaging.html">Advice on Packaging LLVM</a>
853document.</li>
854
Jeffrey Yasskinbc83d062010-02-09 23:03:44 +0000[diff] [blame]855<li>The LLVM interpreter now defaults to <em>not</em> using <tt>libffi</tt> even
856if you have it installed. This makes it more likely that an LLVM built on one
857system will work when copied to a similar system. To use <tt>libffi</tt>,
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]858configure with <tt>--enable-libffi</tt>.</li>
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000[diff] [blame]859
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]860<li>Debug information uses a completely different representation, an LLVM 2.6
861.bc file should work with LLVM 2.7, but debug info won't come forward.</li>
862
863<li>The LLVM 2.6 (and earlier) "malloc" and "free" instructions got removed,
864 along with LowerAllocations pass. Now you should just use a call to the
865 malloc and free functions in libc. These calls are optimized as well as
866 the old instructions were.</li>
867</ul>
Chris Lattnereeb4da02008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000[diff] [blame]868
869<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
870API changes are:</p>
871
872<ul>
Chris Lattnerb7c85b42010-04-21 05:17:40 +0000[diff] [blame]873<li>Just about everything has been converted to use raw_ostream instead of
874 std::ostream.</li>
875<li>llvm/ADT/iterator.h has been removed, just use &lt;iterator&gt;
876 instead.</li>
877<li>The Streams.h file and "DOUT" got removed, use "DEBUG(errs() &lt;&lt; ...);"
878 instead.</li>
Chris Lattnercd062cd2010-04-22 17:25:00 +0000[diff] [blame]879<li>The TargetAsmInfo interface was renamed to MCAsmInfo.</li>
Jeffrey Yasskin4fcd6072010-01-28 01:41:20 +0000[diff] [blame]880<li><tt>ModuleProvider</tt> has been <a
Gabor Greifee2187a2010-04-22 10:21:43 +0000[diff] [blame]881href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&amp;revision=94686">removed</a>
Jeffrey Yasskin4fcd6072010-01-28 01:41:20 +0000[diff] [blame]882and its methods moved to <tt>Module</tt> and <tt>GlobalValue</tt>.
883Most clients can remove uses of <tt>ExistingModuleProvider</tt>,
884replace <tt>getBitcodeModuleProvider</tt> with
885<tt>getLazyBitcodeModule</tt>, and pass their <tt>Module</tt> to
886functions that used to accept <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>. Clients who
887wrote their own <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>s will need to derive from
888<tt>GVMaterializer</tt> instead and use
889<tt>Module::setMaterializer</tt> to attach it to a
890<tt>Module</tt>.</li>
891
892<li><tt>GhostLinkage</tt> has given up the ghost.
893<tt>GlobalValue</tt>s that have not yet been read from their backing
894storage have the same linkage they will have after being read in.
895Clients must replace calls to
896<tt>GlobalValue::hasNotBeenReadFromBitcode</tt> with
897<tt>GlobalValue::isMaterializable</tt>.</li>
Daniel Dunbar4acdede2010-02-10 04:09:52 +0000[diff] [blame]898
Duncan Sands411432d2010-02-17 17:20:17 +0000[diff] [blame]899<li>The <tt>isInteger</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVector</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPoint</tt>,
900<tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> methods have been renamed
901<tt>isIntegerTy</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVectorTy</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPointTy</tt>,
902<tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> respectively.</li>
Chris Lattnercd062cd2010-04-22 17:25:00 +0000[diff] [blame]903
904<li><tt>llvm::Instruction::clone()</tt> no longer takes argument.</li>
905<li><tt>raw_fd_ostream</tt>'s constructor now takes a flag argument, not individual
906 booleans (see <tt>include/llvm/Support/raw_ostream.h</tt> for details).</li>
907<li>Some header files have been renamed:
908<ul>
909 <li><tt>llvm/Support/AIXDataTypesFix.h</tt> to
910 <tt>llvm/System/AIXDataTypesFix.h</tt></li>
911 <li><tt>llvm/Support/DataTypes.h</tt> to <tt>llvm/System/DataTypes.h</tt></li>
912 <li><tt>llvm/Transforms/Utils/InlineCost.h</tt> to
913 <tt>llvm/Analysis/InlineCost.h</tt></li>
914 <li><tt>llvm/Support/Mangler.h</tt> to <tt>llvm/Target/Mangler.h</tt></li>
915 <li><tt>llvm/Analysis/Passes.h</tt> to <tt>llvm/CodeGen/Passes.h</tt></li>
916</ul></li>
Devang Patelb34dd132008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000[diff] [blame]917</ul>
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]918
Chris Lattnerf6662f92008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000[diff] [blame]919</div>
920
921
922
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000[diff] [blame]923<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]924<div class="doc_section">
925 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
926</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000[diff] [blame]927<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
928
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]929<div class="doc_text">
930
John Criswell0b5b5e92004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000[diff] [blame]931<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000[diff] [blame]932
933<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]934<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]935 Linux, Fedora Core, FreeBSD and AuroraUX (and probably other unix-like
936 systems).</li>
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]937<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.4 and above in 32-bit
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]938 and 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattner252b83d2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000[diff] [blame]939<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]940<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
941 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Chris Lattner7e23d6e2009-10-16 16:30:58 +0000[diff] [blame]942<li>Sun x86 and AMD64 machines running Solaris 10, OpenSolaris 0906.</li>
John Criswell9321fa82005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]943<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Chris Lattner4654bdb2004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000[diff] [blame]944</ul>
945
Chris Lattnerbc5786b2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000[diff] [blame]946<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekeb0fd7612004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000[diff] [blame]947to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
948porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
949portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]950
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]951</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]952
953<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]954<div class="doc_section">
955 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
956</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]957<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
958
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]959<div class="doc_text">
960
Mikhail Glushenkovf795ef02009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000[diff] [blame]961<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
Chris Lattnere18b32e2008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000[diff] [blame]962listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnerc463b272005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000[diff] [blame]963href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000[diff] [blame]964there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]965
Chris Lattner477a1fd2010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000[diff] [blame]966<ul>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]967<li>LLVM will not correctly compile on Solaris and/or OpenSolaris
968using the stock GCC 3.x.x series 'out the box',
Chris Lattner554ee4a2009-11-03 21:50:09 +0000[diff] [blame]969See: <a href="GettingStarted.html#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a>.
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]970However, A <a href="http://pkg.auroraux.org/GCC">Modern GCC Build</a>
971for x86/x86-64 has been made available from the third party AuroraUX Project
972that has been meticulously tested for bootstrapping LLVM &amp; Clang.</li>
973</ul>
974
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]975</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]976
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]977<!-- ======================================================================= -->
978<div class="doc_subsection">
979 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
980</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]981
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]982<div class="doc_text">
983
Misha Brukman6df9e2c2004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000[diff] [blame]984<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
985be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
986not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
987useful 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]988components, please contact us on the <a
989href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]990
991<ul>
Wesley Peck7c4a1212010-03-18 14:31:30 +0000[diff] [blame]992<li>The MSIL, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, PIC16, Blackfin, MSP430, SystemZ and MicroBlaze
993 backends are experimental.</li>
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]994<li><tt>llc</tt> "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only
Chris Lattnerc66bfef2010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000[diff] [blame]995 supported value for this option. The MachO writer is experimental, and
996 works much better in mainline SVN.</li>
Chris Lattnerf5ee1702004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000[diff] [blame]997</ul>
998
999</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1000
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1001<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1002<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1003 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000[diff] [blame]1004</div>
1005
1006<div class="doc_text">
1007
1008<ul>
Anton Korobeynikova6094be2008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000[diff] [blame]1009 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
1010 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
1011 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
1012 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000[diff] [blame]1013 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
1014 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands47eff2b2008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000[diff] [blame]1015 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]1016 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build the mingw64
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]1017 runtime currently due to lack of support for the 'u' inline assembly
1018 constraint and for X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000[diff] [blame]1019 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
Chris Lattner914ce462010-04-22 06:28:20 +0000[diff] [blame]1020 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, front-ends support variadic
Dan Gohman8207ba92008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000[diff] [blame]1021 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1022</ul>
1023
1024</div>
1025
1026<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1027<div class="doc_subsection">
1028 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
1029</div>
1030
1031<div class="doc_text">
1032
1033<ul>
Nicolas Geoffraye4285dc2007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1034<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]1035compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1036</ul>
1037
1038</div>
1039
1040<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1041<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]1042 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
1043</div>
1044
1045<div class="doc_text">
1046
1047<ul>
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]1048<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sandsc90d68b2007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000[diff] [blame]1049processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattner57a460e2007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000[diff] [blame]1050results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]1051<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported but not fully tested.
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]1052</li>
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]1053</ul>
1054
1055</div>
1056
1057<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1058<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1059 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
1060</div>
1061
1062<div class="doc_text">
1063
1064<ul>
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]1065<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]1066 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
1067</ul>
1068
1069</div>
1070
1071<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1072<div class="doc_subsection">
Bruno Cardoso Lopesb7e1a4f2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000[diff] [blame]1073 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
1074</div>
1075
1076<div class="doc_text">
1077
1078<ul>
Bruno Cardoso Lopesb7e1a4f2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000[diff] [blame]1079<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
1080</ul>
1081
1082</div>
1083
1084<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1085<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1086 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
1087</div>
1088
1089<div class="doc_text">
1090
1091<ul>
1092
1093<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
1094appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
1095
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000[diff] [blame]1096</ul>
1097</div>
1098
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1099<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1100<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerf3e5bc62007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000[diff] [blame]1101 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1102</div>
1103
1104<div class="doc_text">
1105
1106<ul>
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]1107<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
1108 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner725a0d82007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000[diff] [blame]1109<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
1110 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Gabor Greif4906abe2009-03-02 12:02:51 +0000[diff] [blame]1111 C++ code compiled with <tt>llc</tt> or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandsf74c0cc2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000[diff] [blame]1112<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Duncan Sands50723a92009-02-25 11:51:54 +0000[diff] [blame]1113<li>The C backend does not support arbitrary precision integers.</li>
Chris Lattner26299222006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000[diff] [blame]1114</ul>
1115
1116</div>
John Criswellc0c186d2005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000[diff] [blame]1117
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1118
1119<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1120<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerc66bfef2010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000[diff] [blame]1121 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C and C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1122</div>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000[diff] [blame]1123
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1124<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc5d658a2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000[diff] [blame]1125
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]1126<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
1127 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
1128 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000[diff] [blame]1129 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
1130 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1131
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1132</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1133
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1134<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1135<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000[diff] [blame]1136 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
1137</div>
1138
1139<div class="doc_text">
Gabor Greifba10fe02008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000[diff] [blame]1140<ul>
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000[diff] [blame]1141<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]1142 in <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">Bugzilla</a>. Please see the
1143 tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
Gabor Greifba10fe02008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000[diff] [blame]1144</ul>
Chris Lattner1eb4df62008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000[diff] [blame]1145</div>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1146
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]1147<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1148<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner5733b272008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000[diff] [blame]1149 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]1150</div>
1151
1152<div class="doc_text">
John Criswell524a5dd2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000[diff] [blame]1153The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well; however, this is not a mature
1154technology, and problems should be expected.
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]1155<ul>
Duncan Sands27aff872008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000[diff] [blame]1156<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]1157to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms.
1158However, 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]1159which does support trampolines.</li>
1160<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]1161This is due to lack of LLVM support for <tt>setjmp</tt>/<tt>longjmp</tt> style
1162exception handling, which is used internally by the compiler.
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]1163Workaround: configure with <tt>--disable-bootstrap</tt>.</li>
Duncan Sands978bcee2008-10-13 17:27:23 +0000[diff] [blame]1164<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
1165and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
Duncan Sands326a4982009-02-25 11:59:06 +0000[diff] [blame]1166(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).
1167If the compiler is built with checks disabled then <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
1168causes the compiler to go into an infinite loop, using up all system memory.</li>
Duncan Sandsdd3e6722009-03-02 16:35:57 +0000[diff] [blame]1169<li>Some GCC specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]1170<li>The <tt>-E</tt> binder option (exception backtraces)
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]1171<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
Chris Lattner61358ab2009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000[diff] [blame]1172crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use <tt>-E</tt>.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]1173<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
1174or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
1175or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
1176starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnere6e1b352008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000[diff] [blame]1177<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
1178'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
1179Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
1180<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
1181<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
1182ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner2b659ef2008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000[diff] [blame]1183</ul>
1184</div>
1185
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1186<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1187<div class="doc_section">
1188 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
1189</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1190<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1191
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1192<div class="doc_text">
1193
Chris Lattner416db102005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000[diff] [blame]1194<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000[diff] [blame]1195href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
1196href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencer669ed452007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000[diff] [blame]1197contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
1198Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman109d9e82005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000[diff] [blame]1199You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
1200into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1201
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1202<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]1203us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000[diff] [blame]1204lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1205
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1206</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1207
1208<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1209
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1210<hr>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000[diff] [blame]1211<address>
Misha Brukman38847d52003-12-21 22:53:21 +0000[diff] [blame]1212 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
Misha Brukman44408702008-12-11 17:34:48 +0000[diff] [blame]1213 src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss-blue" alt="Valid CSS"></a>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000[diff] [blame]1214 <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
Misha Brukman44408702008-12-11 17:34:48 +0000[diff] [blame]1215 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]1216
Chris Lattnerb4b0ce72007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000[diff] [blame]1217 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1218 Last modified: $Date$
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000[diff] [blame]1219</address>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000[diff] [blame]1220
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000[diff] [blame]1221</body>
1222</html>