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Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001============================
2Clang Compiler User's Manual
3============================
4
5.. contents::
6 :local:
7
8Introduction
9============
10
11The Clang Compiler is an open-source compiler for the C family of
12programming languages, aiming to be the best in class implementation of
13these languages. Clang builds on the LLVM optimizer and code generator,
14allowing it to provide high-quality optimization and code generation
15support for many targets. For more general information, please see the
16`Clang Web Site <http://clang.llvm.org>`_ or the `LLVM Web
17Site <http://llvm.org>`_.
18
19This document describes important notes about using Clang as a compiler
20for an end-user, documenting the supported features, command line
21options, etc. If you are interested in using Clang to build a tool that
Dmitri Gribenko5cc05802012-12-15 20:41:17 +000022processes code, please see :doc:`InternalsManual`. If you are interested in the
23`Clang Static Analyzer <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org>`_, please see its web
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000024page.
25
26Clang is designed to support the C family of programming languages,
27which includes :ref:`C <c>`, :ref:`Objective-C <objc>`, :ref:`C++ <cxx>`, and
28:ref:`Objective-C++ <objcxx>` as well as many dialects of those. For
29language-specific information, please see the corresponding language
30specific section:
31
32- :ref:`C Language <c>`: K&R C, ANSI C89, ISO C90, ISO C94 (C89+AMD1), ISO
33 C99 (+TC1, TC2, TC3).
34- :ref:`Objective-C Language <objc>`: ObjC 1, ObjC 2, ObjC 2.1, plus
35 variants depending on base language.
36- :ref:`C++ Language <cxx>`
37- :ref:`Objective C++ Language <objcxx>`
38
39In addition to these base languages and their dialects, Clang supports a
40broad variety of language extensions, which are documented in the
41corresponding language section. These extensions are provided to be
42compatible with the GCC, Microsoft, and other popular compilers as well
43as to improve functionality through Clang-specific features. The Clang
44driver and language features are intentionally designed to be as
45compatible with the GNU GCC compiler as reasonably possible, easing
46migration from GCC to Clang. In most cases, code "just works".
Hans Wennborg0a6cf662013-10-10 01:15:16 +000047Clang also provides an alternative driver, :ref:`clang-cl`, that is designed
48to be compatible with the Visual C++ compiler, cl.exe.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000049
50In addition to language specific features, Clang has a variety of
51features that depend on what CPU architecture or operating system is
52being compiled for. Please see the :ref:`Target-Specific Features and
53Limitations <target_features>` section for more details.
54
55The rest of the introduction introduces some basic :ref:`compiler
56terminology <terminology>` that is used throughout this manual and
57contains a basic :ref:`introduction to using Clang <basicusage>` as a
58command line compiler.
59
60.. _terminology:
61
62Terminology
63-----------
64
65Front end, parser, backend, preprocessor, undefined behavior,
66diagnostic, optimizer
67
68.. _basicusage:
69
70Basic Usage
71-----------
72
73Intro to how to use a C compiler for newbies.
74
75compile + link compile then link debug info enabling optimizations
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -080076picking a language to use, defaults to C11 by default. Autosenses based
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000077on extension. using a makefile
78
79Command Line Options
80====================
81
82This section is generally an index into other sections. It does not go
83into depth on the ones that are covered by other sections. However, the
84first part introduces the language selection and other high level
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +000085options like :option:`-c`, :option:`-g`, etc.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000086
87Options to Control Error and Warning Messages
88---------------------------------------------
89
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +000090.. option:: -Werror
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000091
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +000092 Turn warnings into errors.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000093
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +000094.. This is in plain monospaced font because it generates the same label as
95.. -Werror, and Sphinx complains.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000096
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +000097``-Werror=foo``
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +000098
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +000099 Turn warning "foo" into an error.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000100
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000101.. option:: -Wno-error=foo
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000102
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000103 Turn warning "foo" into an warning even if :option:`-Werror` is specified.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000104
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000105.. option:: -Wfoo
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000106
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000107 Enable warning "foo".
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000108
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000109.. option:: -Wno-foo
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000110
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000111 Disable warning "foo".
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000112
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000113.. option:: -w
114
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700115 Disable all diagnostics.
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000116
117.. option:: -Weverything
118
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700119 :ref:`Enable all diagnostics. <diagnostics_enable_everything>`
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000120
121.. option:: -pedantic
122
123 Warn on language extensions.
124
125.. option:: -pedantic-errors
126
127 Error on language extensions.
128
129.. option:: -Wsystem-headers
130
131 Enable warnings from system headers.
132
133.. option:: -ferror-limit=123
134
135 Stop emitting diagnostics after 123 errors have been produced. The default is
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700136 20, and the error limit can be disabled with `-ferror-limit=0`.
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000137
138.. option:: -ftemplate-backtrace-limit=123
139
140 Only emit up to 123 template instantiation notes within the template
141 instantiation backtrace for a single warning or error. The default is 10, and
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700142 the limit can be disabled with `-ftemplate-backtrace-limit=0`.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000143
144.. _cl_diag_formatting:
145
146Formatting of Diagnostics
147^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
148
149Clang aims to produce beautiful diagnostics by default, particularly for
150new users that first come to Clang. However, different people have
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -0800151different preferences, and sometimes Clang is driven not by a human,
152but by a program that wants consistent and easily parsable output. For
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000153these cases, Clang provides a wide range of options to control the exact
154output format of the diagnostics that it generates.
155
156.. _opt_fshow-column:
157
158**-f[no-]show-column**
159 Print column number in diagnostic.
160
161 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
162 prints the column number of a diagnostic. For example, when this is
163 enabled, Clang will print something like:
164
165 ::
166
167 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
168 #endif bad
169 ^
170 //
171
172 When this is disabled, Clang will print "test.c:28: warning..." with
173 no column number.
174
175 The printed column numbers count bytes from the beginning of the
176 line; take care if your source contains multibyte characters.
177
178.. _opt_fshow-source-location:
179
180**-f[no-]show-source-location**
181 Print source file/line/column information in diagnostic.
182
183 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
184 prints the filename, line number and column number of a diagnostic.
185 For example, when this is enabled, Clang will print something like:
186
187 ::
188
189 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
190 #endif bad
191 ^
192 //
193
194 When this is disabled, Clang will not print the "test.c:28:8: "
195 part.
196
197.. _opt_fcaret-diagnostics:
198
199**-f[no-]caret-diagnostics**
200 Print source line and ranges from source code in diagnostic.
201 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
202 prints the source line, source ranges, and caret when emitting a
203 diagnostic. For example, when this is enabled, Clang will print
204 something like:
205
206 ::
207
208 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
209 #endif bad
210 ^
211 //
212
213**-f[no-]color-diagnostics**
214 This option, which defaults to on when a color-capable terminal is
215 detected, controls whether or not Clang prints diagnostics in color.
216
217 When this option is enabled, Clang will use colors to highlight
218 specific parts of the diagnostic, e.g.,
219
220 .. nasty hack to not lose our dignity
221
222 .. raw:: html
223
224 <pre>
225 <b><span style="color:black">test.c:28:8: <span style="color:magenta">warning</span>: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]</span></b>
226 #endif bad
227 <span style="color:green">^</span>
228 <span style="color:green">//</span>
229 </pre>
230
231 When this is disabled, Clang will just print:
232
233 ::
234
235 test.c:2:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
236 #endif bad
237 ^
238 //
239
Nico Rieck2956ef42013-09-11 00:38:02 +0000240**-fansi-escape-codes**
241 Controls whether ANSI escape codes are used instead of the Windows Console
242 API to output colored diagnostics. This option is only used on Windows and
243 defaults to off.
244
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000245.. option:: -fdiagnostics-format=clang/msvc/vi
246
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000247 Changes diagnostic output format to better match IDEs and command line tools.
248
249 This option controls the output format of the filename, line number,
250 and column printed in diagnostic messages. The options, and their
251 affect on formatting a simple conversion diagnostic, follow:
252
253 **clang** (default)
254 ::
255
256 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int'
257
258 **msvc**
259 ::
260
261 t.c(3,11) : warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int'
262
263 **vi**
264 ::
265
266 t.c +3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int'
267
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000268.. _opt_fdiagnostics-show-option:
269
270**-f[no-]diagnostics-show-option**
271 Enable ``[-Woption]`` information in diagnostic line.
272
273 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
274 prints the associated :ref:`warning group <cl_diag_warning_groups>`
275 option name when outputting a warning diagnostic. For example, in
276 this output:
277
278 ::
279
280 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
281 #endif bad
282 ^
283 //
284
285 Passing **-fno-diagnostics-show-option** will prevent Clang from
286 printing the [:ref:`-Wextra-tokens <opt_Wextra-tokens>`] information in
287 the diagnostic. This information tells you the flag needed to enable
288 or disable the diagnostic, either from the command line or through
289 :ref:`#pragma GCC diagnostic <pragma_GCC_diagnostic>`.
290
291.. _opt_fdiagnostics-show-category:
292
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000293.. option:: -fdiagnostics-show-category=none/id/name
294
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000295 Enable printing category information in diagnostic line.
296
297 This option, which defaults to "none", controls whether or not Clang
298 prints the category associated with a diagnostic when emitting it.
299 Each diagnostic may or many not have an associated category, if it
300 has one, it is listed in the diagnostic categorization field of the
301 diagnostic line (in the []'s).
302
303 For example, a format string warning will produce these three
304 renditions based on the setting of this option:
305
306 ::
307
308 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat]
309 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat,1]
310 t.c:3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int' [-Wformat,Format String]
311
312 This category can be used by clients that want to group diagnostics
313 by category, so it should be a high level category. We want dozens
314 of these, not hundreds or thousands of them.
315
316.. _opt_fdiagnostics-fixit-info:
317
318**-f[no-]diagnostics-fixit-info**
319 Enable "FixIt" information in the diagnostics output.
320
321 This option, which defaults to on, controls whether or not Clang
322 prints the information on how to fix a specific diagnostic
323 underneath it when it knows. For example, in this output:
324
325 ::
326
327 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
328 #endif bad
329 ^
330 //
331
332 Passing **-fno-diagnostics-fixit-info** will prevent Clang from
333 printing the "//" line at the end of the message. This information
334 is useful for users who may not understand what is wrong, but can be
335 confusing for machine parsing.
336
337.. _opt_fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info:
338
Nico Weber727d0d02013-01-09 05:06:41 +0000339**-fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info**
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000340 Print machine parsable information about source ranges.
Nico Weber727d0d02013-01-09 05:06:41 +0000341 This option makes Clang print information about source ranges in a machine
342 parsable format after the file/line/column number information. The
343 information is a simple sequence of brace enclosed ranges, where each range
344 lists the start and end line/column locations. For example, in this output:
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000345
346 ::
347
348 exprs.c:47:15:{47:8-47:14}{47:17-47:24}: error: invalid operands to binary expression ('int *' and '_Complex float')
349 P = (P-42) + Gamma*4;
350 ~~~~~~ ^ ~~~~~~~
351
352 The {}'s are generated by -fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info.
353
354 The printed column numbers count bytes from the beginning of the
355 line; take care if your source contains multibyte characters.
356
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000357.. option:: -fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits
358
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000359 Print Fix-Its in a machine parseable form.
360
361 This option makes Clang print available Fix-Its in a machine
362 parseable format at the end of diagnostics. The following example
363 illustrates the format:
364
365 ::
366
367 fix-it:"t.cpp":{7:25-7:29}:"Gamma"
368
369 The range printed is a half-open range, so in this example the
370 characters at column 25 up to but not including column 29 on line 7
371 in t.cpp should be replaced with the string "Gamma". Either the
372 range or the replacement string may be empty (representing strict
373 insertions and strict erasures, respectively). Both the file name
374 and the insertion string escape backslash (as "\\\\"), tabs (as
375 "\\t"), newlines (as "\\n"), double quotes(as "\\"") and
376 non-printable characters (as octal "\\xxx").
377
378 The printed column numbers count bytes from the beginning of the
379 line; take care if your source contains multibyte characters.
380
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000381.. option:: -fno-elide-type
382
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000383 Turns off elision in template type printing.
384
385 The default for template type printing is to elide as many template
386 arguments as possible, removing those which are the same in both
387 template types, leaving only the differences. Adding this flag will
388 print all the template arguments. If supported by the terminal,
389 highlighting will still appear on differing arguments.
390
391 Default:
392
393 ::
394
395 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'vector<map<[...], map<float, [...]>>>' to 'vector<map<[...], map<double, [...]>>>' for 1st argument;
396
397 -fno-elide-type:
398
399 ::
400
401 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'vector<map<int, map<float, int>>>' to 'vector<map<int, map<double, int>>>' for 1st argument;
402
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000403.. option:: -fdiagnostics-show-template-tree
404
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000405 Template type diffing prints a text tree.
406
407 For diffing large templated types, this option will cause Clang to
408 display the templates as an indented text tree, one argument per
409 line, with differences marked inline. This is compatible with
410 -fno-elide-type.
411
412 Default:
413
414 ::
415
416 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'vector<map<[...], map<float, [...]>>>' to 'vector<map<[...], map<double, [...]>>>' for 1st argument;
417
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000418 With :option:`-fdiagnostics-show-template-tree`:
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000419
420 ::
421
422 t.cc:4:5: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion for 1st argument;
423 vector<
424 map<
425 [...],
426 map<
Richard Trieu1ab77782013-08-09 22:52:48 +0000427 [float != double],
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000428 [...]>>>
429
430.. _cl_diag_warning_groups:
431
432Individual Warning Groups
433^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
434
435TODO: Generate this from tblgen. Define one anchor per warning group.
436
437.. _opt_wextra-tokens:
438
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000439.. option:: -Wextra-tokens
440
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000441 Warn about excess tokens at the end of a preprocessor directive.
442
443 This option, which defaults to on, enables warnings about extra
444 tokens at the end of preprocessor directives. For example:
445
446 ::
447
448 test.c:28:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive [-Wextra-tokens]
449 #endif bad
450 ^
451
452 These extra tokens are not strictly conforming, and are usually best
453 handled by commenting them out.
454
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000455.. option:: -Wambiguous-member-template
456
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000457 Warn about unqualified uses of a member template whose name resolves to
458 another template at the location of the use.
459
460 This option, which defaults to on, enables a warning in the
461 following code:
462
463 ::
464
465 template<typename T> struct set{};
466 template<typename T> struct trait { typedef const T& type; };
467 struct Value {
468 template<typename T> void set(typename trait<T>::type value) {}
469 };
470 void foo() {
471 Value v;
472 v.set<double>(3.2);
473 }
474
475 C++ [basic.lookup.classref] requires this to be an error, but,
476 because it's hard to work around, Clang downgrades it to a warning
477 as an extension.
478
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000479.. option:: -Wbind-to-temporary-copy
480
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000481 Warn about an unusable copy constructor when binding a reference to a
482 temporary.
483
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -0800484 This option enables warnings about binding a
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000485 reference to a temporary when the temporary doesn't have a usable
486 copy constructor. For example:
487
488 ::
489
490 struct NonCopyable {
491 NonCopyable();
492 private:
493 NonCopyable(const NonCopyable&);
494 };
495 void foo(const NonCopyable&);
496 void bar() {
497 foo(NonCopyable()); // Disallowed in C++98; allowed in C++11.
498 }
499
500 ::
501
502 struct NonCopyable2 {
503 NonCopyable2();
504 NonCopyable2(NonCopyable2&);
505 };
506 void foo(const NonCopyable2&);
507 void bar() {
508 foo(NonCopyable2()); // Disallowed in C++98; allowed in C++11.
509 }
510
511 Note that if ``NonCopyable2::NonCopyable2()`` has a default argument
512 whose instantiation produces a compile error, that error will still
513 be a hard error in C++98 mode even if this warning is turned off.
514
515Options to Control Clang Crash Diagnostics
516------------------------------------------
517
518As unbelievable as it may sound, Clang does crash from time to time.
519Generally, this only occurs to those living on the `bleeding
520edge <http://llvm.org/releases/download.html#svn>`_. Clang goes to great
521lengths to assist you in filing a bug report. Specifically, Clang
522generates preprocessed source file(s) and associated run script(s) upon
523a crash. These files should be attached to a bug report to ease
524reproducibility of the failure. Below are the command line options to
525control the crash diagnostics.
526
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000527.. option:: -fno-crash-diagnostics
528
529 Disable auto-generation of preprocessed source files during a clang crash.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000530
531The -fno-crash-diagnostics flag can be helpful for speeding the process
532of generating a delta reduced test case.
533
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -0700534Options to Emit Optimization Reports
535------------------------------------
536
537Optimization reports trace, at a high-level, all the major decisions
538done by compiler transformations. For instance, when the inliner
539decides to inline function ``foo()`` into ``bar()``, or the loop unroller
540decides to unroll a loop N times, or the vectorizer decides to
541vectorize a loop body.
542
543Clang offers a family of flags which the optimizers can use to emit
544a diagnostic in three cases:
545
5461. When the pass makes a transformation (:option:`-Rpass`).
547
5482. When the pass fails to make a transformation (:option:`-Rpass-missed`).
549
5503. When the pass determines whether or not to make a transformation
551 (:option:`-Rpass-analysis`).
552
553NOTE: Although the discussion below focuses on :option:`-Rpass`, the exact
554same options apply to :option:`-Rpass-missed` and :option:`-Rpass-analysis`.
555
556Since there are dozens of passes inside the compiler, each of these flags
557take a regular expression that identifies the name of the pass which should
558emit the associated diagnostic. For example, to get a report from the inliner,
559compile the code with:
560
561.. code-block:: console
562
563 $ clang -O2 -Rpass=inline code.cc -o code
564 code.cc:4:25: remark: foo inlined into bar [-Rpass=inline]
565 int bar(int j) { return foo(j, j - 2); }
566 ^
567
568Note that remarks from the inliner are identified with `[-Rpass=inline]`.
569To request a report from every optimization pass, you should use
570:option:`-Rpass=.*` (in fact, you can use any valid POSIX regular
571expression). However, do not expect a report from every transformation
572made by the compiler. Optimization remarks do not really make sense
573outside of the major transformations (e.g., inlining, vectorization,
574loop optimizations) and not every optimization pass supports this
575feature.
576
577Current limitations
578^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
579
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08005801. Optimization remarks that refer to function names will display the
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -0700581 mangled name of the function. Since these remarks are emitted by the
582 back end of the compiler, it does not know anything about the input
583 language, nor its mangling rules.
584
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08005852. Some source locations are not displayed correctly. The front end has
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -0700586 a more detailed source location tracking than the locations included
587 in the debug info (e.g., the front end can locate code inside macro
588 expansions). However, the locations used by :option:`-Rpass` are
589 translated from debug annotations. That translation can be lossy,
590 which results in some remarks having no location information.
591
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -0700592Other Options
593-------------
594Clang options that that don't fit neatly into other categories.
595
596.. option:: -MV
597
598 When emitting a dependency file, use formatting conventions appropriate
599 for NMake or Jom. Ignored unless another option causes Clang to emit a
600 dependency file.
601
602When Clang emits a dependency file (e.g., you supplied the -M option)
603most filenames can be written to the file without any special formatting.
604Different Make tools will treat different sets of characters as "special"
605and use different conventions for telling the Make tool that the character
606is actually part of the filename. Normally Clang uses backslash to "escape"
607a special character, which is the convention used by GNU Make. The -MV
608option tells Clang to put double-quotes around the entire filename, which
609is the convention used by NMake and Jom.
610
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -0700611
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000612Language and Target-Independent Features
613========================================
614
615Controlling Errors and Warnings
616-------------------------------
617
618Clang provides a number of ways to control which code constructs cause
619it to emit errors and warning messages, and how they are displayed to
620the console.
621
622Controlling How Clang Displays Diagnostics
623^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
624
625When Clang emits a diagnostic, it includes rich information in the
626output, and gives you fine-grain control over which information is
627printed. Clang has the ability to print this information, and these are
628the options that control it:
629
630#. A file/line/column indicator that shows exactly where the diagnostic
631 occurs in your code [:ref:`-fshow-column <opt_fshow-column>`,
632 :ref:`-fshow-source-location <opt_fshow-source-location>`].
633#. A categorization of the diagnostic as a note, warning, error, or
634 fatal error.
635#. A text string that describes what the problem is.
636#. An option that indicates how to control the diagnostic (for
637 diagnostics that support it)
638 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-show-option <opt_fdiagnostics-show-option>`].
639#. A :ref:`high-level category <diagnostics_categories>` for the diagnostic
640 for clients that want to group diagnostics by class (for diagnostics
641 that support it)
642 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-show-category <opt_fdiagnostics-show-category>`].
643#. The line of source code that the issue occurs on, along with a caret
644 and ranges that indicate the important locations
645 [:ref:`-fcaret-diagnostics <opt_fcaret-diagnostics>`].
646#. "FixIt" information, which is a concise explanation of how to fix the
647 problem (when Clang is certain it knows)
648 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-fixit-info <opt_fdiagnostics-fixit-info>`].
649#. A machine-parsable representation of the ranges involved (off by
650 default)
651 [:ref:`-fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info <opt_fdiagnostics-print-source-range-info>`].
652
653For more information please see :ref:`Formatting of
654Diagnostics <cl_diag_formatting>`.
655
656Diagnostic Mappings
657^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
658
Stephen Hines0e2c34f2015-03-23 12:09:02 -0700659All diagnostics are mapped into one of these 6 classes:
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000660
661- Ignored
662- Note
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700663- Remark
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000664- Warning
665- Error
666- Fatal
667
668.. _diagnostics_categories:
669
670Diagnostic Categories
671^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
672
673Though not shown by default, diagnostics may each be associated with a
674high-level category. This category is intended to make it possible to
675triage builds that produce a large number of errors or warnings in a
676grouped way.
677
678Categories are not shown by default, but they can be turned on with the
679:ref:`-fdiagnostics-show-category <opt_fdiagnostics-show-category>` option.
680When set to "``name``", the category is printed textually in the
681diagnostic output. When it is set to "``id``", a category number is
682printed. The mapping of category names to category id's can be obtained
683by running '``clang --print-diagnostic-categories``'.
684
685Controlling Diagnostics via Command Line Flags
686^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
687
688TODO: -W flags, -pedantic, etc
689
690.. _pragma_gcc_diagnostic:
691
692Controlling Diagnostics via Pragmas
693^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
694
695Clang can also control what diagnostics are enabled through the use of
696pragmas in the source code. This is useful for turning off specific
697warnings in a section of source code. Clang supports GCC's pragma for
698compatibility with existing source code, as well as several extensions.
699
700The pragma may control any warning that can be used from the command
701line. Warnings may be set to ignored, warning, error, or fatal. The
702following example code will tell Clang or GCC to ignore the -Wall
703warnings:
704
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000705.. code-block:: c
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000706
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000707 #pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wall"
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000708
709In addition to all of the functionality provided by GCC's pragma, Clang
710also allows you to push and pop the current warning state. This is
711particularly useful when writing a header file that will be compiled by
712other people, because you don't know what warning flags they build with.
713
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700714In the below example :option:`-Wextra-tokens` is ignored for only a single line
715of code, after which the diagnostics return to whatever state had previously
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000716existed.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000717
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000718.. code-block:: c
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000719
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700720 #if foo
721 #endif foo // warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000722
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700723 #pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wextra-tokens"
724
725 #if foo
726 #endif foo // no warning
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000727
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000728 #pragma clang diagnostic pop
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000729
730The push and pop pragmas will save and restore the full diagnostic state
731of the compiler, regardless of how it was set. That means that it is
732possible to use push and pop around GCC compatible diagnostics and Clang
733will push and pop them appropriately, while GCC will ignore the pushes
734and pops as unknown pragmas. It should be noted that while Clang
735supports the GCC pragma, Clang and GCC do not support the exact same set
736of warnings, so even when using GCC compatible #pragmas there is no
737guarantee that they will have identical behaviour on both compilers.
738
Andy Gibbs076eea22013-04-17 16:16:16 +0000739In addition to controlling warnings and errors generated by the compiler, it is
740possible to generate custom warning and error messages through the following
741pragmas:
742
743.. code-block:: c
744
745 // The following will produce warning messages
746 #pragma message "some diagnostic message"
747 #pragma GCC warning "TODO: replace deprecated feature"
748
749 // The following will produce an error message
750 #pragma GCC error "Not supported"
751
752These pragmas operate similarly to the ``#warning`` and ``#error`` preprocessor
753directives, except that they may also be embedded into preprocessor macros via
754the C99 ``_Pragma`` operator, for example:
755
756.. code-block:: c
757
758 #define STR(X) #X
759 #define DEFER(M,...) M(__VA_ARGS__)
760 #define CUSTOM_ERROR(X) _Pragma(STR(GCC error(X " at line " DEFER(STR,__LINE__))))
761
762 CUSTOM_ERROR("Feature not available");
763
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000764Controlling Diagnostics in System Headers
765^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
766
767Warnings are suppressed when they occur in system headers. By default,
768an included file is treated as a system header if it is found in an
769include path specified by ``-isystem``, but this can be overridden in
770several ways.
771
772The ``system_header`` pragma can be used to mark the current file as
773being a system header. No warnings will be produced from the location of
774the pragma onwards within the same file.
775
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000776.. code-block:: c
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000777
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700778 #if foo
779 #endif foo // warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000780
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000781 #pragma clang system_header
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000782
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700783 #if foo
784 #endif foo // no warning
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000785
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700786The :option:`--system-header-prefix=` and :option:`--no-system-header-prefix=`
787command-line arguments can be used to override whether subsets of an include
788path are treated as system headers. When the name in a ``#include`` directive
789is found within a header search path and starts with a system prefix, the
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000790header is treated as a system header. The last prefix on the
791command-line which matches the specified header name takes precedence.
792For instance:
793
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000794.. code-block:: console
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000795
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700796 $ clang -Ifoo -isystem bar --system-header-prefix=x/ \
797 --no-system-header-prefix=x/y/
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000798
799Here, ``#include "x/a.h"`` is treated as including a system header, even
800if the header is found in ``foo``, and ``#include "x/y/b.h"`` is treated
801as not including a system header, even if the header is found in
802``bar``.
803
804A ``#include`` directive which finds a file relative to the current
805directory is treated as including a system header if the including file
806is treated as a system header.
807
808.. _diagnostics_enable_everything:
809
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700810Enabling All Diagnostics
811^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000812
813In addition to the traditional ``-W`` flags, one can enable **all**
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700814diagnostics by passing :option:`-Weverything`. This works as expected
815with
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000816:option:`-Werror`, and also includes the warnings from :option:`-pedantic`.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000817
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000818Note that when combined with :option:`-w` (which disables all warnings), that
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000819flag wins.
820
821Controlling Static Analyzer Diagnostics
822^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
823
824While not strictly part of the compiler, the diagnostics from Clang's
825`static analyzer <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org>`_ can also be
826influenced by the user via changes to the source code. See the available
827`annotations <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/annotations.html>`_ and the
828analyzer's `FAQ
829page <http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/faq.html#exclude_code>`_ for more
830information.
831
Dmitri Gribenko97555a12012-12-15 21:10:51 +0000832.. _usersmanual-precompiled-headers:
833
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000834Precompiled Headers
835-------------------
836
837`Precompiled headers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precompiled_header>`__
838are a general approach employed by many compilers to reduce compilation
839time. The underlying motivation of the approach is that it is common for
840the same (and often large) header files to be included by multiple
841source files. Consequently, compile times can often be greatly improved
842by caching some of the (redundant) work done by a compiler to process
843headers. Precompiled header files, which represent one of many ways to
844implement this optimization, are literally files that represent an
845on-disk cache that contains the vital information necessary to reduce
846some of the work needed to process a corresponding header file. While
847details of precompiled headers vary between compilers, precompiled
848headers have been shown to be highly effective at speeding up program
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -0700849compilation on systems with very large system headers (e.g., Mac OS X).
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000850
851Generating a PCH File
852^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
853
854To generate a PCH file using Clang, one invokes Clang with the
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000855:option:`-x <language>-header` option. This mirrors the interface in GCC
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000856for generating PCH files:
857
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000858.. code-block:: console
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000859
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000860 $ gcc -x c-header test.h -o test.h.gch
861 $ clang -x c-header test.h -o test.h.pch
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000862
863Using a PCH File
864^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
865
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000866A PCH file can then be used as a prefix header when a :option:`-include`
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000867option is passed to ``clang``:
868
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000869.. code-block:: console
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000870
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000871 $ clang -include test.h test.c -o test
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000872
873The ``clang`` driver will first check if a PCH file for ``test.h`` is
874available; if so, the contents of ``test.h`` (and the files it includes)
875will be processed from the PCH file. Otherwise, Clang falls back to
876directly processing the content of ``test.h``. This mirrors the behavior
877of GCC.
878
879.. note::
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000880
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000881 Clang does *not* automatically use PCH files for headers that are directly
882 included within a source file. For example:
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000883
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000884 .. code-block:: console
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000885
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000886 $ clang -x c-header test.h -o test.h.pch
887 $ cat test.c
888 #include "test.h"
889 $ clang test.c -o test
890
891 In this example, ``clang`` will not automatically use the PCH file for
892 ``test.h`` since ``test.h`` was included directly in the source file and not
893 specified on the command line using :option:`-include`.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000894
895Relocatable PCH Files
896^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
897
898It is sometimes necessary to build a precompiled header from headers
899that are not yet in their final, installed locations. For example, one
900might build a precompiled header within the build tree that is then
901meant to be installed alongside the headers. Clang permits the creation
902of "relocatable" precompiled headers, which are built with a given path
903(into the build directory) and can later be used from an installed
904location.
905
906To build a relocatable precompiled header, place your headers into a
907subdirectory whose structure mimics the installed location. For example,
908if you want to build a precompiled header for the header ``mylib.h``
909that will be installed into ``/usr/include``, create a subdirectory
910``build/usr/include`` and place the header ``mylib.h`` into that
911subdirectory. If ``mylib.h`` depends on other headers, then they can be
912stored within ``build/usr/include`` in a way that mimics the installed
913location.
914
915Building a relocatable precompiled header requires two additional
916arguments. First, pass the ``--relocatable-pch`` flag to indicate that
917the resulting PCH file should be relocatable. Second, pass
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000918:option:`-isysroot /path/to/build`, which makes all includes for your library
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000919relative to the build directory. For example:
920
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000921.. code-block:: console
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000922
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000923 # clang -x c-header --relocatable-pch -isysroot /path/to/build /path/to/build/mylib.h mylib.h.pch
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000924
925When loading the relocatable PCH file, the various headers used in the
926PCH file are found from the system header root. For example, ``mylib.h``
927can be found in ``/usr/include/mylib.h``. If the headers are installed
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000928in some other system root, the :option:`-isysroot` option can be used provide
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000929a different system root from which the headers will be based. For
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +0000930example, :option:`-isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk` will look for
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000931``mylib.h`` in ``/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/include/mylib.h``.
932
933Relocatable precompiled headers are intended to be used in a limited
934number of cases where the compilation environment is tightly controlled
935and the precompiled header cannot be generated after headers have been
Argyrios Kyrtzidis8c42a672013-02-14 00:12:44 +0000936installed.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000937
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -0700938.. _controlling-code-generation:
939
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000940Controlling Code Generation
941---------------------------
942
943Clang provides a number of ways to control code generation. The options
944are listed below.
945
Sean Silvafb1ff862013-06-21 23:50:58 +0000946**-f[no-]sanitize=check1,check2,...**
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000947 Turn on runtime checks for various forms of undefined or suspicious
948 behavior.
949
950 This option controls whether Clang adds runtime checks for various
951 forms of undefined or suspicious behavior, and is disabled by
952 default. If a check fails, a diagnostic message is produced at
953 runtime explaining the problem. The main checks are:
954
Richard Smith2dce7be2012-12-13 07:29:23 +0000955 - .. _opt_fsanitize_address:
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000956
Richard Smith2dce7be2012-12-13 07:29:23 +0000957 ``-fsanitize=address``:
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000958 :doc:`AddressSanitizer`, a memory error
959 detector.
Richard Smith2dce7be2012-12-13 07:29:23 +0000960 - .. _opt_fsanitize_thread:
961
Dmitry Vyukov7f5e76b2012-12-21 08:21:25 +0000962 ``-fsanitize=thread``: :doc:`ThreadSanitizer`, a data race detector.
Evgeniy Stepanovcc603e92012-12-21 10:50:00 +0000963 - .. _opt_fsanitize_memory:
964
965 ``-fsanitize=memory``: :doc:`MemorySanitizer`,
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -0800966 a detector of uninitialized reads. Requires instrumentation of all
967 program code.
Richard Smith2dce7be2012-12-13 07:29:23 +0000968 - .. _opt_fsanitize_undefined:
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000969
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -0800970 ``-fsanitize=undefined``: :doc:`UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer`,
971 a fast and compatible undefined behavior checker.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000972
Peter Collingbourne2eeed712013-08-07 22:47:34 +0000973 - ``-fsanitize=dataflow``: :doc:`DataFlowSanitizer`, a general data
974 flow analysis.
Stephen Hines0e2c34f2015-03-23 12:09:02 -0700975 - ``-fsanitize=cfi``: :doc:`control flow integrity <ControlFlowIntegrity>`
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -0800976 checks. Requires ``-flto``.
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -0700977 - ``-fsanitize=safe-stack``: :doc:`safe stack <SafeStack>`
978 protection against stack-based memory corruption errors.
Chad Rosier78d85b12013-01-29 23:31:22 +0000979
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -0800980 There are more fine-grained checks available: see
981 the :ref:`list <ubsan-checks>` of specific kinds of
982 undefined behavior that can be detected and the :ref:`list <cfi-schemes>`
983 of control flow integrity schemes.
Richard Smitha0ed1712013-05-29 22:57:31 +0000984
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +0000985 The ``-fsanitize=`` argument must also be provided when linking, in
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -0800986 order to link to the appropriate runtime library.
Richard Smith635c1dc2013-07-19 19:06:48 +0000987
988 It is not possible to combine more than one of the ``-fsanitize=address``,
989 ``-fsanitize=thread``, and ``-fsanitize=memory`` checkers in the same
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -0800990 program.
Richard Smith635c1dc2013-07-19 19:06:48 +0000991
Stephen Hines0e2c34f2015-03-23 12:09:02 -0700992**-f[no-]sanitize-recover=check1,check2,...**
993
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -0700994**-f[no-]sanitize-recover=all**
995
Stephen Hines0e2c34f2015-03-23 12:09:02 -0700996 Controls which checks enabled by ``-fsanitize=`` flag are non-fatal.
997 If the check is fatal, program will halt after the first error
998 of this kind is detected and error report is printed.
999
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001000 By default, non-fatal checks are those enabled by
1001 :doc:`UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer`,
Stephen Hines0e2c34f2015-03-23 12:09:02 -07001002 except for ``-fsanitize=return`` and ``-fsanitize=unreachable``. Some
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001003 sanitizers may not support recovery (or not support it by default
1004 e.g. :doc:`AddressSanitizer`), and always crash the program after the issue
1005 is detected.
1006
1007 Note that the ``-fsanitize-trap`` flag has precedence over this flag.
1008 This means that if a check has been configured to trap elsewhere on the
1009 command line, or if the check traps by default, this flag will not have
1010 any effect unless that sanitizer's trapping behavior is disabled with
1011 ``-fno-sanitize-trap``.
1012
1013 For example, if a command line contains the flags ``-fsanitize=undefined
1014 -fsanitize-trap=undefined``, the flag ``-fsanitize-recover=alignment``
1015 will have no effect on its own; it will need to be accompanied by
1016 ``-fno-sanitize-trap=alignment``.
1017
1018**-f[no-]sanitize-trap=check1,check2,...**
1019
1020 Controls which checks enabled by the ``-fsanitize=`` flag trap. This
1021 option is intended for use in cases where the sanitizer runtime cannot
1022 be used (for instance, when building libc or a kernel module), or where
1023 the binary size increase caused by the sanitizer runtime is a concern.
1024
1025 This flag is only compatible with :doc:`control flow integrity
1026 <ControlFlowIntegrity>` schemes and :doc:`UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer`
1027 checks other than ``vptr``. If this flag
1028 is supplied together with ``-fsanitize=undefined``, the ``vptr`` sanitizer
1029 will be implicitly disabled.
1030
1031 This flag is enabled by default for sanitizers in the ``cfi`` group.
1032
1033.. option:: -fsanitize-blacklist=/path/to/blacklist/file
1034
1035 Disable or modify sanitizer checks for objects (source files, functions,
1036 variables, types) listed in the file. See
1037 :doc:`SanitizerSpecialCaseList` for file format description.
1038
1039.. option:: -fno-sanitize-blacklist
1040
1041 Don't use blacklist file, if it was specified earlier in the command line.
Stephen Hines0e2c34f2015-03-23 12:09:02 -07001042
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001043**-f[no-]sanitize-coverage=[type,features,...]**
1044
1045 Enable simple code coverage in addition to certain sanitizers.
1046 See :doc:`SanitizerCoverage` for more details.
1047
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07001048**-f[no-]sanitize-stats**
1049
1050 Enable simple statistics gathering for the enabled sanitizers.
1051 See :doc:`SanitizerStats` for more details.
1052
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001053.. option:: -fsanitize-undefined-trap-on-error
1054
1055 Deprecated alias for ``-fsanitize-trap=undefined``.
1056
1057.. option:: -fsanitize-cfi-cross-dso
1058
1059 Enable cross-DSO control flow integrity checks. This flag modifies
1060 the behavior of sanitizers in the ``cfi`` group to allow checking
1061 of cross-DSO virtual and indirect calls.
1062
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07001063.. option:: -ffast-math
1064
1065 Enable fast-math mode. This defines the ``__FAST_MATH__`` preprocessor
1066 macro, and lets the compiler make aggressive, potentially-lossy assumptions
1067 about floating-point math. These include:
1068
1069 * Floating-point math obeys regular algebraic rules for real numbers (e.g.
1070 ``+`` and ``*`` are associative, ``x/y == x * (1/y)``, and
1071 ``(a + b) * c == a * c + b * c``),
1072 * operands to floating-point operations are not equal to ``NaN`` and
1073 ``Inf``, and
1074 * ``+0`` and ``-0`` are interchangeable.
1075
1076.. option:: -fwhole-program-vtables
1077
1078 Enable whole-program vtable optimizations, such as single-implementation
1079 devirtualization and virtual constant propagation, for classes with
1080 :doc:`hidden LTO visibility <LTOVisibility>`. Requires ``-flto``.
1081
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001082.. option:: -fno-assume-sane-operator-new
1083
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001084 Don't assume that the C++'s new operator is sane.
1085
1086 This option tells the compiler to do not assume that C++'s global
1087 new operator will always return a pointer that does not alias any
1088 other pointer when the function returns.
1089
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001090.. option:: -ftrap-function=[name]
1091
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001092 Instruct code generator to emit a function call to the specified
1093 function name for ``__builtin_trap()``.
1094
1095 LLVM code generator translates ``__builtin_trap()`` to a trap
1096 instruction if it is supported by the target ISA. Otherwise, the
1097 builtin is translated into a call to ``abort``. If this option is
1098 set, then the code generator will always lower the builtin to a call
1099 to the specified function regardless of whether the target ISA has a
1100 trap instruction. This option is useful for environments (e.g.
1101 deeply embedded) where a trap cannot be properly handled, or when
1102 some custom behavior is desired.
1103
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001104.. option:: -ftls-model=[model]
1105
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001106 Select which TLS model to use.
1107
1108 Valid values are: ``global-dynamic``, ``local-dynamic``,
1109 ``initial-exec`` and ``local-exec``. The default value is
1110 ``global-dynamic``. The compiler may use a different model if the
1111 selected model is not supported by the target, or if a more
1112 efficient model can be used. The TLS model can be overridden per
1113 variable using the ``tls_model`` attribute.
1114
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001115.. option:: -femulated-tls
1116
1117 Select emulated TLS model, which overrides all -ftls-model choices.
1118
1119 In emulated TLS mode, all access to TLS variables are converted to
1120 calls to __emutls_get_address in the runtime library.
1121
Silviu Baranga1db2e272013-10-21 10:54:53 +00001122.. option:: -mhwdiv=[values]
1123
1124 Select the ARM modes (arm or thumb) that support hardware division
1125 instructions.
1126
1127 Valid values are: ``arm``, ``thumb`` and ``arm,thumb``.
1128 This option is used to indicate which mode (arm or thumb) supports
1129 hardware division instructions. This only applies to the ARM
1130 architecture.
1131
Bernard Ogden909f35a2013-10-29 09:47:51 +00001132.. option:: -m[no-]crc
1133
1134 Enable or disable CRC instructions.
1135
1136 This option is used to indicate whether CRC instructions are to
1137 be generated. This only applies to the ARM architecture.
1138
1139 CRC instructions are enabled by default on ARMv8.
1140
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001141.. option:: -mgeneral-regs-only
1142
1143 Generate code which only uses the general purpose registers.
1144
1145 This option restricts the generated code to use general registers
1146 only. This only applies to the AArch64 architecture.
1147
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07001148.. option:: -mcompact-branches=[values]
1149
1150 Control the usage of compact branches for MIPSR6.
1151
1152 Valid values are: ``never``, ``optimal`` and ``always``.
1153 The default value is ``optimal`` which generates compact branches
1154 when a delay slot cannot be filled. ``never`` disables the usage of
1155 compact branches and ``always`` generates compact branches whenever
1156 possible.
1157
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001158**-f[no-]max-type-align=[number]**
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08001159 Instruct the code generator to not enforce a higher alignment than the given
1160 number (of bytes) when accessing memory via an opaque pointer or reference.
1161 This cap is ignored when directly accessing a variable or when the pointee
1162 type has an explicit “aligned” attribute.
1163
1164 The value should usually be determined by the properties of the system allocator.
1165 Some builtin types, especially vector types, have very high natural alignments;
1166 when working with values of those types, Clang usually wants to use instructions
1167 that take advantage of that alignment. However, many system allocators do
1168 not promise to return memory that is more than 8-byte or 16-byte-aligned. Use
1169 this option to limit the alignment that the compiler can assume for an arbitrary
1170 pointer, which may point onto the heap.
1171
1172 This option does not affect the ABI alignment of types; the layout of structs and
1173 unions and the value returned by the alignof operator remain the same.
1174
1175 This option can be overridden on a case-by-case basis by putting an explicit
1176 “aligned” alignment on a struct, union, or typedef. For example:
1177
1178 .. code-block:: console
1179
1180 #include <immintrin.h>
1181 // Make an aligned typedef of the AVX-512 16-int vector type.
1182 typedef __v16si __aligned_v16si __attribute__((aligned(64)));
1183
1184 void initialize_vector(__aligned_v16si *v) {
1185 // The compiler may assume that ‘v’ is 64-byte aligned, regardless of the
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001186 // value of -fmax-type-align.
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08001187 }
1188
Silviu Baranga1db2e272013-10-21 10:54:53 +00001189
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -07001190Profile Guided Optimization
1191---------------------------
1192
1193Profile information enables better optimization. For example, knowing that a
1194branch is taken very frequently helps the compiler make better decisions when
1195ordering basic blocks. Knowing that a function ``foo`` is called more
1196frequently than another function ``bar`` helps the inliner.
1197
1198Clang supports profile guided optimization with two different kinds of
1199profiling. A sampling profiler can generate a profile with very low runtime
1200overhead, or you can build an instrumented version of the code that collects
1201more detailed profile information. Both kinds of profiles can provide execution
1202counts for instructions in the code and information on branches taken and
1203function invocation.
1204
1205Regardless of which kind of profiling you use, be careful to collect profiles
1206by running your code with inputs that are representative of the typical
1207behavior. Code that is not exercised in the profile will be optimized as if it
1208is unimportant, and the compiler may make poor optimization choices for code
1209that is disproportionately used while profiling.
1210
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001211Differences Between Sampling and Instrumentation
1212^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1213
1214Although both techniques are used for similar purposes, there are important
1215differences between the two:
1216
12171. Profile data generated with one cannot be used by the other, and there is no
1218 conversion tool that can convert one to the other. So, a profile generated
1219 via ``-fprofile-instr-generate`` must be used with ``-fprofile-instr-use``.
1220 Similarly, sampling profiles generated by external profilers must be
1221 converted and used with ``-fprofile-sample-use``.
1222
12232. Instrumentation profile data can be used for code coverage analysis and
1224 optimization.
1225
12263. Sampling profiles can only be used for optimization. They cannot be used for
1227 code coverage analysis. Although it would be technically possible to use
1228 sampling profiles for code coverage, sample-based profiles are too
1229 coarse-grained for code coverage purposes; it would yield poor results.
1230
12314. Sampling profiles must be generated by an external tool. The profile
1232 generated by that tool must then be converted into a format that can be read
1233 by LLVM. The section on sampling profilers describes one of the supported
1234 sampling profile formats.
1235
1236
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -07001237Using Sampling Profilers
1238^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001239
1240Sampling profilers are used to collect runtime information, such as
1241hardware counters, while your application executes. They are typically
1242very efficient and do not incur a large runtime overhead. The
1243sample data collected by the profiler can be used during compilation
1244to determine what the most executed areas of the code are.
1245
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001246Using the data from a sample profiler requires some changes in the way
1247a program is built. Before the compiler can use profiling information,
1248the code needs to execute under the profiler. The following is the
1249usual build cycle when using sample profilers for optimization:
1250
12511. Build the code with source line table information. You can use all the
1252 usual build flags that you always build your application with. The only
1253 requirement is that you add ``-gline-tables-only`` or ``-g`` to the
1254 command line. This is important for the profiler to be able to map
1255 instructions back to source line locations.
1256
1257 .. code-block:: console
1258
1259 $ clang++ -O2 -gline-tables-only code.cc -o code
1260
12612. Run the executable under a sampling profiler. The specific profiler
1262 you use does not really matter, as long as its output can be converted
1263 into the format that the LLVM optimizer understands. Currently, there
1264 exists a conversion tool for the Linux Perf profiler
1265 (https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/), so these examples assume that you
1266 are using Linux Perf to profile your code.
1267
1268 .. code-block:: console
1269
1270 $ perf record -b ./code
1271
1272 Note the use of the ``-b`` flag. This tells Perf to use the Last Branch
1273 Record (LBR) to record call chains. While this is not strictly required,
1274 it provides better call information, which improves the accuracy of
1275 the profile data.
1276
12773. Convert the collected profile data to LLVM's sample profile format.
1278 This is currently supported via the AutoFDO converter ``create_llvm_prof``.
1279 It is available at http://github.com/google/autofdo. Once built and
1280 installed, you can convert the ``perf.data`` file to LLVM using
1281 the command:
1282
1283 .. code-block:: console
1284
1285 $ create_llvm_prof --binary=./code --out=code.prof
1286
1287 This will read ``perf.data`` and the binary file ``./code`` and emit
1288 the profile data in ``code.prof``. Note that if you ran ``perf``
1289 without the ``-b`` flag, you need to use ``--use_lbr=false`` when
1290 calling ``create_llvm_prof``.
1291
12924. Build the code again using the collected profile. This step feeds
1293 the profile back to the optimizers. This should result in a binary
1294 that executes faster than the original one. Note that you are not
1295 required to build the code with the exact same arguments that you
1296 used in the first step. The only requirement is that you build the code
1297 with ``-gline-tables-only`` and ``-fprofile-sample-use``.
1298
1299 .. code-block:: console
1300
1301 $ clang++ -O2 -gline-tables-only -fprofile-sample-use=code.prof code.cc -o code
1302
1303
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001304Sample Profile Formats
1305""""""""""""""""""""""
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001306
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001307Since external profilers generate profile data in a variety of custom formats,
1308the data generated by the profiler must be converted into a format that can be
1309read by the backend. LLVM supports three different sample profile formats:
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001310
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -070013111. ASCII text. This is the easiest one to generate. The file is divided into
1312 sections, which correspond to each of the functions with profile
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001313 information. The format is described below. It can also be generated from
1314 the binary or gcov formats using the ``llvm-profdata`` tool.
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001315
13162. Binary encoding. This uses a more efficient encoding that yields smaller
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001317 profile files. This is the format generated by the ``create_llvm_prof`` tool
1318 in http://github.com/google/autofdo.
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001319
13203. GCC encoding. This is based on the gcov format, which is accepted by GCC. It
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001321 is only interesting in environments where GCC and Clang co-exist. This
1322 encoding is only generated by the ``create_gcov`` tool in
1323 http://github.com/google/autofdo. It can be read by LLVM and
1324 ``llvm-profdata``, but it cannot be generated by either.
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001325
1326If you are using Linux Perf to generate sampling profiles, you can use the
1327conversion tool ``create_llvm_prof`` described in the previous section.
1328Otherwise, you will need to write a conversion tool that converts your
1329profiler's native format into one of these three.
1330
1331
1332Sample Profile Text Format
1333""""""""""""""""""""""""""
1334
1335This section describes the ASCII text format for sampling profiles. It is,
1336arguably, the easiest one to generate. If you are interested in generating any
1337of the other two, consult the ``ProfileData`` library in in LLVM's source tree
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001338(specifically, ``include/llvm/ProfileData/SampleProfReader.h``).
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001339
1340.. code-block:: console
1341
1342 function1:total_samples:total_head_samples
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001343 offset1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn1:num fn2:num ... ]
1344 offset2[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn3:num fn4:num ... ]
1345 ...
1346 offsetN[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn5:num fn6:num ... ]
1347 offsetA[.discriminator]: fnA:num_of_total_samples
1348 offsetA1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn7:num fn8:num ... ]
1349 offsetA1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn9:num fn10:num ... ]
1350 offsetB[.discriminator]: fnB:num_of_total_samples
1351 offsetB1[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn11:num fn12:num ... ]
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001352
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001353This is a nested tree in which the identation represents the nesting level
1354of the inline stack. There are no blank lines in the file. And the spacing
1355within a single line is fixed. Additional spaces will result in an error
1356while reading the file.
1357
1358Any line starting with the '#' character is completely ignored.
1359
1360Inlined calls are represented with indentation. The Inline stack is a
1361stack of source locations in which the top of the stack represents the
1362leaf function, and the bottom of the stack represents the actual
1363symbol to which the instruction belongs.
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001364
1365Function names must be mangled in order for the profile loader to
1366match them in the current translation unit. The two numbers in the
1367function header specify how many total samples were accumulated in the
1368function (first number), and the total number of samples accumulated
1369in the prologue of the function (second number). This head sample
1370count provides an indicator of how frequently the function is invoked.
1371
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001372There are two types of lines in the function body.
1373
1374- Sampled line represents the profile information of a source location.
1375 ``offsetN[.discriminator]: number_of_samples [fn5:num fn6:num ... ]``
1376
1377- Callsite line represents the profile information of an inlined callsite.
1378 ``offsetA[.discriminator]: fnA:num_of_total_samples``
1379
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001380Each sampled line may contain several items. Some are optional (marked
1381below):
1382
1383a. Source line offset. This number represents the line number
1384 in the function where the sample was collected. The line number is
1385 always relative to the line where symbol of the function is
1386 defined. So, if the function has its header at line 280, the offset
1387 13 is at line 293 in the file.
1388
1389 Note that this offset should never be a negative number. This could
1390 happen in cases like macros. The debug machinery will register the
1391 line number at the point of macro expansion. So, if the macro was
1392 expanded in a line before the start of the function, the profile
1393 converter should emit a 0 as the offset (this means that the optimizers
1394 will not be able to associate a meaningful weight to the instructions
1395 in the macro).
1396
1397b. [OPTIONAL] Discriminator. This is used if the sampled program
1398 was compiled with DWARF discriminator support
1399 (http://wiki.dwarfstd.org/index.php?title=Path_Discriminators).
1400 DWARF discriminators are unsigned integer values that allow the
1401 compiler to distinguish between multiple execution paths on the
1402 same source line location.
1403
1404 For example, consider the line of code ``if (cond) foo(); else bar();``.
1405 If the predicate ``cond`` is true 80% of the time, then the edge
1406 into function ``foo`` should be considered to be taken most of the
1407 time. But both calls to ``foo`` and ``bar`` are at the same source
1408 line, so a sample count at that line is not sufficient. The
1409 compiler needs to know which part of that line is taken more
1410 frequently.
1411
1412 This is what discriminators provide. In this case, the calls to
1413 ``foo`` and ``bar`` will be at the same line, but will have
1414 different discriminator values. This allows the compiler to correctly
1415 set edge weights into ``foo`` and ``bar``.
1416
1417c. Number of samples. This is an integer quantity representing the
1418 number of samples collected by the profiler at this source
1419 location.
1420
1421d. [OPTIONAL] Potential call targets and samples. If present, this
1422 line contains a call instruction. This models both direct and
1423 number of samples. For example,
1424
1425 .. code-block:: console
1426
1427 130: 7 foo:3 bar:2 baz:7
1428
1429 The above means that at relative line offset 130 there is a call
1430 instruction that calls one of ``foo()``, ``bar()`` and ``baz()``,
1431 with ``baz()`` being the relatively more frequently called target.
1432
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001433As an example, consider a program with the call chain ``main -> foo -> bar``.
1434When built with optimizations enabled, the compiler may inline the
1435calls to ``bar`` and ``foo`` inside ``main``. The generated profile
1436could then be something like this:
1437
1438.. code-block:: console
1439
1440 main:35504:0
1441 1: _Z3foov:35504
1442 2: _Z32bari:31977
1443 1.1: 31977
1444 2: 0
1445
1446This profile indicates that there were a total of 35,504 samples
1447collected in main. All of those were at line 1 (the call to ``foo``).
1448Of those, 31,977 were spent inside the body of ``bar``. The last line
1449of the profile (``2: 0``) corresponds to line 2 inside ``main``. No
1450samples were collected there.
Stephen Hines6bcf27b2014-05-29 04:14:42 -07001451
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -07001452Profiling with Instrumentation
1453^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1454
1455Clang also supports profiling via instrumentation. This requires building a
1456special instrumented version of the code and has some runtime
1457overhead during the profiling, but it provides more detailed results than a
1458sampling profiler. It also provides reproducible results, at least to the
1459extent that the code behaves consistently across runs.
1460
1461Here are the steps for using profile guided optimization with
1462instrumentation:
1463
14641. Build an instrumented version of the code by compiling and linking with the
1465 ``-fprofile-instr-generate`` option.
1466
1467 .. code-block:: console
1468
1469 $ clang++ -O2 -fprofile-instr-generate code.cc -o code
1470
14712. Run the instrumented executable with inputs that reflect the typical usage.
1472 By default, the profile data will be written to a ``default.profraw`` file
1473 in the current directory. You can override that default by setting the
1474 ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` environment variable to specify an alternate file.
1475 Any instance of ``%p`` in that file name will be replaced by the process
1476 ID, so that you can easily distinguish the profile output from multiple
1477 runs.
1478
1479 .. code-block:: console
1480
1481 $ LLVM_PROFILE_FILE="code-%p.profraw" ./code
1482
14833. Combine profiles from multiple runs and convert the "raw" profile format to
Pirama Arumuga Nainarb6d69932015-07-01 12:25:36 -07001484 the input expected by clang. Use the ``merge`` command of the
1485 ``llvm-profdata`` tool to do this.
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -07001486
1487 .. code-block:: console
1488
1489 $ llvm-profdata merge -output=code.profdata code-*.profraw
1490
1491 Note that this step is necessary even when there is only one "raw" profile,
1492 since the merge operation also changes the file format.
1493
14944. Build the code again using the ``-fprofile-instr-use`` option to specify the
1495 collected profile data.
1496
1497 .. code-block:: console
1498
1499 $ clang++ -O2 -fprofile-instr-use=code.profdata code.cc -o code
1500
1501 You can repeat step 4 as often as you like without regenerating the
1502 profile. As you make changes to your code, clang may no longer be able to
1503 use the profile data. It will warn you when this happens.
1504
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001505Profile generation and use can also be controlled by the GCC-compatible flags
1506``-fprofile-generate`` and ``-fprofile-use``. Although these flags are
1507semantically equivalent to their GCC counterparts, they *do not* handle
1508GCC-compatible profiles. They are only meant to implement GCC's semantics
1509with respect to profile creation and use.
1510
1511.. option:: -fprofile-generate[=<dirname>]
1512
1513 Without any other arguments, ``-fprofile-generate`` behaves identically to
1514 ``-fprofile-instr-generate``. When given a directory name, it generates the
1515 profile file ``default.profraw`` in the directory named ``dirname``. If
1516 ``dirname`` does not exist, it will be created at runtime. The environment
1517 variable ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` can be used to override the directory and
1518 filename for the profile file at runtime. For example,
1519
1520 .. code-block:: console
1521
1522 $ clang++ -O2 -fprofile-generate=yyy/zzz code.cc -o code
1523
1524 When ``code`` is executed, the profile will be written to the file
1525 ``yyy/zzz/default.profraw``. This can be altered at runtime via the
1526 ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` environment variable:
1527
1528 .. code-block:: console
1529
1530 $ LLVM_PROFILE_FILE=/tmp/myprofile/code.profraw ./code
1531
1532 The above invocation will produce the profile file
1533 ``/tmp/myprofile/code.profraw`` instead of ``yyy/zzz/default.profraw``.
1534 Notice that ``LLVM_PROFILE_FILE`` overrides the directory *and* the file
1535 name for the profile file.
1536
1537.. option:: -fprofile-use[=<pathname>]
1538
1539 Without any other arguments, ``-fprofile-use`` behaves identically to
1540 ``-fprofile-instr-use``. Otherwise, if ``pathname`` is the full path to a
1541 profile file, it reads from that file. If ``pathname`` is a directory name,
1542 it reads from ``pathname/default.profdata``.
1543
1544Disabling Instrumentation
1545^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1546
1547In certain situations, it may be useful to disable profile generation or use
1548for specific files in a build, without affecting the main compilation flags
1549used for the other files in the project.
1550
1551In these cases, you can use the flag ``-fno-profile-instr-generate`` (or
1552``-fno-profile-generate``) to disable profile generation, and
1553``-fno-profile-instr-use`` (or ``-fno-profile-use``) to disable profile use.
1554
1555Note that these flags should appear after the corresponding profile
1556flags to have an effect.
1557
1558Controlling Debug Information
1559-----------------------------
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -07001560
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001561Controlling Size of Debug Information
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001562^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001563
1564Debug info kind generated by Clang can be set by one of the flags listed
1565below. If multiple flags are present, the last one is used.
1566
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001567.. option:: -g0
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001568
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001569 Don't generate any debug info (default).
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001570
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001571.. option:: -gline-tables-only
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001572
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001573 Generate line number tables only.
1574
1575 This kind of debug info allows to obtain stack traces with function names,
1576 file names and line numbers (by such tools as ``gdb`` or ``addr2line``). It
1577 doesn't contain any other data (e.g. description of local variables or
1578 function parameters).
1579
Stephen Hinesc568f1e2014-07-21 00:47:37 -07001580.. option:: -fstandalone-debug
1581
1582 Clang supports a number of optimizations to reduce the size of debug
1583 information in the binary. They work based on the assumption that
1584 the debug type information can be spread out over multiple
1585 compilation units. For instance, Clang will not emit type
1586 definitions for types that are not needed by a module and could be
1587 replaced with a forward declaration. Further, Clang will only emit
1588 type info for a dynamic C++ class in the module that contains the
1589 vtable for the class.
1590
1591 The **-fstandalone-debug** option turns off these optimizations.
1592 This is useful when working with 3rd-party libraries that don't come
1593 with debug information. Note that Clang will never emit type
1594 information for types that are not referenced at all by the program.
1595
1596.. option:: -fno-standalone-debug
1597
1598 On Darwin **-fstandalone-debug** is enabled by default. The
1599 **-fno-standalone-debug** option can be used to get to turn on the
1600 vtable-based optimization described above.
1601
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001602.. option:: -g
1603
1604 Generate complete debug info.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001605
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001606Controlling Debugger "Tuning"
1607^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1608
1609While Clang generally emits standard DWARF debug info (http://dwarfstd.org),
1610different debuggers may know how to take advantage of different specific DWARF
1611features. You can "tune" the debug info for one of several different debuggers.
1612
1613.. option:: -ggdb, -glldb, -gsce
1614
1615 Tune the debug info for the ``gdb``, ``lldb``, or Sony Computer Entertainment
1616 debugger, respectively. Each of these options implies **-g**. (Therefore, if
1617 you want both **-gline-tables-only** and debugger tuning, the tuning option
1618 must come first.)
1619
1620
Dmitri Gribenko6fd7d302013-04-10 15:35:17 +00001621Comment Parsing Options
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001622-----------------------
Dmitri Gribenko6fd7d302013-04-10 15:35:17 +00001623
1624Clang parses Doxygen and non-Doxygen style documentation comments and attaches
1625them to the appropriate declaration nodes. By default, it only parses
1626Doxygen-style comments and ignores ordinary comments starting with ``//`` and
1627``/*``.
1628
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001629.. option:: -Wdocumentation
1630
1631 Emit warnings about use of documentation comments. This warning group is off
1632 by default.
1633
1634 This includes checking that ``\param`` commands name parameters that actually
1635 present in the function signature, checking that ``\returns`` is used only on
1636 functions that actually return a value etc.
1637
1638.. option:: -Wno-documentation-unknown-command
1639
1640 Don't warn when encountering an unknown Doxygen command.
1641
Dmitri Gribenko6fd7d302013-04-10 15:35:17 +00001642.. option:: -fparse-all-comments
1643
1644 Parse all comments as documentation comments (including ordinary comments
1645 starting with ``//`` and ``/*``).
1646
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001647.. option:: -fcomment-block-commands=[commands]
1648
1649 Define custom documentation commands as block commands. This allows Clang to
1650 construct the correct AST for these custom commands, and silences warnings
1651 about unknown commands. Several commands must be separated by a comma
1652 *without trailing space*; e.g. ``-fcomment-block-commands=foo,bar`` defines
1653 custom commands ``\foo`` and ``\bar``.
1654
1655 It is also possible to use ``-fcomment-block-commands`` several times; e.g.
1656 ``-fcomment-block-commands=foo -fcomment-block-commands=bar`` does the same
1657 as above.
1658
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001659.. _c:
1660
1661C Language Features
1662===================
1663
1664The support for standard C in clang is feature-complete except for the
1665C99 floating-point pragmas.
1666
1667Extensions supported by clang
1668-----------------------------
1669
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001670See :doc:`LanguageExtensions`.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001671
1672Differences between various standard modes
1673------------------------------------------
1674
1675clang supports the -std option, which changes what language mode clang
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08001676uses. The supported modes for C are c89, gnu89, c94, c99, gnu99, c11,
1677gnu11, and various aliases for those modes. If no -std option is
1678specified, clang defaults to gnu11 mode. Many C99 and C11 features are
1679supported in earlier modes as a conforming extension, with a warning. Use
1680``-pedantic-errors`` to request an error if a feature from a later standard
1681revision is used in an earlier mode.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001682
1683Differences between all ``c*`` and ``gnu*`` modes:
1684
1685- ``c*`` modes define "``__STRICT_ANSI__``".
1686- Target-specific defines not prefixed by underscores, like "linux",
1687 are defined in ``gnu*`` modes.
1688- Trigraphs default to being off in ``gnu*`` modes; they can be enabled by
1689 the -trigraphs option.
1690- The parser recognizes "asm" and "typeof" as keywords in ``gnu*`` modes;
1691 the variants "``__asm__``" and "``__typeof__``" are recognized in all
1692 modes.
1693- The Apple "blocks" extension is recognized by default in ``gnu*`` modes
1694 on some platforms; it can be enabled in any mode with the "-fblocks"
1695 option.
1696- Arrays that are VLA's according to the standard, but which can be
1697 constant folded by the frontend are treated as fixed size arrays.
1698 This occurs for things like "int X[(1, 2)];", which is technically a
1699 VLA. ``c*`` modes are strictly compliant and treat these as VLAs.
1700
1701Differences between ``*89`` and ``*99`` modes:
1702
1703- The ``*99`` modes default to implementing "inline" as specified in C99,
1704 while the ``*89`` modes implement the GNU version. This can be
1705 overridden for individual functions with the ``__gnu_inline__``
1706 attribute.
1707- Digraphs are not recognized in c89 mode.
1708- The scope of names defined inside a "for", "if", "switch", "while",
1709 or "do" statement is different. (example: "``if ((struct x {int
1710 x;}*)0) {}``".)
1711- ``__STDC_VERSION__`` is not defined in ``*89`` modes.
1712- "inline" is not recognized as a keyword in c89 mode.
1713- "restrict" is not recognized as a keyword in ``*89`` modes.
1714- Commas are allowed in integer constant expressions in ``*99`` modes.
1715- Arrays which are not lvalues are not implicitly promoted to pointers
1716 in ``*89`` modes.
1717- Some warnings are different.
1718
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08001719Differences between ``*99`` and ``*11`` modes:
1720
1721- Warnings for use of C11 features are disabled.
1722- ``__STDC_VERSION__`` is defined to ``201112L`` rather than ``199901L``.
1723
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001724c94 mode is identical to c89 mode except that digraphs are enabled in
1725c94 mode (FIXME: And ``__STDC_VERSION__`` should be defined!).
1726
1727GCC extensions not implemented yet
1728----------------------------------
1729
1730clang tries to be compatible with gcc as much as possible, but some gcc
1731extensions are not implemented yet:
1732
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001733- clang does not support decimal floating point types (``_Decimal32`` and
1734 friends) or fixed-point types (``_Fract`` and friends); nobody has
1735 expressed interest in these features yet, so it's hard to say when
1736 they will be implemented.
1737- clang does not support nested functions; this is a complex feature
1738 which is infrequently used, so it is unlikely to be implemented
1739 anytime soon. In C++11 it can be emulated by assigning lambda
1740 functions to local variables, e.g:
1741
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001742 .. code-block:: cpp
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001743
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001744 auto const local_function = [&](int parameter) {
1745 // Do something
1746 };
1747 ...
1748 local_function(1);
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001749
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001750- clang does not support static initialization of flexible array
1751 members. This appears to be a rarely used extension, but could be
1752 implemented pending user demand.
1753- clang does not support
1754 ``__builtin_va_arg_pack``/``__builtin_va_arg_pack_len``. This is
1755 used rarely, but in some potentially interesting places, like the
1756 glibc headers, so it may be implemented pending user demand. Note
1757 that because clang pretends to be like GCC 4.2, and this extension
1758 was introduced in 4.3, the glibc headers will not try to use this
1759 extension with clang at the moment.
1760- clang does not support the gcc extension for forward-declaring
1761 function parameters; this has not shown up in any real-world code
1762 yet, though, so it might never be implemented.
1763
1764This is not a complete list; if you find an unsupported extension
1765missing from this list, please send an e-mail to cfe-dev. This list
1766currently excludes C++; see :ref:`C++ Language Features <cxx>`. Also, this
1767list does not include bugs in mostly-implemented features; please see
1768the `bug
1769tracker <http://llvm.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=product%3Aclang+component%3A-New%2BBugs%2CAST%2CBasic%2CDriver%2CHeaders%2CLLVM%2BCodeGen%2Cparser%2Cpreprocessor%2CSemantic%2BAnalyzer>`_
1770for known existing bugs (FIXME: Is there a section for bug-reporting
1771guidelines somewhere?).
1772
1773Intentionally unsupported GCC extensions
1774----------------------------------------
1775
1776- clang does not support the gcc extension that allows variable-length
1777 arrays in structures. This is for a few reasons: one, it is tricky to
1778 implement, two, the extension is completely undocumented, and three,
1779 the extension appears to be rarely used. Note that clang *does*
1780 support flexible array members (arrays with a zero or unspecified
1781 size at the end of a structure).
1782- clang does not have an equivalent to gcc's "fold"; this means that
1783 clang doesn't accept some constructs gcc might accept in contexts
1784 where a constant expression is required, like "x-x" where x is a
1785 variable.
1786- clang does not support ``__builtin_apply`` and friends; this extension
1787 is extremely obscure and difficult to implement reliably.
1788
1789.. _c_ms:
1790
1791Microsoft extensions
1792--------------------
1793
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07001794clang has support for many extensions from Microsoft Visual C++. To enable these
1795extensions, use the ``-fms-extensions`` command-line option. This is the default
1796for Windows targets. Clang does not implement every pragma or declspec provided
1797by MSVC, but the popular ones, such as ``__declspec(dllexport)`` and ``#pragma
1798comment(lib)`` are well supported.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001799
Bill Wendlingc27813a2013-12-12 04:30:51 +00001800clang has a ``-fms-compatibility`` flag that makes clang accept enough
Reid Kleckner09ab0882013-09-20 17:04:25 +00001801invalid C++ to be able to parse most Microsoft headers. For example, it
1802allows `unqualified lookup of dependent base class members
Reid Klecknerdec5f282013-09-20 17:54:39 +00001803<http://clang.llvm.org/compatibility.html#dep_lookup_bases>`_, which is
1804a common compatibility issue with clang. This flag is enabled by default
Reid Kleckner09ab0882013-09-20 17:04:25 +00001805for Windows targets.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001806
Bill Wendlingc27813a2013-12-12 04:30:51 +00001807``-fdelayed-template-parsing`` lets clang delay parsing of function template
1808definitions until the end of a translation unit. This flag is enabled by
1809default for Windows targets.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001810
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07001811For compatibility with existing code that compiles with MSVC, clang defines the
1812``_MSC_VER`` and ``_MSC_FULL_VER`` macros. These default to the values of 1800
1813and 180000000 respectively, making clang look like an early release of Visual
1814C++ 2013. The ``-fms-compatibility-version=`` flag overrides these values. It
1815accepts a dotted version tuple, such as 19.00.23506. Changing the MSVC
1816compatibility version makes clang behave more like that version of MSVC. For
1817example, ``-fms-compatibility-version=19`` will enable C++14 features and define
1818``char16_t`` and ``char32_t`` as builtin types.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001819
1820.. _cxx:
1821
1822C++ Language Features
1823=====================
1824
1825clang fully implements all of standard C++98 except for exported
Bill Wendlingc27813a2013-12-12 04:30:51 +00001826templates (which were removed in C++11), and all of standard C++11
1827and the current draft standard for C++1y.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001828
1829Controlling implementation limits
1830---------------------------------
1831
Richard Smith9e738cc2013-02-22 01:59:51 +00001832.. option:: -fbracket-depth=N
1833
1834 Sets the limit for nested parentheses, brackets, and braces to N. The
1835 default is 256.
1836
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001837.. option:: -fconstexpr-depth=N
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001838
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001839 Sets the limit for recursive constexpr function invocations to N. The
1840 default is 512.
1841
1842.. option:: -ftemplate-depth=N
1843
1844 Sets the limit for recursively nested template instantiations to N. The
Richard Smith195dd7c2013-11-06 19:31:51 +00001845 default is 256.
1846
1847.. option:: -foperator-arrow-depth=N
1848
1849 Sets the limit for iterative calls to 'operator->' functions to N. The
1850 default is 256.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001851
1852.. _objc:
1853
1854Objective-C Language Features
1855=============================
1856
1857.. _objcxx:
1858
1859Objective-C++ Language Features
1860===============================
1861
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08001862.. _openmp:
1863
1864OpenMP Features
1865===============
1866
1867Clang supports all OpenMP 3.1 directives and clauses. In addition, some
1868features of OpenMP 4.0 are supported. For example, ``#pragma omp simd``,
1869``#pragma omp for simd``, ``#pragma omp parallel for simd`` directives, extended
1870set of atomic constructs, ``proc_bind`` clause for all parallel-based
1871directives, ``depend`` clause for ``#pragma omp task`` directive (except for
1872array sections), ``#pragma omp cancel`` and ``#pragma omp cancellation point``
1873directives, and ``#pragma omp taskgroup`` directive.
1874
1875Use :option:`-fopenmp` to enable OpenMP. Support for OpenMP can be disabled with
1876:option:`-fno-openmp`.
1877
1878Controlling implementation limits
1879---------------------------------
1880
1881.. option:: -fopenmp-use-tls
1882
1883 Controls code generation for OpenMP threadprivate variables. In presence of
1884 this option all threadprivate variables are generated the same way as thread
1885 local variables, using TLS support. If :option:`-fno-openmp-use-tls`
1886 is provided or target does not support TLS, code generation for threadprivate
1887 variables relies on OpenMP runtime library.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001888
1889.. _target_features:
1890
1891Target-Specific Features and Limitations
1892========================================
1893
1894CPU Architectures Features and Limitations
1895------------------------------------------
1896
1897X86
1898^^^
1899
1900The support for X86 (both 32-bit and 64-bit) is considered stable on
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001901Darwin (Mac OS X), Linux, FreeBSD, and Dragonfly BSD: it has been tested
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001902to correctly compile many large C, C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++
1903codebases.
1904
Bill Wendlingc27813a2013-12-12 04:30:51 +00001905On ``x86_64-mingw32``, passing i128(by value) is incompatible with the
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001906Microsoft x64 calling convention. You might need to tweak
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001907``WinX86_64ABIInfo::classify()`` in lib/CodeGen/TargetInfo.cpp.
1908
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001909For the X86 target, clang supports the :option:`-m16` command line
1910argument which enables 16-bit code output. This is broadly similar to
1911using ``asm(".code16gcc")`` with the GNU toolchain. The generated code
1912and the ABI remains 32-bit but the assembler emits instructions
1913appropriate for a CPU running in 16-bit mode, with address-size and
1914operand-size prefixes to enable 32-bit addressing and operations.
1915
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001916ARM
1917^^^
1918
1919The support for ARM (specifically ARMv6 and ARMv7) is considered stable
1920on Darwin (iOS): it has been tested to correctly compile many large C,
1921C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++ codebases. Clang only supports a
1922limited number of ARM architectures. It does not yet fully support
1923ARMv5, for example.
1924
Roman Divackycd7b0f02013-09-11 17:12:49 +00001925PowerPC
1926^^^^^^^
1927
1928The support for PowerPC (especially PowerPC64) is considered stable
1929on Linux and FreeBSD: it has been tested to correctly compile many
1930large C and C++ codebases. PowerPC (32bit) is still missing certain
1931features (e.g. PIC code on ELF platforms).
1932
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001933Other platforms
1934^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1935
Roman Divackycd7b0f02013-09-11 17:12:49 +00001936clang currently contains some support for other architectures (e.g. Sparc);
1937however, significant pieces of code generation are still missing, and they
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001938haven't undergone significant testing.
1939
1940clang contains limited support for the MSP430 embedded processor, but
1941both the clang support and the LLVM backend support are highly
1942experimental.
1943
1944Other platforms are completely unsupported at the moment. Adding the
1945minimal support needed for parsing and semantic analysis on a new
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001946platform is quite easy; see ``lib/Basic/Targets.cpp`` in the clang source
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001947tree. This level of support is also sufficient for conversion to LLVM IR
1948for simple programs. Proper support for conversion to LLVM IR requires
Dmitri Gribenko0bd9e722012-12-19 22:06:59 +00001949adding code to ``lib/CodeGen/CGCall.cpp`` at the moment; this is likely to
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001950change soon, though. Generating assembly requires a suitable LLVM
1951backend.
1952
1953Operating System Features and Limitations
1954-----------------------------------------
1955
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001956Darwin (Mac OS X)
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001957^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1958
Stephen Hines651f13c2014-04-23 16:59:28 -07001959Thread Sanitizer is not supported.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001960
1961Windows
1962^^^^^^^
1963
Bill Wendlingc27813a2013-12-12 04:30:51 +00001964Clang has experimental support for targeting "Cygming" (Cygwin / MinGW)
1965platforms.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001966
Reid Kleckneraf6f8cc2013-09-05 21:29:35 +00001967See also :ref:`Microsoft Extensions <c_ms>`.
Sean Silva93ca0212012-12-13 01:10:46 +00001968
1969Cygwin
1970""""""
1971
1972Clang works on Cygwin-1.7.
1973
1974MinGW32
1975"""""""
1976
1977Clang works on some mingw32 distributions. Clang assumes directories as
1978below;
1979
1980- ``C:/mingw/include``
1981- ``C:/mingw/lib``
1982- ``C:/mingw/lib/gcc/mingw32/4.[3-5].0/include/c++``
1983
1984On MSYS, a few tests might fail.
1985
1986MinGW-w64
1987"""""""""
1988
1989For 32-bit (i686-w64-mingw32), and 64-bit (x86\_64-w64-mingw32), Clang
1990assumes as below;
1991
1992- ``GCC versions 4.5.0 to 4.5.3, 4.6.0 to 4.6.2, or 4.7.0 (for the C++ header search path)``
1993- ``some_directory/bin/gcc.exe``
1994- ``some_directory/bin/clang.exe``
1995- ``some_directory/bin/clang++.exe``
1996- ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version``
1997- ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version/x86_64-w64-mingw32``
1998- ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version/i686-w64-mingw32``
1999- ``some_directory/bin/../include/c++/GCC_version/backward``
2000- ``some_directory/bin/../x86_64-w64-mingw32/include``
2001- ``some_directory/bin/../i686-w64-mingw32/include``
2002- ``some_directory/bin/../include``
2003
2004This directory layout is standard for any toolchain you will find on the
2005official `MinGW-w64 website <http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net>`_.
2006
2007Clang expects the GCC executable "gcc.exe" compiled for
2008``i686-w64-mingw32`` (or ``x86_64-w64-mingw32``) to be present on PATH.
2009
2010`Some tests might fail <http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=9072>`_ on
2011``x86_64-w64-mingw32``.
Hans Wennborg0a6cf662013-10-10 01:15:16 +00002012
2013.. _clang-cl:
2014
2015clang-cl
2016========
2017
2018clang-cl is an alternative command-line interface to Clang driver, designed for
2019compatibility with the Visual C++ compiler, cl.exe.
2020
2021To enable clang-cl to find system headers, libraries, and the linker when run
2022from the command-line, it should be executed inside a Visual Studio Native Tools
2023Command Prompt or a regular Command Prompt where the environment has been set
2024up using e.g. `vcvars32.bat <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f2ccy3wt.aspx>`_.
2025
2026clang-cl can also be used from inside Visual Studio by using an LLVM Platform
2027Toolset.
2028
2029Command-Line Options
2030--------------------
2031
2032To be compatible with cl.exe, clang-cl supports most of the same command-line
2033options. Those options can start with either ``/`` or ``-``. It also supports
2034some of Clang's core options, such as the ``-W`` options.
2035
2036Options that are known to clang-cl, but not currently supported, are ignored
2037with a warning. For example:
2038
2039 ::
2040
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002041 clang-cl.exe: warning: argument unused during compilation: '/AI'
Hans Wennborg0a6cf662013-10-10 01:15:16 +00002042
2043To suppress warnings about unused arguments, use the ``-Qunused-arguments`` option.
2044
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07002045Options that are not known to clang-cl will be ignored by default. Use the
2046``-Werror=unknown-argument`` option in order to treat them as errors. If these
2047options are spelled with a leading ``/``, they will be mistaken for a filename:
Hans Wennborg0a6cf662013-10-10 01:15:16 +00002048
2049 ::
2050
2051 clang-cl.exe: error: no such file or directory: '/foobar'
2052
2053Please `file a bug <http://llvm.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=clang&component=Driver>`_
2054for any valid cl.exe flags that clang-cl does not understand.
2055
2056Execute ``clang-cl /?`` to see a list of supported options:
2057
2058 ::
2059
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002060 CL.EXE COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS:
2061 /? Display available options
2062 /arch:<value> Set architecture for code generation
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07002063 /Brepro- Emit an object file which cannot be reproduced over time
2064 /Brepro Emit an object file which can be reproduced over time
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002065 /C Don't discard comments when preprocessing
2066 /c Compile only
2067 /D <macro[=value]> Define macro
2068 /EH<value> Exception handling model
2069 /EP Disable linemarker output and preprocess to stdout
2070 /E Preprocess to stdout
2071 /fallback Fall back to cl.exe if clang-cl fails to compile
2072 /FA Output assembly code file during compilation
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002073 /Fa<file or directory> Output assembly code to this file during compilation (with /FA)
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002074 /Fe<file or directory> Set output executable file or directory (ends in / or \)
2075 /FI <value> Include file before parsing
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002076 /Fi<file> Set preprocess output file name (with /P)
2077 /Fo<file or directory> Set output object file, or directory (ends in / or \) (with /c)
2078 /fp:except-
2079 /fp:except
2080 /fp:fast
2081 /fp:precise
2082 /fp:strict
2083 /GA Assume thread-local variables are defined in the executable
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002084 /GF- Disable string pooling
2085 /GR- Disable emission of RTTI data
2086 /GR Enable emission of RTTI data
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002087 /Gs<value> Set stack probe size
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002088 /Gw- Don't put each data item in its own section
2089 /Gw Put each data item in its own section
2090 /Gy- Don't put each function in its own section
2091 /Gy Put each function in its own section
2092 /help Display available options
2093 /I <dir> Add directory to include search path
2094 /J Make char type unsigned
2095 /LDd Create debug DLL
2096 /LD Create DLL
2097 /link <options> Forward options to the linker
2098 /MDd Use DLL debug run-time
2099 /MD Use DLL run-time
2100 /MTd Use static debug run-time
2101 /MT Use static run-time
2102 /Ob0 Disable inlining
2103 /Od Disable optimization
2104 /Oi- Disable use of builtin functions
2105 /Oi Enable use of builtin functions
2106 /Os Optimize for size
2107 /Ot Optimize for speed
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002108 /O<value> Optimization level
2109 /o <file or directory> Set output file or directory (ends in / or \)
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002110 /P Preprocess to file
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002111 /Qvec- Disable the loop vectorization passes
2112 /Qvec Enable the loop vectorization passes
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002113 /showIncludes Print info about included files to stderr
2114 /TC Treat all source files as C
2115 /Tc <filename> Specify a C source file
2116 /TP Treat all source files as C++
2117 /Tp <filename> Specify a C++ source file
2118 /U <macro> Undefine macro
2119 /vd<value> Control vtordisp placement
2120 /vmb Use a best-case representation method for member pointers
2121 /vmg Use a most-general representation for member pointers
2122 /vmm Set the default most-general representation to multiple inheritance
2123 /vms Set the default most-general representation to single inheritance
2124 /vmv Set the default most-general representation to virtual inheritance
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002125 /volatile:iso Volatile loads and stores have standard semantics
2126 /volatile:ms Volatile loads and stores have acquire and release semantics
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002127 /W0 Disable all warnings
2128 /W1 Enable -Wall
2129 /W2 Enable -Wall
2130 /W3 Enable -Wall
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002131 /W4 Enable -Wall and -Wextra
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07002132 /Wall Enable -Wall and -Wextra
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002133 /WX- Do not treat warnings as errors
2134 /WX Treat warnings as errors
2135 /w Disable all warnings
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002136 /Z7 Enable CodeView debug information in object files
2137 /Zc:sizedDealloc- Disable C++14 sized global deallocation functions
2138 /Zc:sizedDealloc Enable C++14 sized global deallocation functions
2139 /Zc:strictStrings Treat string literals as const
2140 /Zc:threadSafeInit- Disable thread-safe initialization of static variables
2141 /Zc:threadSafeInit Enable thread-safe initialization of static variables
2142 /Zc:trigraphs- Disable trigraphs (default)
2143 /Zc:trigraphs Enable trigraphs
2144 /Zi Alias for /Z7. Does not produce PDBs.
2145 /Zl Don't mention any default libraries in the object file
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002146 /Zp Set the default maximum struct packing alignment to 1
2147 /Zp<value> Specify the default maximum struct packing alignment
2148 /Zs Syntax-check only
2149
2150 OPTIONS:
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002151 -### Print (but do not run) the commands to run for this compilation
2152 --analyze Run the static analyzer
2153 -fansi-escape-codes Use ANSI escape codes for diagnostics
2154 -fcolor-diagnostics Use colors in diagnostics
2155 -fdiagnostics-parseable-fixits
2156 Print fix-its in machine parseable form
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002157 -fms-compatibility-version=<value>
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002158 Dot-separated value representing the Microsoft compiler version
2159 number to report in _MSC_VER (0 = don't define it (default))
Pirama Arumuga Nainar4967a712016-09-19 22:19:55 -07002160 -fms-compatibility Enable full Microsoft Visual C++ compatibility
2161 -fms-extensions Accept some non-standard constructs supported by the Microsoft compiler
2162 -fmsc-version=<value> Microsoft compiler version number to report in _MSC_VER
2163 (0 = don't define it (default))
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002164 -fno-sanitize-coverage=<value>
2165 Disable specified features of coverage instrumentation for Sanitizers
2166 -fno-sanitize-recover=<value>
2167 Disable recovery for specified sanitizers
2168 -fno-sanitize-trap=<value>
2169 Disable trapping for specified sanitizers
Stephen Hines176edba2014-12-01 14:53:08 -08002170 -fsanitize-blacklist=<value>
Pirama Arumuga Nainar87d948e2016-03-03 15:49:35 -08002171 Path to blacklist file for sanitizers
2172 -fsanitize-coverage=<value>
2173 Specify the type of coverage instrumentation for Sanitizers
2174 -fsanitize-recover=<value>
2175 Enable recovery for specified sanitizers
2176 -fsanitize-trap=<value> Enable trapping for specified sanitizers
2177 -fsanitize=<check> Turn on runtime checks for various forms of undefined or suspicious
2178 behavior. See user manual for available checks
2179 -gcodeview Generate CodeView debug information
2180 -mllvm <value> Additional arguments to forward to LLVM's option processing
2181 -Qunused-arguments Don't emit warning for unused driver arguments
2182 -R<remark> Enable the specified remark
2183 --target=<value> Generate code for the given target
2184 -v Show commands to run and use verbose output
2185 -W<warning> Enable the specified warning
2186 -Xclang <arg> Pass <arg> to the clang compiler
Hans Wennborg0a6cf662013-10-10 01:15:16 +00002187
2188The /fallback Option
2189^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2190
2191When clang-cl is run with the ``/fallback`` option, it will first try to
2192compile files itself. For any file that it fails to compile, it will fall back
2193and try to compile the file by invoking cl.exe.
2194
2195This option is intended to be used as a temporary means to build projects where
2196clang-cl cannot successfully compile all the files. clang-cl may fail to compile
2197a file either because it cannot generate code for some C++ feature, or because
2198it cannot parse some Microsoft language extension.