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Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +00002<html><head><title>LLVM 1.1 Release Notes</title></head>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00003<body bgcolor=white>
4
5<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +00006<tr><td>&nbsp; <font size=+3 color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino,Times,Roman"><b>LLVM 1.1 Release Notes</b></font></td>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00007</tr></table>
8
9<ol>
Chris Lattner824b9a62003-10-02 05:09:46 +000010 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000011 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000012 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000013 <li><a href="#install-instructions">Installation Instructions</a>
14 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
15 <ul>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000016<!-- <li><a href="#portabilityprobs">Portability Problems</a> -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000017 <li><a href="#core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
18 <li><a href="#c-fe">Known problems with the C Front-end</a>
19 <li><a href="#c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ Front-end</a>
20 <li><a href="#x86-be">Known problems with the X86 Back-end</a>
21 <li><a href="#sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc Back-end</a>
22 <li><a href="#c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
23 </ul>
24 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
25 </ul>
26
27 <p><b>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></b><p>
28</ol>
29
30
31<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
32<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
33<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
34<a name="intro">Introduction
35</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
36<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
37
38This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler infrastructure,
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000039release 1.1. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any known problems,
40and bug fixes from the previous release. The most up-to-date version of this
41document can be found on the <a
42href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.1/">LLVM 1.1 web site</a>. If you are
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000043not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there, because
44this document may be updated after the release.<p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000045
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000046For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more
47current releases, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main
48web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
49href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
50list</a> is a good place to send them.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000051
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000052Note that if you are reading this file from CVS, that this document applies to
53the <i>next</i> release, not the previous one. To see the release notes for the
54previous release, see the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/">releases
55page</a>.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000056
57<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
58</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
59<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
60<a name="whatsnew">What's New?
61</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
62<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
63
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000064This is the second public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure. This
65release implements the following new features:<p>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000066
67<ol>
Chris Lattner12d90632003-10-27 01:31:14 +000068<li>temp</li>
69<li>temp</li>
70<li>temp</li>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000071</ol><p>
72
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +000073In this release, the following Quality of Implementation issues were fixed:<p>
74
75<ol>
76<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR29">C++ front-end is not generating linkonce linkage type when it can</a></li>
77</ol><p>
78
Chris Lattnerf7100202003-10-27 05:41:39 +000079In this release, the following bugs in the previous release were fixed:<p>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000080
81<ol>
Chris Lattnerf7100202003-10-27 05:41:39 +000082<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR57">[inliner] Inlining invoke with PHI in unwind target is broken</a></li>
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +000083<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR58">[linker] linkonce globals should link successfully to external globals</a></li>
Chris Lattner4ad4b3a2003-10-27 17:58:57 +000084<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR59">C++ frontend can crash when compiling virtual base classes</a></li>
Chris Lattner2c17a892003-10-28 23:13:03 +000085<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR62">C backend fails on constant cast expr to ptr-to-anonymous struct</a></li>
Chris Lattner287b6212003-10-29 01:26:07 +000086<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR63">#ident is not recognized by C frontend</a></li>
Chris Lattner32547fe2003-10-29 07:17:13 +000087<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR64">[constmerge] Constant merging pass merges constants with external linkage</a></li>
88<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR65">C front-end miscompiles the builtin_expect intrinsic!</a></li>
Chris Lattner34790e52003-10-29 18:49:14 +000089<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR66">[scalarrepl] Scalar Replacement of aggregates is decimating structures it shouldn't be</a></li>
90<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR67">1.0 precompiled libstdc++ does not include wchar_t support</a></li>
Chris Lattner05b958d2003-10-29 20:59:45 +000091<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR68">llvmgcc asserts when compiling functions renamed with asm's</a></li>
92<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR69">C frontend crashes on some programs with lots of types.</a></li>
Chris Lattner36bd5d12003-10-30 01:20:42 +000093<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR70">[instcombine] Resolving invoke inserts cast after terminator</a></li>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000094</ol><p>
95
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +000096At this time, LLVM is known to work properly with SPEC CPU 2000, the Olden
97benchmarks, and the Ptrdist benchmarks among many other programs. Note however
98that the Sparc and X86 backends do not currently support exception throwing or
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +000099long jumping (including 253.perlbmk in SPEC). For these programs you must use
100the C backend.<p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000101
102
103<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
104</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
105<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
106<a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms
107</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
108<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
109
Brian Gaeke15a2a252003-10-22 18:19:08 +0000110LLVM has only been extensively tested on Intel and AMD machines running Red
111Hat Linux, and Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8.
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000112The core LLVM infrastructure uses "autoconf" for portability, so hopefully we
113work on more platforms than that. However, it is extremely likely that we
114missed something. We welcome portability patches and error messages.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000115
116
117<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
118</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
119<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000120<a name="knownproblems">Known Problems
121</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
122<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
123
124This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
125component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000126sections.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000127
128
129<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000130<!--
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000131</ul><h4><a name="portability"><hr size=0>Portability Problems</h4><ul>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000132-->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000133
134
135<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
136</ul><h4><a name="core"><hr size=0>Known problems with the LLVM Core</h4><ul>
137
138<li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not work.<p>
139
140<li>The JIT does not use mutexes to protect its internal data structures. As
141 such, execution of a threaded program could cause these data structures to
142 be corrupted.<p>
143
144<li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.<p>
145
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000146<li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow (there is no symbol
147table in the archive).
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000148
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000149<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
150</ul><h4><a name="c-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C front-end</h4><ul>
151
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000152</ul><b>Bugs:</b><ul><p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000153
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000154<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR6">Oversized integer bitfields cause crash</a>.<p>
155
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000156<li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
157 scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
158<pre>
159 for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
160 int X[n];
161 foo(X);
162 }
163</pre><p>
164
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000165</ul><b>Notes:</b><ul><p>
166
167<li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.<p>
168
169<li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
170 support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64 bits.
171 <p>
172
Chris Lattner824b9a62003-10-02 05:09:46 +0000173<li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not work:
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000174<ol>
175 <li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
John Criswell97745952003-10-27 17:41:53 +0000176 appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions. Note that
177 <tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> <em>are</em> compiled correctly.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000178 <li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
179 - These functions have not been tested.
180</ol><p>
181
182<li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
183 the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
184 <ol>
185 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.
186 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html#Labels%20as%20Values">Labels as Values</a>: Getting pointers to labels, and computed gotos.
187 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Nested-Functions.html#Nested%20Functions">Nested Functions</a>: As in Algol and Pascal, lexical scoping of functions.
188 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.
189 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.
190 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands
191 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Asm-Labels.html#Asm%20Labels">Asm Labels</a>: Specifying the assembler name to use for a C symbol.
192 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Explicit-Reg-Vars.html#Explicit%20Reg%20Vars">Explicit Reg Vars</a>: Defining variables residing in specified registers.
193 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Return-Address.html#Return%20Address">Return Address</a>: Getting the return or frame address of a function.
194 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.
195 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.
196 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.
197 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.
198 </ol><p>
199
200 The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
201 attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
202 but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
203 ignored by the LLVM compiler, which will cause a different interpretation of
204 the program.<p>
205
206 <ol>
207 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
208 Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
209 Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).
210
211 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
212 Declaring that functions have no side effects, or that they can never return.<br>
213 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>, <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>deprecated</tt>,
214 <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
215 <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>noinline</tt>, <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>, <tt>malloc</tt>
216 <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
217 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>, <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
218 <tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes
219
220 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
221 Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
222 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
223 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
224 <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
225 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
226 <tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
227 <tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
228 <tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.<br>
229
230 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.
231 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
232 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt>
233 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>
234 all target specific attributes.<br>
235 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
236 Other built-in functions.<br>
237 We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
238 <tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
239 <tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
240 <tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt> (ignored).
241 </ol><p>
242
243
244 The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:
245 <ol>
246 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.
247 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000248 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000249 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.
250 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.
251 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.
252 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.
253 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.
254 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.
255 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.
256 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.
257 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.
258 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pointer-Arith.html#Pointer%20Arith">Pointer Arith</a>:Arithmetic on <code>void</code>-pointers and function pointers.
259 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.
260 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Compound-Literals.html#Compound%20Literals">Compound Literals</a>: Compound literals give structures, unions or arrays as values.
261 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.
262
263 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Cast-to-Union.html#Cast%20to%20Union">Cast to Union</a>:Casting to union type from any member of the union.
264 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.
265 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.
266
267 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.
268 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.
269 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.
270 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Character-Escapes.html#Character%20Escapes">Character Escapes</a>: <code>\e</code> stands for the character &lt;ESC&gt;.
271 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.
272 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).
273 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alternate-Keywords.html#Alternate%20Keywords">Alternate Keywords</a>:<code>__const__</code>, <code>__asm__</code>, etc., for header files.
274 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Incomplete-Enums.html#Incomplete%20Enums">Incomplete Enums</a>: <code>enum foo;</code>, with details to follow.
275 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Names.html#Function%20Names">Function Names</a>: Printable strings which are the name of the current function.
276 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.
277 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.
278 </ol><p>
279
280 If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
281 lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).
282
283
284<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
285</ul><h4><a name="c++-fe"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C++ front-end</h4><ul>
286
John Criswell97745952003-10-27 17:41:53 +0000287For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be fully functional but
288of <b>beta</b> quality. It has been tested and works for a number of simple programs that collectively exercise most of the language. Nevertheless, it has not been in use as long as the C front-end. Please report any bugs or problems.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000289
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000290</ul><b>Bugs</b>:<ul><p>
291
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000292<li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
293 front-end</a><p>
294
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000295</ul><b>Notes</b>:<ul><p>
296
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000297<li>The C++ front-end is based on a pre-release of the GCC 3.4 C++ parser. This
298parser is significantly more standards compliant (and picky) than prior GCC
299versions. For more information, see the C++ section of the <a
300href="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html">GCC 3.4 release notes</a>.<p>
301
302<li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000303 performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000304 function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
305 Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed however (which is
306 better than most compilers).<p>
307
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000308<li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
309 href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
310 This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
311 mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
312 representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
313 compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
314 Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
315 <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
316 different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
317 interact correctly</b> .
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000318
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000319<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR11">Code for executing destructors when
320 unwinding is not shared</a> (this is a quality of implementation problem,
321 which does not effect functionality).<p>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000322
323
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000324<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
325</ul><h4><a name="x86-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the X86 back-end</h4><ul>
326
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000327<li>The X86 code generator <a
Chris Lattner0d4379a2003-10-08 06:01:38 +0000328href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR16">does not currently
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000329support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
330or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000331
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000332
333<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
334</ul><h4><a name="sparc-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the Sparc back-end</h4><ul>
335
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000336<li>The Sparc code generator <a
Chris Lattner0d4379a2003-10-08 06:01:38 +0000337href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR15">does not currently
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000338support the <tt>unwind</tt> instruction</a>, so code that throws a C++ exception
339or calls the C <tt>longjmp</tt> function will abort.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000340
341
342<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
343</ul><h4><a name="c-be"><hr size=0>Known problems with the C back-end</h4><ul>
344
345<li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
346Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
347(for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
348problem probably cannot be fixed.<p>
349
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000350<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR33">Initializers for global variables</a>
351cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or Infinity.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000352
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +0000353<li><a href="http://zion.cs.uiuc.edu/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
354supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
355frontends.<p>
356
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000357<li>The code produces by the C back-end has only been tested with the Sun CC and
358GCC compilers. It is possible that it will have to be adjusted to support other
359C compilers.<p>
360
361
362
363<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
364</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
365<tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
366<a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information
367</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
368<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
369
370A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page,
371including mailing lists publications describing algorithms and components
372implemented in LLVM. The web page also contains versions of the API
373documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code. You
374can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going into
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000375the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.<p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000376
377If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact us
378via the mailing lists.<p>
379
380
381<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
382</ul>
383<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
384
385<hr><font size-1>
386
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000387Maintained By: <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/">The LLVM Team</a><br>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000388<!-- Created: Wed Oct 1 17:38:54 CDT 2003 -->
389<!-- hhmts start -->
Chris Lattner36bd5d12003-10-30 01:20:42 +0000390Last modified: Wed Oct 29 19:18:55 CST 2003
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000391<!-- hhmts end -->
392</body></html>