blob: 09245885c268e3ca80b67838fa82cabecef7e59a [file] [log] [blame]
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
3<html>
4<head>
5 <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +00006 <title>LLVM 1.2 Release Notes</title>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +00007</head>
8<body>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +00009
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000010<div class="doc_title">
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +000011 LLVM 1.2 Release Notes
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000012</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000013
14<ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000015 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
16 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New?</a></li>
17 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
18 <li><a href="#install-instructions">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000019 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
20 <ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000021 <li><a href="#core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
22 <li><a href="#c-fe">Known problems with the C Front-end</a>
23 <li><a href="#c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ Front-end</a>
24 <li><a href="#x86-be">Known problems with the X86 Back-end</a>
25 <li><a href="#sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc Back-end</a>
26 <li><a href="#c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000027 </ul></li>
28 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000029</ol>
30
Misha Brukmane0c891c2003-11-22 01:00:11 +000031<div class="doc_text">
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +000032 <p><b>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">LLVM team</a></b><p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000033</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000034
35<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000036<div class="doc_section">
37 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
38</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000039<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
40
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000041<div class="doc_text">
42
43<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +000044infrastructure, release 1.2. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +000045known problems and bug fixes from the previous release. The most up-to-date
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000046version of this document can be found on the <a
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +000047href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.2/">LLVM 1.2 web site</a>. If you are
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +000048not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there because
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000049this document may be updated after the release.</p>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +000050
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000051<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about potentially more
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000052current releases, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main
53web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
54href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000055list</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000056
Chris Lattner9e848092003-12-12 04:25:33 +000057<p>Note that if you are reading this file from CVS, this document applies
58to the <i>next</i> release, not the current one. To see the release notes for
59the current or previous releases, see the <a
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000060href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
61
62</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000063
64<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000065<div class="doc_section">
66 <a name="whatsnew">What's New?</a>
67</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +000068<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
69
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +000070<div class="doc_text">
71
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +000072<p>This is the third public release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure.
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +000073</p>
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000074
Chris Lattnerde4afdc2004-02-08 22:23:33 +000075<p>At this time, LLVM is known to correctly compile and run all C
Chris Lattner1124e2c2003-12-12 21:33:08 +000076&amp; C++ SPEC CPU2000 benchmarks, the Olden benchmarks, and the Ptrdist
77benchmarks. It has also been used to compile <b>many</b> other programs. LLVM
78now also works with a broad variety of C++ programs, though it has still
Chris Lattnerde4afdc2004-02-08 22:23:33 +000079received less testing than the C front-end.
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000080</p>
81
82
83<!--=========================================================================-->
84<div class="doc_subsubsection">
85This release implements the following new features:
86</div>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +000087
88<ol>
Chris Lattner95778a02004-02-08 21:20:42 +000089<li><a href="SourceLevelDebugging.html">A new LLVM source-level debugger has been started.</a></li>
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +000090<li></li>
Chris Lattner55ee0312003-11-19 22:05:38 +000091</ol>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000092
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +000093
94<!--=========================================================================-->
95<div class="doc_subsubsection">
96In this release, the following missing features were implemented:
97</div>
Chris Lattner0ef19062003-11-08 04:28:55 +000098
99<ol>
Chris Lattner127215e2004-02-08 19:59:05 +0000100<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR16">Exception handling support in the X86
101&amp; Sparc native code generators</a></li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000102</ol>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000103
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +0000104
105<!--=========================================================================-->
106<div class="doc_subsubsection">
Chris Lattnere29ac162003-12-20 03:42:11 +0000107In this release, the following Quality of Implementation issues were fixed:
108</div>
109
110<ol>
111
112<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR135">JIT should lazily initialize global variables</a></li>
Chris Lattneref56a192003-12-20 10:29:02 +0000113<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR192">[X86] X86 Backend never releases memory for machine code structures</a></li>
Chris Lattner71f0a822003-12-23 23:50:31 +0000114<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR196">[vmcore] OpaqueType objects memory leak</a></li>
Chris Lattner1abc87e2004-01-08 17:20:50 +0000115<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR182">[llvmgcc] C front-end does not compile "extern inline" into linkonce</a></li>
Chris Lattner23632f12004-01-15 17:59:29 +0000116<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR73">Bytecode format inconsistent</a></li>
Chris Lattner913a9342004-02-05 17:31:37 +0000117<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR209">[loadvn/inline/scalarrepl] Slow optimizations with extremely large basic blocks</a></li>
Chris Lattnera50c4ba2004-02-09 21:16:16 +0000118<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR224">[asmparser] Really slow parsing of types with complex upreferences</a></li>
Chris Lattnere29ac162003-12-20 03:42:11 +0000119</ol>
120
121<!--=========================================================================-->
122<div class="doc_subsubsection">
Brian Gaeke33613862004-02-10 05:22:23 +0000123LLVM gained several improvements to its build and installation
124infrastructure in this release. There is now
125a <tt>autoconf/AutoRegen.sh</tt> script that you can run to rebuild the
126<tt>configure</tt> script and its associated files
127(<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR105">Bug 105</a>) as well as beta support
128for "make install" (<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR208">Bug 208</a> and
129<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR220">Bug 220</a>) and RPM package generation
130(<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR203">Bug 203</a>).
131Additionally, in this release, the following build problems were fixed:
Brian Gaeke6b31beb2004-01-16 21:55:04 +0000132</div>
133
134<ol>
135<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR210">[build] Makefiles break if C frontend target string has unexpected value</a></li>
John Criswell6b153402004-01-26 21:03:54 +0000136<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR214">[build] hard-wired assumption that shared-library extension is ".so"</a></li>
Chris Lattner3e0bd312004-02-03 22:59:56 +0000137<li><A href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR222">make tools-only doesn't make lib/Support</a></li>
Brian Gaeke6b31beb2004-01-16 21:55:04 +0000138</ol>
139
140<!--=========================================================================-->
141<div class="doc_subsubsection">
Chris Lattnere29ac162003-12-20 03:42:11 +0000142In this release, the following Code Quality issues were fixed:
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +0000143</div>
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +0000144
145<ol>
Chris Lattner9e259062003-12-19 06:31:56 +0000146<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR187">[loopsimplify] Many pointless phi nodes are created</a></li>
Chris Lattner02babb82004-02-02 19:40:06 +0000147<li>The X86 backend didn't generate <tt>fchs</tt> to negate floating point numbers</li>
Chris Lattner3bc65792004-02-12 21:21:17 +0000148<li>The X86 backend didn't expand memcpy() into the <tt>rep movs</tt> instruction</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000149</ol>
Chris Lattner89ca2b82003-10-27 17:06:39 +0000150
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +0000151
152<!--=========================================================================-->
153<div class="doc_subsubsection">
154In this release, the following bugs in the previous release were fixed:
155</div>
156
157<p>Bugs in the LLVM Core:</p>
Chris Lattner47ad72c2003-10-07 21:38:31 +0000158
159<ol>
Misha Brukmanad643852003-12-15 22:48:12 +0000160<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR179">[licm] LICM promotes volatile memory
161locations to registers</a></li>
Chris Lattner5b7142a2003-12-18 08:16:25 +0000162<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR191">[licm] Memory read after free causes
163infrequent crash</a></li>
Chris Lattner5de946f2003-12-22 04:06:24 +0000164<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR194">[indvars] Induction variable
165canonicalization always makes 32-bit indvars</a></li>
Chris Lattner0cbdd972003-12-22 23:56:37 +0000166<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR193">[constantmerge] Merging globals can
167cause use of invalid pointers!</a></li>
Chris Lattnerae3664b2004-01-20 19:16:50 +0000168<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR212">[bcreader] Bytecode reader misreads 'long -9223372036854775808'!</a></li>
Chris Lattner56e67052004-02-09 21:22:51 +0000169<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=174">Tail duplication does not update SSA form correctly.</a></li>
Chris Lattnerc8a35812004-02-01 22:52:12 +0000170<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR218">VMCore mishandles double -0.0</a></li>
Chris Lattner02babb82004-02-02 19:40:06 +0000171<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR219">[X86] X86 backend code generates -0.0 as +0.0</a></li>
Chris Lattner741f6b42004-02-05 21:16:42 +0000172<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR223">[loopsimplify] Loopsimplify incorrectly updates dominator information</a></li>
Chris Lattner95778a02004-02-08 21:20:42 +0000173<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR225">[pruneeh] -pruneeh pass removes invoke instructions it shouldn't</a></li>
Chris Lattner964b0d82004-02-10 05:19:54 +0000174<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR228">[sparc] Boolean constants are emitted as true and false</a></li>
Chris Lattnerbd8c4562004-02-13 16:40:24 +0000175<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR235">Tablegen aborts on errors</a></li>
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +0000176</ol>
177
178
Chris Lattner56e67052004-02-09 21:22:51 +0000179
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +0000180<p>Bugs in the C/C++ front-end:</p>
181
182<ol>
Misha Brukmanad643852003-12-15 22:48:12 +0000183<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR186">Need weak linkage on memory
184management functions in libc runtime to allow them to be overriden</a></li>
Chris Lattner1abc87e2004-01-08 17:20:50 +0000185<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR202">[llvm-gcc] asserts when an extern inline function is redefined</a></li>
Chris Lattnerc43f91f2004-01-12 05:15:04 +0000186<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR204">[llvmg++] Dynamically initialized constants cannot be marked 'constant'</a></li>
Chris Lattner55d14de2004-02-02 17:48:56 +0000187<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR216">[llvmgcc] floating-point unary minus is incorrect for +0.0</a></li>
Chris Lattneracc00bc2004-02-03 08:03:41 +0000188<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR221">[llvm-gcc] miscompilation of 'X = Y = Z' with aggregate values</a></li>
Chris Lattner3bc65792004-02-12 21:21:17 +0000189<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR233">[llvmgcc] Structure copies result in a LOT of code</a></li>
Chris Lattnera5099962003-12-06 20:22:41 +0000190</ol>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000191
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000192</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000193
194<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000195<div class="doc_section">
196 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
197</div>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000198<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
199
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000200<div class="doc_text">
201
202<p>LLVM has been extensively tested on Intel and AMD machines running Red
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +0000203Hat Linux and FreeBSD. It has also been tested on Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 8.
John Criswellbb1bad52003-12-12 19:54:20 +0000204Additionally,
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000205LLVM works on Mac OS X 10.3 and above, but only with the C backend or
Chris Lattner9e848092003-12-12 04:25:33 +0000206interpreter (no native backend for the PowerPC is available yet).
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000207The core LLVM infrastructure uses "autoconf" for portability, so hopefully we
Chris Lattner3e2959e2003-11-08 05:22:09 +0000208work on more platforms than that. However, it is likely that we
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000209missed something and that minor porting is required to get LLVM to work on
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000210new platforms. We welcome portability patches and error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000211
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000212</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000213
214<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000215<div class="doc_section">
216 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
217</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000218<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
219
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000220<div class="doc_text">
221
222<p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000223component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000224sections. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000225href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000226there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000227
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000228</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000229
230<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000231<!--
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000232</ul><h4><a name="portability"><hr size=0>Portability Problems</h4><ul>
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000233-->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000234
235
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000236<!-- ======================================================================= -->
237<div class="doc_subsection">
238 <a name="core">Known problems with the LLVM Core</a>
239</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000240
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000241<div class="doc_text">
242
243<ul>
244
245<li>In the JIT, <tt>dlsym</tt> on a symbol compiled by the JIT will not
246work.</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000247
248<li>The JIT does not use mutexes to protect its internal data structures. As
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000249such, execution of a threaded program could cause these data structures to be
250corrupted.</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000251
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000252<li>It is not possible to <tt>dlopen</tt> an LLVM bytecode file in the JIT.</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000253
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000254<li>Linking in static archive files (.a files) is very slow (there is no symbol
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000255table in the archive).</li>
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000256
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000257<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR82">LLVM cannot handle structures with
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000258more than 256 elements</a>.</li>
259
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000260<li>
261The gccld program
262<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=139">
263does not link objects/archives in the order specified on the command line.
264</a>
265</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000266</ul>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000267</div>
268
269<!-- ======================================================================= -->
270<div class="doc_subsection">
271 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the C front-end</a>
272</div>
Chris Lattner47588f92003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000273
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000274<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattnerb40efb32003-12-14 05:03:43 +0000275<div class="doc_subsubsection">Bugs</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000276
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000277<div class="doc_text">
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000278<ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000279<li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
280 scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
281<pre>
282 for (i = 0; i != 1000000; ++i) {
283 int X[n];
284 foo(X);
285 }
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000286</pre></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000287
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000288<li>
289Initialization of global union variables can only be done
290<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=162">with the largest
291union member</a>.
292</li>
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000293</ul>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000294</div>
295
296<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
297<div class="doc_subsubsection">
298 Notes
299</div>
300
301<div class="doc_text">
302
303<ul>
304
305<li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.</li>
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000306
307<li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000308support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64
309bits.</li>
310
311<li>The following Unix system functionality has not been tested and may not
312work:
Misha Brukmane0c891c2003-11-22 01:00:11 +0000313 <ol>
314 <li><tt>sigsetjmp</tt>, <tt>siglongjmp</tt> - These are not turned into the
315 appropriate <tt>invoke</tt>/<tt>unwind</tt> instructions. Note that
316 <tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> <em>are</em> compiled correctly.
317 <li><tt>getcontext</tt>, <tt>setcontext</tt>, <tt>makecontext</tt>
318 - These functions have not been tested.
319 </ol></li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000320
321<li>Although many GCC extensions are supported, some are not. In particular,
322 the following extensions are known to <b>not be</b> supported:
323 <ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000324 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Labels.html#Local%20Labels">Local Labels</a>: Labels local to a block.</li>
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000325 <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.</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000326 <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.</li>
327 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constructing-Calls.html#Constructing%20Calls">Constructing Calls</a>: Dispatching a call to another function.</li>
328 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html#Extended%20Asm">Extended Asm</a>: Assembler instructions with C expressions as operands.</li>
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000329 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html#Constraints">Constraints</a>: Constraints for asm operands.</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000330 <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.</li>
331 <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.</li>
332 <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.</li>
333 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Vector-Extensions.html#Vector%20Extensions">Vector Extensions</a>: Using vector instructions through built-in functions.</li>
334 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Target-Builtins.html#Target%20Builtins">Target Builtins</a>: Built-in functions specific to particular targets.</li>
335 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Thread-Local.html#Thread-Local">Thread-Local</a>: Per-thread variables.</li>
336 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Pragmas.html#Pragmas">Pragmas</a>: Pragmas accepted by GCC.</li>
Misha Brukmane0c891c2003-11-22 01:00:11 +0000337 </ol>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000338
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000339 <p>The following GCC extensions are <b>partially</b> supported. An ignored
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000340 attribute means that the LLVM compiler ignores the presence of the attribute,
341 but the code should still work. An unsupported attribute is one which is
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000342 ignored by the LLVM compiler and will cause a different interpretation of
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000343 the program.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000344
345 <ol>
346 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Length.html#Variable%20Length">Variable Length</a>:
347 Arrays whose length is computed at run time.<br>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000348 Supported, but allocated stack space is not freed until the function returns (noted above).</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000349
350 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Attributes.html#Function%20Attributes">Function Attributes</a>:
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000351
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000352 Declaring that functions have no side effects or that they can never
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000353 return.<br>
354
355 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>,
356 <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
357 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
358
359 <b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>noinline</tt>,
360 <tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>,
361 <tt>malloc</tt>, <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
362
363 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>,
364 <tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
365 <tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000366
367 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variable-Attributes.html#Variable%20Attributes">Variable Attributes</a>:
368 Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
369 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
370 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
371 <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000372
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000373 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
374 <tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
375 <tt>vector_size</tt>, <tt>dllimport</tt>,
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000376 <tt>dllexport</tt>, all target specific attributes.</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000377
Misha Brukmanc4b7bee2003-12-12 04:37:31 +0000378 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Type-Attributes.html#Type%20Attributes">Type Attributes</a>: Specifying attributes of types.<br>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000379 <b>Supported:</b> <tt>transparent_union</tt>, <tt>unused</tt>,
Misha Brukmanc4b7bee2003-12-12 04:37:31 +0000380 <tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>may_alias</tt><br>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000381
382 <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
383 all target specific attributes.</li>
384
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000385 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Other-Builtins.html#Other%20Builtins">Other Builtins</a>:
386 Other built-in functions.<br>
387 We support all builtins which have a C language equivalent (e.g.,
388 <tt>__builtin_cos</tt>), <tt>__builtin_alloca</tt>,
389 <tt>__builtin_types_compatible_p</tt>, <tt>__builtin_choose_expr</tt>,
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000390 <tt>__builtin_constant_p</tt>, and <tt>__builtin_expect</tt> (ignored).</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000391
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000392 </ol>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000393
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000394 <p>The following extensions <b>are</b> known to be supported:</p>
395
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000396 <ol>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000397 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Statement-Exprs.html#Statement%20Exprs">Statement Exprs</a>: Putting statements and declarations inside expressions.</li>
398 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Typeof.html#Typeof">Typeof</a>: <code>typeof</code>: referring to the type of an expression.</li>
399 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Lvalues.html#Lvalues">Lvalues</a>: Using <code>?:</code>, "<code>,</code>" and casts in lvalues.</li>
400 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Conditionals.html#Conditionals">Conditionals</a>: Omitting the middle operand of a <code>?:</code> expression.</li>
401 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Long-Long.html#Long%20Long">Long Long</a>: Double-word integers.</li>
402 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Complex.html#Complex">Complex</a>: Data types for complex numbers.</li>
403 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Hex-Floats.html#Hex%20Floats">Hex Floats</a>:Hexadecimal floating-point constants.</li>
404 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html#Zero%20Length">Zero Length</a>: Zero-length arrays.</li>
405 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Empty-Structures.html#Empty%20Structures">Empty Structures</a>: Structures with no members.</li>
406 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Variadic-Macros.html#Variadic%20Macros">Variadic Macros</a>: Macros with a variable number of arguments.</li>
407 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Escaped-Newlines.html#Escaped%20Newlines">Escaped Newlines</a>: Slightly looser rules for escaped newlines.</li>
408 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Subscripting.html#Subscripting">Subscripting</a>: Any array can be subscripted, even if not an lvalue.</li>
Misha Brukmanc4b7bee2003-12-12 04:37:31 +0000409 <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.</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000410 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Initializers.html#Initializers">Initializers</a>: Non-constant initializers.</li>
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000411 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Compound-Literals.html#Compound%20Literals">Compound Literals</a>: Compound literals give structures, unions,
412or arrays as values.</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000413 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Designated-Inits.html#Designated%20Inits">Designated Inits</a>: Labeling elements of initializers.</li>
Misha Brukmanc4b7bee2003-12-12 04:37:31 +0000414 <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.</li>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000415 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Case-Ranges.html#Case%20Ranges">Case Ranges</a>: `case 1 ... 9' and such.</li>
416 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Mixed-Declarations.html#Mixed%20Declarations">Mixed Declarations</a>: Mixing declarations and code.</li>
417 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Function-Prototypes.html#Function%20Prototypes">Function Prototypes</a>: Prototype declarations and old-style definitions.</li>
418 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C---Comments.html#C++%20Comments">C++ Comments</a>: C++ comments are recognized.</li>
419 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Dollar-Signs.html#Dollar%20Signs">Dollar Signs</a>: Dollar sign is allowed in identifiers.</li>
420 <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;.</li>
421 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Alignment.html#Alignment">Alignment</a>: Inquiring about the alignment of a type or variable.</li>
422 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Inline.html#Inline">Inline</a>: Defining inline functions (as fast as macros).</li>
423 <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.</li>
424 <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.</li>
425 <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.</li>
426 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Unnamed-Fields.html#Unnamed%20Fields">Unnamed Fields</a>: Unnamed struct/union fields within structs/unions.</li>
427 <li><a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Attribute-Syntax.html#Attribute%20Syntax">Attribute Syntax</a>: Formal syntax for attributes.</li>
Misha Brukmane0c891c2003-11-22 01:00:11 +0000428 </ol></li>
429
430</ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000431
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000432<p>If you run into GCC extensions which have not been included in any of these
433lists, please let us know (also including whether or not they work).</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000434
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000435</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000436
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000437<!-- ======================================================================= -->
438<div class="doc_subsection">
439 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the C++ front-end</a>
440</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000441
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000442<div class="doc_text">
443
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000444<p>For this release, the C++ front-end is considered to be fully functional but
Chris Lattner9e848092003-12-12 04:25:33 +0000445has not been tested as thoroughly as the C front-end. It has been tested and
446works for a number of non-trivial programs, but there may be lurking bugs.
447Please report any bugs or problems.</p>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000448
449</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000450
451<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000452<div class="doc_subsubsection">
453 Bugs
454</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000455
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000456<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000457
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000458<ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000459<li>The C++ front-end inherits all problems afflicting the <a href="#c-fe">C
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000460 front-end</a>.</li>
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000461</ul>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000462</div>
463
464<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
465<div class="doc_subsubsection">
466 Notes
467</div>
468
469<div class="doc_text">
470
471<ul>
Chris Lattnere01fcfb2003-10-27 18:30:37 +0000472
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000473<li>The C++ front-end is based on a pre-release of the GCC 3.4 C++ parser. This
474parser is significantly more standards compliant (and picky) than prior GCC
475versions. For more information, see the C++ section of the <a
Chris Lattner9e848092003-12-12 04:25:33 +0000476href="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-3.4/changes.html">GCC 3.4 release notes</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000477
478<li>Destructors for local objects are not always run when a <tt>longjmp</tt> is
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000479 performed. In particular, destructors for objects in the <tt>longjmp</tt>ing
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000480 function and in the <tt>setjmp</tt> receiver function may not be run.
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000481 Objects in intervening stack frames will be destroyed, however (which is
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000482 better than most compilers).</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000483
Chris Lattner19092612003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000484<li>The LLVM C++ front-end follows the <a
485 href="http://www.codesourcery.com/cxx-abi">Itanium C++ ABI</a>.
486 This document, which is not Itanium specific, specifies a standard for name
487 mangling, class layout, v-table layout, RTTI formats, and other C++
488 representation issues. Because we use this API, code generated by the LLVM
489 compilers should be binary compatible with machine code generated by other
490 Itanium ABI C++ compilers (such as G++, the Intel and HP compilers, etc).
491 <i>However</i>, the exception handling mechanism used by LLVM is very
492 different from the model used in the Itanium ABI, so <b>exceptions will not
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000493 interact correctly</b>. </li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000494
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000495</ul>
Chris Lattnerfcc54b32003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000496
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000497</div>
498
499<!-- ======================================================================= -->
500<div class="doc_subsection">
501 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
502</div>
503
504<div class="doc_text">
505
506<ul>
Chris Lattnerde4afdc2004-02-08 22:23:33 +0000507<li>None so far.
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000508</ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000509
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000510</div>
511
512<!-- ======================================================================= -->
513<div class="doc_subsection">
514 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the Sparc back-end</a>
515</div>
516
517<div class="doc_text">
518
519<ul>
Chris Lattnerde4afdc2004-02-08 22:23:33 +0000520<li>None so far.
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000521</ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000522
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000523</div>
524
525<!-- ======================================================================= -->
526<div class="doc_subsection">
527 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
528</div>
529
530<div class="doc_text">
531
532<ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000533
534<li>The C back-end produces code that violates the ANSI C Type-Based Alias
535Analysis rules. As such, special options may be necessary to compile the code
536(for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000537problem probably cannot be fixed.</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000538
Chris Lattnere84843b2003-10-20 19:05:03 +0000539<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR33">Initializers for global variables</a>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000540cannot include special floating point numbers like Not-A-Number or
541Infinity.</li>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000542
Chris Lattner2855ecd2003-11-04 20:06:53 +0000543<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +0000544supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000545frontends.</li>
Chris Lattner2af46052003-10-24 04:03:19 +0000546
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000547</ul>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000548
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000549</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000550
551<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000552<div class="doc_section">
553 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
554</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000555<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
556
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000557<div class="doc_text">
558
559<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the LLVM web page,
John Criswelld000e1d2003-12-18 16:43:17 +0000560including mailing lists and publications describing algorithms and components
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000561implemented in LLVM. The web page also contains versions of the API
562documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code. You
563can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going into
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000564the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000565
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000566<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattner5eccca42003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000567us via the <a href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">mailing
568lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000569
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000570</div>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000571
572<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000573
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000574<hr>
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000575<address>
Misha Brukman38847d52003-12-21 22:53:21 +0000576 <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000577 src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
578 <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
579 src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" /></a>
580
Misha Brukmane0c891c2003-11-22 01:00:11 +0000581 <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000582 Last modified: $Date$
Misha Brukman2061e892003-11-22 01:23:39 +0000583</address>
Chris Lattner79c3fe12003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000584
Misha Brukman500bc302003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000585</body>
586</html>