llvm/docs/GettingStartedVS.html - toolchain/llvm-project - Gitiles

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   <title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title>
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 </head>
 <body>

 <div class="doc_title">
   Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio
 </div>

 <ul>
   <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
   <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
   <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
     <ol>
       <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a>
       <li><a href="#software">Software</a>
     </ol></li>

   <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
     <ol>
       <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
       <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
     </ol></li>

   <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
   <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
   <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
 </ul>

 <div class="doc_author">
   <p>Written by:
     <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a>
   </p>
 </div>


 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

   <p>The Visual Studio port at this time is experimental.  It is suitable for
   use only if you are writing your own compiler front end or otherwise have a
   need to dynamically generate machine code.  The JIT and interpreter are
   functional, but it is currently not possible to generate assembly code which
   is then assembled into an executable.  You can indirectly create executables
   by using the C back end.</p>

   <p>To emphasize, there is no C/C++ front end currently available.
   <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is based on GCC, which cannot be bootstrapped using VC++.
   Eventually there should be a <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> based on Cygwin or MinGW that
   is usable.  There is also the option of generating bytecode files on Unix and
   copying them over to Windows.  But be aware the odds of linking C++ code
   compiled with <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> with code compiled with VC++ is essentially
   zero.</p>

   <p>The LLVM test suite cannot be run on the Visual Studio port at this
   time.</p>

   <p>Most of the tools build and work.  <tt>llvm-db</tt> does not build at this
   time.  <tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does not work.

   <p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain
   can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a>
   page.</P>

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

 <p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>

 <ol>
   <li>Read the documentation.</li>
   <li>Read the documentation.</li>
   <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>

   <li>Get the Source Code
   <ul>
     <li>With the distributed files:
     <ol>
       <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
       <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
       <i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;or use WinZip</i>
       <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
     </ol></li>

     <li>With anonymous CVS access (or use a <a href="#mirror">mirror</a>):
     <ol>
       <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
       <li><tt>cvs -d
           :pserver:anon@llvm-cvs.cs.uiuc.edu:/var/cvs/llvm login</tt></li>
       <li>Hit the return key when prompted for the password.
       <li><tt>cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anon@llvm-cvs.cs.uiuc.edu:/var/cvs/llvm
           co llvm</tt></li>
       <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
       <li><tt>cvs up -P -d</tt></li>
     </ol></li>
   </ul></li>

   <li>Start Visual Studio
   <ol>
     <li>Simply double click on the solution file <tt>llvm/win32/llvm.sln</tt>.
     </li>
   </ol></li>

   <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
   <ol>
     <li>Simply build the solution.</li>
     <li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT.  Modify
     the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric command line
     argument.  The program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li>
   </ol></li>

 </ol>

 <p>It is strongly encouraged that you get the latest version from CVS.  Much
 progress has been made since the 1.4 release.</p>

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

   <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given
   below.  This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware
   and software you will need.</p>

 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">

   <p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2003 is fine.  The
   LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume
   approximately 3GB.</p>

 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
 <div class="doc_text">

   <p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2003.  Earlier versions cannot open the
   solution/project files.  The VS 2005 beta can, but will migrate these files
   to its own format in the process.  While it should work with the VS 2005
   beta, there are no guarantees and there is no support for it at this time.
   It has been reported that VC++ Express also works.</p>

   <p>You will also need several open source packages:  bison, flex, and sed.
   These must be installed in <tt>llvm/win32/tools</tt>.  These can be found at
   <a href="http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net">http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net</a>
   or
   <a href="http://unxutils.sourceforge.net">http://unxutils.sourceforge.net</a>.
   Bison prefers that m4 be in the path.  You must add it to the Visual Studio
   configuration under the menu Options -&gt; Projects -&gt; VC++ Directories.
   Alternatively, you can set the environment variable <tt>M4</tt> to point to
   <tt>m4</tt> executable.</p>

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

 <p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
 LLVM using Visual Studio and to give you some basic information about the LLVM
 environment.</p>

 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">

 <p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
 specific to the local system and working environment.  <i>These are not
 environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
 of this document below</i>.  In any of the examples below, simply replace
 each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
 All these paths are absolute:</p>

 <dl>
     <dt>SRC_ROOT
     <dd>
     This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
     <p>

     <dt>OBJ_ROOT
     <dd>
     This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
     tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed.  It
     is fixed at SRC_ROOT/win32).
     <p>
 </dl>

 </div>

 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <div class="doc_subsection">
   <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
 </div>

 <div class="doc_text">

   <p>The object files are placed under <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Debug</tt> for debug builds
   and <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Release</tt> for release (optimized) builds.  These include
   both executables and libararies that your application can link against.

   <p>The files that <tt>configure</tt> would create when building on Unix are
   created by the <tt>Configure</tt> project and placed in
   <tt>OBJ_ROOT/llvm</tt>.  You application must have OBJ_ROOT in its include
   search path just before <tt>SRC_ROOT/include</tt>.

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

 <ol>
   <li>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':
        <pre>
    #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
    int main() {
      printf("hello world\n");
      return 0;
    }
        </pre></li>

   <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bytecode file:</p>
       <p><tt>% llvm-gcc hello.c -o hello</tt></p>

       <p>Note that you should have already built the tools and they have to be
       in your path, at least <tt>gccas</tt> and <tt>gccld</tt>.</p>

       <p>This will create two result files: <tt>hello</tt> and
       <tt>hello.bc</tt>. The <tt>hello.bc</tt> is the LLVM bytecode that
       corresponds the the compiled program and the library facilities that it
       required.  <tt>hello</tt> is a simple shell script that runs the bytecode
       file with <tt>lli</tt>, making the result directly executable.  Note that
       all LLVM optimizations are enabled by default, so there is no need for a
       "-O3" switch.</p>

       <p><b>Note: while you cannot do this step on Windows, you can do it on a
         Unix system and transfer <tt>hello.bc</tt> to Windows.</b></p></li>

   <li><p>Run the program. To make sure the program ran, execute the
       following command:</p>

       <p><tt>% lli hello.bc</tt></p></li>

   <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
       code:</p>

       <p><tt>% llvm-dis &lt; hello.bc | less</tt><p></li>

   <li><p>Compile the program to native assembly using the LLC code
       generator:</p>

       <p><tt>% llc hello.bc -o hello.s</tt></p>

   <li><p>Assemble the native assembly language file into a program:</p>

   <p><b>Not currently possible, but eventually will use <tt>NASMW</tt>.</b></p>

   <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>

       <p><tt>% ./hello.native</tt></p></li>

 </ol>

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

 <p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
 general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
 Asked Questions</a> page.</p>

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 <div class="doc_section">
   <a name="links">Links</a>
 </div>
 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <div class="doc_text">

 <p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
 some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
 that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
 if you want to write something up!).  For more information about LLVM, check
 out:</p>

 <ul>
   <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
   <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
   <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
   that Uses LLVM</a></li>
 </ul>

 </div>

 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->

 <hr>
 <address>
   <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
   src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
   <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
   src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" /></a>

   <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a><br>
   <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
   Last modified: $Date$
 </address>
 </body>
 </html>
	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
	"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
	<html>
	<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
	<title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
	</head>
	<body>

	<div class="doc_title">
	Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio
	</div>

	<ul>
	<li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
	<li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
	<li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
	<ol>
	<li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a>
	<li><a href="#software">Software</a>
	</ol></li>

	<li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
	<ol>
	<li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
	<li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
	</ol></li>

	<li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
	<li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
	<li><a href="#links">Links</a>
	</ul>

	<div class="doc_author">
	<p>Written by:
	<a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a>
	</p>
	</div>


	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>The Visual Studio port at this time is experimental. It is suitable for
	use only if you are writing your own compiler front end or otherwise have a
	need to dynamically generate machine code. The JIT and interpreter are
	functional, but it is currently not possible to generate assembly code which
	is then assembled into an executable. You can indirectly create executables
	by using the C back end.</p>

	<p>To emphasize, there is no C/C++ front end currently available.
	<tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is based on GCC, which cannot be bootstrapped using VC++.
	Eventually there should be a <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> based on Cygwin or MinGW that
	is usable. There is also the option of generating bytecode files on Unix and
	copying them over to Windows. But be aware the odds of linking C++ code
	compiled with <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> with code compiled with VC++ is essentially
	zero.</p>

	<p>The LLVM test suite cannot be run on the Visual Studio port at this
	time.</p>

	<p>Most of the tools build and work. <tt>llvm-db</tt> does not build at this
	time. <tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does not work.

	<p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain
	can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a>
	page.</P>

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>

	<ol>
	<li>Read the documentation.</li>
	<li>Read the documentation.</li>
	<li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>

	<li>Get the Source Code
	<ul>
	<li>With the distributed files:
	<ol>
	<li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
	<li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz \| tar -xvf -</tt>
	<i>      or use WinZip</i>
	<li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
	</ol></li>

	<li>With anonymous CVS access (or use a <a href="#mirror">mirror</a>):
	<ol>
	<li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
	<li><tt>cvs -d
	:pserver:anon@llvm-cvs.cs.uiuc.edu:/var/cvs/llvm login</tt></li>
	<li>Hit the return key when prompted for the password.
	<li><tt>cvs -z3 -d :pserver:anon@llvm-cvs.cs.uiuc.edu:/var/cvs/llvm
	co llvm</tt></li>
	<li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
	<li><tt>cvs up -P -d</tt></li>
	</ol></li>
	</ul></li>

	<li>Start Visual Studio
	<ol>
	<li>Simply double click on the solution file <tt>llvm/win32/llvm.sln</tt>.
	</li>
	</ol></li>

	<li>Build the LLVM Suite:
	<ol>
	<li>Simply build the solution.</li>
	<li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT. Modify
	the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric command line
	argument. The program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li>
	</ol></li>

	</ol>

	<p>It is strongly encouraged that you get the latest version from CVS. Much
	progress has been made since the 1.4 release.</p>

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given
	below. This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware
	and software you will need.</p>

	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2003 is fine. The
	LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume
	approximately 3GB.</p>

	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2003. Earlier versions cannot open the
	solution/project files. The VS 2005 beta can, but will migrate these files
	to its own format in the process. While it should work with the VS 2005
	beta, there are no guarantees and there is no support for it at this time.
	It has been reported that VC++ Express also works.</p>

	<p>You will also need several open source packages: bison, flex, and sed.
	These must be installed in <tt>llvm/win32/tools</tt>. These can be found at
	<a href="http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net">http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net</a>
	or
	<a href="http://unxutils.sourceforge.net">http://unxutils.sourceforge.net</a>.
	Bison prefers that m4 be in the path. You must add it to the Visual Studio
	configuration under the menu Options -> Projects -> VC++ Directories.
	Alternatively, you can set the environment variable <tt>M4</tt> to point to
	<tt>m4</tt> executable.</p>

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
	LLVM using Visual Studio and to give you some basic information about the LLVM
	environment.</p>

	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
	specific to the local system and working environment. <i>These are not
	environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
	of this document below</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
	each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
	All these paths are absolute:</p>

	<dl>
	<dt>SRC_ROOT
	<dd>
	This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
	<p>

	<dt>OBJ_ROOT
	<dd>
	This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
	tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It
	is fixed at SRC_ROOT/win32).
	<p>
	</dl>

	</div>

	<!-- ======================================================================= -->
	<div class="doc_subsection">
	<a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
	</div>

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>The object files are placed under <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Debug</tt> for debug builds
	and <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Release</tt> for release (optimized) builds. These include
	both executables and libararies that your application can link against.

	<p>The files that <tt>configure</tt> would create when building on Unix are
	created by the <tt>Configure</tt> project and placed in
	<tt>OBJ_ROOT/llvm</tt>. You application must have OBJ_ROOT in its include
	search path just before <tt>SRC_ROOT/include</tt>.

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<ol>
	<li>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':
	<pre>
	#include <stdio.h>
	int main() {
	printf("hello world\n");
	return 0;
	}
	</pre></li>

	<li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bytecode file:</p>
	<p><tt>% llvm-gcc hello.c -o hello</tt></p>

	<p>Note that you should have already built the tools and they have to be
	in your path, at least <tt>gccas</tt> and <tt>gccld</tt>.</p>

	<p>This will create two result files: <tt>hello</tt> and
	<tt>hello.bc</tt>. The <tt>hello.bc</tt> is the LLVM bytecode that
	corresponds the the compiled program and the library facilities that it
	required. <tt>hello</tt> is a simple shell script that runs the bytecode
	file with <tt>lli</tt>, making the result directly executable. Note that
	all LLVM optimizations are enabled by default, so there is no need for a
	"-O3" switch.</p>

	<p><b>Note: while you cannot do this step on Windows, you can do it on a
	Unix system and transfer <tt>hello.bc</tt> to Windows.</b></p></li>

	<li><p>Run the program. To make sure the program ran, execute the
	following command:</p>

	<p><tt>% lli hello.bc</tt></p></li>

	<li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
	code:</p>

	<p><tt>% llvm-dis < hello.bc \| less</tt><p></li>

	<li><p>Compile the program to native assembly using the LLC code
	generator:</p>

	<p><tt>% llc hello.bc -o hello.s</tt></p>

	<li><p>Assemble the native assembly language file into a program:</p>

	<p><b>Not currently possible, but eventually will use <tt>NASMW</tt>.</b></p>

	<li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>

	<p><tt>% ./hello.native</tt></p></li>

	</ol>

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
	general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
	Asked Questions</a> page.</p>

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
	<div class="doc_section">
	<a name="links">Links</a>
	</div>
	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<div class="doc_text">

	<p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
	some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
	that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
	if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
	out:</p>

	<ul>
	<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
	that Uses LLVM</a></li>
	</ul>

	</div>

	<!-- *********************************************************************** -->

	<hr>
	<address>
	<a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
	src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
	<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
	src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" /></a>

	<a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a><br>
	<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
	Last modified: $Date$
	</address>
	</body>
	</html>