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Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +00007 <title>LLVM 2.7 Release Notes</title>
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9<body>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000010
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000011<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.7 Release Notes</div>
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000012
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +000013<img align=right src="http://llvm.org/img/DragonSmall.png"
14 width="136" height="136">
15
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000016<ol>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000017 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +000018 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000019 <li><a href="#externalproj">External Projects Using LLVM 2.7</a></li>
20 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.7?</a></li>
Chris Lattner77a51732004-04-30 22:17:12 +000021 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000022 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Dan Gohmanad888912008-10-14 16:23:02 +000023 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000024 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000025</ol>
26
Chris Lattner020e1fc2004-05-23 21:07:27 +000027<div class="doc_author">
Dan Gohmanad888912008-10-14 16:23:02 +000028 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000029</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000030
Chris Lattner06971182010-04-13 06:37:00 +000031<!--
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000032<h1 style="color:red">These are in-progress notes for the upcoming LLVM 2.7
33release.<br>
34You may prefer the
35<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/2.6/docs/ReleaseNotes.html">LLVM 2.6
Chris Lattner06971182010-04-13 06:37:00 +000036Release Notes</a>.</h1>-->
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000037
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000038<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000039<div class="doc_section">
40 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
41</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000042<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
43
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000044<div class="doc_text">
45
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000046<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000047Infrastructure, release 2.7. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000048major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +000049All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000050href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +000051
Chris Lattnerb5bb5972004-12-07 08:04:13 +000052<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +000053release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattnere7525b52003-10-07 21:38:31 +000054web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +000055href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's
56Mailing List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000057
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000058<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +000059main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greif355f81c2008-10-14 11:00:32 +000060current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +000061<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000062
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +000063
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +000064<p>FIXME: llvm.org moved to new server, mention new logo, Ted and Doug new code
Chris Lattner408f7912010-04-16 06:20:22 +000065 owners, web page in llvm-www repos.</p>
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +000066
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000067</div>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000068
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000069
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000070<!--
71Almost dead code.
72 include/llvm/Analysis/LiveValues.h => Dan
73 lib/Transforms/IPO/MergeFunctions.cpp => consider for 2.8.
74 llvm/Analysis/PointerTracking.h => Edwin wants this, consider for 2.8.
Chris Lattner06971182010-04-13 06:37:00 +000075 ABCD, GEPSplitterPass
Chris Lattner89ea59d2010-01-16 21:25:13 +000076 MSIL backend?
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +000077 lib/Transforms/Utils/SSI.cpp -> ABCD depends on it.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000078-->
79
80
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000081<!-- Features that need text if they're finished for 2.7:
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000082 gcc plugin.
83 strong phi elim
84 variable debug info for optimized code
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +000085 postalloc scheduler: anti dependence breaking, hazard recognizer?
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000086 metadata
87 loop dependence analysis
88 ELF Writer? How stable?
89 <li>PostRA scheduler improvements, ARM adoption (David Goodwin).</li>
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000090 -->
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000091
Chris Lattnerc4d68542008-10-12 19:47:48 +000092 <!-- for announcement email:
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000093 Logo web page.
94 llvm devmtg
95 compiler_rt
96 KLEE web page at klee.llvm.org
97 Many new papers added to /pubs/
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +000098 Mention gcc plugin.
Chris Lattnerd02da042009-02-25 06:34:50 +000099 -->
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000100
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000101<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
102<div class="doc_section">
103 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000104</div>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000105<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000106
107<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000108<p>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000109The LLVM 2.7 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000110repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators
111and supporting tools), the Clang repository and the llvm-gcc repository. In
112addition to this code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in
113development. Here we include updates on these subprojects.
Bill Wendlingf170d2e2009-03-02 04:28:57 +0000114</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000115
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000116</div>
117
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000118
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000119<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000120<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner44c09cd2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000121<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000122</div>
123
124<div class="doc_text">
125
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000126<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is ...</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000127
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000128<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
Bill Wendlingef362462008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000129
Daniel Dunbarc11b40f2008-10-14 23:25:09 +0000130<ul>
Daniel Dunbareb4bc7f2010-03-25 16:09:18 +0000131<li>FIXME: C++! Include a link to cxx_compatibility.html</li>
132
133<li>FIXME: Static Analyzer improvements?</li>
134
135<li>CIndex API and Python bindings: Clang now includes a C API as part of the
136CIndex library. Although we make make some changes to the API in the future, it
137is intended to be stable and has been designed for use by external projects. See
138the Clang
139doxygen <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/group__CINDEX.html">CIndex</a>
140documentation for more details. The CIndex API also includings an preliminary
141set of Python bindings.</li>
142
143<li>ARM Support: Clang now has ABI support for both the Darwin and Linux ARM
144ABIs. Coupled with many improvements to the LLVM ARM backend, Clang is now
145suitable for use as a a beta quality ARM compiler.</li>
Bill Wendling87adbe42009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000146</ul>
Chris Lattner44c09cd2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000147</div>
148
149<!--=========================================================================-->
150<div class="doc_subsection">
151<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
152</div>
153
154<div class="doc_text">
155
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000156<p>Previously announced in the 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6 LLVM releases, the Clang project also
Ted Kremenekc11fae82009-02-27 07:01:32 +0000157includes an early stage static source code analysis tool for <a
158href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">automatically finding bugs</a>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000159in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs checks to find
Ted Kremenekc11fae82009-02-27 07:01:32 +0000160bugs that occur on a specific path within a program.</p>
Chris Lattnerbcffa5a2008-10-14 00:52:49 +0000161
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000162<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the analyzer core has sprouted legs and...</p>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000163
164</div>
165
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000166<!--=========================================================================-->
167<div class="doc_subsection">
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000168<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000169</div>
170
171<div class="doc_text">
172<p>
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000173The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000174a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machine (Microsoft .NET is an
175implementation of the CLI) using LLVM for static and just-in-time
176compilation.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000177
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000178<p>
Chris Lattneref2e5732010-03-29 18:34:13 +0000179With the release of LLVM 2.7, VMKit has shifted to a great framework for writing
180virtual machines. VMKit now offers precise and efficient garbage collection with
181multi-threading support, thanks to the MMTk memory management toolkit, as well
182as just in time and ahead of time compilation with LLVM. The major changes in
183VMKit 0.27 are:</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000184
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000185<ul>
186
Chris Lattneref2e5732010-03-29 18:34:13 +0000187<li>Garbage collection: VMKit now uses the MMTk toolkit for garbage collectors.
188 The first collector to be ported is the MarkSweep collector, which is precise,
189 and drastically improves the performance of VMKit.</li>
190<li>Line number information in the JVM: by using the debug metadata of LLVM, the
191 JVM now supports precise line number information, useful when printing a stack
192 trace.</li>
193<li>Interface calls in the JVM: we implemented a variant of the Interface Method
194 Table technique for interface calls in the JVM.
195</li>
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000196
197</ul>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000198</div>
199
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000200
201<!--=========================================================================-->
202<div class="doc_subsection">
203<a name="compiler-rt">compiler-rt: Compiler Runtime Library</a>
204</div>
205
206<div class="doc_text">
207<p>
208The new LLVM <a href="http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/">compiler-rt project</a>
209is a simple library that provides an implementation of the low-level
210target-specific hooks required by code generation and other runtime components.
211For example, when compiling for a 32-bit target, converting a double to a 64-bit
212unsigned integer is compiled into a runtime call to the "__fixunsdfdi"
213function. The compiler-rt library provides highly optimized implementations of
214this and other low-level routines (some are 3x faster than the equivalent
215libgcc routines).</p>
216
217<p>
218All of the code in the compiler-rt project is available under the standard LLVM
219License, a "BSD-style" license.</p>
220
221</div>
222
223<!--=========================================================================-->
224<div class="doc_subsection">
Duncan Sands92452b92010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000225<a name="dragonegg">DragonEgg: llvm-gcc ported to gcc-4.5</a>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000226</div>
227
228<div class="doc_text">
229<p>
Duncan Sands92452b92010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000230<a href="http://dragonegg.llvm.org/">DragonEgg</a> is a port of llvm-gcc to
231gcc-4.5. Unlike llvm-gcc, which makes many intrusive changes to the underlying
232gcc-4.2 code, dragonegg in theory does not require any gcc-4.5 modifications
233whatsoever (currently one small patch is needed). This is thanks to the new
234<a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/plugins">gcc plugin architecture</a>, which
235makes it possible to modify the behaviour of gcc at runtime by loading a plugin,
236which is nothing more than a dynamic library which conforms to the gcc plugin
237interface. DragonEgg is a gcc plugin that causes the LLVM optimizers to be run
238instead of the gcc optimizers, and the LLVM code generators instead of the gcc
239code generators, just like llvm-gcc. To use it, you add
240"-fplugin=path/dragonegg.so" to the gcc-4.5 command line, and gcc-4.5 magically
241becomes llvm-gcc-4.5!
242</p>
243
244<p>
245DragonEgg is still a work in progress. Currently C works very well, while C++,
246Ada and Fortran work fairly well. All other languages either don't work at all,
247or only work poorly. For the moment only the x86-32 and x86-64 targets are
Duncan Sands4dd125e2010-04-20 19:40:58 +0000248supported, and only on linux and darwin (darwin needs an additional gcc patch).
Duncan Sands92452b92010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000249</p>
250
251<p>
Duncan Sands4dd125e2010-04-20 19:40:58 +0000252The first dragonegg release will occur shortly after llvm-2.7 is released.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000253</p>
254
255</div>
256
257
258<!--=========================================================================-->
259<div class="doc_subsection">
260<a name="mc">llvm-mc: Machine Code Toolkit</a>
261</div>
262
263<div class="doc_text">
264<p>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000265The LLVM Machine Code (MC) Toolkit project is ...
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000266</p>
267
268</div>
269
270
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000271<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
272<div class="doc_section">
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000273 <a name="externalproj">External Open Source Projects Using LLVM 2.7</a>
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000274</div>
275<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
276
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000277<div class="doc_text">
278
279<p>An exciting aspect of LLVM is that it is used as an enabling technology for
280 a lot of other language and tools projects. This section lists some of the
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000281 projects that have already been updated to work with LLVM 2.7.</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000282</div>
283
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000284<!--=========================================================================-->
285<div class="doc_subsection">
286<a name="pure">Pure</a>
287</div>
288
289<div class="doc_text">
290<p>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000291<a href="http://pure-lang.googlecode.com/">Pure</a>
292is an algebraic/functional programming language based on term rewriting.
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000293Programs are collections of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in
294a symbolic fashion. Pure offers dynamic typing, eager and lazy evaluation,
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000295lexical closures, a hygienic macro system (also based on term rewriting),
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000296built-in list and matrix support (including list and matrix comprehensions) and
297an easy-to-use C interface. The interpreter uses LLVM as a backend to
298 JIT-compile Pure programs to fast native code.</p>
299
Chris Lattner6aba4862010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000300<p>Pure versions 0.43 and later have been tested and are known to work with
301LLVM 2.7 (and continue to work with older LLVM releases >= 2.5).</p>
302
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000303</div>
304
Chris Lattnerfb23a962009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000305<!--=========================================================================-->
306<div class="doc_subsection">
307<a name="RoadsendPHP">Roadsend PHP</a>
308</div>
309
310<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000311<p>
312<a href="http://code.roadsend.com/rphp">Roadsend PHP</a> (rphp) is an open
Chris Lattner0c72d8f2009-03-02 19:07:24 +0000313source implementation of the PHP programming
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000314language that uses LLVM for its optimizer, JIT and static compiler. This is a
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000315reimplementation of an earlier project that is now based on LLVM.
Chris Lattner6aba4862010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000316</p>
Chris Lattnerfb23a962009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000317</div>
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000318
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000319<!--=========================================================================-->
320<div class="doc_subsection">
321<a name="UnladenSwallow">Unladen Swallow</a>
322</div>
323
324<div class="doc_text">
325<p>
326<a href="http://code.google.com/p/unladen-swallow/">Unladen Swallow</a> is a
327branch of <a href="http://python.org/">Python</a> intended to be fully
328compatible and significantly faster. It uses LLVM's optimization passes and JIT
Chris Lattner5b59a732010-03-18 06:52:15 +0000329compiler.
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000330</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000331</div>
332
333<!--=========================================================================-->
334<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb4a02792010-03-29 17:50:39 +0000335<a name="tce">TTA-based Codesign Environment (TCE)</a>
336</div>
337
338<div class="doc_text">
339<p>
340<a href="http://tce.cs.tut.fi/">TCE</a> is a toolset for designing
341application-specific processors (ASP) based on the Transport triggered
342architecture (TTA). The toolset provides a complete co-design flow from C/C++
343programs down to synthesizable VHDL and parallel program binaries. Processor
344customization points include the register files, function units, supported
345operations, and the interconnection network.</p>
346
347<p>TCE uses llvm-gcc/Clang and LLVM for C/C++ language support, target
348independent optimizations and also for parts of code generation. It generates
349new LLVM-based code generators "on the fly" for the designed TTA processors and
350loads them in to the compiler backend as runtime libraries to avoid per-target
351recompilation of larger parts of the compiler chain.</p>
352
353</div>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000354
John Criswell9003e0f2010-04-06 14:52:14 +0000355<!--=========================================================================-->
356<div class="doc_subsection">
357<a name="safecode">SAFECode Compiler</a>
358</div>
359
360<div class="doc_text">
361<p>
362<a href="http://safecode.cs.illinois.edu">SAFECode</a> is a memory safe C
363compiler built using LLVM. It takes standard, unannotated C code, analyzes the
364code to ensure that memory accesses and array indexing operations are safe, and
365instruments the code with run-time checks when safety cannot be proven
366statically.
367</p>
368</div>
369
370
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000371<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
372<div class="doc_section">
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000373 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.7?</a>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000374</div>
375<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
376
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000377<div class="doc_text">
378
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000379<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000380minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
381in this section.
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000382</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000383
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000384</div>
385
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000386<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000387<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnercdc44ed2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000388<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
389</div>
390
391<div class="doc_text">
392
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000393<p>LLVM 2.7 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000394
395<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000396<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner458e79f2008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000397</ul>
398
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000399Extensible metadata solid.
400
401Debug info improvements: using metadata instead of llvm.dbg global variables.
402This brings several enhancements including improved compile times.
403
404New instruction selector.
405GHC Haskell ABI/ calling conv support.
406Pre-Alpha support for unions in IR.
407New InlineHint and StackAlignment function attributes
408Code generator MC'ized except for debug info and EH.
409New SCEV AA pass: -scev-aa
410Inliner reuses arrays allocas when inlining multiple callers to reduce stack usage.
411MC encoding and disassembler apis.
412Optimal Edge Profiling?
413Instcombine is now a library, has its own IRBuilder to simplify itself.
414New llvm/Support/Regex.h API. FileCheck now does regex's
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000415Many subtle pointer invalidation bugs in Callgraph have been fixed and it now uses asserting value handles.
416MC Disassembler (with blog post), MCInstPrinter. Many X86 backend and AsmPrinter simplifications
417Various tools like llc and opt now read either .ll or .bc files as input.
Chris Lattnerbdaa4322010-03-29 18:42:42 +0000418Malloc and free instructions got removed, along with LowerAllocations pass.
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000419compiler-rt support for ARM.
420completely llvm-gcc NEON support.
421Can transcode from GAS to intel syntax with "llvm-mc foo.s -output-asm-variant=1"
422JIT debug information with GDB 7.0
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000423New CodeGen Level CSE
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000424CMake can now run tests, what other improvements?
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000425ARM/Thumb using reg scavenging for stack object address materialization (PEI).
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000426New SSAUpdater and MachineSSAUpdater classes for unstructured ssa updating,
427 changed jump threading, GVN, etc to use it which simplified them and speed
428 them up.
Chris Lattner6184f4d2010-03-17 06:42:25 +0000429Combiner-AA improvements, why not on by default?
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000430Pre-regalloc tail duplication
Chris Lattner06971182010-04-13 06:37:00 +0000431x86 sibcall / tailcall optimization in CCC mode.
Chris Lattner408f7912010-04-16 06:20:22 +0000432New LSR with "full strength reduction" mode. Description?
433Codegen level OptimizeExtsPass pass, takes advantage of x86 subregs.
Chris Lattner06971182010-04-13 06:37:00 +0000434Better code size analysis in loop unswitch, inliner code split out to a new
435 CodeMetrics class for reuse.
Chris Lattnere1c1eda2010-03-29 18:39:28 +0000436The ARM backend now has good support for ARMv4 backend (tested on StrongARM
437 hardware), previously only supported ARMv4T and newer.
Chris Lattner06971182010-04-13 06:37:00 +0000438Half-float support in APFloat
439Indirect branch + address of label (blog post), particularly useful for interpreters.
Chris Lattner408f7912010-04-16 06:20:22 +0000440Many changes to the pass ordering for improved optimization effectiveness.
441BasicAA improved to be less dependent on "type safe" pointers, it can now look
442 through bitcasts more aggressively.
443GVN PHI Translation improvements. blog post: http://blog.llvm.org/2009/12/advanced-topics-in-redundant-load.html
444llvm.objectsize.
445MachineSSAUpdater.h
446PostRA scheduler for X86?
447llvm.dbg.value, not being used by default though, more in 2.8. Many improvements to debug info
448Support for the GCC option -fno-schedule-insns
449non-temporal load/store
450libllvm2.7.so?? configure with --enable-shared
451dbgs() and -debug-buffer-size=N
452New MicroBlaze backend. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroBlaze
453XMM subreg modeling for extraction of the low element.
454
Chris Lattnere1c1eda2010-03-29 18:39:28 +0000455
Chris Lattner06971182010-04-13 06:37:00 +0000456Opt now works conservatively if no target data is set (is this fully working?)
457Target data now has notion of 'native' integer data types which optimizations can use.
458ARM backend generates instructions in unified assembly syntax.
459New Analysis/InstructionSimplify.h interface for simplifying instructions that don't exist.
460Jump threading is now much more aggressive at simplifying correlated
461 conditionals and threading blocks with otherwise complex logic. CondProp pass
462 removed (functionality merged into jump threading).
463X86 and XCore supports returning arbitrary return values, returning too many values is
464 supported by returning through a hidden pointer.
465verbose-asm now produces information about spill slots and loop nests
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000466
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000467
Chris Lattner408f7912010-04-16 06:20:22 +0000468Defaults to RTTI off (smaller code size!), packagers should build with make REQUIRE_RTTI=1.
469AndersAA got removed
470PredSimplify, LoopVR, GVNPRE, RSProfiling (random sampling profiling) got removed.
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000471LLVM command line tools now overwrite their output, before they would only do this with -f.
472DOUT removed, use DEBUG(errs() instead.
473Much stuff converted to use raw_ostream instead of std::ostream.
474TargetAsmInfo renamed to MCAsmInfo
475llvm/ADT/iterator.h gone.
476
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000477
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000478</div>
479
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000480<!--=========================================================================-->
481<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000482<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM IR and Core Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000483</div>
484
485<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000486<p>LLVM IR has several new features for better support of new targets and that
487expose new optimization opportunities:</p>
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000488
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000489<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000490<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000491</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000492
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000493</div>
494
495<!--=========================================================================-->
496<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000497<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
498</div>
499
500<div class="doc_text">
501
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000502<p>In addition to a large array of minor performance tweaks and bug fixes, this
Chris Lattner25879d72008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000503release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000504
505<ul>
506
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000507<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000508
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000509</ul>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000510
Chris Lattner883b8682010-03-01 19:29:17 +0000511<p>Also, -anders-aa was removed</p>
512
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000513</div>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000514
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000515
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000516<!--=========================================================================-->
517<div class="doc_subsection">
518<a name="executionengine">Interpreter and JIT Improvements</a>
519</div>
Chris Lattner25879d72008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000520
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000521<div class="doc_text">
522
523<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin9fb8ce82010-01-29 19:10:38 +0000524<li>The JIT now <a
525href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&revision=85295">defaults
526to compiling eagerly</a> to avoid a race condition in the lazy JIT.
527Clients that still want the lazy JIT can switch it on by calling
528<tt>ExecutionEngine::DisableLazyCompilation(false)</tt>.</li>
Jeffrey Yasskine0913882010-02-11 01:07:39 +0000529<li>It is now possible to create more than one JIT instance in the same process.
530These JITs can generate machine code in parallel,
531although <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/ProgrammersManual.html#jitthreading">you
532still have to obey the other threading restrictions</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000533</ul>
534
535</div>
536
537<!--=========================================================================-->
538<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000539<a name="codegen">Target Independent Code Generator Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000540</div>
541
542<div class="doc_text">
543
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000544<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator
545infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make
546it run faster:</p>
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000547
548<ul>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000549
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000550<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000551</ul>
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000552</div>
553
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000554<!--=========================================================================-->
555<div class="doc_subsection">
556<a name="x86">X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements</a>
557</div>
558
559<div class="doc_text">
560<p>New features of the X86 target include:
561</p>
562
563<ul>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000564
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000565<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000566
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000567</ul>
568
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000569</div>
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000570
571<!--=========================================================================-->
572<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000573<a name="pic16">PIC16 Target Improvements</a>
574</div>
575
576<div class="doc_text">
577<p>New features of the PIC16 target include:
578</p>
579
580<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000581<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000582</ul>
583
584<p>Things not yet supported:</p>
585
586<ul>
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000587<li>Variable arguments.</li>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000588<li>Interrupts/programs.</li>
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000589</ul>
590
591</div>
592
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000593<!--=========================================================================-->
594<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000595<a name="ARM">ARM Target Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000596</div>
597
598<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000599<p>New features of the ARM target include:
600</p>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000601
602<ul>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000603
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000604<li>...</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000605</ul>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000606
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000607
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000608</div>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000609
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000610<!--=========================================================================-->
611<div class="doc_subsection">
612<a name="OtherTarget">Other Target Specific Improvements</a>
613</div>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000614
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000615<div class="doc_text">
616<p>New features of other targets include:
617</p>
618
619<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000620<li>...</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000621</ul>
622
623</div>
624
625<!--=========================================================================-->
626<div class="doc_subsection">
627<a name="newapis">New Useful APIs</a>
628</div>
629
630<div class="doc_text">
631
632<p>This release includes a number of new APIs that are used internally, which
633 may also be useful for external clients.
634</p>
635
636<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000637<li>...</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000638</ul>
639
640
641</div>
642
643<!--=========================================================================-->
644<div class="doc_subsection">
645<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements and New Features</a>
646</div>
647
648<div class="doc_text">
649<p>Other miscellaneous features include:</p>
650
651<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000652<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000653</ul>
654
655</div>
656
Chris Lattner6cb64032008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000657
658<!--=========================================================================-->
659<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000660<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
661</div>
662
663<div class="doc_text">
664
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000665<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000666on LLVM 2.6, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000667from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000668
669<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin914050b2010-02-09 23:03:44 +0000670<li>The LLVM interpreter now defaults to <em>not</em> using <tt>libffi</tt> even
671if you have it installed. This makes it more likely that an LLVM built on one
672system will work when copied to a similar system. To use <tt>libffi</tt>,
673configure with <tt>--enable-libffi</tt>.
674</li>
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000675</ul>
676
677
678<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
679API changes are:</p>
680
681<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin4a8b1da2010-01-28 01:41:20 +0000682<li><tt>ModuleProvider</tt> has been <a
683href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&revision=94686">removed</a>
684and its methods moved to <tt>Module</tt> and <tt>GlobalValue</tt>.
685Most clients can remove uses of <tt>ExistingModuleProvider</tt>,
686replace <tt>getBitcodeModuleProvider</tt> with
687<tt>getLazyBitcodeModule</tt>, and pass their <tt>Module</tt> to
688functions that used to accept <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>. Clients who
689wrote their own <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>s will need to derive from
690<tt>GVMaterializer</tt> instead and use
691<tt>Module::setMaterializer</tt> to attach it to a
692<tt>Module</tt>.</li>
693
694<li><tt>GhostLinkage</tt> has given up the ghost.
695<tt>GlobalValue</tt>s that have not yet been read from their backing
696storage have the same linkage they will have after being read in.
697Clients must replace calls to
698<tt>GlobalValue::hasNotBeenReadFromBitcode</tt> with
699<tt>GlobalValue::isMaterializable</tt>.</li>
Daniel Dunbar1e96fca2010-02-10 04:09:52 +0000700
701<li>FIXME: Debug info has been totally redone. Add pointers to new APIs. Substantial caveats about compatibility of .ll and .bc files.</li>
702
Daniel Dunbar3e255da2010-02-14 01:47:19 +0000703<li>The <tt>llvm/Support/DataTypes.h</tt> header has moved
704to <tt>llvm/System/DataTypes.h</tt>.</li>
705
Duncan Sands80c430a2010-02-17 17:20:17 +0000706<li>The <tt>isInteger</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVector</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPoint</tt>,
707<tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> methods have been renamed
708<tt>isIntegerTy</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVectorTy</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPointTy</tt>,
709<tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> respectively.</li>
Devang Pateldbf83832008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000710</ul>
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000711
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000712</div>
713
714
715
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000716<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000717<div class="doc_section">
718 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
719</div>
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000720<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
721
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000722<div class="doc_text">
723
John Criswell64307722004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000724<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner2c7b0872004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000725
726<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000727<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000728 Linux, Fedora Core, FreeBSD and AuroraUX (and probably other unix-like
729 systems).</li>
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000730<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000731 and 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattnercdc44ed2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000732<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000733<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
734 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Chris Lattner51948622009-10-16 16:30:58 +0000735<li>Sun x86 and AMD64 machines running Solaris 10, OpenSolaris 0906.</li>
John Criswelld5234922005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000736<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Chris Lattner2c7b0872004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000737</ul>
738
Chris Lattner618a99f2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000739<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekee3e557e2004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000740to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
741porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
742portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000743
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000744</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000745
746<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000747<div class="doc_section">
748 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
749</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000750<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
751
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000752<div class="doc_text">
753
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000754<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
Chris Lattner2a092392008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000755listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000756href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattnerb84f3322003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000757there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000758
Chris Lattner6aba4862010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000759<ul>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000760<li>LLVM will not correctly compile on Solaris and/or OpenSolaris
761using the stock GCC 3.x.x series 'out the box',
Chris Lattner6e41c792009-11-03 21:50:09 +0000762See: <a href="GettingStarted.html#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a>.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000763However, A <a href="http://pkg.auroraux.org/GCC">Modern GCC Build</a>
764for x86/x86-64 has been made available from the third party AuroraUX Project
765that has been meticulously tested for bootstrapping LLVM &amp; Clang.</li>
766</ul>
767
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000768</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000769
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000770<!-- ======================================================================= -->
771<div class="doc_subsection">
772 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
773</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000774
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000775<div class="doc_text">
776
Misha Brukmanfa50a222004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000777<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
778be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
779not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
780useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000781components, please contact us on the <a
782href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000783
784<ul>
Wesley Peck3aa84e52010-03-18 14:31:30 +0000785<li>The MSIL, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, PIC16, Blackfin, MSP430, SystemZ and MicroBlaze
786 backends are experimental.</li>
Bill Wendling89cd82f2009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000787<li>The <tt>llc</tt> "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000788 supported value for this option. The MachO writer is experimental, and
789 works much better in mainline SVN.</li>
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000790</ul>
791
792</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000793
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000794<!-- ======================================================================= -->
795<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000796 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000797</div>
798
799<div class="doc_text">
800
801<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov486c7d32008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000802 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
803 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
804 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
805 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnerb076b002008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000806 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
807 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands0bc15262008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000808 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000809 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build the mingw64
810 runtime currently due
Anton Korobeynikov486c7d32008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000811 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000812 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> and due to lack of support for
813 the
814 'u' inline assembly constraint and for X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman721b3722008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000815 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000816 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc and front-ends support variadic
Dan Gohman721b3722008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000817 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000818</ul>
819
820</div>
821
822<!-- ======================================================================= -->
823<div class="doc_subsection">
824 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
825</div>
826
827<div class="doc_text">
828
829<ul>
Nicolas Geoffray77d99502007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000830<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000831compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000832</ul>
833
834</div>
835
836<!-- ======================================================================= -->
837<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000838 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
839</div>
840
841<div class="doc_text">
842
843<ul>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000844<li>Support for the Advanced SIMD (Neon) instruction set is still incomplete
845and not well tested. Some features may not work at all, and the code quality
846may be poor in some cases.</li>
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000847<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sands47fc0a22007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000848processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000849results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000850<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported but not fully tested.
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000851</li>
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000852</ul>
853
854</div>
855
856<!-- ======================================================================= -->
857<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000858 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
859</div>
860
861<div class="doc_text">
862
863<ul>
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000864<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32); it does not
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000865 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
866</ul>
867
868</div>
869
870<!-- ======================================================================= -->
871<div class="doc_subsection">
Bruno Cardoso Lopes24eb3de2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000872 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
873</div>
874
875<div class="doc_text">
876
877<ul>
Bruno Cardoso Lopes24eb3de2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000878<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
879</ul>
880
881</div>
882
883<!-- ======================================================================= -->
884<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000885 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
886</div>
887
888<div class="doc_text">
889
890<ul>
891
892<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
893appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
894
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000895</ul>
896</div>
897
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000898<!-- ======================================================================= -->
899<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000900 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000901</div>
902
903<div class="doc_text">
904
905<ul>
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000906<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
907 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner8e061162007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000908<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
909 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Gabor Greif75b2f762009-03-02 12:02:51 +0000910 C++ code compiled with <tt>llc</tt> or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandse09506a2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000911<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Duncan Sands3aa36732009-02-25 11:51:54 +0000912<li>The C backend does not support arbitrary precision integers.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000913</ul>
914
915</div>
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000916
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000917
918<!-- ======================================================================= -->
919<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000920 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C and C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000921</div>
Chris Lattner178f3db2003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000922
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000923<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner72a269f2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000924
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000925<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
926 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
927 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000928 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
929 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000930
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000931<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
932</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000933
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000934</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000935
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000936<!-- ======================================================================= -->
937<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000938 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
939</div>
940
941<div class="doc_text">
Gabor Greife5f9d672008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000942<ul>
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000943<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000944 in <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">Bugzilla</a>. Please see the
945 tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
Gabor Greife5f9d672008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000946</ul>
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000947</div>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000948
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000949<!-- ======================================================================= -->
950<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000951 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000952</div>
953
954<div class="doc_text">
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000955The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well; however, this is not a mature
956technology, and problems should be expected.
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000957<ul>
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000958<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000959to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms.
960However, it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000961which does support trampolines.</li>
962<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
Duncan Sandsd34bf762009-02-25 11:59:06 +0000963This is due to lack of LLVM support for <tt>setjmp</tt>/<tt>longjmp</tt> style
964exception handling, which is used internally by the compiler.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000965Workaround: configure with <tt>--disable-bootstrap</tt>.</li>
Duncan Sandsaef747f2008-10-13 17:27:23 +0000966<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
967and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
Duncan Sandsd34bf762009-02-25 11:59:06 +0000968(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).
969If the compiler is built with checks disabled then <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
970causes the compiler to go into an infinite loop, using up all system memory.</li>
Duncan Sands2dbb00e2009-03-02 16:35:57 +0000971<li>Some GCC specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000972<li>The <tt>-E</tt> binder option (exception backtraces)
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000973<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000974crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use <tt>-E</tt>.</li>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000975<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
976or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
977or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
978starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnerb076b002008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000979<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
980'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
981Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
982<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
983<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
984ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000985</ul>
986</div>
987
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000988<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000989<div class="doc_section">
990 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
991</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000992<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
993
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000994<div class="doc_text">
995
Chris Lattnercb5596d2005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000996<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnere0c1df42007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000997href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
998href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencerc7f87f22007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000999contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
1000Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman96158092005-03-30 19:14:24 +00001001You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
1002into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001003
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001004<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +00001005us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattnerb84f3322003-12-12 21:22:16 +00001006lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001007
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001008</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001009
1010<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001011
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001012<hr>
Misha Brukman68aab3b2003-11-22 01:23:39 +00001013<address>
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Chris Lattnere0c1df42007-05-18 00:44:29 +00001019 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
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