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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
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000031<h1 style="color:red">These are in-progress notes for the upcoming LLVM 2.7
32release.<br>
33You may prefer the
34<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/2.6/docs/ReleaseNotes.html">LLVM 2.6
35Release Notes</a>.</h1>
36
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000037<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000038<div class="doc_section">
39 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
40</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000041<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
42
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000043<div class="doc_text">
44
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000045<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000046Infrastructure, release 2.7. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000047major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +000048All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000049href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +000050
Chris Lattnerb5bb5972004-12-07 08:04:13 +000051<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +000052release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattnere7525b52003-10-07 21:38:31 +000053web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +000054href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's
55Mailing List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000056
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000057<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +000058main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greif355f81c2008-10-14 11:00:32 +000059current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +000060<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000061
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +000062
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +000063<p>FIXME: llvm.org moved to new server, mention new logo, Ted and Doug new code
64 owners.</p>
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +000065
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000066</div>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000067
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000068
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000069<!--
70Almost dead code.
71 include/llvm/Analysis/LiveValues.h => Dan
72 lib/Transforms/IPO/MergeFunctions.cpp => consider for 2.8.
73 llvm/Analysis/PointerTracking.h => Edwin wants this, consider for 2.8.
Chris Lattner2bfa1672010-01-09 22:30:40 +000074 ABCD, SCCVN, GEPSplitterPass
Chris Lattner89ea59d2010-01-16 21:25:13 +000075 MSIL backend?
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +000076 lib/Transforms/Utils/SSI.cpp -> ABCD depends on it.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000077-->
78
79
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +000080<!-- Features that need text if they're finished for 2.7:
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000081 gcc plugin.
82 strong phi elim
83 variable debug info for optimized code
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +000084 postalloc scheduler: anti dependence breaking, hazard recognizer?
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000085 metadata
86 loop dependence analysis
87 ELF Writer? How stable?
88 <li>PostRA scheduler improvements, ARM adoption (David Goodwin).</li>
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000089 -->
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000090
Chris Lattnerc4d68542008-10-12 19:47:48 +000091 <!-- for announcement email:
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +000092 Logo web page.
93 llvm devmtg
94 compiler_rt
95 KLEE web page at klee.llvm.org
96 Many new papers added to /pubs/
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +000097 Mention gcc plugin.
Chris Lattnerd02da042009-02-25 06:34:50 +000098 -->
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000099
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000100<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
101<div class="doc_section">
102 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000103</div>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000104<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000105
106<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000107<p>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000108The LLVM 2.7 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000109repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators
110and supporting tools), the Clang repository and the llvm-gcc repository. In
111addition to this code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in
112development. Here we include updates on these subprojects.
Bill Wendlingf170d2e2009-03-02 04:28:57 +0000113</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000114
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000115</div>
116
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000117
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000118<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000119<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner44c09cd2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000120<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000121</div>
122
123<div class="doc_text">
124
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000125<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is ...</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000126
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000127<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
Bill Wendlingef362462008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000128
Daniel Dunbarc11b40f2008-10-14 23:25:09 +0000129<ul>
Daniel Dunbareb4bc7f2010-03-25 16:09:18 +0000130<li>FIXME: C++! Include a link to cxx_compatibility.html</li>
131
132<li>FIXME: Static Analyzer improvements?</li>
133
134<li>CIndex API and Python bindings: Clang now includes a C API as part of the
135CIndex library. Although we make make some changes to the API in the future, it
136is intended to be stable and has been designed for use by external projects. See
137the Clang
138doxygen <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/group__CINDEX.html">CIndex</a>
139documentation for more details. The CIndex API also includings an preliminary
140set of Python bindings.</li>
141
142<li>ARM Support: Clang now has ABI support for both the Darwin and Linux ARM
143ABIs. Coupled with many improvements to the LLVM ARM backend, Clang is now
144suitable for use as a a beta quality ARM compiler.</li>
Bill Wendling87adbe42009-03-02 04:28:18 +0000145</ul>
Chris Lattner44c09cd2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000146</div>
147
148<!--=========================================================================-->
149<div class="doc_subsection">
150<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
151</div>
152
153<div class="doc_text">
154
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000155<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 +0000156includes an early stage static source code analysis tool for <a
157href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">automatically finding bugs</a>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000158in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs checks to find
Ted Kremenekc11fae82009-02-27 07:01:32 +0000159bugs that occur on a specific path within a program.</p>
Chris Lattnerbcffa5a2008-10-14 00:52:49 +0000160
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000161<p>In the LLVM 2.7 time-frame, the analyzer core has sprouted legs and...</p>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000162
163</div>
164
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000165<!--=========================================================================-->
166<div class="doc_subsection">
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000167<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000168</div>
169
170<div class="doc_text">
171<p>
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000172The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000173a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machine (Microsoft .NET is an
174implementation of the CLI) using LLVM for static and just-in-time
175compilation.</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000176
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000177<p>
Chris Lattneref2e5732010-03-29 18:34:13 +0000178With the release of LLVM 2.7, VMKit has shifted to a great framework for writing
179virtual machines. VMKit now offers precise and efficient garbage collection with
180multi-threading support, thanks to the MMTk memory management toolkit, as well
181as just in time and ahead of time compilation with LLVM. The major changes in
182VMKit 0.27 are:</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000183
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000184<ul>
185
Chris Lattneref2e5732010-03-29 18:34:13 +0000186<li>Garbage collection: VMKit now uses the MMTk toolkit for garbage collectors.
187 The first collector to be ported is the MarkSweep collector, which is precise,
188 and drastically improves the performance of VMKit.</li>
189<li>Line number information in the JVM: by using the debug metadata of LLVM, the
190 JVM now supports precise line number information, useful when printing a stack
191 trace.</li>
192<li>Interface calls in the JVM: we implemented a variant of the Interface Method
193 Table technique for interface calls in the JVM.
194</li>
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000195
196</ul>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000197</div>
198
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000199
200<!--=========================================================================-->
201<div class="doc_subsection">
202<a name="compiler-rt">compiler-rt: Compiler Runtime Library</a>
203</div>
204
205<div class="doc_text">
206<p>
207The new LLVM <a href="http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/">compiler-rt project</a>
208is a simple library that provides an implementation of the low-level
209target-specific hooks required by code generation and other runtime components.
210For example, when compiling for a 32-bit target, converting a double to a 64-bit
211unsigned integer is compiled into a runtime call to the "__fixunsdfdi"
212function. The compiler-rt library provides highly optimized implementations of
213this and other low-level routines (some are 3x faster than the equivalent
214libgcc routines).</p>
215
216<p>
217All of the code in the compiler-rt project is available under the standard LLVM
218License, a "BSD-style" license.</p>
219
220</div>
221
222<!--=========================================================================-->
223<div class="doc_subsection">
Duncan Sands92452b92010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000224<a name="dragonegg">DragonEgg: llvm-gcc ported to gcc-4.5</a>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000225</div>
226
227<div class="doc_text">
228<p>
Duncan Sands92452b92010-04-02 09:23:15 +0000229<a href="http://dragonegg.llvm.org/">DragonEgg</a> is a port of llvm-gcc to
230gcc-4.5. Unlike llvm-gcc, which makes many intrusive changes to the underlying
231gcc-4.2 code, dragonegg in theory does not require any gcc-4.5 modifications
232whatsoever (currently one small patch is needed). This is thanks to the new
233<a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/plugins">gcc plugin architecture</a>, which
234makes it possible to modify the behaviour of gcc at runtime by loading a plugin,
235which is nothing more than a dynamic library which conforms to the gcc plugin
236interface. DragonEgg is a gcc plugin that causes the LLVM optimizers to be run
237instead of the gcc optimizers, and the LLVM code generators instead of the gcc
238code generators, just like llvm-gcc. To use it, you add
239"-fplugin=path/dragonegg.so" to the gcc-4.5 command line, and gcc-4.5 magically
240becomes llvm-gcc-4.5!
241</p>
242
243<p>
244DragonEgg is still a work in progress. Currently C works very well, while C++,
245Ada and Fortran work fairly well. All other languages either don't work at all,
246or only work poorly. For the moment only the x86-32 and x86-64 targets are
247supported, and only on linux.
248</p>
249
250<p>
251DragonEgg has not yet been released. Once gcc-4.5 has been released, dragonegg
252will probably be released as part of the following LLVM release.
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
284
285<!--=========================================================================-->
286<div class="doc_subsection">
287<a name="Rubinius">Rubinius</a>
288</div>
289
290<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000291Need update.
292<!--
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000293<p><a href="http://github.com/evanphx/rubinius">Rubinius</a> is an environment
294for running Ruby code which strives to write as much of the core class
295implementation in Ruby as possible. Combined with a bytecode interpreting VM, it
296uses LLVM to optimize and compile ruby code down to machine code. Techniques
297such as type feedback, method inlining, and uncommon traps are all used to
298remove dynamism from ruby execution and increase performance.</p>
299
300<p>Since LLVM 2.5, Rubinius has made several major leaps forward, implementing
301a counter based JIT, type feedback and speculative method inlining.
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000302-->
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000303</p>
304
305</div>
306
307<!--=========================================================================-->
308<div class="doc_subsection">
309<a name="macruby">MacRuby</a>
310</div>
311
312<div class="doc_text">
313
314<p>
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000315Need update.
316<!--
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000317<a href="http://macruby.org">MacRuby</a> is an implementation of Ruby on top of
318core Mac OS X technologies, such as the Objective-C common runtime and garbage
319collector and the CoreFoundation framework. It is principally developed by
320Apple and aims at enabling the creation of full-fledged Mac OS X applications.
321</p>
322
323<p>
324MacRuby uses LLVM for optimization passes, JIT and AOT compilation of Ruby
325expressions. It also uses zero-cost DWARF exceptions to implement Ruby exception
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000326handling.--> </p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000327
328</div>
329
330
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000331<!--=========================================================================-->
332<div class="doc_subsection">
333<a name="pure">Pure</a>
334</div>
335
336<div class="doc_text">
337<p>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000338<a href="http://pure-lang.googlecode.com/">Pure</a>
339is an algebraic/functional programming language based on term rewriting.
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000340Programs are collections of equations which are used to evaluate expressions in
341a symbolic fashion. Pure offers dynamic typing, eager and lazy evaluation,
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000342lexical closures, a hygienic macro system (also based on term rewriting),
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000343built-in list and matrix support (including list and matrix comprehensions) and
344an easy-to-use C interface. The interpreter uses LLVM as a backend to
345 JIT-compile Pure programs to fast native code.</p>
346
Chris Lattner6aba4862010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000347<p>Pure versions 0.43 and later have been tested and are known to work with
348LLVM 2.7 (and continue to work with older LLVM releases >= 2.5).</p>
349
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000350</div>
351
352
353<!--=========================================================================-->
354<div class="doc_subsection">
355<a name="ldc">LLVM D Compiler</a>
356</div>
357
358<div class="doc_text">
359<p>
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000360Need update.
361<!--
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000362<a href="http://www.dsource.org/projects/ldc">LDC</a> is an implementation of
363the D Programming Language using the LLVM optimizer and code generator.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000364The LDC project works great with the LLVM 2.6 release. General improvements in
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000365this
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000366cycle have included new inline asm constraint handling, better debug info
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000367support, general bug fixes and better x86-64 support. This has allowed
368some major improvements in LDC, getting it much closer to being as
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000369fully featured as the original DMD compiler from DigitalMars.-->
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000370</p>
371</div>
372
Chris Lattnerfb23a962009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000373<!--=========================================================================-->
374<div class="doc_subsection">
375<a name="RoadsendPHP">Roadsend PHP</a>
376</div>
377
378<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000379<p>
380<a href="http://code.roadsend.com/rphp">Roadsend PHP</a> (rphp) is an open
Chris Lattner0c72d8f2009-03-02 19:07:24 +0000381source implementation of the PHP programming
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000382language that uses LLVM for its optimizer, JIT and static compiler. This is a
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000383reimplementation of an earlier project that is now based on LLVM.
Chris Lattner6aba4862010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000384</p>
Chris Lattnerfb23a962009-02-28 18:58:01 +0000385</div>
Chris Lattner53e06f92009-02-26 22:33:38 +0000386
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000387<!--=========================================================================-->
388<div class="doc_subsection">
389<a name="UnladenSwallow">Unladen Swallow</a>
390</div>
391
392<div class="doc_text">
393<p>
394<a href="http://code.google.com/p/unladen-swallow/">Unladen Swallow</a> is a
395branch of <a href="http://python.org/">Python</a> intended to be fully
396compatible and significantly faster. It uses LLVM's optimization passes and JIT
Chris Lattner5b59a732010-03-18 06:52:15 +0000397compiler.
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000398</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000399</div>
400
401<!--=========================================================================-->
402<div class="doc_subsection">
403<a name="llvm-lua">llvm-lua</a>
404</div>
405
406<div class="doc_text">
407<p>
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000408Need update.
409<!--
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000410<a href="http://code.google.com/p/llvm-lua/">LLVM-Lua</a> uses LLVM to add JIT
411and static compiling support to the Lua VM. Lua bytecode is analyzed to
412remove type checks, then LLVM is used to compile the bytecode down to machine
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000413code.-->
414</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000415</div>
416
417<!--=========================================================================-->
418<div class="doc_subsection">
419<a name="icedtea">IcedTea Java Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
420</div>
421
422<div class="doc_text">
423<p>
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000424Need update.
425<!--
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000426<a href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/Main_Page">IcedTea</a> provides a
427harness to build OpenJDK using only free software build tools and to provide
428replacements for the not-yet free parts of OpenJDK. One of the extensions that
429IcedTea provides is a new JIT compiler named <a
430href="http://icedtea.classpath.org/wiki/ZeroSharkFaq">Shark</a> which uses LLVM
431to provide native code generation without introducing processor-dependent
Chris Lattnerc871bac2010-03-17 04:02:39 +0000432code.-->
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000433</p>
434</div>
435
436
Chris Lattnerb4a02792010-03-29 17:50:39 +0000437<!--=========================================================================-->
438<div class="doc_subsection">
439<a name="tce">TTA-based Codesign Environment (TCE)</a>
440</div>
441
442<div class="doc_text">
443<p>
444<a href="http://tce.cs.tut.fi/">TCE</a> is a toolset for designing
445application-specific processors (ASP) based on the Transport triggered
446architecture (TTA). The toolset provides a complete co-design flow from C/C++
447programs down to synthesizable VHDL and parallel program binaries. Processor
448customization points include the register files, function units, supported
449operations, and the interconnection network.</p>
450
451<p>TCE uses llvm-gcc/Clang and LLVM for C/C++ language support, target
452independent optimizations and also for parts of code generation. It generates
453new LLVM-based code generators "on the fly" for the designed TTA processors and
454loads them in to the compiler backend as runtime libraries to avoid per-target
455recompilation of larger parts of the compiler chain.</p>
456
457</div>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000458
459<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
460<div class="doc_section">
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000461 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.7?</a>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000462</div>
463<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
464
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000465<div class="doc_text">
466
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000467<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000468minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
469in this section.
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000470</p>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000471
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000472</div>
473
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000474<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000475<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnercdc44ed2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000476<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
477</div>
478
479<div class="doc_text">
480
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000481<p>LLVM 2.7 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000482
483<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000484<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner458e79f2008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000485</ul>
486
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000487Extensible metadata solid.
488
489Debug info improvements: using metadata instead of llvm.dbg global variables.
490This brings several enhancements including improved compile times.
491
492New instruction selector.
493GHC Haskell ABI/ calling conv support.
494Pre-Alpha support for unions in IR.
495New InlineHint and StackAlignment function attributes
496Code generator MC'ized except for debug info and EH.
497New SCEV AA pass: -scev-aa
498Inliner reuses arrays allocas when inlining multiple callers to reduce stack usage.
499MC encoding and disassembler apis.
500Optimal Edge Profiling?
501Instcombine is now a library, has its own IRBuilder to simplify itself.
502New llvm/Support/Regex.h API. FileCheck now does regex's
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000503Many subtle pointer invalidation bugs in Callgraph have been fixed and it now uses asserting value handles.
504MC Disassembler (with blog post), MCInstPrinter. Many X86 backend and AsmPrinter simplifications
505Various tools like llc and opt now read either .ll or .bc files as input.
Chris Lattnerbdaa4322010-03-29 18:42:42 +0000506Malloc and free instructions got removed, along with LowerAllocations pass.
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000507compiler-rt support for ARM.
508completely llvm-gcc NEON support.
509Can transcode from GAS to intel syntax with "llvm-mc foo.s -output-asm-variant=1"
510JIT debug information with GDB 7.0
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000511New CodeGen Level CSE
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000512CMake can now run tests, what other improvements?
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000513ARM/Thumb using reg scavenging for stack object address materialization (PEI).
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000514New SSAUpdater and MachineSSAUpdater classes for unstructured ssa updating,
515 changed jump threading, GVN, etc to use it which simplified them and speed
516 them up.
Chris Lattner6184f4d2010-03-17 06:42:25 +0000517Combiner-AA improvements, why not on by default?
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000518Pre-regalloc tail duplication
519x86 sibcall optimization
520New LSR with full strength reduction mode
521The most awesome sext / zext optimization pass. ?
522
Chris Lattnere1c1eda2010-03-29 18:39:28 +0000523The ARM backend now has good support for ARMv4 backend (tested on StrongARM
524 hardware), previously only supported ARMv4T and newer.
525
Chris Lattner9b65c382010-03-17 18:15:52 +0000526
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000527
Chris Lattnerbdaa4322010-03-29 18:42:42 +0000528Defaults to RTTI off, packagers should build with make REQUIRE_RTTI=1.
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000529CondProp pass removed (functionality merged into jump threading).
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000530AndersAA got removed (from 2.7 or mainline?)
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000531PredSimplify, LoopVR, GVNPRE got removed.
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000532LLVM command line tools now overwrite their output, before they would only do this with -f.
533DOUT removed, use DEBUG(errs() instead.
534Much stuff converted to use raw_ostream instead of std::ostream.
535TargetAsmInfo renamed to MCAsmInfo
536llvm/ADT/iterator.h gone.
537
Chris Lattner10a3cc42010-03-17 06:41:58 +0000538
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000539</div>
540
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000541<!--=========================================================================-->
542<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000543<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM IR and Core Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000544</div>
545
546<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000547<p>LLVM IR has several new features for better support of new targets and that
548expose new optimization opportunities:</p>
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000549
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000550<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000551<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000552</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000553
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000554</div>
555
556<!--=========================================================================-->
557<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000558<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
559</div>
560
561<div class="doc_text">
562
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000563<p>In addition to a large array of minor performance tweaks and bug fixes, this
Chris Lattner25879d72008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000564release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000565
566<ul>
567
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000568<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000569
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000570</ul>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000571
Chris Lattner883b8682010-03-01 19:29:17 +0000572<p>Also, -anders-aa was removed</p>
573
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000574</div>
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000575
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000576
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000577<!--=========================================================================-->
578<div class="doc_subsection">
579<a name="executionengine">Interpreter and JIT Improvements</a>
580</div>
Chris Lattner25879d72008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000581
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000582<div class="doc_text">
583
584<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin9fb8ce82010-01-29 19:10:38 +0000585<li>The JIT now <a
586href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&revision=85295">defaults
587to compiling eagerly</a> to avoid a race condition in the lazy JIT.
588Clients that still want the lazy JIT can switch it on by calling
589<tt>ExecutionEngine::DisableLazyCompilation(false)</tt>.</li>
Jeffrey Yasskine0913882010-02-11 01:07:39 +0000590<li>It is now possible to create more than one JIT instance in the same process.
591These JITs can generate machine code in parallel,
592although <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/ProgrammersManual.html#jitthreading">you
593still have to obey the other threading restrictions</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000594</ul>
595
596</div>
597
598<!--=========================================================================-->
599<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000600<a name="codegen">Target Independent Code Generator Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000601</div>
602
603<div class="doc_text">
604
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000605<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator
606infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make
607it run faster:</p>
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000608
609<ul>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000610
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000611<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000612</ul>
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000613</div>
614
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000615<!--=========================================================================-->
616<div class="doc_subsection">
617<a name="x86">X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements</a>
618</div>
619
620<div class="doc_text">
621<p>New features of the X86 target include:
622</p>
623
624<ul>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000625
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000626<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000627
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000628</ul>
629
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000630</div>
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000631
632<!--=========================================================================-->
633<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000634<a name="pic16">PIC16 Target Improvements</a>
635</div>
636
637<div class="doc_text">
638<p>New features of the PIC16 target include:
639</p>
640
641<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000642<li>...</li>
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000643</ul>
644
645<p>Things not yet supported:</p>
646
647<ul>
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000648<li>Variable arguments.</li>
Chris Lattnerd434bfb2009-03-02 03:24:11 +0000649<li>Interrupts/programs.</li>
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000650</ul>
651
652</div>
653
Chris Lattner6b8bf782009-02-26 07:32:11 +0000654<!--=========================================================================-->
655<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000656<a name="ARM">ARM Target Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000657</div>
658
659<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000660<p>New features of the ARM target include:
661</p>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000662
663<ul>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000664
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000665<li>...</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000666</ul>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000667
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000668
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000669</div>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000670
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000671<!--=========================================================================-->
672<div class="doc_subsection">
673<a name="OtherTarget">Other Target Specific Improvements</a>
674</div>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000675
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000676<div class="doc_text">
677<p>New features of other targets include:
678</p>
679
680<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000681<li>...</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000682</ul>
683
684</div>
685
686<!--=========================================================================-->
687<div class="doc_subsection">
688<a name="newapis">New Useful APIs</a>
689</div>
690
691<div class="doc_text">
692
693<p>This release includes a number of new APIs that are used internally, which
694 may also be useful for external clients.
695</p>
696
697<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000698<li>...</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000699</ul>
700
701
702</div>
703
704<!--=========================================================================-->
705<div class="doc_subsection">
706<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements and New Features</a>
707</div>
708
709<div class="doc_text">
710<p>Other miscellaneous features include:</p>
711
712<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000713<li>...</li>
Chris Lattnerc92d7692009-03-01 02:30:21 +0000714</ul>
715
716</div>
717
Chris Lattner6cb64032008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000718
719<!--=========================================================================-->
720<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000721<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
722</div>
723
724<div class="doc_text">
725
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000726<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Jeffrey Yasskin0830b972010-01-28 01:14:43 +0000727on LLVM 2.6, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000728from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000729
730<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin914050b2010-02-09 23:03:44 +0000731<li>The LLVM interpreter now defaults to <em>not</em> using <tt>libffi</tt> even
732if you have it installed. This makes it more likely that an LLVM built on one
733system will work when copied to a similar system. To use <tt>libffi</tt>,
734configure with <tt>--enable-libffi</tt>.
735</li>
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000736</ul>
737
738
739<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
740API changes are:</p>
741
742<ul>
Jeffrey Yasskin4a8b1da2010-01-28 01:41:20 +0000743<li><tt>ModuleProvider</tt> has been <a
744href="http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?view=rev&revision=94686">removed</a>
745and its methods moved to <tt>Module</tt> and <tt>GlobalValue</tt>.
746Most clients can remove uses of <tt>ExistingModuleProvider</tt>,
747replace <tt>getBitcodeModuleProvider</tt> with
748<tt>getLazyBitcodeModule</tt>, and pass their <tt>Module</tt> to
749functions that used to accept <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>. Clients who
750wrote their own <tt>ModuleProvider</tt>s will need to derive from
751<tt>GVMaterializer</tt> instead and use
752<tt>Module::setMaterializer</tt> to attach it to a
753<tt>Module</tt>.</li>
754
755<li><tt>GhostLinkage</tt> has given up the ghost.
756<tt>GlobalValue</tt>s that have not yet been read from their backing
757storage have the same linkage they will have after being read in.
758Clients must replace calls to
759<tt>GlobalValue::hasNotBeenReadFromBitcode</tt> with
760<tt>GlobalValue::isMaterializable</tt>.</li>
Daniel Dunbar1e96fca2010-02-10 04:09:52 +0000761
762<li>FIXME: Debug info has been totally redone. Add pointers to new APIs. Substantial caveats about compatibility of .ll and .bc files.</li>
763
Daniel Dunbar3e255da2010-02-14 01:47:19 +0000764<li>The <tt>llvm/Support/DataTypes.h</tt> header has moved
765to <tt>llvm/System/DataTypes.h</tt>.</li>
766
Duncan Sands80c430a2010-02-17 17:20:17 +0000767<li>The <tt>isInteger</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVector</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPoint</tt>,
768<tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVector</tt> methods have been renamed
769<tt>isIntegerTy</tt>, <tt>isIntOrIntVectorTy</tt>, <tt>isFloatingPointTy</tt>,
770<tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> and <tt>isFPOrFPVectorTy</tt> respectively.</li>
Devang Pateldbf83832008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000771</ul>
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000772
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000773</div>
774
775
776
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000777<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000778<div class="doc_section">
779 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
780</div>
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000781<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
782
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000783<div class="doc_text">
784
John Criswell64307722004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000785<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner2c7b0872004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000786
787<ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000788<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000789 Linux, Fedora Core, FreeBSD and AuroraUX (and probably other unix-like
790 systems).</li>
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000791<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000792 and 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattnercdc44ed2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000793<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000794<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
795 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Chris Lattner51948622009-10-16 16:30:58 +0000796<li>Sun x86 and AMD64 machines running Solaris 10, OpenSolaris 0906.</li>
John Criswelld5234922005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000797<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Chris Lattner2c7b0872004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000798</ul>
799
Chris Lattner618a99f2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000800<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekee3e557e2004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000801to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
802porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
803portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000804
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000805</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000806
807<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000808<div class="doc_section">
809 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
810</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000811<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
812
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000813<div class="doc_text">
814
Mikhail Glushenkov25422542009-03-01 18:09:47 +0000815<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
Chris Lattner2a092392008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000816listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000817href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattnerb84f3322003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000818there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000819
Chris Lattner6aba4862010-03-17 17:25:49 +0000820<ul>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000821<li>LLVM will not correctly compile on Solaris and/or OpenSolaris
822using the stock GCC 3.x.x series 'out the box',
Chris Lattner6e41c792009-11-03 21:50:09 +0000823See: <a href="GettingStarted.html#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools</a>.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000824However, A <a href="http://pkg.auroraux.org/GCC">Modern GCC Build</a>
825for x86/x86-64 has been made available from the third party AuroraUX Project
826that has been meticulously tested for bootstrapping LLVM &amp; Clang.</li>
827</ul>
828
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000829</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000830
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000831<!-- ======================================================================= -->
832<div class="doc_subsection">
833 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
834</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000835
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000836<div class="doc_text">
837
Misha Brukmanfa50a222004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000838<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
839be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
840not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
841useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000842components, please contact us on the <a
843href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000844
845<ul>
Wesley Peck3aa84e52010-03-18 14:31:30 +0000846<li>The MSIL, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, PIC16, Blackfin, MSP430, SystemZ and MicroBlaze
847 backends are experimental.</li>
Bill Wendling89cd82f2009-03-02 07:54:14 +0000848<li>The <tt>llc</tt> "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000849 supported value for this option. The MachO writer is experimental, and
850 works much better in mainline SVN.</li>
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000851</ul>
852
853</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000854
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000855<!-- ======================================================================= -->
856<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000857 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000858</div>
859
860<div class="doc_text">
861
862<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov486c7d32008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000863 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
864 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
865 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
866 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnerb076b002008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000867 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
868 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands0bc15262008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000869 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000870 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build the mingw64
871 runtime currently due
Anton Korobeynikov486c7d32008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000872 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000873 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> and due to lack of support for
874 the
875 'u' inline assembly constraint and for X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman721b3722008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000876 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
Chris Lattnerd1094e02009-03-02 02:37:32 +0000877 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc and front-ends support variadic
Dan Gohman721b3722008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000878 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000879</ul>
880
881</div>
882
883<!-- ======================================================================= -->
884<div class="doc_subsection">
885 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
886</div>
887
888<div class="doc_text">
889
890<ul>
Nicolas Geoffray77d99502007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000891<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000892compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000893</ul>
894
895</div>
896
897<!-- ======================================================================= -->
898<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000899 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
900</div>
901
902<div class="doc_text">
903
904<ul>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +0000905<li>Support for the Advanced SIMD (Neon) instruction set is still incomplete
906and not well tested. Some features may not work at all, and the code quality
907may be poor in some cases.</li>
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000908<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sands47fc0a22007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000909processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000910results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000911<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported but not fully tested.
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000912</li>
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000913</ul>
914
915</div>
916
917<!-- ======================================================================= -->
918<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000919 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
920</div>
921
922<div class="doc_text">
923
924<ul>
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +0000925<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32); it does not
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000926 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
927</ul>
928
929</div>
930
931<!-- ======================================================================= -->
932<div class="doc_subsection">
Bruno Cardoso Lopes24eb3de2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000933 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
934</div>
935
936<div class="doc_text">
937
938<ul>
Bruno Cardoso Lopes24eb3de2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000939<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
940</ul>
941
942</div>
943
944<!-- ======================================================================= -->
945<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000946 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
947</div>
948
949<div class="doc_text">
950
951<ul>
952
953<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
954appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
955
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000956</ul>
957</div>
958
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000959<!-- ======================================================================= -->
960<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000961 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000962</div>
963
964<div class="doc_text">
965
966<ul>
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000967<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
968 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner8e061162007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000969<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
970 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Gabor Greif75b2f762009-03-02 12:02:51 +0000971 C++ code compiled with <tt>llc</tt> or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandse09506a2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000972<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Duncan Sands3aa36732009-02-25 11:51:54 +0000973<li>The C backend does not support arbitrary precision integers.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000974</ul>
975
976</div>
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000977
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000978
979<!-- ======================================================================= -->
980<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner0b1c9a52010-03-17 04:41:49 +0000981 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C and C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000982</div>
Chris Lattner178f3db2003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000983
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000984<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner72a269f2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000985
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000986<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
987 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
988 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000989 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
990 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000991
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000992<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
993</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000994
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000995</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000996
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000997<!-- ======================================================================= -->
998<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000999 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
1000</div>
1001
1002<div class="doc_text">
Gabor Greife5f9d672008-11-04 21:50:59 +00001003<ul>
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +00001004<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +00001005 in <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">Bugzilla</a>. Please see the
1006 tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
Gabor Greife5f9d672008-11-04 21:50:59 +00001007</ul>
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +00001008</div>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001009
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +00001010<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1011<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +00001012 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +00001013</div>
1014
1015<div class="doc_text">
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +00001016The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well; however, this is not a mature
1017technology, and problems should be expected.
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +00001018<ul>
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +00001019<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
John Criswellea03c9d2009-03-02 15:28:15 +00001020to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms.
1021However, it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +00001022which does support trampolines.</li>
1023<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
Duncan Sandsd34bf762009-02-25 11:59:06 +00001024This is due to lack of LLVM support for <tt>setjmp</tt>/<tt>longjmp</tt> style
1025exception handling, which is used internally by the compiler.
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +00001026Workaround: configure with <tt>--disable-bootstrap</tt>.</li>
Duncan Sandsaef747f2008-10-13 17:27:23 +00001027<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
1028and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
Duncan Sandsd34bf762009-02-25 11:59:06 +00001029(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).
1030If the compiler is built with checks disabled then <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
1031causes the compiler to go into an infinite loop, using up all system memory.</li>
Duncan Sands2dbb00e2009-03-02 16:35:57 +00001032<li>Some GCC specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +00001033<li>The <tt>-E</tt> binder option (exception backtraces)
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +00001034<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
Chris Lattneraa61f412009-10-13 17:48:04 +00001035crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use <tt>-E</tt>.</li>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +00001036<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
1037or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
1038or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
1039starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnerb076b002008-06-08 21:19:07 +00001040<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
1041'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
1042Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
1043<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
1044<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
1045ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +00001046</ul>
1047</div>
1048
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001049<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001050<div class="doc_section">
1051 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
1052</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001053<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1054
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001055<div class="doc_text">
1056
Chris Lattnercb5596d2005-05-16 17:13:10 +00001057<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnere0c1df42007-05-18 00:44:29 +00001058href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
1059href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencerc7f87f22007-07-09 08:04:31 +00001060contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
1061Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman96158092005-03-30 19:14:24 +00001062You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
1063into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001064
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001065<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +00001066us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattnerb84f3322003-12-12 21:22:16 +00001067lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001068
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001069</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001070
1071<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +00001072
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001073<hr>
Misha Brukman68aab3b2003-11-22 01:23:39 +00001074<address>
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Misha Brukman68aab3b2003-11-22 01:23:39 +00001079
Chris Lattnere0c1df42007-05-18 00:44:29 +00001080 <a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +00001081 Last modified: $Date$
Misha Brukman68aab3b2003-11-22 01:23:39 +00001082</address>
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