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Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +00007 <title>LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</title>
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9<body>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000010
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000011<div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.5 Release Notes</div>
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000012
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000013<ol>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000014 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +000015 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
16 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM?</a></li>
Chris Lattner77a51732004-04-30 22:17:12 +000017 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000018 <li><a href="#portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a></li>
Dan Gohmanad888912008-10-14 16:23:02 +000019 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000020 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000021</ol>
22
Chris Lattner020e1fc2004-05-23 21:07:27 +000023<div class="doc_author">
Dan Gohmanad888912008-10-14 16:23:02 +000024 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000025</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000026
27<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000028<div class="doc_section">
29 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
30</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000031<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
32
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000033<div class="doc_text">
34
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000035<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000036Infrastructure, release 2.5. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000037major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
38All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
39href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +000040
Chris Lattnerb5bb5972004-12-07 08:04:13 +000041<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +000042release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
Chris Lattnere7525b52003-10-07 21:38:31 +000043web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +000044href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's Mailing
45List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000046
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000047<p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +000048main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
Gabor Greif355f81c2008-10-14 11:00:32 +000049current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +000050<a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +000051
52</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +000053
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000054<!-- Unfinished features in 2.5:
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000055 Machine LICM
56 Machine Sinking
Chris Lattnerd02da042009-02-25 06:34:50 +000057 target-specific intrinsics
58 gold lto plugin
59 pre-alloc splitter
Chris Lattnerc4d68542008-10-12 19:47:48 +000060 llc -enable-value-prop, propagation of value info (sign/zero ext info) from
61 one MBB to another
Chris Lattnerd02da042009-02-25 06:34:50 +000062 debug info for optimized code
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000063 -->
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +000064
Chris Lattnerc4d68542008-10-12 19:47:48 +000065 <!-- for announcement email:
Chris Lattnerd02da042009-02-25 06:34:50 +000066 -->
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +000067
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +000068<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
69<div class="doc_section">
70 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +000071</div>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +000072<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +000073
74<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +000075<p>
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +000076The LLVM 2.5 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
Chris Lattner44c09cd2008-10-13 18:11:54 +000077repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators and
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +000078supporting tools) and the llvm-gcc repository. In addition to this code, the
79LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in development. The two which
Chris Lattnerd8b33e02008-10-11 18:18:28 +000080are the most actively developed are the <a href="#clang">Clang Project</a> and
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +000081the <a href="#vmkit">VMKit Project</a>.
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +000082</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +000083
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +000084</div>
85
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +000086
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +000087<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +000088<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner44c09cd2008-10-13 18:11:54 +000089<a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +000090</div>
91
92<div class="doc_text">
93
94<p>The <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang project</a> is an effort to build
95a set of new 'LLVM native' front-end technologies for the LLVM optimizer
Chris Lattnerf70a0242009-02-25 05:09:54 +000096and code generator. While Clang is not included in the LLVM 2.5 release, it
97is continuing to make major strides forward in all areas. Its C and Objective-C
98parsing and code generation support is now very solid. For example, it is
99capable of successfully building many real applications for X86-32 and X86-64,
100including the FreeBSD kernel. C++ is also making <a
101href="http://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html">incredible progress</a>, and work
102on templates has recently started.</p>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000103
Chris Lattnerf70a0242009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000104<p>While Clang is not yet production quality, it is progressing very nicely and
105is quite usable for building many C and Objective-C applications. If you are
106interested in fast compiles and good diagnostics, we encourage you to try it out
Chris Lattnerd02da042009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000107by <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/get_started.html">building from mainline</a>
Chris Lattnerf70a0242009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000108and reporting any issues you hit to the <a
109href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">Clang front-end mailing
110list</a>.</p>
111
112<p>In the LLVM 2.5 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
Bill Wendlingef362462008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000113
Daniel Dunbarc11b40f2008-10-14 23:25:09 +0000114<ul>
Chris Lattnerf70a0242009-02-25 05:09:54 +0000115<li>Clang now has a new driver, which is focused on providing a GCC-compatible
116 interface.</li>
117<li>The X86-64 ABI is now supported.</li>
118<li>Precompiled header support is now implemented.</li>
119<li>Objective-C support is significantly improved beyond LLVM 2.4, supporting
120 many features, such as Objective-C Garbage Collection.</li>
121<li>Many many bugs are fixed.</li>
Chris Lattner44c09cd2008-10-13 18:11:54 +0000122</div>
123
124<!--=========================================================================-->
125<div class="doc_subsection">
126<a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
127</div>
128
129<div class="doc_text">
130
Ted Kremenek3db01842008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000131<p>The Clang project also includes an early stage static source code analysis
132tool for <a href="http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html">automatically
133finding bugs</a> in C and Objective-C programs. The tool performs a growing set
Chris Lattner05972292008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000134of checks to find bugs that occur on a specific path within a program. Examples
Ted Kremenek3db01842008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000135of bugs the tool finds include logic errors such as null dereferences,
136violations of various API rules, dead code, and potential memory leaks in
Chris Lattner05972292008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000137Objective-C programs. Since its inception, public feedback on the tool has been
138extremely positive, and conservative estimates put the number of real bugs it
139has found in industrial-quality software on the order of thousands.</p>
Chris Lattnerbcffa5a2008-10-14 00:52:49 +0000140
Ted Kremenek3db01842008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000141<p>The tool also provides a simple web GUI to inspect potential bugs found by
Chris Lattner05972292008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000142the tool. While still early in development, the GUI illustrates some of the key
Ted Kremenek3db01842008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000143features of Clang: accurate source location information, which is used by the
144GUI to highlight specific code expressions that relate to a bug (including those
Bill Wendlingef362462008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000145that span multiple lines); and built-in knowledge of macros, which is used to
Ted Kremenek3db01842008-10-14 05:14:21 +0000146perform inline expansion of macros within the GUI itself.</p>
147
Chris Lattner05972292008-10-14 06:02:29 +0000148<p>The set of checks performed by the static analyzer is gradually expanding,
Bill Wendlingef362462008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000149and future plans for the tool include full source-level inter-procedural
150analysis and deeper checks such as buffer overrun detection. There are many
151opportunities to extend and enhance the static analyzer, and anyone interested
152in working on this project is encouraged to get involved!</p>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000153
154</div>
155
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000156<!--=========================================================================-->
157<div class="doc_subsection">
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000158<a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM/CLI Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000159</div>
160
161<div class="doc_text">
162<p>
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000163The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000164a JVM and a CLI Virtual Machines (Microsoft .NET is an
165implementation of the CLI) using the Just-In-Time compiler of LLVM.</p>
166
Chris Lattnerb39faaa2009-02-25 05:45:05 +0000167<p>Following LLVM 2.5, VMKit has its first release ? that you can find on its
Nicolas Geoffray54efd492008-10-15 20:25:04 +0000168<a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/releases/">webpage</a>. The release includes
169bug fixes, cleanup and new features. The major changes are:</p>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000170
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000171<ul>
172
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000173<li>?</li>
Nicolas Geoffraye5ec9322008-10-14 19:23:04 +0000174
175</ul>
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000176</div>
177
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000178
179<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
180<div class="doc_section">
Chris Lattnerf5cd9862008-10-13 18:01:01 +0000181 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM?</a>
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000182</div>
183<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
184
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000185<div class="doc_text">
186
Bill Wendlingef362462008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000187<p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks, and
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000188minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
189in this section.
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000190</p>
191</div>
192
Chris Lattnerc75fd522008-06-08 21:58:17 +0000193<!--=========================================================================-->
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000194<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnercdc44ed2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000195<a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
196</div>
197
198<div class="doc_text">
199
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000200<p>LLVM 2.5 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000201
202<ul>
Chris Lattnerd02da042009-02-25 06:34:50 +0000203<li><p> Legalize Types</p></li>
204
205<!--
206Random stuff:
207
208.ll parser rewrite.
209GCC inliner off.
210cmake mature?
211x86 backend FS/GS segment address spaces?
212nocapture
213memdep is faster / more aggressive.
214how to write a backend doc
215fastisel + exception handling
216vector widening <3 x float> -> <4 x float>
217-->
Chris Lattner618a99f2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000218
Chris Lattner458e79f2008-02-10 08:18:42 +0000219</ul>
220
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000221</div>
222
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000223
224<!--=========================================================================-->
225<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner625a3d82008-06-08 21:34:41 +0000226<a name="llvm-gcc">llvm-gcc 4.2 Improvements</a>
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000227</div>
228
229<div class="doc_text">
230
Chris Lattner591ef272008-10-13 20:47:20 +0000231<p>LLVM fully supports the llvm-gcc 4.2 front-end, which marries the GCC
232front-ends and driver with the LLVM optimizer and code generator. It currently
233includes support for the C, C++, Objective-C, Ada, and Fortran front-ends.</p>
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000234
Chris Lattnerb7bc2aa2008-06-08 22:59:35 +0000235<ul>
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000236<li>?</li>
Gabor Greif7f39fb52008-06-09 06:06:18 +0000237</ul>
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000238
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000239</div>
240
241
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000242<!--=========================================================================-->
243<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000244<a name="coreimprovements">LLVM Core Improvements</a>
245</div>
246
247<div class="doc_text">
Bill Wendlingef362462008-10-27 09:27:33 +0000248<p>New features include:</p>
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000249
Chris Lattnerb7112222008-06-05 06:25:56 +0000250<ul>
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000251<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner0327f0b2008-10-13 20:59:32 +0000252
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000253</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000254
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000255</div>
256
257<!--=========================================================================-->
258<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000259<a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
260</div>
261
262<div class="doc_text">
263
Chris Lattner25879d72008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000264<p>In addition to a huge array of bug fixes and minor performance tweaks, this
265release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
Chris Lattner2b8a52e2008-02-10 07:46:44 +0000266
267<ul>
268
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000269<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner25879d72008-10-13 21:50:36 +0000270
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000271</ul>
272
273</div>
274
275<!--=========================================================================-->
276<div class="doc_subsection">
277<a name="codegen">Code Generator Improvements</a>
278</div>
279
280<div class="doc_text">
281
Gabor Greif20564a02008-10-14 11:31:14 +0000282<p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator infrastructure,
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000283which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make it run
284faster:</p>
285
286<ul>
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000287<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner7795ea92008-06-08 02:45:07 +0000288
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000289</ul>
290
291</div>
292
293
294<!--=========================================================================-->
295<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000296<a name="targetspecific">Target Specific Improvements</a>
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000297</div>
Chris Lattner727c3742007-05-18 06:33:02 +0000298
Chris Lattner89e761c2006-04-18 06:32:08 +0000299<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattnerdd6acc02008-02-10 08:17:19 +0000300<p>New target-specific features include:
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000301</p>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000302
303<ul>
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000304<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner6cb64032008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000305</ul>
Chris Lattner6cb64032008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000306
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000307</div>
Chris Lattner6cb64032008-06-05 08:02:49 +0000308
309
310<!--=========================================================================-->
311<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000312<a name="otherimprovements">Other Improvements</a>
313</div>
314
315<div class="doc_text">
316<p>New features include:
317</p>
318
319<ul>
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000320<li>?</li>
Tanya Lattner81edfc12008-11-04 18:40:27 +0000321
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000322</ul>
Mikhail Glushenkov024f7cf2008-10-13 02:08:34 +0000323
Chris Lattner0a1fd102007-09-21 03:54:09 +0000324</div>
Chris Lattner72a269f2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000325
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000326<!--=========================================================================-->
327<div class="doc_subsection">
328<a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
329</div>
330
331<div class="doc_text">
332
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000333<p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000334on LLVM 2.4, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000335from the previous release.</p>
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000336
337<ul>
338
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000339<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner934e2d42008-10-13 22:06:31 +0000340</ul>
341
342
343<p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
344API changes are:</p>
345
346<ul>
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000347<li>?</li>
Devang Pateldbf83832008-10-14 20:03:43 +0000348</ul>
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000349
Chris Lattner7fad44b2009-02-25 04:41:31 +0000350<li>?</li>
Chris Lattner1e4d5bc2008-10-13 17:57:36 +0000351</ul>
352
353</div>
354
355
356
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000357<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000358<div class="doc_section">
359 <a name="portability">Portability and Supported Platforms</a>
360</div>
Chris Lattner62495762003-10-02 16:38:05 +0000361<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
362
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000363<div class="doc_text">
364
John Criswell64307722004-12-08 20:35:47 +0000365<p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:</p>
Chris Lattner2c7b0872004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000366
367<ul>
Chris Lattner2a092392008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000368<li>Intel and AMD machines (IA32, X86-64, AMD64, EMT-64) running Red Hat
369Linux, Fedora Core and FreeBSD (and probably other unix-like systems).</li>
370<li>PowerPC and X86-based Mac OS X systems, running 10.3 and above in 32-bit
371and 64-bit modes.</li>
Chris Lattnercdc44ed2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000372<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 using MinGW libraries (native).</li>
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000373<li>Intel and AMD machines running on Win32 with the Cygwin libraries (limited
374 support is available for native builds with Visual C++).</li>
Gabor Greif80ae8a72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000375<li>Sun UltraSPARC workstations running Solaris 10.</li>
John Criswelld5234922005-05-13 20:28:15 +0000376<li>Alpha-based machines running Debian GNU/Linux.</li>
Gabor Greif80ae8a72008-06-05 18:39:01 +0000377<li>Itanium-based (IA64) machines running Linux and HP-UX.</li>
Chris Lattner2c7b0872004-06-01 18:22:41 +0000378</ul>
379
Chris Lattner618a99f2008-06-05 06:57:39 +0000380<p>The core LLVM infrastructure uses GNU autoconf to adapt itself
Brian Gaekee3e557e2004-05-09 05:28:35 +0000381to the machine and operating system on which it is built. However, minor
382porting may be required to get LLVM to work on new platforms. We welcome your
383portability patches and reports of successful builds or error messages.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000384
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000385</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000386
387<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000388<div class="doc_section">
389 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
390</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000391<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
392
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000393<div class="doc_text">
394
Chris Lattner2a092392008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000395<p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
396listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000397href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
Chris Lattnerb84f3322003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000398there isn't already one.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000399
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000400</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000401
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000402<!-- ======================================================================= -->
403<div class="doc_subsection">
404 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
405</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000406
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000407<div class="doc_text">
408
Misha Brukmanfa50a222004-05-12 21:46:05 +0000409<p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
410be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
411not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
412useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000413components, please contact us on the <a
414href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000415
416<ul>
Gabor Greif20564a02008-10-14 11:31:14 +0000417<li>The MSIL, IA64, Alpha, SPU, MIPS, and PIC16 backends are experimental.</li>
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000418<li>The llc "<tt>-filetype=asm</tt>" (the default) is the only supported
Chris Lattner7422bce2008-02-06 06:30:34 +0000419 value for this option.</li>
Chris Lattnerb911de42004-03-14 02:03:02 +0000420</ul>
421
422</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000423
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000424<!-- ======================================================================= -->
425<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000426 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000427</div>
428
429<div class="doc_text">
430
431<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov486c7d32008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000432 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
433 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
434 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
435 'u'.</li>
Chris Lattnerb076b002008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000436 <li>The X86 backend generates inefficient floating point code when configured
437 to generate code for systems that don't have SSE2.</li>
Duncan Sands0bc15262008-06-08 19:38:43 +0000438 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
Anton Korobeynikov486c7d32008-06-08 10:24:13 +0000439 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build mingw64 runtime
440 currently due
441 to <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2255">several</a>
Chris Lattner54d12102008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000442 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2257">bugs</a> due to lack of support for the
443 'u' inline assembly constraint and X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
Dan Gohman721b3722008-06-08 23:05:11 +0000444 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
445 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, the llvm-gcc front-end supports variadic
446 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000447</ul>
448
449</div>
450
451<!-- ======================================================================= -->
452<div class="doc_subsection">
453 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
454</div>
455
456<div class="doc_text">
457
458<ul>
Nicolas Geoffray77d99502007-05-15 09:21:28 +0000459<li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000460compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000461</ul>
462
463</div>
464
465<!-- ======================================================================= -->
466<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000467 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
468</div>
469
470<div class="doc_text">
471
472<ul>
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000473<li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
Duncan Sands47fc0a22007-09-26 15:59:54 +0000474processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000475results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000476<li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported, but not fully tested.
477</li>
Chris Lattnerb076b002008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000478<li>There is a bug in QEMU-ARM (&lt;= 0.9.0) which causes it to incorrectly
479 execute
Chris Lattnerbee7b322007-05-23 04:39:32 +0000480programs compiled with LLVM. Please use more recent versions of QEMU.</li>
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000481</ul>
482
483</div>
484
485<!-- ======================================================================= -->
486<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000487 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
488</div>
489
490<div class="doc_text">
491
492<ul>
493<li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32), it does not
494 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
495</ul>
496
497</div>
498
499<!-- ======================================================================= -->
500<div class="doc_subsection">
Bruno Cardoso Lopes24eb3de2008-10-25 14:56:26 +0000501 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
502</div>
503
504<div class="doc_text">
505
506<ul>
507<li>The O32 ABI is not fully supported.</li>
508<li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
509</ul>
510
511</div>
512
513<!-- ======================================================================= -->
514<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000515 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
516</div>
517
518<div class="doc_text">
519
520<ul>
521
522<li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
523appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
524
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000525</ul>
526</div>
527
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000528<!-- ======================================================================= -->
529<div class="doc_subsection">
530 <a name="ia64-be">Known problems with the IA64 back-end</a>
531</div>
532
533<div class="doc_text">
534
535<ul>
Chris Lattner54d12102008-06-08 23:12:47 +0000536<li>The Itanium backend is highly experimental, and has a number of known
537 issues. We are looking for a maintainer for the Itanium backend. If you
Gabor Greife4544f72008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000538 are interested, please contact the LLVMdev mailing list.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000539</ul>
540
541</div>
542
543<!-- ======================================================================= -->
544<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000545 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000546</div>
547
548<div class="doc_text">
549
550<ul>
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000551<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
552 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
Chris Lattner8e061162007-09-26 06:01:35 +0000553<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
554 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000555 C++ code compiled with llc or native compilers.</li>
Duncan Sandse09506a2008-02-10 13:40:55 +0000556<li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
Chris Lattnerb81f10e2006-11-18 07:51:14 +0000557</ul>
558
559</div>
John Criswell3bdbd302005-11-08 21:11:33 +0000560
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000561
562<!-- ======================================================================= -->
563<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000564 <a name="c-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C front-end</a>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000565</div>
Chris Lattner178f3db2003-10-02 05:07:23 +0000566
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000567<div class="doc_text">
Chris Lattner72a269f2006-03-03 00:34:26 +0000568
Chris Lattnercdc44ed2008-02-06 18:00:06 +0000569<p>llvm-gcc does not currently support <a href="http://llvm.org/PR869">Link-Time
570Optimization</a> on most platforms "out-of-the-box". Please inquire on the
Gabor Greife4544f72008-10-15 10:47:24 +0000571LLVMdev mailing list if you are interested.</p>
Chris Lattner44124232006-08-08 17:27:28 +0000572
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000573<p>The only major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is
574 the <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
575 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000576 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
577 nested function).</p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000578
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000579<p>If you run into GCC extensions which are not supported, please let us know.
580</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000581
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000582</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000583
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000584<!-- ======================================================================= -->
585<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000586 <a name="c++-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc C++ front-end</a>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000587</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000588
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000589<div class="doc_text">
590
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000591<p>The C++ front-end is considered to be fully
Chris Lattnerb5bb5972004-12-07 08:04:13 +0000592tested and works for a number of non-trivial programs, including LLVM
Chris Lattner97beb512007-05-14 06:56:09 +0000593itself, Qt, Mozilla, etc.</p>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000594
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000595<ul>
Anton Korobeynikov28f08aa2008-10-11 18:27:16 +0000596<li>Exception handling works well on the X86 and PowerPC targets. Currently
Chris Lattner2a092392008-11-10 05:40:34 +0000597 only Linux and Darwin targets are supported (both 32 and 64 bit).</li>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000598</ul>
Chris Lattner46ecf612003-10-07 22:14:37 +0000599
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000600</div>
601
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000602<!-- ======================================================================= -->
603<div class="doc_subsection">
604 <a name="fortran-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Fortran front-end</a>
605</div>
606
607<div class="doc_text">
Gabor Greife5f9d672008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000608<ul>
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000609<li>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
610 in Bugzilla. Please see the tools/gfortran component for details.</li>
611
612<li>The Fortran front-end currently does not build on Darwin (without tweaks)
613 due to unresolved dependencies on the C front-end.</li>
Gabor Greife5f9d672008-11-04 21:50:59 +0000614</ul>
Chris Lattner7292fb12008-10-30 03:58:13 +0000615</div>
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000616
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000617<!-- ======================================================================= -->
618<div class="doc_subsection">
Chris Lattnera1a4c9a2008-06-05 06:35:40 +0000619 <a name="ada-fe">Known problems with the llvm-gcc Ada front-end</a>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000620</div>
621
622<div class="doc_text">
623The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler works fairly well, however this is not a mature
624technology and problems should be expected.
625<ul>
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000626<li>The Ada front-end currently only builds on X86-32. This is mainly due
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000627to lack of trampoline support (pointers to nested functions) on other platforms,
Duncan Sands56448462008-06-08 20:18:35 +0000628however it <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2006">also fails to build on X86-64</a>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000629which does support trampolines.</li>
630<li>The Ada front-end <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2007">fails to bootstrap</a>.
631Workaround: configure with --disable-bootstrap.</li>
Duncan Sandsaef747f2008-10-13 17:27:23 +0000632<li>The c380004, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2010">c393010</a>
633and <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2421">cxg2021</a> ACATS tests fail
634(c380004 also fails with gcc-4.2 mainline).</li>
635<li>Some gcc specific Ada tests continue to crash the compiler.</li>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000636<li>The -E binder option (exception backtraces)
637<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1982">does not work</a> and will result in programs
638crashing if an exception is raised. Workaround: do not use -E.</li>
639<li>Only discrete types <a href="http://llvm.org/PR1981">are allowed to start
640or finish at a non-byte offset</a> in a record. Workaround: do not pack records
641or use representation clauses that result in a field of a non-discrete type
642starting or finishing in the middle of a byte.</li>
Chris Lattnerb076b002008-06-08 21:19:07 +0000643<li>The <tt>lli</tt> interpreter <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2009">considers
644'main' as generated by the Ada binder to be invalid</a>.
645Workaround: hand edit the file to use pointers for <tt>argv</tt> and
646<tt>envp</tt> rather than integers.</li>
647<li>The <tt>-fstack-check</tt> option <a href="http://llvm.org/PR2008">is
648ignored</a>.</li>
Chris Lattnere38ac152008-02-12 06:29:45 +0000649</ul>
650</div>
651
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000652<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000653<div class="doc_section">
654 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
655</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000656<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
657
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000658<div class="doc_text">
659
Chris Lattnercb5596d2005-05-16 17:13:10 +0000660<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
Chris Lattnere0c1df42007-05-18 00:44:29 +0000661href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
662href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
Reid Spencerc7f87f22007-07-09 08:04:31 +0000663contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
664Subversion version of the source code.
Misha Brukman96158092005-03-30 19:14:24 +0000665You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
666into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000667
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000668<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
Chris Lattnera69595e2005-10-29 07:07:09 +0000669us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
Chris Lattnerb84f3322003-12-12 21:22:16 +0000670lists</a>.</p>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000671
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000672</div>
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000673
674<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
Chris Lattner3d482502003-10-02 04:57:28 +0000675
Misha Brukman80731b92003-11-22 00:38:41 +0000676<hr>
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