docs/GettingStartedVS.html

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   6   <title>Getting Started with LLVM System for Microsoft Visual Studio</title>
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  11 <div class="doc_title">
  12   Getting Started with the LLVM System using Microsoft Visual Studio
  13 </div>
  14
  15 <ul>
  16   <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a>
  17   <li><a href="#quickstart">Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</a>
  18   <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a>
  19     <ol>
  20       <li><a href="#hardware">Hardware</a>
  21       <li><a href="#software">Software</a>
  22     </ol></li>
  23
  24   <li><a href="#starting">Getting Started with LLVM</a>
  25     <ol>
  26       <li><a href="#terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
  27       <li><a href="#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
  28     </ol></li>
  29
  30   <li><a href="#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
  31   <li><a href="#problems">Common Problems</a>
  32   <li><a href="#links">Links</a>
  33 </ul>
  34
  35 <div class="doc_author">
  36   <p>Written by:
  37     <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a>
  38   </p>
  39 </div>
  40
  41
  42 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
  43 <div class="doc_section">
  44   <a name="overview"><b>Overview</b></a>
  45 </div>
  46 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
  47
  48 <div class="doc_text">
  49
  50   <p>The Visual Studio port at this time is experimental.  It is suitable for
  51   use only if you are writing your own compiler front end or otherwise have a
  52   need to dynamically generate machine code.  The JIT and interpreter are
  53   functional, but it is currently not possible to generate assembly code which
  54   is then assembled into an executable.  You can indirectly create executables
  55   by using the C back end.</p>
  56
  57   <p>To emphasize, there is no C/C++ front end currently available.
  58   <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> is based on GCC, which cannot be bootstrapped using VC++.
  59   Eventually there should be a <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> based on Cygwin or MinGW that
  60   is usable.  There is also the option of generating bitcode files on Unix and
  61   copying them over to Windows.  But be aware the odds of linking C++ code
  62   compiled with <tt>llvm-gcc</tt> with code compiled with VC++ is essentially
  63   zero.</p>
  64
  65   <p>The LLVM test suite cannot be run on the Visual Studio port at this
  66   time.</p>
  67
  68   <p>Most of the tools build and work.  <tt>llvm-db</tt> does not build at this
  69   time.  <tt>bugpoint</tt> does build, but does not work.
  70
  71   <p>Additional information about the LLVM directory structure and tool chain
  72   can be found on the main <a href="GettingStarted.html">Getting Started</a>
  73   page.</P>
  74
  75 </div>
  76
  77 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
  78 <div class="doc_section">
  79   <a name="quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)</b></a>
  80 </div>
  81 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
  82
  83 <div class="doc_text">
  84
  85 <p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:</p>
  86
  87 <ol>
  88   <li>Read the documentation.</li>
  89   <li>Seriously, read the documentation.</li>
  90   <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.</li>
  91
  92   <li>Get the Source Code
  93   <ul>
  94     <li>With the distributed files:
  95     <ol>
  96       <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt>
  97       <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-<i>version</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -</tt>
  98       <i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;or use WinZip</i>
  99       <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
 100     </ol></li>
 101
 102     <li>With anonymous Subversion access:
 103     <ol>
 104       <li><tt>cd <i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live</i></tt></li>
 105       <li><tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm-top/trunk llvm-top
 106       </tt></li>
 107       <li><tt>make checkout MODULE=llvm</tt>
 108       <li><tt>cd llvm</tt></li>
 109     </ol></li>
 110   </ul></li>
 111
 112   <li>Start Visual Studio
 113   <ol>
 114     <li>Simply double click on the solution file <tt>llvm/win32/llvm.sln</tt>.
 115     </li>
 116   </ol></li>
 117
 118   <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
 119   <ol>
 120     <li>Simply build the solution.</li>
 121     <li>The Fibonacci project is a sample program that uses the JIT.  Modify
 122     the project's debugging properties to provide a numeric command line
 123     argument.  The program will print the corresponding fibonacci value.</li>
 124   </ol></li>
 125
 126 </ol>
 127
 128 <p>It is strongly encouraged that you get the latest version from Subversion as
 129 changes are continually making the VS support better.</p>
 130
 131 </div>
 132
 133 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 134 <div class="doc_section">
 135   <a name="requirements"><b>Requirements</b></a>
 136 </div>
 137 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 138
 139 <div class="doc_text">
 140
 141   <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given
 142   below.  This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware
 143   and software you will need.</p>
 144
 145 </div>
 146
 147 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 148 <div class="doc_subsection">
 149   <a name="hardware"><b>Hardware</b></a>
 150 </div>
 151
 152 <div class="doc_text">
 153
 154   <p>Any system that can adequately run Visual Studio .NET 2003 is fine.  The
 155   LLVM source tree and object files, libraries and executables will consume
 156   approximately 3GB.</p>
 157
 158 </div>
 159
 160 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 161 <div class="doc_subsection"><a name="software"><b>Software</b></a></div>
 162 <div class="doc_text">
 163
 164   <p>You will need Visual Studio .NET 2003.  Earlier versions cannot open the
 165   solution/project files.  The VS 2005 beta can, but will migrate these files
 166   to its own format in the process.  While it should work with the VS 2005
 167   beta, there are no guarantees and there is no support for it at this time.
 168   It has been reported that VC++ Express also works.</p>
 169
 170   <p>If you plan to modify any .y or .l files, you will need to have bison
 171   and/or flex installed where Visual Studio can find them.  Otherwise, you do
 172   not need them and the pre-generated files that come with the source tree
 173   will be used.</p>
 174
 175 </div>
 176
 177 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 178 <div class="doc_section">
 179   <a name="starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM</b></a>
 180 </div>
 181 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 182
 183 <div class="doc_text">
 184
 185 <p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
 186 LLVM using Visual Studio and to give you some basic information about the LLVM
 187 environment.</p>
 188
 189 </div>
 190
 191 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 192 <div class="doc_subsection">
 193   <a name="terminology">Terminology and Notation</a>
 194 </div>
 195
 196 <div class="doc_text">
 197
 198 <p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
 199 specific to the local system and working environment.  <i>These are not
 200 environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
 201 of this document below</i>.  In any of the examples below, simply replace
 202 each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
 203 All these paths are absolute:</p>
 204
 205 <dl>
 206     <dt>SRC_ROOT</dt>
 207     <dd><p>This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.</p></dd>
 208
 209     <dt>OBJ_ROOT</dt>
 210     <dd><p>This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
 211         tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed.  It is
 212         fixed at SRC_ROOT/win32).</p></dd>
 213 </dl>
 214
 215 </div>
 216
 217 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 218 <div class="doc_subsection">
 219   <a name="objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files</a>
 220 </div>
 221
 222 <div class="doc_text">
 223
 224   <p>The object files are placed under <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Debug</tt> for debug builds
 225   and <tt>OBJ_ROOT/Release</tt> for release (optimized) builds.  These include
 226   both executables and libararies that your application can link against.</p>
 227
 228   <p>The files that <tt>configure</tt> would create when building on Unix are
 229   created by the <tt>Configure</tt> project and placed in
 230   <tt>OBJ_ROOT/llvm</tt>.  You application must have OBJ_ROOT in its include
 231   search path just before <tt>SRC_ROOT/include</tt>.</p>
 232
 233 </div>
 234
 235 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 236 <div class="doc_section">
 237   <a name="tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain</a>
 238 </div>
 239 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 240
 241 <div class="doc_text">
 242
 243 <ol>
 244   <li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':</p>
 245
 246 <div class="doc_code">
 247 <pre>
 248 #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
 249 int main() {
 250   printf("hello world\n");
 251   return 0;
 252 }
 253 </pre></div></li>
 254
 255   <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:</p>
 256
 257 <div class="doc_code">
 258 <pre>
 259 % llvm-gcc -c hello.c -emit-llvm -o hello.bc
 260 </pre>
 261 </div>
 262
 263       <p>This will create the result file <tt>hello.bc</tt> which is the LLVM
 264          bitcode that corresponds the the compiled program and the library
 265          facilities that it required.  You can execute this file directly using
 266          <tt>lli</tt> tool, compile it to native assembly with the <tt>llc</tt>,
 267          optimize or analyze it further with the <tt>opt</tt> tool, etc.</p>
 268
 269       <p><b>Note: while you cannot do this step on Windows, you can do it on a
 270          Unix system and transfer <tt>hello.bc</tt> to Windows.  Important:
 271          transfer as a binary file!</b></p></li>
 272
 273   <li><p>Run the program using the just-in-time compiler:</p>
 274
 275 <div class="doc_code">
 276 <pre>
 277 % lli hello.bc
 278 </pre>
 279 </div>
 280
 281       <p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs.  Non-trivial programs
 282          (and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that
 283          won't be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p></li>
 284
 285   <li><p>Use the <tt>llvm-dis</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
 286       code:</p>
 287
 288 <div class="doc_code">
 289 <pre>
 290 % llvm-dis &lt; hello.bc | more
 291 </pre>
 292 </div></li>
 293
 294   <li><p>Compile the program to C using the LLC code generator:</p>
 295
 296 <div class="doc_code">
 297 <pre>
 298 % llc -march=c hello.bc
 299 </pre>
 300 </div></li>
 301
 302   <li><p>Compile to binary using Microsoft C:</p>
 303
 304 <div class="doc_code">
 305 <pre>
 306 % cl hello.cbe.c
 307 </pre>
 308 </div>
 309
 310       <p>Note: this will only work for trivial C programs.  Non-trivial programs
 311         (and any C++ program) will have dependencies on the GCC runtime that
 312         won't be satisfied by the Microsoft runtime libraries.</p></li>
 313
 314   <li><p>Execute the native code program:</p>
 315
 316 <div class="doc_code">
 317 <pre>
 318 % hello.cbe.exe
 319 </pre>
 320 </div></li>
 321 </ol>
 322
 323 </div>
 324
 325 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 326 <div class="doc_section">
 327   <a name="problems">Common Problems</a>
 328 </div>
 329 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 330
 331 <div class="doc_text">
 332
 333 <p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
 334 general questions about LLVM, please consult the <a href="FAQ.html">Frequently
 335 Asked Questions</a> page.</p>
 336
 337 </div>
 338
 339 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 340 <div class="doc_section">
 341   <a name="links">Links</a>
 342 </div>
 343 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 344
 345 <div class="doc_text">
 346
 347 <p>This document is just an <b>introduction</b> to how to use LLVM to do
 348 some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
 349 that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
 350 if you want to write something up!).  For more information about LLVM, check
 351 out:</p>
 352
 353 <ul>
 354   <li><a href="http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage</a></li>
 355   <li><a href="http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree</a></li>
 356   <li><a href="http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
 357       that Uses LLVM</a></li>
 358 </ul>
 359
 360 </div>
 361
 362 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 363
 364 <hr>
 365 <address>
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 370
 371   <a href="mailto:jeffc@jolt-lang.org">Jeff Cohen</a><br>
 372   <a href="http://llvm.org">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
 373   Last modified: $Date$
 374 </address>
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