8 .. _clang-offload-packager:
13 This tool bundles device files into a single image containing necessary
14 metadata. We use a custom binary format for bundling all the device images
15 together. The image format is a small header wrapping around a string map. This
16 tool creates bundled binaries so that they can be embedded into the host to
22 The binary format is marked by the ``0x10FF10AD`` magic bytes, followed by a
23 version. Each created binary contains its own magic bytes. This allows us to
24 locate all the embedded offloading sections even after they may have been merged
25 by the linker, such as when using relocatable linking. Conceptually, this binary
26 format is a serialization of a string map and an image buffer. The binary header
27 is described in the following :ref:`table<table-binary_header>`.
29 .. table:: Offloading Binary Header
30 :name: table-binary_header
32 +----------+--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
33 | Type | Identifier | Description |
34 +==========+==============+====================================================+
35 | uint8_t | magic | The magic bytes for the binary format (0x10FF10AD) |
36 +----------+--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
37 | uint32_t | version | Version of this format (currently version 1) |
38 +----------+--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
39 | uint64_t | size | Size of this binary in bytes |
40 +----------+--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
41 | uint64_t | entry offset | Absolute offset of the offload entries in bytes |
42 +----------+--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
43 | uint64_t | entry size | Size of the offload entries in bytes |
44 +----------+--------------+----------------------------------------------------+
46 Once identified through the magic bytes, we use the size field to take a slice
47 of the binary blob containing the information for a single offloading image. We
48 can then use the offset field to find the actual offloading entries containing
49 the image and metadata. The offload entry contains information about the device
50 image. It contains the fields shown in the following
51 :ref:`table<table-binary_entry>`.
53 .. table:: Offloading Entry Table
54 :name: table-binary_entry
56 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
57 | Type | Identifier | Description |
58 +==========+===============+====================================================+
59 | uint16_t | image kind | The kind of the device image (e.g. bc, cubin) |
60 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
61 | uint16_t | offload kind | The producer of the image (e.g. openmp, cuda) |
62 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
63 | uint32_t | flags | Generic flags for the image |
64 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
65 | uint64_t | string offset | Absolute offset of the string metadata table |
66 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
67 | uint64_t | num strings | Number of string entries in the table |
68 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
69 | uint64_t | image offset | Absolute offset of the device image in bytes |
70 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
71 | uint64_t | image size | Size of the device image in bytes |
72 +----------+---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
74 This table contains the offsets of the string table and the device image itself
75 along with some other integer information. The image kind lets us easily
76 identify the type of image stored here without needing to inspect the binary.
77 The offloading kind is used to determine which registration code or linking
78 semantics are necessary for this image. These are stored as enumerations with
79 the following values for the :ref:`offload kind<table-offload_kind>` and the
80 :ref:`image kind<table-image_kind>`.
83 :name: table-image_kind
85 +---------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
86 | Name | Value | Description |
87 +===============+=======+=======================================+
88 | IMG_None | 0x00 | No image information provided |
89 +---------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
90 | IMG_Object | 0x01 | The image is a generic object file |
91 +---------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
92 | IMG_Bitcode | 0x02 | The image is an LLVM-IR bitcode file |
93 +---------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
94 | IMG_Cubin | 0x03 | The image is a CUDA object file |
95 +---------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
96 | IMG_Fatbinary | 0x04 | The image is a CUDA fatbinary file |
97 +---------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
98 | IMG_PTX | 0x05 | The image is a CUDA PTX file |
99 +---------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
101 .. table:: Offload Kind
102 :name: table-offload_kind
104 +------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
105 | Name | Value | Description |
106 +============+=======+=======================================+
107 | OFK_None | 0x00 | No offloading information provided |
108 +------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
109 | OFK_OpenMP | 0x01 | The producer was OpenMP offloading |
110 +------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
111 | OFK_CUDA | 0x02 | The producer was CUDA |
112 +------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
113 | OFK_HIP | 0x03 | The producer was HIP |
114 +------------+-------+---------------------------------------+
116 The flags are used to signify certain conditions, such as the presence of
117 debugging information or whether or not LTO was used. The string entry table is
118 used to generically contain any arbitrary key-value pair. This is stored as an
119 array of the :ref:`string entry<table-binary_string>` format.
121 .. table:: Offloading String Entry
122 :name: table-binary_string
124 +----------+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
125 | Type | Identifier | Description |
126 +==========+==============+=======================================================+
127 | uint64_t | key offset | Absolute byte offset of the key in the string table |
128 +----------+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
129 | uint64_t | value offset | Absolute byte offset of the value in the string table |
130 +----------+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
132 The string entries simply provide offsets to a key and value pair in the
133 binary images string table. The string table is simply a collection of null
134 terminated strings with defined offsets in the image. The string entry allows us
135 to create a key-value pair from this string table. This is used for passing
136 arbitrary arguments to the image, such as the triple and architecture.
138 All of these structures are combined to form a single binary blob, the order
139 does not matter because of the use of absolute offsets. This makes it easier to
140 extend in the future. As mentioned previously, multiple offloading images are
141 bundled together by simply concatenating them in this format. Because we have
142 the magic bytes and size of each image, we can extract them as-needed.
147 This tool can be used with the following arguments. Generally information is
148 passed as a key-value pair to the ``image=`` argument. The ``file`` and
149 ``triple``, arguments are considered mandatory to make a valid image.
150 The ``arch`` argument is suggested.
152 .. code-block:: console
154 OVERVIEW: A utility for bundling several object files into a single binary.
155 The output binary can then be embedded into the host section table
156 to create a fatbinary containing offloading code.
158 USAGE: clang-offload-packager [options]
164 --help - Display available options (--help-hidden for more)
165 --help-list - Display list of available options (--help-list-hidden for more)
166 --version - Display the version of this program
168 clang-offload-packager options:
170 --image=<<key>=<value>,...> - List of key and value arguments. Required
171 keywords are 'file' and 'triple'.
172 -o <file> - Write output to <file>.
177 This tool simply takes many input files from the ``image`` option and creates a
178 single output file with all the images combined.
180 .. code-block:: console
182 clang-offload-packager -o out.bin --image=file=input.o,triple=nvptx64,arch=sm_70
184 The inverse operation can be performed instead by passing the packaged binary as
185 input. In this mode the matching images will either be placed in the output
186 specified by the ``file`` option. If no ``file`` argument is provided a name
187 will be generated for each matching image.
189 .. code-block:: console
191 clang-offload-packager in.bin --image=file=output.o,triple=nvptx64,arch=sm_70