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11 <div class=
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12 Getting Started with the LLVM System
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>
20 <li><a href=
"#hardware">Hardware
</a></li>
21 <li><a href=
"#software">Software
</a></li>
22 <li><a href=
"#brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools
</a></li>
25 <li><a href=
"#starting">Getting Started with LLVM
</a>
27 <li><a href=
"#terminology">Terminology and Notation
</a></li>
28 <li><a href=
"#environment">Setting Up Your Environment
</a></li>
29 <li><a href=
"#unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives
</a></li>
30 <li><a href=
"#checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion
</a></li>
31 <li><a href=
"#git_mirror">LLVM GIT mirror
</a></li>
32 <li><a href=
"#installcf">Install the GCC Front End
</a></li>
33 <li><a href=
"#config">Local LLVM Configuration
</a></li>
34 <li><a href=
"#compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code
</a></li>
35 <li><a href=
"#cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM
</a></li>
36 <li><a href=
"#objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files
</a></li>
37 <li><a href=
"#optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items
</a></li>
40 <li><a href=
"#layout">Program layout
</a>
42 <li><a href=
"#examples"><tt>llvm/examples
</tt></a></li>
43 <li><a href=
"#include"><tt>llvm/include
</tt></a></li>
44 <li><a href=
"#lib"><tt>llvm/lib
</tt></a></li>
45 <li><a href=
"#projects"><tt>llvm/projects
</tt></a></li>
46 <li><a href=
"#runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime
</tt></a></li>
47 <li><a href=
"#test"><tt>llvm/test
</tt></a></li>
48 <li><a href=
"#test-suite"><tt>test-suite
</tt></a></li>
49 <li><a href=
"#tools"><tt>llvm/tools
</tt></a></li>
50 <li><a href=
"#utils"><tt>llvm/utils
</tt></a></li>
53 <li><a href=
"#tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain
</a>
55 <li><a href=
"#tutorial4">Example with llvm-gcc4
</a></li>
57 <li><a href=
"#problems">Common Problems
</a>
58 <li><a href=
"#links">Links
</a>
61 <div class=
"doc_author">
63 <a href=
"mailto:criswell@uiuc.edu">John Criswell
</a>,
64 <a href=
"mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner
</a>,
65 <a href=
"http://misha.brukman.net/">Misha Brukman
</a>,
66 <a href=
"http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/~vadve">Vikram Adve
</a>, and
67 <a href=
"mailto:gshi1@uiuc.edu">Guochun Shi
</a>.
72 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
73 <div class=
"doc_section">
74 <a name=
"overview"><b>Overview
</b></a>
76 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
78 <div class=
"doc_text">
80 <p>Welcome to LLVM! In order to get started, you first need to know some
81 basic information.
</p>
83 <p>First, LLVM comes in three pieces. The first piece is the LLVM
84 suite. This contains all of the tools, libraries, and header files
85 needed to use the low level virtual machine. It contains an
86 assembler, disassembler, bitcode analyzer and bitcode optimizer. It
87 also contains basic regression tests that can be used to test the LLVM
88 tools and the GCC front end.
</p>
90 <p>The second piece is the GCC front end. This component provides a version of
91 GCC that compiles C and C++ code into LLVM bitcode. Currently, the GCC front
92 end uses the GCC parser to convert code to LLVM. Once
93 compiled into LLVM bitcode, a program can be manipulated with the LLVM tools
94 from the LLVM suite.
</p>
97 There is a third, optional piece called Test Suite. It is a suite of programs
98 with a testing harness that can be used to further test LLVM's functionality
104 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
105 <div class=
"doc_section">
106 <a name=
"quickstart"><b>Getting Started Quickly (A Summary)
</b></a>
108 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
110 <div class=
"doc_text">
112 <p>Here's the short story for getting up and running quickly with LLVM:
</p>
115 <li>Read the documentation.
</li>
116 <li>Read the documentation.
</li>
117 <li>Remember that you were warned twice about reading the documentation.
</li>
118 <li>Install the llvm-gcc-
4.2 front end if you intend to compile C or C++
119 (see
<a href=
"#installcf">Install the GCC Front End
</a> for details):
121 <li><tt>cd
<i>where-you-want-the-C-front-end-to-live
</i></tt></li>
122 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-gcc-
4.2-
<i>version
</i>-
<i>platform
</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
</tt></li>
123 <li><tt><i>install-binutils-binary-from-MinGW
</i></tt> (Windows only)
</li>
124 <li>Note: If the binary extension is
"<tt>.bz</tt>" use
<tt>bunzip2
</tt> instead of
<tt>gunzip
</tt>.
</li>
125 <li>Note: On Windows, use
<a href=
"http://www.7-zip.org/">7-Zip
</a> or a similar archiving tool.
</li>
126 <li>Add
<tt>llvm-gcc
</tt>'s
"<tt>bin</tt>" directory to your
<tt>PATH
</tt> environment variable.
</li>
129 <li>Get the LLVM Source Code
131 <li>With the distributed files (or use
<a href=
"#checkout">SVN
</a>):
133 <li><tt>cd
<i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live
</i></tt>
134 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-
<i>version
</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
</tt>
139 <li><b>[Optional]
</b> Get the Test Suite Source Code
141 <li>With the distributed files (or use
<a href=
"#checkout">SVN
</a>):
143 <li><tt>cd
<i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live
</i></tt>
144 <li><tt>cd llvm/projects
</tt>
145 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-test-
<i>version
</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
</tt>
146 <li><tt>mv llvm-test-
<i>version
</i> test-suite
</tt>
152 <li>Configure the LLVM Build Environment
154 <li><tt>cd
<i>where-you-want-to-build-llvm
</i></tt></li>
155 <li><tt><i>/path/to/llvm/
</i>configure [options]
</tt><br>
159 <li><tt>--prefix=
<i>directory
</i></tt>
160 <p>Specify for
<i>directory
</i> the full pathname of where you
161 want the LLVM tools and libraries to be installed (default
162 <tt>/usr/local
</tt>).
</p></li>
163 <li><tt>--with-llvmgccdir=
<i>directory
</i></tt>
164 <p>Optionally, specify for
<i>directory
</i> the full pathname of the
165 C/C++ front end installation to use with this LLVM configuration. If
166 not specified, the PATH will be searched. This is only needed if you
167 want to run test-suite or do some special kinds of LLVM builds.
</p></li>
168 <li><tt>--enable-spec2000=
<i>directory
</i></tt>
169 <p>Enable the SPEC2000 benchmarks for testing. The SPEC2000
170 benchmarks should be available in
171 <tt><i>directory
</i></tt>.
</p></li>
175 <li>Build the LLVM Suite:
177 <li><tt>gmake -k |
& tee gnumake.out
178 # this is csh or tcsh syntax
</tt></li>
179 <li>If you get an
"internal compiler error (ICE)" or test failures, see
180 <a href=
"#brokengcc">below
</a>.
</li>
185 <p>Consult the
<a href=
"#starting">Getting Started with LLVM
</a> section for
186 detailed information on configuring and compiling LLVM. See
<a
187 href=
"#environment">Setting Up Your Environment
</a> for tips that simplify
188 working with the GCC front end and LLVM tools. Go to
<a href=
"#layout">Program
189 Layout
</a> to learn about the layout of the source code tree.
</p>
193 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
194 <div class=
"doc_section">
195 <a name=
"requirements"><b>Requirements
</b></a>
197 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
199 <div class=
"doc_text">
201 <p>Before you begin to use the LLVM system, review the requirements given below.
202 This may save you some trouble by knowing ahead of time what hardware and
203 software you will need.
</p>
207 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
208 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
209 <a name=
"hardware"><b>Hardware
</b></a>
212 <div class=
"doc_text">
214 <p>LLVM is known to work on the following platforms:
</p>
216 <table cellpadding=
"3" summary=
"Known LLVM platforms">
224 <td>x86
<sup><a href=
"#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
229 <td>x86
<sup><a href=
"#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
239 <td>V9 (Ultrasparc)
</td>
244 <td>x86
<sup><a href=
"#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
253 <td>MacOS X
<sup><a href=
"#pf_2">2</a></sup></td>
258 <td>MacOS X
<sup><a href=
"#pf_2">2</a>,
<a href=
"#pf_9">9</a></sup></td>
263 <td>Cygwin/Win32
</td>
264 <td>x86
<sup><a href=
"#pf_1">1</a>,
<a href=
"#pf_8">8</a>,
265 <a href=
"#pf_11">11</a></sup></td>
266 <td>GCC
3.4.X, binutils
2.20</td>
270 <td>x86
<sup><a href=
"#pf_1">1</a>,
<a href=
"#pf_6">6</a>,
271 <a href=
"#pf_8">8</a>,
<a href=
"#pf_10">10</a>,
272 <a href=
"#pf_11">11</a></sup></td>
273 <td>GCC
3.4.X, binutils
2.20</td>
277 <p>LLVM has partial support for the following platforms:
</p>
279 <table summary=
"LLVM partial platform support">
287 <td>x86
<sup><a href=
"#pf_1">1</a></sup></td>
288 <td>Visual Studio
2005 SP1 or higher
<sup><a href=
"#pf_4">4</a>,
<a href=
"#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
290 <td>AIX
<sup><a href=
"#pf_3">3</a>,
<a href=
"#pf_4">4</a></sup></td>
295 <td>Linux
<sup><a href=
"#pf_3">3</a>,
<a href=
"#pf_5">5</a></sup></td>
301 <td>Linux
<sup><a href=
"#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
306 <td>Linux
<sup><a href=
"#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
307 <td>Itanium (IA-
64)
</td>
311 <td>HP-UX
<sup><a href=
"#pf_7">7</a></sup></td>
312 <td>Itanium (IA-
64)
</td>
318 <td>mingw-w64's GCC-
4.5.x
<sup><a href=
"#pf_12">12</a></sup></td>
324 <div class=
"doc_notes">
326 <li><a name=
"pf_1">Code generation supported for Pentium processors and
328 <li><a name=
"pf_2">Code generation supported for
32-bit ABI only
</a></li>
329 <li><a name=
"pf_3">No native code generation
</a></li>
330 <li><a name=
"pf_4">Build is not complete: one or more tools do not link or function
</a></li>
331 <li><a name=
"pf_5">The GCC-based C/C++ frontend does not build
</a></li>
332 <li><a name=
"pf_6">The port is done using the MSYS shell.
</a></li>
333 <li><a name=
"pf_7">Native code generation exists but is not complete.
</a></li>
334 <li><a name=
"pf_8">Binutils
2.20 or later is required to build the assembler
335 generated by LLVM properly.
</a></li>
336 <li><a name=
"pf_9">XCode
2.5 and gcc
4.0.1</a> (Apple Build
5370) will trip
337 internal LLVM assert messages when compiled for Release at optimization
338 levels greater than
0 (i.e.,
<i>"-O1"</i> and higher).
339 Add
<i>OPTIMIZE_OPTION=
"-O0"</i> to the build command line
340 if compiling for LLVM Release or bootstrapping the LLVM toolchain.
</li>
341 <li><a name=
"pf_10">For MSYS/MinGW on Windows, be sure to install the MSYS
342 version of the perl package, and be sure it appears in your path
343 before any Windows-based versions such as Strawberry Perl and
344 ActivePerl, as these have Windows-specifics that will cause the
345 build to fail.
</a></li>
346 <li><a name=
"pf_11">To use LLVM modules on Win32-based system,
347 you may configure LLVM with
<i>"--enable-shared
"</i>.
</a></li>
348 <li><a name=
"pf_12">To compile SPU backend, you need to add
349 <tt>"LDFLAGS=-Wl,--stack,
16777216"</tt> to configure.
</a></li>
353 <p>Note that you will need about
1-
3 GB of space for a full LLVM build in Debug
354 mode, depending on the system (it is so large because of all the debugging
355 information and the fact that the libraries are statically linked into multiple
356 tools). If you do not need many of the tools and you are space-conscious, you
357 can pass
<tt>ONLY_TOOLS=
"tools you need"</tt> to make. The Release build
358 requires considerably less space.
</p>
360 <p>The LLVM suite
<i>may
</i> compile on other platforms, but it is not
361 guaranteed to do so. If compilation is successful, the LLVM utilities should be
362 able to assemble, disassemble, analyze, and optimize LLVM bitcode. Code
363 generation should work as well, although the generated native code may not work
364 on your platform.
</p>
366 <p>The GCC front end is not very portable at the moment. If you want to get it
367 to work on another platform, you can download a copy of the source and
<a
368 href=
"GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">try to compile it
</a> on your platform.
</p>
372 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
373 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"software"><b>Software
</b></a></div>
374 <div class=
"doc_text">
375 <p>Compiling LLVM requires that you have several software packages
376 installed. The table below lists those required packages. The Package column
377 is the usual name for the software package that LLVM depends on. The Version
378 column provides
"known to work" versions of the package. The Notes column
379 describes how LLVM uses the package and provides other details.
</p>
380 <table summary=
"Packages required to compile LLVM">
381 <tr><th>Package
</th><th>Version
</th><th>Notes
</th></tr>
384 <td><a href=
"http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/make">GNU Make
</a></td>
385 <td>3.79,
3.79.1</td>
386 <td>Makefile/build processor
</td>
390 <td><a href=
"http://gcc.gnu.org/">GCC
</a></td>
392 <td>C/C++ compiler
<sup><a href=
"#sf1">1</a></sup></td>
396 <td><a href=
"http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/">TeXinfo
</a></td>
398 <td>For building the CFE
</td>
402 <td><a href=
"http://subversion.tigris.org/project_packages.html">SVN
</a></td>
404 <td>Subversion access to LLVM
<sup><a href=
"#sf2">2</a></sup></td>
409 Are DejaGnu and expect obsolete?
410 Shall we mention Python? -->
413 <td><a href=
"http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/dejagnu">DejaGnu
</a></td>
415 <td>Automated test suite
<sup><a href=
"#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
419 <td><a href=
"http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/">tcl
</a></td>
421 <td>Automated test suite
<sup><a href=
"#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
425 <td><a href=
"http://expect.nist.gov/">expect
</a></td>
427 <td>Automated test suite
<sup><a href=
"#sf3">3</a></sup></td>
431 <td><a href=
"http://www.perl.com/download.csp">perl
</a></td>
433 <td>Nightly tester, utilities
</td>
437 <td><a href=
"http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/m4">GNU M4
</a>
439 <td>Macro processor for configuration
<sup><a href=
"#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
443 <td><a href=
"http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/">GNU Autoconf
</a></td>
445 <td>Configuration script builder
<sup><a href=
"#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
449 <td><a href=
"http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/">GNU Automake
</a></td>
451 <td>aclocal macro generator
<sup><a href=
"#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
455 <td><a href=
"http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/libtool">libtool
</a></td>
457 <td>Shared library manager
<sup><a href=
"#sf4">4</a></sup></td>
463 <div class=
"doc_notes">
465 <li><a name=
"sf1">Only the C and C++ languages are needed so there's no
466 need to build the other languages for LLVM's purposes.
</a> See
467 <a href=
"#brokengcc">below
</a> for specific version info.
</li>
468 <li><a name=
"sf2">You only need Subversion if you intend to build from the
469 latest LLVM sources. If you're working from a release distribution, you
470 don't need Subversion.
</a></li>
471 <li><a name=
"sf3">Only needed if you want to run the automated test
472 suite in the
<tt>llvm/test
</tt> directory.
</a></li>
473 <li><a name=
"sf4">If you want to make changes to the configure scripts,
474 you will need GNU autoconf (
2.60), and consequently, GNU M4 (version
1.4
475 or higher). You will also need automake (
1.9.6). We only use aclocal
476 from that package.
</a></li>
480 <p>Additionally, your compilation host is expected to have the usual
481 plethora of Unix utilities. Specifically:
</p>
483 <li><b>ar
</b> - archive library builder
</li>
484 <li><b>bzip2*
</b> - bzip2 command for distribution generation
</li>
485 <li><b>bunzip2*
</b> - bunzip2 command for distribution checking
</li>
486 <li><b>chmod
</b> - change permissions on a file
</li>
487 <li><b>cat
</b> - output concatenation utility
</li>
488 <li><b>cp
</b> - copy files
</li>
489 <li><b>date
</b> - print the current date/time
</li>
490 <li><b>echo
</b> - print to standard output
</li>
491 <li><b>egrep
</b> - extended regular expression search utility
</li>
492 <li><b>find
</b> - find files/dirs in a file system
</li>
493 <li><b>grep
</b> - regular expression search utility
</li>
494 <li><b>gzip*
</b> - gzip command for distribution generation
</li>
495 <li><b>gunzip*
</b> - gunzip command for distribution checking
</li>
496 <li><b>install
</b> - install directories/files
</li>
497 <li><b>mkdir
</b> - create a directory
</li>
498 <li><b>mv
</b> - move (rename) files
</li>
499 <li><b>ranlib
</b> - symbol table builder for archive libraries
</li>
500 <li><b>rm
</b> - remove (delete) files and directories
</li>
501 <li><b>sed
</b> - stream editor for transforming output
</li>
502 <li><b>sh
</b> - Bourne shell for make build scripts
</li>
503 <li><b>tar
</b> - tape archive for distribution generation
</li>
504 <li><b>test
</b> - test things in file system
</li>
505 <li><b>unzip*
</b> - unzip command for distribution checking
</li>
506 <li><b>zip*
</b> - zip command for distribution generation
</li>
510 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
511 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
512 <a name=
"brokengcc">Broken versions of GCC and other tools
</a>
515 <div class=
"doc_text">
517 <p>LLVM is very demanding of the host C++ compiler, and as such tends to expose
518 bugs in the compiler. In particular, several versions of GCC crash when trying
519 to compile LLVM. We routinely use GCC
3.3.3,
3.4.0, and Apple
4.0.1
520 successfully with them (however, see important notes below). Other versions
521 of GCC will probably work as well. GCC versions listed
522 here are known to not work. If you are using one of these versions, please try
523 to upgrade your GCC to something more recent. If you run into a problem with a
524 version of GCC not listed here, please
<a href=
"mailto:llvmdev@cs.uiuc.edu">let
525 us know
</a>. Please use the
"<tt>gcc -v</tt>" command to find out which version
526 of GCC you are using.
529 <p><b>GCC versions prior to
3.0</b>: GCC
2.96.x and before had several
530 problems in the STL that effectively prevent it from compiling LLVM.
533 <p><b>GCC
3.2.2 and
3.2.3</b>: These versions of GCC fails to compile LLVM with
534 a bogus template error. This was fixed in later GCCs.
</p>
536 <p><b>GCC
3.3.2</b>: This version of GCC suffered from a
<a
537 href=
"http://gcc.gnu.org/PR13392">serious bug
</a> which causes it to crash in
538 the
"<tt>convert_from_eh_region_ranges_1</tt>" GCC function.
</p>
540 <p><b>Cygwin GCC
3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC
3.3.3 commonly shipped with
541 Cygwin does not work. Please
<a href=
"GCCFEBuildInstrs.html#cygwin">upgrade
542 to a newer version
</a> if possible.
</p>
543 <p><b>SuSE GCC
3.3.3</b>: The version of GCC
3.3.3 shipped with SuSE
9.1 (and
544 possibly others) does not compile LLVM correctly (it appears that exception
545 handling is broken in some cases). Please download the FSF
3.3.3 or upgrade
546 to a newer version of GCC.
</p>
547 <p><b>GCC
3.4.0 on linux/x86 (
32-bit)
</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
548 code generator, causing an infinite loop in the llvm-gcc build when built
549 with optimizations enabled (i.e. a release build).
</p>
550 <p><b>GCC
3.4.2 on linux/x86 (
32-bit)
</b>: GCC miscompiles portions of the
551 code generator at -O3, as with
3.4.0. However gcc
3.4.2 (unlike
3.4.0)
552 correctly compiles LLVM at -O2. A work around is to build release LLVM
553 builds with
"make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2 ..."</p>
554 <p><b>GCC
3.4.x on X86-
64/amd64
</b>: GCC
<a href=
"http://llvm.org/PR1056">
555 miscompiles portions of LLVM
</a>.
</p>
556 <p><b>GCC
3.4.4 (CodeSourcery ARM
2005q3-
2)
</b>: this compiler miscompiles LLVM
557 when building with optimizations enabled. It appears to work with
558 "<tt>make ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O1</tt>" or build a debug
560 <p><b>IA-
64 GCC
4.0.0</b>: The IA-
64 version of GCC
4.0.0 is known to
562 <p><b>Apple Xcode
2.3</b>: GCC crashes when compiling LLVM at -O3 (which is the
563 default with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=
1. To work around this, build with
564 "ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 OPTIMIZE_OPTION=-O2".
</p>
565 <p><b>GCC
4.1.1</b>: GCC fails to build LLVM with template concept check errors
566 compiling some files. At the time of this writing, GCC mainline (
4.2)
567 did not share the problem.
</p>
568 <p><b>GCC
4.1.1 on X86-
64/amd64
</b>: GCC
<a href=
"http://llvm.org/PR1063">
569 miscompiles portions of LLVM
</a> when compiling llvm itself into
64-bit
570 code. LLVM will appear to mostly work but will be buggy, e.g. failing
571 portions of its testsuite.
</p>
572 <p><b>GCC
4.1.2 on OpenSUSE
</b>: Seg faults during libstdc++ build and on x86_64
573 platforms compiling md5.c gets a mangled constant.
</p>
574 <p><b>GCC
4.1.2 (
20061115 (prerelease) (Debian
4.1.1-
21)) on Debian
</b>: Appears
575 to miscompile parts of LLVM
2.4. One symptom is ValueSymbolTable complaining
576 about symbols remaining in the table on destruction.
</p>
577 <p><b>GCC
4.1.2 20071124 (Red Hat
4.1.2-
42)
</b>: Suffers from the same symptoms
578 as the previous one. It appears to work with ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=
0 (the default).
</p>
579 <p><b>Cygwin GCC
4.3.2 20080827 (beta)
2</b>:
580 Users
<a href=
"http://llvm.org/PR4145">reported
</a> various problems related
581 with link errors when using this GCC version.
</p>
582 <p><b>Debian GCC
4.3.2 on X86
</b>: Crashes building some files in LLVM
2.6.
</p>
583 <p><b>GCC
4.3.3 (Debian
4.3.3-
10) on ARM
</b>: Miscompiles parts of LLVM
2.6
584 when optimizations are turned on. The symptom is an infinite loop in
585 FoldingSetImpl::RemoveNode while running the code generator.
</p>
586 <p><b>GCC
4.3.5 and GCC
4.4.5 on ARM
</b>: These can miscompile
<tt>value
>>
587 1</tt> even at -O0. A test failure in
<tt>test/Assembler/alignstack.ll
</tt> is
588 one symptom of the problem.
589 <p><b>GNU ld
2.16.X
</b>. Some
2.16.X versions of the ld linker will produce very
590 long warning messages complaining that some
".gnu.linkonce.t.*" symbol was
591 defined in a discarded section. You can safely ignore these messages as they are
592 erroneous and the linkage is correct. These messages disappear using ld
595 <p><b>GNU binutils
2.17</b>: Binutils
2.17 contains
<a
596 href=
"http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3111">a bug
</a> which
597 causes huge link times (minutes instead of seconds) when building LLVM. We
598 recommend upgrading to a newer version (
2.17.50.0.4 or later).
</p>
600 <p><b>GNU Binutils
2.19.1 Gold
</b>: This version of Gold contained
601 <a href=
"http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9836">a bug
</a>
602 which causes intermittent failures when building LLVM with position independent
603 code. The symptom is an error about cyclic dependencies. We recommend
604 upgrading to a newer version of Gold.
</p>
610 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
611 <div class=
"doc_section">
612 <a name=
"starting"><b>Getting Started with LLVM
</b></a>
614 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
616 <div class=
"doc_text">
618 <p>The remainder of this guide is meant to get you up and running with
619 LLVM and to give you some basic information about the LLVM environment.
</p>
621 <p>The later sections of this guide describe the
<a
622 href=
"#layout">general layout
</a> of the the LLVM source tree, a
<a
623 href=
"#tutorial">simple example
</a> using the LLVM tool chain, and
<a
624 href=
"#links">links
</a> to find more information about LLVM or to get
628 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
629 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
630 <a name=
"terminology">Terminology and Notation
</a>
633 <div class=
"doc_text">
635 <p>Throughout this manual, the following names are used to denote paths
636 specific to the local system and working environment.
<i>These are not
637 environment variables you need to set but just strings used in the rest
638 of this document below
</i>. In any of the examples below, simply replace
639 each of these names with the appropriate pathname on your local system.
640 All these paths are absolute:
</p>
645 This is the top level directory of the LLVM source tree.
650 This is the top level directory of the LLVM object tree (i.e. the
651 tree where object files and compiled programs will be placed. It
652 can be the same as SRC_ROOT).
657 This is where the LLVM GCC Front End is installed.
659 For the pre-built GCC front end binaries, the LLVMGCCDIR is
660 <tt>llvm-gcc/
<i>platform
</i>/llvm-gcc
</tt>.
665 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
666 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
667 <a name=
"environment">Setting Up Your Environment
</a>
670 <div class=
"doc_text">
673 In order to compile and use LLVM, you may need to set some environment
677 <dt><tt>LLVM_LIB_SEARCH_PATH
</tt>=
<tt>/path/to/your/bitcode/libs
</tt></dt>
678 <dd>[Optional] This environment variable helps LLVM linking tools find the
679 locations of your bitcode libraries. It is provided only as a
680 convenience since you can specify the paths using the -L options of the
681 tools and the C/C++ front-end will automatically use the bitcode files
683 <tt>lib
</tt> directory.
</dd>
688 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
689 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
690 <a name=
"unpack">Unpacking the LLVM Archives
</a>
693 <div class=
"doc_text">
696 If you have the LLVM distribution, you will need to unpack it before you
697 can begin to compile it. LLVM is distributed as a set of two files: the LLVM
698 suite and the LLVM GCC front end compiled for your platform. There is an
699 additional test suite that is optional. Each file is a TAR archive that is
700 compressed with the gzip program.
703 <p>The files are as follows, with
<em>x.y
</em> marking the version number:
705 <dt><tt>llvm-x.y.tar.gz
</tt></dt>
706 <dd>Source release for the LLVM libraries and tools.
<br></dd>
708 <dt><tt>llvm-test-x.y.tar.gz
</tt></dt>
709 <dd>Source release for the LLVM test-suite.
</dd>
711 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc-
4.2-x.y.source.tar.gz
</tt></dt>
712 <dd>Source release of the llvm-gcc-
4.2 front end. See README.LLVM in the root
713 directory for build instructions.
<br></dd>
715 <dt><tt>llvm-gcc-
4.2-x.y-platform.tar.gz
</tt></dt>
716 <dd>Binary release of the llvm-gcc-
4.2 front end for a specific platform.
<br></dd>
722 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
723 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
724 <a name=
"checkout">Checkout LLVM from Subversion
</a>
727 <div class=
"doc_text">
729 <p>If you have access to our Subversion repository, you can get a fresh copy of
730 the entire source code. All you need to do is check it out from Subversion as
734 <li><tt>cd
<i>where-you-want-llvm-to-live
</i></tt></li>
735 <li>Read-Only:
<tt>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm
</tt></li>
736 <li>Read-Write:
<tt>svn co https://user@llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk
741 <p>This will create an '
<tt>llvm
</tt>' directory in the current
742 directory and fully populate it with the LLVM source code, Makefiles,
743 test directories, and local copies of documentation files.
</p>
745 <p>If you want to get a specific release (as opposed to the most recent
746 revision), you can checkout it from the '
<tt>tags
</tt>' directory (instead of
747 '
<tt>trunk
</tt>'). The following releases are located in the following
748 subdirectories of the '
<tt>tags
</tt>' directory:
</p>
751 <li>Release
2.9:
<b>RELEASE_29/final
</b></li>
752 <li>Release
2.8:
<b>RELEASE_28
</b></li>
753 <li>Release
2.7:
<b>RELEASE_27
</b></li>
754 <li>Release
2.6:
<b>RELEASE_26
</b></li>
755 <li>Release
2.5:
<b>RELEASE_25
</b></li>
756 <li>Release
2.4:
<b>RELEASE_24
</b></li>
757 <li>Release
2.3:
<b>RELEASE_23
</b></li>
758 <li>Release
2.2:
<b>RELEASE_22
</b></li>
759 <li>Release
2.1:
<b>RELEASE_21
</b></li>
760 <li>Release
2.0:
<b>RELEASE_20
</b></li>
761 <li>Release
1.9:
<b>RELEASE_19
</b></li>
762 <li>Release
1.8:
<b>RELEASE_18
</b></li>
763 <li>Release
1.7:
<b>RELEASE_17
</b></li>
764 <li>Release
1.6:
<b>RELEASE_16
</b></li>
765 <li>Release
1.5:
<b>RELEASE_15
</b></li>
766 <li>Release
1.4:
<b>RELEASE_14
</b></li>
767 <li>Release
1.3:
<b>RELEASE_13
</b></li>
768 <li>Release
1.2:
<b>RELEASE_12
</b></li>
769 <li>Release
1.1:
<b>RELEASE_11
</b></li>
770 <li>Release
1.0:
<b>RELEASE_1
</b></li>
773 <p>If you would like to get the LLVM test suite (a separate package as of
1.4),
774 you get it from the Subversion repository:
</p>
776 <div class=
"doc_code">
779 % svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/test-suite/trunk test-suite
783 <p>By placing it in the
<tt>llvm/projects
</tt>, it will be automatically
784 configured by the LLVM configure script as well as automatically updated when
785 you run
<tt>svn update
</tt>.
</p>
787 <p>If you would like to get the GCC front end source code, you can also get it
788 and build it yourself. Please follow
<a href=
"GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">these
789 instructions
</a> to successfully get and build the LLVM GCC front-end.
</p>
793 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
794 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
795 <a name=
"git_mirror">GIT mirror
</a>
798 <div class=
"doc_text">
800 <p>GIT mirrors are available for a number of LLVM subprojects. These mirrors
801 sync automatically with each Subversion commit and contain all necessary
802 git-svn marks (so, you can recreate git-svn metadata locally). Note that right
803 now mirrors reflect only
<tt>trunk
</tt> for each project. You can do the
804 read-only GIT clone of LLVM via:
</p>
807 % git clone http://llvm.org/git/llvm.git
812 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
813 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
814 <a name=
"installcf">Install the GCC Front End
</a>
817 <div class=
"doc_text">
819 <p>Before configuring and compiling the LLVM suite (or if you want to use just the LLVM
820 GCC front end) you can optionally extract the front end from the binary distribution.
821 It is used for running the LLVM test-suite and for compiling C/C++ programs. Note that
822 you can optionally
<a href=
"GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">build llvm-gcc yourself
</a> after building the
823 main LLVM repository.
</p>
825 <p>To install the GCC front end, do the following (on Windows, use an archival tool
826 like
<a href=
"http://www.7-zip.org/">7-zip
</a> that understands gzipped tars):
</p>
829 <li><tt>cd
<i>where-you-want-the-front-end-to-live
</i></tt></li>
830 <li><tt>gunzip --stdout llvm-gcc-
4.2-
<i>version
</i>-
<i>platform
</i>.tar.gz | tar -xvf
834 <p>Once the binary is uncompressed, if you're using a *nix-based system, add a symlink for
835 <tt>llvm-gcc
</tt> and
<tt>llvm-g++
</tt> to some directory in your path. If you're using a
836 Windows-based system, add the
<tt>bin
</tt> subdirectory of your front end installation directory
837 to your
<tt>PATH
</tt> environment variable. For example, if you uncompressed the binary to
838 <tt>c:\llvm-gcc
</tt>, add
<tt>c:\llvm-gcc\bin
</tt> to your
<tt>PATH
</tt>.
</p>
840 <p>If you now want to build LLVM from source, when you configure LLVM, it will
841 automatically detect
<tt>llvm-gcc
</tt>'s presence (if it is in your path) enabling its
842 use in test-suite. Note that you can always build or install
<tt>llvm-gcc
</tt> at any
843 point after building the main LLVM repository: just reconfigure llvm and
844 test-suite will pick it up.
847 <p>As a convenience for Windows users, the front end binaries for MinGW/x86 include
848 versions of the required w32api and mingw-runtime binaries. The last remaining step for
849 Windows users is to simply uncompress the binary binutils package from
850 <a href=
"http://mingw.org/">MinGW
</a> into your front end installation directory. While the
851 front end installation steps are not quite the same as a typical manual MinGW installation,
852 they should be similar enough to those who have previously installed MinGW on Windows systems.
</p>
854 <p>To install binutils on Windows:
</p>
857 <li><tt><i>download GNU Binutils from
<a href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/">MinGW Downloads
</a></i></tt></li>
858 <li><tt>cd
<i>where-you-uncompressed-the-front-end
</i></tt></li>
859 <li><tt><i>uncompress archived binutils directories (not the tar file) into the current directory
</i></tt></li>
862 <p>The binary versions of the LLVM GCC front end may not suit all of your needs. For
863 example, the binary distribution may include an old version of a system header
864 file, not
"fix" a header file that needs to be fixed for GCC, or it may be linked with
865 libraries not available on your system. In cases like these, you may want to try
866 <a href=
"GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">building the GCC front end from source
</a>. Thankfully,
867 this is much easier now than it was in the past.
</p>
869 <p>We also do not currently support updating of the GCC front end by manually overlaying
870 newer versions of the w32api and mingw-runtime binary packages that may become available
871 from MinGW. At this time, it's best to think of the MinGW LLVM GCC front end binary as
872 a self-contained convenience package that requires Windows users to simply download and
873 uncompress the GNU Binutils binary package from the MinGW project.
</p>
875 <p>Regardless of your platform, if you discover that installing the LLVM GCC front end
876 binaries is not as easy as previously described, or you would like to suggest improvements,
877 please let us know how you would like to see things improved by dropping us a note on our
878 <a href=
"http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist">mailing list
</a>.
</p>
882 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
883 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
884 <a name=
"config">Local LLVM Configuration
</a>
887 <div class=
"doc_text">
889 <p>Once checked out from the Subversion repository, the LLVM suite source
891 configured via the
<tt>configure
</tt> script. This script sets variables in the
892 various
<tt>*.in
</tt> files, most notably
<tt>llvm/Makefile.config
</tt> and
893 <tt>llvm/include/Config/config.h
</tt>. It also populates
<i>OBJ_ROOT
</i> with
894 the Makefiles needed to begin building LLVM.
</p>
896 <p>The following environment variables are used by the
<tt>configure
</tt>
897 script to configure the build system:
</p>
899 <table summary=
"LLVM configure script environment variables">
900 <tr><th>Variable
</th><th>Purpose
</th></tr>
903 <td>Tells
<tt>configure
</tt> which C compiler to use. By default,
904 <tt>configure
</tt> will look for the first GCC C compiler in
905 <tt>PATH
</tt>. Use this variable to override
906 <tt>configure
</tt>'s default behavior.
</td>
910 <td>Tells
<tt>configure
</tt> which C++ compiler to use. By default,
911 <tt>configure
</tt> will look for the first GCC C++ compiler in
912 <tt>PATH
</tt>. Use this variable to override
913 <tt>configure
</tt>'s default behavior.
</td>
917 <p>The following options can be used to set or enable LLVM specific options:
</p>
920 <dt><i>--with-llvmgccdir
</i></dt>
921 <dd>Path to the LLVM C/C++ FrontEnd to be used with this LLVM configuration.
922 The value of this option should specify the full pathname of the C/C++ Front
923 End to be used. If this option is not provided, the PATH will be searched for
924 a program named
<i>llvm-gcc
</i> and the C/C++ FrontEnd install directory will
925 be inferred from the path found. If the option is not given, and no llvm-gcc
926 can be found in the path then a warning will be produced by
927 <tt>configure
</tt> indicating this situation. LLVM may still be built with
928 the
<tt>tools-only
</tt> target but attempting to build the runtime libraries
929 will fail as these libraries require llvm-gcc and llvm-g++. See
930 <a href=
"#installcf">Install the GCC Front End
</a> for details on installing
931 the C/C++ Front End. See
932 <a href=
"GCCFEBuildInstrs.html">Bootstrapping the LLVM C/C++ Front-End
</a>
933 for details on building the C/C++ Front End.
</dd>
934 <dt><i>--with-tclinclude
</i></dt>
935 <dd>Path to the tcl include directory under which
<tt>tclsh
</tt> can be
936 found. Use this if you have multiple tcl installations on your machine and you
937 want to use a specific one (
8.x) for LLVM. LLVM only uses tcl for running the
938 dejagnu based test suite in
<tt>llvm/test
</tt>. If you don't specify this
939 option, the LLVM configure script will search for the tcl
8.4 and
8.3
943 <dt><i>--enable-optimized
</i></dt>
945 Enables optimized compilation (debugging symbols are removed
946 and GCC optimization flags are enabled). Note that this is the default
947 setting if you are using the LLVM distribution. The default behavior
948 of an Subversion checkout is to use an unoptimized build (also known as a
952 <dt><i>--enable-debug-runtime
</i></dt>
954 Enables debug symbols in the runtime libraries. The default is to strip
955 debug symbols from the runtime libraries.
957 <dt><i>--enable-jit
</i></dt>
959 Compile the Just In Time (JIT) compiler functionality. This is not
961 on all platforms. The default is dependent on platform, so it is best
962 to explicitly enable it if you want it.
965 <dt><i>--enable-targets=
</i><tt>target-option
</tt></dt>
966 <dd>Controls which targets will be built and linked into llc. The default
967 value for
<tt>target_options
</tt> is
"all" which builds and links all
968 available targets. The value
"host-only" can be specified to build only a
969 native compiler (no cross-compiler targets available). The
"native" target is
970 selected as the target of the build host. You can also specify a comma
971 separated list of target names that you want available in llc. The target
972 names use all lower case. The current set of targets is:
<br>
973 <tt>alpha, ia64, powerpc, skeleton, sparc, x86
</tt>.
975 <dt><i>--enable-doxygen
</i></dt>
976 <dd>Look for the doxygen program and enable construction of doxygen based
977 documentation from the source code. This is disabled by default because
978 generating the documentation can take a long time and producess
100s of
979 megabytes of output.
</dd>
980 <dt><i>--with-udis86
</i></dt>
981 <dd>LLVM can use external disassembler library for various purposes (now it's
982 used only for examining code produced by JIT). This option will enable usage
983 of
<a href=
"http://udis86.sourceforge.net/">udis86
</a> x86 (both
32 and
64
984 bits) disassembler library.
</dd>
987 <p>To configure LLVM, follow these steps:
</p>
990 <li><p>Change directory into the object root directory:
</p>
992 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% cd
<i>OBJ_ROOT
</i></pre></div></li>
994 <li><p>Run the
<tt>configure
</tt> script located in the LLVM source
997 <div class=
"doc_code">
998 <pre>%
<i>SRC_ROOT
</i>/configure --prefix=/install/path [other options]
</pre>
1004 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1005 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
1006 <a name=
"compile">Compiling the LLVM Suite Source Code
</a>
1009 <div class=
"doc_text">
1011 <p>Once you have configured LLVM, you can build it. There are three types of
1017 These builds are the default when one is using an Subversion checkout and
1018 types
<tt>gmake
</tt> (unless the
<tt>--enable-optimized
</tt> option was
1019 used during configuration). The build system will compile the tools and
1020 libraries with debugging information. To get a Debug Build using the
1021 LLVM distribution the
<tt>--disable-optimized
</tt> option must be passed
1022 to
<tt>configure
</tt>.
1025 <dt>Release (Optimized) Builds
1027 These builds are enabled with the
<tt>--enable-optimized
</tt> option to
1028 <tt>configure
</tt> or by specifying
<tt>ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=
1</tt> on the
1029 <tt>gmake
</tt> command line. For these builds, the build system will
1030 compile the tools and libraries with GCC optimizations enabled and strip
1031 debugging information from the libraries and executables it generates.
1032 Note that Release Builds are default when using an LLVM distribution.
1037 These builds are for use with profiling. They compile profiling
1038 information into the code for use with programs like
<tt>gprof
</tt>.
1039 Profile builds must be started by specifying
<tt>ENABLE_PROFILING=
1</tt>
1040 on the
<tt>gmake
</tt> command line.
1043 <p>Once you have LLVM configured, you can build it by entering the
1044 <i>OBJ_ROOT
</i> directory and issuing the following command:
</p>
1046 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% gmake
</pre></div>
1048 <p>If the build fails, please
<a href=
"#brokengcc">check here
</a> to see if you
1049 are using a version of GCC that is known not to compile LLVM.
</p>
1052 If you have multiple processors in your machine, you may wish to use some of
1053 the parallel build options provided by GNU Make. For example, you could use the
1056 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% gmake -j2
</pre></div>
1058 <p>There are several special targets which are useful when working with the LLVM
1062 <dt><tt>gmake clean
</tt>
1064 Removes all files generated by the build. This includes object files,
1065 generated C/C++ files, libraries, and executables.
1068 <dt><tt>gmake dist-clean
</tt>
1070 Removes everything that
<tt>gmake clean
</tt> does, but also removes files
1071 generated by
<tt>configure
</tt>. It attempts to return the source tree to the
1072 original state in which it was shipped.
1075 <dt><tt>gmake install
</tt>
1077 Installs LLVM header files, libraries, tools, and documentation in a
1079 under $PREFIX, specified with
<tt>./configure --prefix=[dir]
</tt>, which
1080 defaults to
<tt>/usr/local
</tt>.
1083 <dt><tt>gmake -C runtime install-bytecode
</tt>
1085 Assuming you built LLVM into $OBJDIR, when this command is run, it will
1086 install bitcode libraries into the GCC front end's bitcode library
1087 directory. If you need to update your bitcode libraries,
1088 this is the target to use once you've built them.
1092 <p>Please see the
<a href=
"MakefileGuide.html">Makefile Guide
</a> for further
1093 details on these
<tt>make
</tt> targets and descriptions of other targets
1096 <p>It is also possible to override default values from
<tt>configure
</tt> by
1097 declaring variables on the command line. The following are some examples:
</p>
1100 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=
1</tt>
1102 Perform a Release (Optimized) build.
1105 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=
1 DISABLE_ASSERTIONS=
1</tt>
1107 Perform a Release (Optimized) build without assertions enabled.
1110 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=
0</tt>
1112 Perform a Debug build.
1115 <dt><tt>gmake ENABLE_PROFILING=
1</tt>
1117 Perform a Profiling build.
1120 <dt><tt>gmake VERBOSE=
1</tt>
1122 Print what
<tt>gmake
</tt> is doing on standard output.
1125 <dt><tt>gmake TOOL_VERBOSE=
1</tt></dt>
1126 <dd>Ask each tool invoked by the makefiles to print out what it is doing on
1127 the standard output. This also implies
<tt>VERBOSE=
1</tt>.
1131 <p>Every directory in the LLVM object tree includes a
<tt>Makefile
</tt> to build
1132 it and any subdirectories that it contains. Entering any directory inside the
1133 LLVM object tree and typing
<tt>gmake
</tt> should rebuild anything in or below
1134 that directory that is out of date.
</p>
1138 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1139 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
1140 <a name=
"cross-compile">Cross-Compiling LLVM
</a>
1143 <div class=
"doc_text">
1144 <p>It is possible to cross-compile LLVM itself. That is, you can create LLVM
1145 executables and libraries to be hosted on a platform different from the
1146 platform where they are build (a Canadian Cross build). To configure a
1147 cross-compile, supply the configure script with
<tt>--build
</tt> and
1148 <tt>--host
</tt> options that are different. The values of these options must
1149 be legal target triples that your GCC compiler supports.
</p>
1151 <p>The result of such a build is executables that are not runnable on
1152 on the build host (--build option) but can be executed on the compile host
1153 (--host option).
</p>
1156 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1157 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
1158 <a name=
"objfiles">The Location of LLVM Object Files
</a>
1161 <div class=
"doc_text">
1163 <p>The LLVM build system is capable of sharing a single LLVM source tree among
1164 several LLVM builds. Hence, it is possible to build LLVM for several different
1165 platforms or configurations using the same source tree.
</p>
1167 <p>This is accomplished in the typical autoconf manner:
</p>
1170 <li><p>Change directory to where the LLVM object files should live:
</p>
1172 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% cd
<i>OBJ_ROOT
</i></pre></div></li>
1174 <li><p>Run the
<tt>configure
</tt> script found in the LLVM source
1177 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>%
<i>SRC_ROOT
</i>/configure
</pre></div></li>
1180 <p>The LLVM build will place files underneath
<i>OBJ_ROOT
</i> in directories
1181 named after the build type:
</p>
1184 <dt>Debug Builds with assertions enabled (the default)
1188 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT
</i>/Debug+Asserts/bin
</tt>
1190 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT
</i>/Debug+Asserts/lib
</tt>
1198 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT
</i>/Release/bin
</tt>
1200 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT
</i>/Release/lib
</tt>
1208 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT
</i>/Profile/bin
</tt>
1210 <dd><tt><i>OBJ_ROOT
</i>/Profile/lib
</tt>
1216 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1217 <div class=
"doc_subsection">
1218 <a name=
"optionalconfig">Optional Configuration Items
</a>
1221 <div class=
"doc_text">
1224 If you're running on a Linux system that supports the
"<a
1225 href="http://www.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de/~rguenth/linux/binfmt_misc.html
">binfmt_misc</a>"
1226 module, and you have root access on the system, you can set your system up to
1227 execute LLVM bitcode files directly. To do this, use commands like this (the
1228 first command may not be required if you are already using the module):
</p>
1230 <div class=
"doc_code">
1232 $ mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc
1233 $ echo ':llvm:M::BC::/path/to/lli:'
> /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register
1234 $ chmod u+x hello.bc (if needed)
1240 This allows you to execute LLVM bitcode files directly. On Debian, you
1241 can also use this command instead of the 'echo' command above:
1244 <div class=
"doc_code">
1246 $ sudo update-binfmts --install llvm /path/to/lli --magic 'BC'
1252 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1253 <div class=
"doc_section">
1254 <a name=
"layout"><b>Program Layout
</b></a>
1256 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1258 <div class=
"doc_text">
1260 <p>One useful source of information about the LLVM source base is the LLVM
<a
1261 href=
"http://www.doxygen.org/">doxygen
</a> documentation available at
<tt><a
1262 href=
"http://llvm.org/doxygen/">http://llvm.org/doxygen/
</a></tt>.
1263 The following is a brief introduction to code layout:
</p>
1267 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1268 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"examples"><tt>llvm/examples
</tt></a></div>
1269 <div class=
"doc_text">
1270 <p>This directory contains some simple examples of how to use the LLVM IR and
1274 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1275 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"include"><tt>llvm/include
</tt></a></div>
1276 <div class=
"doc_text">
1278 <p>This directory contains public header files exported from the LLVM
1279 library. The three main subdirectories of this directory are:
</p>
1282 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm
</b></tt></dt>
1283 <dd>This directory contains all of the LLVM specific header files. This
1284 directory also has subdirectories for different portions of LLVM:
1285 <tt>Analysis
</tt>,
<tt>CodeGen
</tt>,
<tt>Target
</tt>,
<tt>Transforms
</tt>,
1288 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Support
</b></tt></dt>
1289 <dd>This directory contains generic support libraries that are provided with
1290 LLVM but not necessarily specific to LLVM. For example, some C++ STL utilities
1291 and a Command Line option processing library store their header files here.
1294 <dt><tt><b>llvm/include/llvm/Config
</b></tt></dt>
1295 <dd>This directory contains header files configured by the
<tt>configure
</tt>
1296 script. They wrap
"standard" UNIX and C header files. Source code can
1297 include these header files which automatically take care of the conditional
1298 #includes that the
<tt>configure
</tt> script generates.
</dd>
1302 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1303 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"lib"><tt>llvm/lib
</tt></a></div>
1304 <div class=
"doc_text">
1306 <p>This directory contains most of the source files of the LLVM system. In LLVM,
1307 almost all code exists in libraries, making it very easy to share code among the
1308 different
<a href=
"#tools">tools
</a>.
</p>
1311 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/VMCore/
</b></tt></dt>
1312 <dd> This directory holds the core LLVM source files that implement core
1313 classes like Instruction and BasicBlock.
</dd>
1315 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/AsmParser/
</b></tt></dt>
1316 <dd>This directory holds the source code for the LLVM assembly language parser
1319 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/BitCode/
</b></tt></dt>
1320 <dd>This directory holds code for reading and write LLVM bitcode.
</dd>
1322 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Analysis/
</b></tt><dd>This directory contains a variety of
1323 different program analyses, such as Dominator Information, Call Graphs,
1324 Induction Variables, Interval Identification, Natural Loop Identification,
1327 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Transforms/
</b></tt></dt>
1328 <dd> This directory contains the source code for the LLVM to LLVM program
1329 transformations, such as Aggressive Dead Code Elimination, Sparse Conditional
1330 Constant Propagation, Inlining, Loop Invariant Code Motion, Dead Global
1331 Elimination, and many others.
</dd>
1333 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Target/
</b></tt></dt>
1334 <dd> This directory contains files that describe various target architectures
1335 for code generation. For example, the
<tt>llvm/lib/Target/X86
</tt>
1336 directory holds the X86 machine description while
1337 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/CBackend
</tt> implements the LLVM-to-C converter.
</dd>
1339 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/CodeGen/
</b></tt></dt>
1340 <dd> This directory contains the major parts of the code generator: Instruction
1341 Selector, Instruction Scheduling, and Register Allocation.
</dd>
1343 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/MC/
</b></tt></dt>
1344 <dd>(FIXME: T.B.D.)
</dd>
1346 <!--FIXME: obsoleted -->
1347 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Debugger/
</b></tt></dt>
1348 <dd> This directory contains the source level debugger library that makes
1349 it possible to instrument LLVM programs so that a debugger could identify
1350 source code locations at which the program is executing.
</dd>
1352 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/ExecutionEngine/
</b></tt></dt>
1353 <dd> This directory contains libraries for executing LLVM bitcode directly
1354 at runtime in both interpreted and JIT compiled fashions.
</dd>
1356 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/Support/
</b></tt></dt>
1357 <dd> This directory contains the source code that corresponds to the header
1358 files located in
<tt>llvm/include/Support/
</tt>.
</dd>
1360 <!--FIXME: obsoleted -->
1361 <dt><tt><b>llvm/lib/System/
</b></tt></dt>
1362 <dd>This directory contains the operating system abstraction layer that
1363 shields LLVM from platform-specific coding.
</dd>
1368 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1369 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"projects"><tt>llvm/projects
</tt></a></div>
1370 <div class=
"doc_text">
1371 <p>This directory contains projects that are not strictly part of LLVM but are
1372 shipped with LLVM. This is also the directory where you should create your own
1373 LLVM-based projects. See
<tt>llvm/projects/sample
</tt> for an example of how
1374 to set up your own project.
</p>
1377 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1378 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"runtime"><tt>llvm/runtime
</tt></a></div>
1379 <div class=
"doc_text">
1381 <p>This directory contains libraries which are compiled into LLVM bitcode and
1382 used when linking programs with the GCC front end. Most of these libraries are
1383 skeleton versions of real libraries; for example, libc is a stripped down
1384 version of glibc.
</p>
1386 <p>Unlike the rest of the LLVM suite, this directory needs the LLVM GCC front
1391 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1392 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"test"><tt>llvm/test
</tt></a></div>
1393 <div class=
"doc_text">
1394 <p>This directory contains feature and regression tests and other basic sanity
1395 checks on the LLVM infrastructure. These are intended to run quickly and cover
1396 a lot of territory without being exhaustive.
</p>
1399 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1400 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"test-suite"><tt>test-suite
</tt></a></div>
1401 <div class=
"doc_text">
1402 <p>This is not a directory in the normal llvm module; it is a separate
1404 module that must be checked out (usually to
<tt>projects/test-suite
</tt>).
1406 module contains a comprehensive correctness, performance, and benchmarking
1408 suite for LLVM. It is a separate Subversion module because not every LLVM
1410 interested in downloading or building such a comprehensive test suite. For
1411 further details on this test suite, please see the
1412 <a href=
"TestingGuide.html">Testing Guide
</a> document.
</p>
1415 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1416 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"tools"><tt>llvm/tools
</tt></a></div>
1417 <div class=
"doc_text">
1419 <p>The
<b>tools
</b> directory contains the executables built out of the
1420 libraries above, which form the main part of the user interface. You can
1421 always get help for a tool by typing
<tt>tool_name -help
</tt>. The
1422 following is a brief introduction to the most important tools. More detailed
1423 information is in the
<a href=
"CommandGuide/index.html">Command Guide
</a>.
</p>
1427 <dt><tt><b>bugpoint
</b></tt></dt>
1428 <dd><tt>bugpoint
</tt> is used to debug
1429 optimization passes or code generation backends by narrowing down the
1430 given test case to the minimum number of passes and/or instructions that
1431 still cause a problem, whether it is a crash or miscompilation. See
<a
1432 href=
"HowToSubmitABug.html">HowToSubmitABug.html
</a> for more information
1433 on using
<tt>bugpoint
</tt>.
</dd>
1435 <dt><tt><b>llvmc
</b></tt></dt>
1436 <dd>The LLVM Compiler Driver. This program can
1437 be configured to utilize both LLVM and non-LLVM compilation tools to enable
1438 pre-processing, translation, optimization, assembly, and linking of programs
1439 all from one command line.
<tt>llvmc
</tt> also takes care of processing the
1440 dependent libraries found in bitcode. This reduces the need to get the
1441 traditional
<tt>-l
<name
></tt> options right on the command line. Please
1442 note that this tool, while functional, is still experimental and not feature
1445 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ar
</b></tt></dt>
1446 <dd>The archiver produces an archive containing
1447 the given LLVM bitcode files, optionally with an index for faster
1450 <dt><tt><b>llvm-as
</b></tt></dt>
1451 <dd>The assembler transforms the human readable LLVM assembly to LLVM
1454 <dt><tt><b>llvm-dis
</b></tt></dt>
1455 <dd>The disassembler transforms the LLVM bitcode to human readable
1458 <dt><tt><b>llvm-ld
</b></tt></dt>
1459 <dd><tt>llvm-ld
</tt> is a general purpose and extensible linker for LLVM.
1460 This is the linker invoked by
<tt>llvmc
</tt>. It performs standard link time
1461 optimizations and allows optimization modules to be loaded and run so that
1462 language specific optimizations can be applied at link time.
</dd>
1464 <dt><tt><b>llvm-link
</b></tt></dt>
1465 <dd><tt>llvm-link
</tt>, not surprisingly, links multiple LLVM modules into
1466 a single program.
</dd>
1468 <dt><tt><b>lli
</b></tt></dt>
1469 <dd><tt>lli
</tt> is the LLVM interpreter, which
1470 can directly execute LLVM bitcode (although very slowly...). For architectures
1471 that support it (currently x86, Sparc, and PowerPC), by default,
<tt>lli
</tt>
1472 will function as a Just-In-Time compiler (if the functionality was compiled
1473 in), and will execute the code
<i>much
</i> faster than the interpreter.
</dd>
1475 <dt><tt><b>llc
</b></tt></dt>
1476 <dd> <tt>llc
</tt> is the LLVM backend compiler, which
1477 translates LLVM bitcode to a native code assembly file or to C code (with
1478 the -march=c option).
</dd>
1480 <dt><tt><b>llvm-gcc
</b></tt></dt>
1481 <dd><tt>llvm-gcc
</tt> is a GCC-based C frontend that has been retargeted to
1482 use LLVM as its backend instead of GCC's RTL backend. It can also emit LLVM
1483 bitcode or assembly (with the
<tt>-emit-llvm
</tt> option) instead of the
1484 usual machine code output. It works just like any other GCC compiler,
1485 taking the typical
<tt>-c, -S, -E, -o
</tt> options that are typically used.
1486 Additionally, the the source code for
<tt>llvm-gcc
</tt> is available as a
1487 separate Subversion module.
</dd>
1489 <dt><tt><b>opt
</b></tt></dt>
1490 <dd><tt>opt
</tt> reads LLVM bitcode, applies a series of LLVM to LLVM
1491 transformations (which are specified on the command line), and then outputs
1492 the resultant bitcode. The '
<tt>opt -help
</tt>' command is a good way to
1493 get a list of the program transformations available in LLVM.
<br>
1494 <dd><tt>opt
</tt> can also be used to run a specific analysis on an input
1495 LLVM bitcode file and print out the results. It is primarily useful for
1496 debugging analyses, or familiarizing yourself with what an analysis does.
</dd>
1500 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1501 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"utils"><tt>llvm/utils
</tt></a></div>
1502 <div class=
"doc_text">
1504 <p>This directory contains utilities for working with LLVM source code, and some
1505 of the utilities are actually required as part of the build process because they
1506 are code generators for parts of LLVM infrastructure.
</p>
1509 <dt><tt><b>codegen-diff
</b></tt> <dd><tt>codegen-diff
</tt> is a script
1510 that finds differences between code that LLC generates and code that LLI
1511 generates. This is a useful tool if you are debugging one of them,
1512 assuming that the other generates correct output. For the full user
1513 manual, run
<tt>`perldoc codegen-diff'
</tt>.
<br><br>
1515 <dt><tt><b>emacs/
</b></tt> <dd>The
<tt>emacs
</tt> directory contains
1516 syntax-highlighting files which will work with Emacs and XEmacs editors,
1517 providing syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1518 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1519 the
<tt>README
</tt> file in that directory.
<br><br>
1521 <dt><tt><b>getsrcs.sh
</b></tt> <dd>The
<tt>getsrcs.sh
</tt> script finds
1522 and outputs all non-generated source files, which is useful if one wishes
1523 to do a lot of development across directories and does not want to
1524 individually find each file. One way to use it is to run, for example:
1525 <tt>xemacs `utils/getsources.sh`
</tt> from the top of your LLVM source
1528 <dt><tt><b>llvmgrep
</b></tt></dt>
1529 <dd>This little tool performs an
"egrep -H -n" on each source file in LLVM and
1530 passes to it a regular expression provided on
<tt>llvmgrep
</tt>'s command
1531 line. This is a very efficient way of searching the source base for a
1532 particular regular expression.
</dd>
1534 <dt><tt><b>makellvm
</b></tt> <dd>The
<tt>makellvm
</tt> script compiles all
1535 files in the current directory and then compiles and links the tool that
1536 is the first argument. For example, assuming you are in the directory
1537 <tt>llvm/lib/Target/Sparc
</tt>, if
<tt>makellvm
</tt> is in your path,
1538 simply running
<tt>makellvm llc
</tt> will make a build of the current
1539 directory, switch to directory
<tt>llvm/tools/llc
</tt> and build it,
1540 causing a re-linking of LLC.
<br><br>
1542 <dt><tt><b>NewNightlyTest.pl
</b></tt> and
1543 <tt><b>NightlyTestTemplate.html
</b></tt> <dd>These files are used in a
1544 cron script to generate nightly status reports of the functionality of
1545 tools, and the results can be seen by following the appropriate link on
1546 the
<a href=
"http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage
</a>.
<br><br>
1548 <dt><tt><b>TableGen/
</b></tt> <dd>The
<tt>TableGen
</tt> directory contains
1549 the tool used to generate register descriptions, instruction set
1550 descriptions, and even assemblers from common TableGen description
1553 <dt><tt><b>vim/
</b></tt> <dd>The
<tt>vim
</tt> directory contains
1554 syntax-highlighting files which will work with the VIM editor, providing
1555 syntax highlighting support for LLVM assembly files and TableGen
1556 description files. For information on how to use the syntax files, consult
1557 the
<tt>README
</tt> file in that directory.
<br><br>
1563 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1564 <div class=
"doc_section">
1565 <a name=
"tutorial">An Example Using the LLVM Tool Chain
</a>
1567 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1569 <div class=
"doc_text">
1570 <p>This section gives an example of using LLVM. llvm-gcc3 is now obsolete,
1571 so we only include instructions for llvm-gcc4.
1574 <p><b>Note:
</b> The
<i>gcc4
</i> frontend's invocation is
<b><i>considerably different
</i></b>
1575 from the previous
<i>gcc3
</i> frontend. In particular, the
<i>gcc4
</i> frontend
<b><i>does not
</i></b>
1576 create bitcode by default:
<i>gcc4
</i> produces native code. As the example below illustrates,
1577 the '--emit-llvm' flag is needed to produce LLVM bitcode output. For
<i>makefiles
</i> and
1578 <i>configure
</i> scripts, the CFLAGS variable needs '--emit-llvm' to produce bitcode
1582 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
1583 <div class=
"doc_subsection"><a name=
"tutorial4">Example with llvm-gcc4
</a></div>
1585 <div class=
"doc_text">
1588 <li><p>First, create a simple C file, name it 'hello.c':
</p>
1590 <div class=
"doc_code">
1592 #include
<stdio.h
>
1595 printf(
"hello world\n");
1600 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a native executable:
</p>
1602 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% llvm-gcc hello.c -o hello
</pre></div>
1604 <p>Note that llvm-gcc works just like GCC by default. The standard -S and
1605 -c arguments work as usual (producing a native .s or .o file,
1606 respectively).
</p></li>
1608 <li><p>Next, compile the C file into a LLVM bitcode file:
</p>
1610 <div class=
"doc_code">
1611 <pre>% llvm-gcc -O3 -emit-llvm hello.c -c -o hello.bc
</pre></div>
1613 <p>The -emit-llvm option can be used with the -S or -c options to emit an
1614 LLVM
".ll" or
".bc" file (respectively) for the code. This allows you
1615 to use the
<a href=
"CommandGuide/index.html">standard LLVM tools
</a> on
1616 the bitcode file.
</p>
1618 <p>Unlike llvm-gcc3, llvm-gcc4 correctly responds to -O[
0123] arguments.
1621 <li><p>Run the program in both forms. To run the program, use:
</p>
1623 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% ./hello
</pre></div>
1627 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% lli hello.bc
</pre></div>
1629 <p>The second examples shows how to invoke the LLVM JIT,
<a
1630 href=
"CommandGuide/html/lli.html">lli
</a>.
</p></li>
1632 <li><p>Use the
<tt>llvm-dis
</tt> utility to take a look at the LLVM assembly
1635 <div class=
"doc_code">
1636 <pre>llvm-dis
< hello.bc | less
</pre>
1639 <li><p>Compile the program to native assembly using the LLC code
1642 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% llc hello.bc -o hello.s
</pre></div></li>
1644 <li><p>Assemble the native assembly language file into a program:
</p>
1646 <div class=
"doc_code">
1648 <b>Solaris:
</b> % /opt/SUNWspro/bin/cc -xarch=v9 hello.s -o hello.native
1650 <b>Others:
</b> % gcc hello.s -o hello.native
1654 <li><p>Execute the native code program:
</p>
1656 <div class=
"doc_code"><pre>% ./hello.native
</pre></div>
1658 <p>Note that using llvm-gcc to compile directly to native code (i.e. when
1659 the -emit-llvm option is not present) does steps
6/
7/
8 for you.
</p>
1667 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1668 <div class=
"doc_section">
1669 <a name=
"problems">Common Problems
</a>
1671 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1673 <div class=
"doc_text">
1675 <p>If you are having problems building or using LLVM, or if you have any other
1676 general questions about LLVM, please consult the
<a href=
"FAQ.html">Frequently
1677 Asked Questions
</a> page.
</p>
1681 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1682 <div class=
"doc_section">
1683 <a name=
"links">Links
</a>
1685 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1687 <div class=
"doc_text">
1689 <p>This document is just an
<b>introduction
</b> on how to use LLVM to do
1690 some simple things... there are many more interesting and complicated things
1691 that you can do that aren't documented here (but we'll gladly accept a patch
1692 if you want to write something up!). For more information about LLVM, check
1696 <li><a href=
"http://llvm.org/">LLVM homepage
</a></li>
1697 <li><a href=
"http://llvm.org/doxygen/">LLVM doxygen tree
</a></li>
1698 <li><a href=
"http://llvm.org/docs/Projects.html">Starting a Project
1699 that Uses LLVM
</a></li>
1704 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1708 <a href=
"http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
1709 src=
"http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss-blue" alt=
"Valid CSS"></a>
1710 <a href=
"http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
1711 src=
"http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401-blue" alt=
"Valid HTML 4.01"></a>
1713 <a href=
"mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner
</a><br>
1714 <a href=
"http://llvm.x10sys.com/rspencer/">Reid Spencer
</a><br>
1715 <a href=
"http://llvm.org/">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure
</a><br>
1716 Last modified: $Date$